Despite the tireless work of campaigners locally and nationally, Thursday 6th October saw Communities and Local Government Secretary Sajid Javid overturn Lancashire County Council’s refusal of Cuadrilla’s application to drill, frack and test for shale gas at Preston New Road. If the scheme goes ahead, it would see the first horizontal wells to be drilled, fracked and tested in the UK and the first fracking approval on a greenfield site since 2011.
Fracking – short for hydraulic fracturing, a process of drilling down into the earth and directing a high-pressure mixture of water, sand and chemicals at shale rock to release the gas inside – has formed part of what campaigners have called a ‘dash for gas’, presented as a solution to reliance on other fossil fuels. As part of the wide awareness of the need to keep fossil fuels in the ground to avoid catastrophic climate change, there has been widespread resistance to the fracking industry in recent years.
Reclaim the Power has sought to strike while the momentum is strong and groups are emerging around the country by embarking on a ten-day mobilization tour starting Monday 10th October that stretches across the North and the Midlands, connecting local groups to other activists to discuss tactics of resistance.
Ahead of the tour, the Leveller spoke with one of the organizers Robert Tyler about how it came about, the networks and tactics of the UK’s grassroots climate action scene and whether Cuadrilla can expect an easy ride.
“What Reclaim the Power have done in the three years we’ve been in existence is build and support the direct action wing of the climate justice movement, to support existing groups such as local anti-fracking groups who might use other tactics which are valuable and worthwhile like opposing planning applications in the local council and mounting legal challenges where appropriate.”
“We had also partially expected a few months ago that new open-cast mines could be coming online as well. Off the back of our successful occupation of Ffos-y-fran [the biggest mass trespass in a UK mine] in solidarity with the United Valleys Action Group and the community in Merthyr Tydfil who had been fighting a new open-cast proposal in South Wales, we thought well let’s do a tour that talks about the need to keep all fossil fuels in the ground not just about fracking and broaden out the debate.”
Inspiration for the tour comes not just from the protests of recent history, such as in Balcombe, Sussex in 2013 and Barton Moss in winter 2013/14 but further back. The tour was partly inspired by the 1980s Franklin River Dam campaign in Tasmania, which Tyler highlighted is “the only direct action campaign to successfully stop an infrastructure project after construction had begun”. The months-long rolling blockades were preceded by groups traveling round on a speaker tour to build momentum, talking to different people about the impact the dam would have and the idea of direct action.
The tactic seen then of ‘rolling blockades’ has been used more recently at the Faslane Naval Base in Scotland, the controversial home of Britain’s nuclear weapons in the form of Trident missile-armed submarines. Tyler described the tactics of Faslane 365 in 2006/07, an effort to establish a continuous protest at the base for a 365-day period using autonomous groups of 100 people: “different groups would take on doing an action, which would take one or two days of their time. It could be different levels, it could be a blockade or something less confrontational but visually impacting like holding a banner at a certain spot.”
With the tour, the group are keen to discuss a variety of tactics to compliment the familiar ‘protector camps’ – semi-permanent roadside or testing site occupations which have one key problem for would-be climate activists: “They’re great, they’ve been a key part of the resistance but not everyone has the ability to drop everything and go and live by the roadside and deal with that level of police brutality.”
Reclaim the Power don’t have to build from scratch however. A networked anti-fracking movement has already started to form over the past few years with campaigns such as Frack Free Lancashire going round the country and supporting the emergence of new groups, sharing their experiences and showing solidarity.
“One of the things that the anti-fracking groups have been saying all along is that when these companies are doing exploratory drilling they’re not just trying to get data on what hydrocarbons are in the ground, they’re also trying to get an idea of what local resistance there is, or what social license they have to frack.”
In this regard, there is Lord Howell’s misstep in 2013 in stating “there are large and uninhabited and desolate areas, certainly in part of the North-east, where there’s plenty of room for fracking.” Tony Bosworth from Friends of the Earth said at the time: “The Government’s ill-conceived fracking plans aren’t something that can be quietly brushed under the carpet ‘up North’.”
Looking back at the past few years and forward to next weeks’ tactic-driven mobilization tour, it seems very unlikely that a ‘brush under the carpet’ approach will work. I asked Tyler whether after the green light from Sajid David, Cuadrilla can expect an easier ride:
“Well, no. They can expect the entire UK anti-fracking movement, which is strong, widespread and rooted in lots of local communities to stand with the people of Lancashire and support them in resisting the industry, just like people are standing with Ryedale in North Yorkshire. They are going to get a very bumpy ride.”
To be a part of that bumpy ride, here are the locations of the tour:
- Monday 10th 7pm – Victoria Hotel, 28 Great George St, Leeds LS1 3DL
- Tuesday 11th – Wednesday 12th – UK Shale Gas Summit, Manchester
- Wednesday 12th 7pm – Madlab, 36-40 Edge Street, Manchester M4 1HN
- Thursday 13th 6pm – SUMAC Centre, 245 Gladstone St, Forest Fields, Nottingham NG7 6HX
- Sunday 16th 5pm – Mystery Tea House, 23 Cannon Street, Preston PR1 3NR
- Monday 17th 7pm – Regather Social Centre, 57-59 Club Garden Road, Sheffield S118BU
- Wednesday 19th 7pm – Saint Saviour’s Parish, Tarporley Road, Ellesmere Port CH66 3JY
- Thursday 20th 7pm – Borough Brewery, Brook Street, Lancaster LA1 1SL
Image: Reclaim the Power
