Written by Allan Todd
Monday 21
October was a special day at Preston New Road, Lancashire, England, for two reasons: it was our
101st Green Monday - and it was also our last Green Monday of 2019.
A celebration
The weather
was perfect - dry with sunny intervals - and we had a day crammed full of
‘goodies’! Those ‘goodies’ included our speaker, Martin Porter of Manchester
Greenpeace, and an excellent array of performers: the Brigantii Border
Frack-Free Morris Dancers, the Nanas’ Samba Band, and the brilliant folk group,
Mobius Loop:
Mobius Loop
in action
For those
unfamiliar with them, here are some links:
In addition,
there was plenty of vegan food, including Greggs’ vegan ‘sausage’ rolls and
their accidentally-vegan Belgian buns - along with 2 magnums of Booths’ vegan
prosecco! So, all in all, we all had a really lovely time - as you’ll be able
to see via these links:
Pausing, not
ending
However, to
be absolutely clear - this decision to pause Green Mondays is NOT because we
are giving up and going away! We’ve decided to have a pause as, since August -
when Cuadrilla’s most recent attempt at fracking triggered an earth ‘tremor’
that registered 2.9 on the Richter Scale - fracking has been suspended at the
Preston New Road site. In addition, Cuadrilla’s current licence expires at the
end of November, so it’s unlikely that there’ll be any further fracking
attempts until the New Year.
By pausing,
we’ll be giving our anti-fracking activists a bit of a rest, after over 2 years
of turning up for Green Mondays. It’ll also give a rest to our fantastic Green
Monday speakers, who have given so much of their time and energies to the
anti-fracking campaign.
Since we
first began, on 14 August 2017, a list of those speakers reads like a list of
‘The Great & the Good’! They include: Caroline Lucas, George Monbiot, Jem
Bendell, Marina Prentoulis, Mike Berners-Lee, Amelia Womack, Romayne Phoenix,
Asad Rehman, Clara Paillard, and the brilliant Kate Raworth (of Doughnut
Economics fame):
Kate Raworth,
at the Green Monday of 4 June 2018
As well as
many other national Green Party speakers, we’ve also had a variety of speakers
from Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth: from the very beginning, Green
Mondays were ‘green’ in the very broadest sense. Consequently, we’ve had
speakers from Global Justice Now!, Another Europe Is Possible, Stop The War
Coalition, Unite Against Fascism, CND, Left Unity and the Labour Party.
Because, in the end, as our struggle against fracking has developed, it has
become clear that those responsible for driving us towards a catastrophic
Climate Breakdown are the same people and corporations that are responsible for
so many of the other injustices that so many people are facing. Green Mondays
have thus been, in some broad ways, an example of intersectionality in action.
The campaign
so far
To date,
Green Mondays - and all the other days of protest and resistance at Preston New
Road - have had to cope with a lot: apart from many wet, windy & cold days,
there has often been a heavy police presence:
Lancashire Police turn out in force to ‘protect’ one of Preston New
Road’s many truck surfers!
which, at
times - especially during the period when Lancashire Police received ‘Mutual
Support’ from other police forces - was, to say the least, less than
professional in dealing with peaceful protesters.
Despite these
negative aspects, we’ve also seen some brilliant examples of peaceful civil
disobedience and no-violent direct action. In addition to lock-ons and the very
effective fracking ‘sport’ of truck surfing, there have also been plenty of
mass sit-downs or blocks in front of the gates to Cuadrilla’s fracking site:
One of the
mass ‘blockings’ at Preston New Road
At the
moment, Cuadrilla’s plans are in limbo - so lots of fracking equipment (mostly
rented) has been removed from the site. But it’s important to know that the
site has by no means been abandoned. Consequently, I’m very ‘Brexit’ about where things currently are at: 48%
optimistic that fracking here (and elsewhere) is on its last legs; but 52%
pessimistic that Cuadrilla will be planning to come back.
They - and
the other fracking companies - are clearly hoping for the next general election
to be won by Johnson and his hard-right cabal of Tories. If that happens,
Cuadrilla will get their application to have their licence extended approved -
and such a Tory government will undoubtedly also weaken the current ‘traffic
light’ restrictions on earth ‘tremors’.
However,
Cuadrilla’s hopes would be dashed if a Labour government - headed by Jeremy
Corbyn - were to win the next general election. In July this year, Jeremy
Corbyn visited anti-fracking protesters at Preston New Road and confirmed
Labour’s commitment to ban fracking:
Jeremy
Corbyn, talking to some of the anti-fracking activists at Preston New Road, 30
July 2019
Thus this
general election will be crucial for the fight against fracking - as it will be
for the struggles against austerity and poverty, the privatisation of our NHS,
and the rise of the far right. Given the recent decision of the LibDems to
abstain on a vote designed to keep our NHS ‘off the table’ in any future
post-Brexit trade talks with the US, it is clear that only two parties can be
truly trusted to ban fracking: the Green Party and the Labour Party.
Which is why
I hope that, in all the key marginal seats that Labour either need to hold or
to win to form the next government, local Green parties will stand aside - and
encourage all their members and supporters in such seats to vote Labour.
Allan Todd is a member of Allerdale
& Copeland Green Party, an anti-fracking activist and a Green Left
supporter
No comments:
Post a Comment