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Dear Climate Protectors!
Please find attached this week’s Green Monday Update. Some of you will no doubt be relieved to see the (permanent?) disappearance of words from various foreign languages in these Updates! We’ll see what happens now I’ve reverted to English.
Some of you will know already that last Friday, all 24 Greenpeace activists - myself & another PNR protester (Helen D) included - who locked-on outside VW’s UK HQ in Milton Keynes last August (as part of Greenpeace’s air pollution campaign) now have a criminal record for ‘aggravated trespass’. Those without any previous convictions, were given a 12-month conditional discharge, along with £105 in damages & court costs. The two who had previous were, additionally, fined £200.
One heart-warming part of the court proceedings was that the District Judge began by stating that he has been a financial supporter of Greenpeace for many years! Despite opposition from the prosecuting lawyer, he presented a rock-solid case for not recusing himself! Quite different from another judge who didn’t even mention HIS family business connections - to the oil & gas industries, no less! - when sentencing our 3 truck surfers to prison!
Given all that is happening as the global Climate Crisis continues to worsen, with actions over the coming months being planned by Extinction Rebellion & Earth Strike (to name but two) - and not to mention any forthcoming Greenpeace campaigns - I suspect I may find it quite hard not to breach the conditional discharge!
Plus it’ll be interesting to see if the Met will follow up on my arrest on Lambeth Bridge last November, for ‘wilful obstruction of a highway’!
All the best
Allan
GREEN MONDAYS (31/01/2019)
This week’s Green Monday:
Those able to come to this week’s Green Monday at PNR were treated to a very
interesting - and inspiring - talk from
Krista Cowman:
She is Professor of History at
Lincoln University - & a top-ranking aficionado of Cuban mojitos (I’ve seen
her in action in Havana!) - and specialises in the history of modern women’s
political activism. She had much to say about the history of civil disobedience
in the UK - with a particular focus on the how the Suffragettes struggled to
achieve political justice for women.
For those who missed her talk, here is a link to
what you missed:
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ForthcomingGreen Mondays:
Speakers for subsequent Green
Mondays for this year have been booked for all dates up to &
including 11 March - plus we’ve also got 3 dates covered between then & the
end of May (tho’ that may - sorry! - come sooner than we think!). So far, speakers are as follows:
4 February - For next week’s Green Monday, our main speaker will be John Ashton - a frequent and very welcome visitor to PNR:
He says he won’t have yet
another amusing song with which to entertain us AND annoy Cuadrilla - but is
busy working on ‘something else’! John is expected to be speaking outside the
gates at around 12.30pm.
25 February - For this Green Monday, our main speaker will be Chris Bluemel from Earth First: Chris is a musician, and an
activist across a range of environmental and social justice issues. He is bass
player for the protest-folk band Seize The Day,
who have performed previously at the PNR gates. He has taken direct action
against Trident, the arms fairs, a roadbuilding project in Surrey - and, as
part of both RtP and Earth First, against Cuadrilla’s fracking site at PNR,
whilst staying at the camps. Chris is expected to be speaking outside the gates
at around 12.30pm.
4 March - For this Green Monday, our main speaker will be Donnachadh
McCarthy:
He is an environmental and political journalist and activist, whose
written works include The Prostitute
State - all about how Britain’s democracy has been bought! Previously,
he has campaigned against the billionaire media owners, and for safer routes
for cyclists and an end to air pollution in cities. He is now also one of the
leading people behind Extinction Rebellion Donnachadh is expected to be speaking outside
the gates at around 12.30pm.
11 March - For this Green Monday, our main speakers will be Carolyn
Kagan & Mark Burton:
Carolyn is an Emerita Professor at Manchester Metropolitan
University, whilst Mark (who was a Visiting Professor at MMU) is currently
working with Sheffield University. They are both part of Steady State Manchester Collective, which is working with people & organisations for a
Greater Manchester that is economically, socially and ecologically viable. They
will be talking about how to construct viable/sustainable economies after we’ve
finally moved on from fossil fuels - economies that, crucially, will allow us
to live within Earth’s planetary boundaries. For those wanting to some research/homework
before they come to PNR, a link to their work is provided below: https://steadystatemanchester.net/about/
They are expected to be
speaking outside the gates at around 12.30pm.
18 March - For this Green Monday, our main speaker will be the
well-known - and much-loved (he told me to say this!) - Nick Danby from Frack Free Lancashire (FFL):Nick is a regular attendee at
Green Mondays - and at many other protest
days - at PNR: so much so, that he is extremely well-known to the police!From
the start, Nick predicted that the fracking industry “will never, ever, have social licence.” The past few years have
well-and-truly proved him right.Nick is expected to be speaking outside the
gates at around 12.30pm.
25 March - For this Green Monday, our main speaker will be Barbara Richardson, another very frequent PNR protester: Barbara,
as well as being a very active member of FFL, has been the Chair of the Roseacre
Awareness Group (RAG) for some considerable time. In that
role, she has appeared on TV programmes such as The One Show & BBC
Breakfast, to argue the case against fracking. She spoke in Paris, during
the COP21 talks, at the first-ever international anti-fracking conference - and
is a winner (on behalf of FFL) of the Sheila McKechnie Foundations Award for
Environmental Justice. Barbara is expected to be speaking outside the gates at around 12.30pm
8 April - For this Green Monday, our main speaker will be Dr. Jem Bendell: He is Professor of Sustainability Leadership, and the Founder of
the Institute for Leadership & Sustainability, at Cumbria University.Previously,
he worked for WWF in their Forest Unit.Jem is expected to be speaking outside the gates
at around 12.30pm.
15 April - For this Green Monday, our main speaker will be Dr. Dan Bailey:Dan is Professor of Sustainability Leadership, and the Founder of
the Institute for Leadership & Sustainability, at Cumbria University.Previously,
he worked at the Sheffield Political Economy Research Institute at Sheffield
University, and as an Associate lecturer in the Politics Department of the
University of York.His research has focused on the implications of the
ecological crisis - referred to by many experts as The Sixth Extinction (if you
haven’t already read it, try Elizabeth Kolbert’s The Sixth Extinction) - for the form & functions of the
state; and on how to achieve transformative change in order to move away from
unsustainability.Dan is
expected to be speaking outside the gates at around 12.30pm.
20/27 May - For one of these Green Mondays, our main speaker will be Rupert Read: Rupert is a Reader in
Philosophy at the University of East Anglia, and the founder and Chair of the
Green House think-tank. He has also recently become very involved in the work
of Extinction
Rebellion - and spoke at its launch on
31 October.Once Rupert has been able to confirm which date he will come, he is
expected to be speaking outside the gates at around 12.30pm.
Also, in the pipeline - but
STILL (A not-so-subtle hint!!) with no
confirmed date just yet - is one more environmental academic and activist, who
proved very popular at a previous Green Monday:
Kate Raworth:(‘ambushed’ by me on Lambeth Bridge during
Extinction Rebellion’s action in London last November - no apologies, Kate!)
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