Camp for Climate Action '09
26 August - 2 September, London
With the city lights in sight, we pitched our tents alongside thousands of others. Another future emerges from the ground.
As with previous camps, the location was kept secret until the last minute due to concerns about policing. However, we set up an SMS update service for campers, and converged on the site from all across London in a massive public swoop. The starting points were hand-picked for their political significance:
- Shell Centre, South Bank: Shell has a long history of human rights abuses connected to its extraction of oil and gas, from Nigeria to Rossport, Ireland.
- BP Head Office: BP is the world's third-largest oil company and trailblazer for greenwash. It is heavily involved in the rush for tar-sand exploitation in Canada.
- The Bank of England: The symbolic heart of our failed economic system, and was the scene of police kettling and violence at April’s G20 protests, which resulted in the death of Ian Tomlinson.
- Stratford Station: Directly adjacent to the site of the London 2012 Olympics. We showed solidarity with communities in East London displaced by the Olympics and fighting for a positive legacy for East London.
- Rio Tinto: Rio Tinto is one of the world's biggest mining and exploration companies, and a nexus of the global coal industry.
- Stockwell Station: Where Jean Charles de Menezes was shot by police gunmen in July 2005. We showed solidarity with all those who have experienced police violence.
- The was also a decentralised "group" who were dotted around London awaiting their text message.
In the afternoon of Wednesday 26th August, the location was finally revealed: Blackheath, off the north end of Wat Tyler Road.
From this heath in 1381, preacher John Ball gave what was probably the country’s first speech against class oppression. What better place to continue the struggle for social justice and the fight against climate change?
There is still a lot of Lost Property remaining that hasn't been claimed!