Arts residency exhibition date set

This week Grow Heathrow have been busy preparing the site for the arrival of 15 artists on Sunday night for a week long arts residency.  The exhibition date has now been set for Saturday 21st January, from 11am at Grow Heathrow, where all work created during the week will be on display.

The residency, called ‘Resistance is beautiful’, funded by Hillingdon Council, will explore the creative link between resistance, permaculture, occupation and resilience. The exhibition on the 21st will start at 11am with drinks and snacks later in the day.

For more info contact: growheathrow.residency@gmail.com

For directions see: http://www.transitionheathrow.com/grow-heathrow/

Tar Free Transition Heathrow

Transition Heathrow is delighted at being named the first Tar Free community in the UK. At our recent Resistance Jam weekend, Sue and Emily from the UK Tar Sands Network visited Grow Heathrow to unveil a new banner they had prepared for us and to explain their new initiative.

It is becoming increasingly obvious that the capitalist system around us has gone crazy. Our total dependence on oil is socially self-destructing, and the only way our economy can sustain itself is by wrecking everything in its path in a quest for the last remaining dregs of unexploited oil reserves. The environmentally catastrophic Tar Sands extraction in Alberta is the foremost example of this.

Across the world communities are starting to stand up to illegitimate governments and corporations that continue to put profits before people. We need to join the dots between communities under threat. The forces trying to destroy communities around Heathrow airport are the same as those bringing destruction to Alberta. We at Transition Heathrow stand in solidarity with the indigenous communities who face losing their livelihoods, traditions and history through the complete destruction of their local environment.

We felt incredibly honoured when First Nations activists from Alberta chose to visit Transition Heathrow earlier this year, as part of the No Tar Sands UK tour. An evening of discussion and shared stories brought hope and inspiration to our separate struggles. Working together and supporting each other can only help communities under threat defend themselves.

Becoming a Tar Free Town means making a commitment to only using ethical sources of energy. By themselves, our actions may not have much impact, but by acting together we can drive the Tar Sands out of our towns and out of the UK, and create a future where our energy needs are met without the rights of indigenous communities being trampled on.

How the transition town movement found Transition Heathrow

Transition Heathrow jumped on board the transition town movement at a very different stage to most. Where did it all begin?

Four years ago in the small village of Sipson 700 homes faced being completely wiped off the map by a third runway at Heathrow making Heathrow Airport the biggest single source of emissions in the country . In August 2007, the now famous Climate Camp set up in Sipson – one of the three Heathrow villages (alongside Harlington and Harmondsworth) which faced destruction and the loss of livelihoods. Was there support for the camp? Yes there was, as Christine Taylor local resident explains here:

 “It came at a time when the campaign against the third runway needed a boost. Local people had battled against expansion plans for years, mostly with passive petitions, polite letters and a little genteel placard waving. It wasn’t until 2002, when hundreds of homes were threatened, that the No Third Runway Action Group (NoTRAG) was formed. Yet we were still playing by the rules, while BAA and the government appeared to be planning to move the goalposts.”

Plane Stupid shuts down Stansted Airport

Another key group which needs to be mentioned when thinking about where Transition Heathrow originates from is Plane Stupid. Plane Stupid – a direct action network against airport expansion and short haul flights, played a big role in the successful campaign to get the third runway stopped – amongst other victories which included scrapped expansion plans at our other major airports; Gatwick and Stansted. As part of the anti third runway campaign one of Plane Stupid’s projects was Adopt-a-Resident; a scheme which partnered local residents with activists from across the country – the idea being that if the bulldozers showed up activists and residents would stand side by side to stop them. This is when we really started to get to know the area – the people, the community, the history.

Of course we need to stand up to corporate climate criminals such as BAA but for many we didn’t feel like this was enough. It is daring, brave and scary facing arrest by putting your body on the line to create change but a far more overwhelming task is creating more longer lasting change. The need for a long term vision based on community resilience in the Heathrow villages was clear and luckily enough someone had a plan. As part of a university project someone from Plane Stupid had drawn up a long term vision for the Heathrow villages – and the vision was called Transition Heathrow. All it needed was some people to move down there.

And so six of us did. In October 2009 six Plane Stupid members moved into Harlington and set about setting up a Transition Town – a very daunting task having only read Rob Hopkins’ “Transition Handbook” and not knowing much else. Firstly we just observed. We went to all the local meetings and found out what made the community tick, what people’s interests were and more importantly where we should be putting our time and energy. One thing that was immediately clear was that there were no community spaces – nowhere for people to come and discuss all the plans and ideas that people had while the runway was still on the cards.

We had been cycling past this abandoned plot of land every week with three broken greenhouses on it when one day we decided to stop and have a look – the site was in a state but looked perfect for everything we wanted to do; growing, setting up a community space etc. We asked the local community about the idea of squatting it and to our surprise we were overwhelmingly told to go and do it.

Grow Heathrow before and after

And this is where I sit now writing this blog. On land that was to be tarmaced we have created Grow Heathrow – a squatted community market garden which offers a positive alternative to the power structures that build runways on peoples homes for profit. We now have a base from which everything happens and where the ideas of making the transition to a low-carbon post-oil future spring off from. A year and a half on and the site has been transformed from a derelict mess into a thriving hub for local residents and activists to meet up, share knowledge and share practical skills for a future threatened by climate change and peak oil.

This blog was taken from the Transition Network website as part of their new social reporting pilot project.

Dale Farm is rowdy

Earlier in the week some members of Transition Heathrow visited Dale Farm to show a bit of solidarity. We had an amazing time in what was an interesting visit into a really tight knit community that is often lacking from the rest of Britain. The travellers have just received their eviction dates and need all the support they can get.

Dale Farm is the UK’s largest traveller community consisting of nearly a hundred plots and at its peak over a thousand residents. The site is a former scrapyard and is actually owned by the residents – they just don’t have planning permission to live on half the site. After a wave of anti-traveller laws were passed in the 1990s John Major’s government encouraged travellers to buy land and get planning permission to settle down. However, planning permission is not easily available to traveller communities anywhere. According to the Commission for Racial Equality, more than 90% of traveller planning applications are rejected – this compares to less than 20% of rejected applications for everybody else.

The planned eviction is a form of ethnic cleansing which will result in travellers being forced onto the road and their children pulled out of school. They would leave Dale Farm if they could, but the council have refused to fulfil it’s obligations to provide more traveller pitches.

The most ridiculous part of it all is that £18 million has been set aside to remove the 90 families (about 500 people, many of them children). It is a complete waste of time, money and violence to remove the Dale Farm residents who have done everything they can to find a peaceful resolution to avoid the brutal forced eviction. Spending £18 million on an unavoidable eviction in the current times of austerity measures is indefensible – it is a huge waste of public money that should be spent on supporting, not destroying, communities. Even condemnation from the UN is being ignored.

For all these reasons, the residents have vowed to “fight to the very last” and so they should! They have nothing to lose at this point. Supporters are being urged to come to Dale Farm and get involved with ‘Camp Constant’ to stand with the community. What amazed me in my short time at Dale Farm was the amount of respect shown between the local residents and outsiders who have come in to help them defend there homes. Before we had even reached the front gate we had two sets of families gleefully thanking us for coming to support them.

The police and bailiffs are going to try and start securing the site on the 12th September so try and get down there before if you can to help them build the barricades. There is also a march planned this Saturday from 1pm which people are being encouraged to attend.

PEDAL make it to Palestine

100 Days to Palestine from Harmit Kambo on Vimeo.

PEDAL have arrived in Palestine. After 4 months on the road having travelled over 7000km through 18 different countries (all by bicycle) they have made it to their final destination.

Since they arrived a few weeks ago, they have organised many meetings and gatherings and have already been involved in direct action – putting there bodies on the line as usual and announcing their arrival in style. The ’100 days to Palestine’ video above by Harmit Kambo maps PEDAL’s epic journey across the continent as they visited dozens of communities actively resisting forms of oppression and exploitation.

Although we at Grow Heathrow were sad to see some of our very finest crew head off for such a long time we couldn’t be prouder to learn that they have made it to Palestine. The dedication they have shown to make it all that way in what sounds like some difficult circumstances is amazing. PEDAL you should be proud!

Notes from the transition gathering

Last Saturday, the 11th June, Transition Town groups from across London and the Thames Valley region held a one day gathering at Grow Heathrow. Over 50 people attended throughout the day with representatives coming from transition groups as far afield as Hackney and Woking.

The day included speeches from Paddy Reynolds (Transition Heathrow) and Ben Brangwyn (Transition Network Co-Founder), 2 world cafe sessions, a workshop by Organic Lea on food growing, a direct action workshop from Seeds for Change and finally a discussion on the hot topic of the merging of transition and activism.

Ben Brangwyn has written a report on the Transition Network Website which can be read HERE. All the local papers have written stories on the day including the Heathrow Airport Newspaper ‘Skyport’ and here is our summarizing notes (with a big thank you to everyone who attended):

World Cafe 1 – What are the central issues for transition groups in our different areas?

• Not enough allotment land
• Time commitments
• Political vs non-political engagement
• Running before you can walk – small steps
• Ownership/hierachy/equality
• Accessing ethnic diversity
• Food growing – Guerilla garden
• Land sharing
• Bikes
• Movie nights
• Local money – Brixton
• A lack of resources
• Making links and defining a community

World Cafe 2 – How can we be most effective in tackling climate change and peak oil?

• Having a site/hub space works well
• A good balance between ages is good
• Thinking globally but acting locally
• Empowering your local community
• Building capacity to address time commitments
• Local food growing is the easiest way to attract people to transition
• Reskilling events to share the skills amongst your group

Activism and transition debate

• Political action needs to happen but not necessarily as part of transition town movement
• Transition is political just not party political
• Direct action and activism can alienate people
• Direct action often argues for dismantling of capitalist system. Transition doesn’t have a position on this view
• Transition is direct action and activism. We don’t rely on governments and take matters into our own hands
• Activism is a dirty word – it needs reclaiming
• Direct action and activism can be a part of the transition town movement as long as we build up our own positive alternatives at the same time
• It often depends on individual groups attitudes/feeling towards it
• A merging of the two is necessary due to the cuts in public services

P.E.D.A.L departure weekend write up

On the weekend of the 19^th and 20^th March 2011, 15 incredibly dedicated and brave young people prepared to set off for there 100 day cycle ride to Palestine in solidarity with the Palestinian people who are still under enforced occupation. The choice of a bicycle representing there belief in low carbon travel in a world threatened by climate change.

Along the way they will be staying with communities of resistance. So far they have linked up with the Calais No Borders krew, been involved in a mass day of action in Brussels, have swapped many seeds in Austria to spark discussions around food autonomy and the threat of GM and patented seeds and are currently cycling through Slovenia and Croatia.

On the weekend of departure – whilst the cyclists were doing last minute packing -  many people attended the workshops that had been put on by P.E.D.A.L to give people a better understanding of why they were embarking on such a long journey for an issue that is so far away. Israeli and Palestinian activists hammered home the reasons for why the cycle ride is so important. They spoke of the confused majority of Israeli people who have been tricked by the Israeli government and media propaganda programme. What was so clear from the workshop by Anarchists Against The Wall & the International Solidarity Movement is that under any circumstances – an enforced occupation with impossible checkpoints of a whole population is a fundamental breach of all human rights conventions. Palestinians are rightfully angry and a long term solution to the Palestine-Israel conflict needs to be worked out NOW. Enforced occupation is not a solution.

Seeds for Change did a workshop on consensus decision making. An organising technique where everyone is included in any form of a decision making process, a technique P.E.D.A.L will be using along the way in all the different situations they will be getting themselves into. Consensus decision making allows for NO leaders, everyone is empowered to speak and decisions have to be agreed by all. If governments across the world embraced consensus we wouldn’t have half the problems that exist today.

The Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination hosted a workshop on art & permaculture. Those who took part split off into pairs and each silently acted out one principle of the permaculture approach while the rest of the group had to work out which principle they were trying to act out. A difficult and enjoyable task as some of the principles were fairly difficult to work out. For example “Obtain a yield”.

So We Stand – an emerging group who organise with communities around race, class and gender issues gave a workshop on environmental justice from London to Palestine – environmental justice is a movement which is big in America but starting to make waves here in the UK. Dan Glass from So We Stand explained “how environmental degradation and pollution has disproportionate effects.”  What he meant was that those who cause environmental problems, US in the west, are not the ones who have to suffer the worst effects – it is those in the poorer south who bare the brunt of the impacts.

Adam Weymouth told his amazing story for the first time of his walk all the way to Istanbul and the weekend was rounded off by the UK premiere of ‘Paths Through Utopias’. An inspiring documentary following post-capitalist utopia communities across Europe. A film which everyone must see.

Thank you P.E.D.A.L for such an interesting weekend and good luck! Keep up the inspiring  job you are doing.

Corporate Watch launch Corporate Rule project

Corporate Watch have just launched there latest project called Corporate Rule. It is intended to be a dynamic showcase for some of the best independent, corporate-critical reseach on corporate power – sparking debate and provoking action.

The web-based resource features new and old research into the relationships between corporations and various social, economic and political structures and institutions. The project aims to explore the mechanisms deployed by corporations in exercising and accumulating their power over the decisions made in what are often called ‘democratic’ countries, with a specific focus on how this plays out in the UK, and the ways in which corporate ideologies and discourses facilitate this by co-opting and/or suppressing people’s active democratic participation.

The project also highlights alternatives to this mode of living and organising, providing examples of real democracy in action and looking at ways forward in opposing corporate rule.

To find out more about the project, please see http://corporate-rule.co.uk

Campaigners remain defiant after Manchester airport protest sentencing

Campaigners from the ‘Manchester Airport on Trial’ group were sentenced today after a 2 day trial at Trafford Magistrates’ court. The judge recognised the “sincerity” and “laudable motives” of the protesters, and handed down lenient sentences of 2 year conditional discharges and £310 in court costs each. One defendant received 80 hours of community service. The 6 campaigners stood trial for an action last May 2010 where they formed a human circle around the wheel of a Monarch Airline jet. All 6 pleaded not guilty to the charge of aggravated trespass, stating that they acted out of necessity to prevent the higher crime of climate change.

In November 2009 Manchester airport received planning approval to expand the World Freight Centre at Manchester Airport, which will result in the demolition of local homes and an increase in greenhouse gas emissions. Although the coalition government cancelled plans to build a third runway at Heathrow, campaigners are now focussing their action more regionally as capacity is now being increased at regional airports instead.

Martin Eakins, local councillor, described the local efforts to prevent expansion at the Airport. In response to the judge’s suggestion that campaigners would have had a strong case for judicial review of the plans, he explained that they had been refused funding on the basis that their challenge would be unsuccessful. Local resident, Pete Johnson, whose home on Hasty Lane faces demolition, told the court that their “efforts were thwarted by politicians with vested interests,” and that he felt “angry, frustrated and cheated.”

Over the 2 days the court has heard from many leading public figures who spoke out in defence of the ‘Manchester Airport on Trial’ group. On day one, leading scientist, Kevin Anderson, from the Tyndall Centre for Climate Research in Manchester, spoke out on the aviation industry’s ‘special treatment’. The aviation industry receives £9 billion a year in tax subsidies. Dr Geoff Meaden spoke on the impacts of climate change in the North West. Today public health expert Dr Robin Scott spoke on the health impacts of climate change.

Expert witness statements were also read out including one written by John Mcdonnell MP who was a vocal politician in defeating the third runway at Heathrow airport.

People from across North England have now pledged to continue taking direct action to stop the expansion plans. The threatened homes in Manchester have ‘twinned’ with the village of Sipson which would have been demolished to make way for the Heathrow expansion.

Speaking after the ruling one of the 6 defendants Iain Hilton, said:

“Whatever the outcome was today, this climate court trial will not be the last. Climate change is accelerating at the same rate as it was before and continues to be the biggest threat to life as we know it. We have heard in court peer-reviewed Science, public health advocates, witness statements from MPs and we have heard from communities whose homes are threatened by airport expansion plans at Hasty Lane. We will not wait for the judicial system to act. Civil disobedience is a duty and a responsibility and we will continue to act to stop climate change”.

John Mcdonnell MP said:

“When governments themselves so blatantly ignore the wishes of the people they are elected to represent, when they promote the sectional interests of one sector of business above the interests of their citizens, when they deny Parliament an effective role, when they subvert their own democratic planning processes, and when their actions so dangerously contradict their own legislation on climate change, responsible citizens are left with no alternative but to take direct action to further the cause that they believe in.”

Scientist Kevin Anderson said in court:

“Why is it fair that aviation continues to be a special case while every other sector has to reduce their emissions? Every year we have an exponential increase in CO2 embedding us in a future of dangerous climate change. If aviation continues to grow that means we’re heading for 4 degrees, but that would only be a transient temperature on the way to an equilibrium rise of 6 to 8 degrees. A rise of 4 degrees is dire, above that it gets worse and worse- it is a future that we contemplate at our own peril.”

Manchester airport on trial… again

At 9am this morning, a real sense of solidarity could be felt outside Trafford Magistrate’s Court. The six defendants appearing in court face an aggravated trespass charge for forming a circle using armtubes around the wheel of a Monarch Airline jet last May. Everyone was in high spirits, mixed with anticipation, despite the drizzling rain. The relaxed atmosphere was slightly tainted by the unnecessary presence of a FIT officer, invasively filming supporters of the defendants as they arrived at court.

We need to start waking up to the fact that climate change isn’t just a problem for future generations; we are seeing its devastating impacts now. The aviation industry receives tax breaks of £9 billion each year, including paying nothing on fuel, while public sectors are cut and the VAT we pay on toilet roll increases to 20%. Why is it fair that the aviation industry gets special treatment whilst other sectors must reduce their emissions? This is what Kevin Anderson from the Tyndall Centre for Climate Research has been asking this afternoon as he spoke at the trial. He was arguing for the necessity of the defendants’ actions in the face of runaway climate change, adding that even the current emissions of the aviation industry exceed the capacity of our climate, let alone if airports continue to expand.

The actions of the Manchester defendants are an example of how we might be able to see real change; signing petitions just isn’t enough anymore. We need to start targeting the industries and corporations who are not only dodging tax whilst public sectors are cut, but also continue exploiting our planet.

Come and support the defendants tomorrow or Wednesday morning at 9am at Trafford Magistrate’s Court, Manchester, or send your statements of support to manchesterairportontrial@gmail.com.

The time to act is now!

Words by Kerry Williams, Manchester Airport on Trial