Written by Allan Todd
In
my most recent blog about developments
at the fracking protest at Preston New Road (PNR) in Lancashire, I’d suggested
it was important to start disrupting the days of the various facilitators of
fracking - and that, with the first horizontal frack in the UK about to take
place, a national demo at PNR was an absolute priority.
A week that just kept
on giving!
Well,
the week or so that followed that blog post turned out to be a time that just
‘kept on giving’!!
Just
to list those ‘gifts’ briefly:
Monday 1
October
- a 9-person (Yes- 9!!) lock-on that began on that week’s Green Monday, & lasted
until Wednesday 3 October!
The start of the 9-person
lock-on
On the same day, the 100 Women & the
Lancashire Nanas paid a visit to the Tory Conference in Birmingham.
The 100 Women outside the
Tory Party Conference
Thursday
4 October
- yet another truck surf at PNR!
Truck surfing at PNR!
Friday 5
October
- just hours after Cuadrilla had released a statement that they’d do the first
frack on Monday 8 October, two local anti-fracking campaigners - Helen Chuntso
& Bob Dennett - WON an interim injunction AGAINST Cuadrilla, which stopped
them from fracking until a proper inquiry into the environmental &
emergency safeguards that Lancashire County Council have (or haven't!) got in
place!
Saturday
6 October -
That Saturday saw over 300 people march, in solidarity with the FrackFreeThree,
from Preston Railway Station to Preston Prison. The noise from drums &
whistles easily penetrated the walls of the prison, & a text from one of
the 3 currently imprisoned there confirmed they had heard the protesters.
Demo in Preston for the
FackFreeThree
Monday 8
October
- Frack Free London decided to pay a visit to the Department of Business,
Energy & Industrial Strategy in London, where they erected - under the new
‘permitted development’ rules the Tories are planning to push through - a
4m-high fracking rig!!
‘Permitted development’ in
London!
A Red & Green
Alliance?
The
Green
Monday on 8 October saw what, hopefully, may be the first real ‘shoots’
of a Red-Green Alliance - not just against fracking, but also to do all that
can be done to get rid of this Tory government: which, surely, has to include
an effective but mutual Red-Green electoral pact?
The
first speaker on Monday was Clara Paillard
of Merseyside PCS trade union - and one of the founder-members of Red Green Labour: an ecosocialist group
which aims to make the Labour Party ‘greener’.
Clara’s
very passionate speech:
was
followed, later in the day, by a visit from Rebecca Long-Bailey, Labour’s Shadow Minister for Business, Energy
& Industrial Strategy. After she had spoken, several people present asked
her to make a real effort to get Jeremy Corbyn to come up to PNR - & so
honour his two promises to come to show his support.
In
a week when the United Nations IPCC warned
that we must reduce carbon emissions sharply over the next twelve years if
we are avoid climate disaster, we are bringing it all together with a national
demo on Saturday 20 October at
Preston New Road, Lancashire.
Given
that the recent IPPC Report has said that the world needs to urgently abandon
all fossil fuel use, & that Cuadrilla will soon carry out its first frack, Frack
Free Lancashire have called for a
national demonstration to show that we say ‘No!!’
to fracking - not just in Lancashire, but anywhere in England.
The
day will begin at Maple Farm Nursery [on
the A583, PR4 3PE] from 11.00am onwards. There will be speakers, music and
food. Friends of the Earth are backing this demo in a big way - including giving
some help towards transport costs for those groups needing to book coaches and
minibuses. You can find out more about that via this link:
More
details - & updates - can be found on this Facebook events page:
Planet Earth needs
YOU!!
For
all these reasons - and more - we need YOU
to make a special effort to come and join us at PNR on Sat. 20 October. Bring
banners & placards - and LOADS of friends! In view of the IPCC Report, this
demo must surely ‘trump’ any other event that weekend.
Allan Todd is a member of
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