By Earth First! News
Bus loads of activists continue to converge at Balcombe from Bristol and Somerset, making the blockade perhaps the longest-lasting and most nation-wide anti-fracking direct action of all time.
Cuadrilla is now a full three days behind schedule as day six of the Balcombe blockade commences. Anna Dark, a community representative, explained, “They need to get forty days of drilling done before the end of their licence, they’ve lost a day already – we can stop this!”
The blockade is resisting every delivery coming through the gates. Even office furniture.
According to Schnews, the police are not going soft: “A heavily pregnant woman attempted to stop one of the trucks but was forced away as things got dodgy and dangerous. At the same time a man was arrested and brutally wrestled to the ground with a suspected broken arm…
“Perhaps as a sign of the struggle ahead the police have installed a mobile office on site and a casual conversation with one cop made it obvious that the police think they are there for the long haul. Some protesters thought it might pay to also set up a solicitor’s office and branch of Infinity Foods alongside.”
90 percent of Balcombe village supports direct action against fracking—and there are likely many more injection wells planned throughout England. The acting prime minister of the UK, David Cameron, is intimately connected with the energy industry, as the following chart shows.
The question is not: “How can the state move towards a cleaner, kinder-gentler energy policy. The state is too deeply entrenched in the energy industry to change things from within. The uprising against fracking is an uprising against the institutionalized elites. It is a popular rebellion that could grow into a countrywide revolt.
The struggle continues!
—- Here’s an article that spells out some of the details, albeit from a mainstream angle…
From The Telegraph
The “anti-fracking carnival”’ in the sleepy village of Balcombe, West Sussex, has now led to more than 20 arrests.
On Monday Marina Pepper, a former Page 3 Girl and veteran protester, was escorted off the site by police.
Despite concerns the village has been taken over by ‘professional activists” local residents are also taking action. They fear that plans by Cuadrilla, the energy company, to drill for oil in the area will lead to fracking.
Now it is has emerged that the protest could be the first of many as energy companies plan to drill exploratory wells across Britain.
The Department for Energy and Climate Change has issued 176 licences to explore for both conventional and unconventional oil and gas onshore across the UK.
All the companies have to do now is apply for planning permission and ministers have made it quite clear that they support exploration for new resources, with generous tax breaks. It is estimated there is enough shale gas alone to heat Britain for 40 years and bring down energy prices.
There are even promises that each community will be given £10m for allowing fracking over 10 to 25 years.
But local people insist they will stage protests just as passionate as the ongoing sit-in around Balcombe.
Tina Rothery of Residents Action on Flyde Fracking, said any plans to drill on the Lancashire coast, where fracking has already caused earthquakes will be met with protest.
“If anything we have learned from the protests at Balcombe and will help us to be more effective,” she said.
“The Government will not protect us, so we will protect ourselves. Anywhere in the country will fight to protect their water and air.”
Stephen Hall, president of the Greater Manchester Association of Trades Union Councils, said most of the Mersey Valley is threatened with not only fracking but pumping up coal bed methane.
“We don’t need it and we don’t want it. There are environmentally friendly alternatives possible that would give more jobs.
“People will use every avenue available for them to protest. If they cannot do it through objecting to planning permission they will take action on the streets.”
Ed Pybus, of Frack Off Scotland, said local residents of Airth, where there are plans to drill for coal bed methane, will protest as soon as every other avenue is exhausted.
“Thousands of local residents in Falkirk are against this development. They are pursuing their protests through council and Scottish Government. If after all this the drilling goes ahead there will be vigorous protests.”
Dave Truman of Cheshire and Wirral Action on Fracking said most of the county has licences for drilling, including the affluent areas on the west side of the Wirral.
“I don’t think people are any different from people down in Balcombe or people in Australia and the US. Once they know what risks are to the environment and the water table they will take action.”
Andrew Ogden of the Campaign to Protect Rural England in Kent, said villagers will demonstrate against drilling exploratory wells because of concerns that could lead to fracking in future.
“I think people will do the same once the lorries start coming in where the drilling is likely to happen.”
However Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Tory MP, who faces the threat of fracking in his own constituency of North East Somerset and indeed near his own home, said there was no need for a “knee jerk Nimby response”.
Nor did he approve of “rent-a-mob” or “buses of hooligans” coming in to protest.
He insisted the Shires of Britain will react in an appropriate and dignified manner once all the information has been gathered.
“There has to be a balance between the advantages of cheap energy against the disadvantages of damage to the countryside.”
Even if villages and towns are against drilling plans, he trusted they would protest lawfully.
“I wouldn’t expect to see local people taking to the streets but I would expect to see them taking to the law courts if necessary.”
