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Monday 1st October Faslane

The Big Blockade

Camp for Climate Action, Heathrow, 2007

Martin Deane, 24.8.07

We got to Heathrow and parked the car (I know, but at least it were full!) - and the Hull three did wend their way through West Drayton to the campsite. It wasn’t hard – we just followed the police presence! The campsite was large and to get larger, over 1000 by some reports. Before long we met up with other Hullees and found the Yorkshire tent dishing out loads of gorgeous food ( - for nothing, just make a donation).

We caught up over fairtrade tea and coffee. The police had invaded the camp a few days before. It was a FIT team, Forward Intelligence Team, the ones that film you. The protesters instantly came out from all over and surrounded them, holding up their hands in the air and chanting “Off! Off! Off!” until the inevitable happened - the police left!

The police had fenced off the field from the road with six foot high steel fencing and left just one main entrance for people to come and go by. As a halfway measure, it was agreed that the police could regularly patrol the camp as long as they were escorted by climate campers, thus showing a community face rather than an intimidating one. This largely worked very well including the fine spectacle of our mates escorting police around.

The police had also taped off the camp inside the field. They would patrol this often right up to the edge of the tape with tents just the other side. This was a very intrusive presence especially at night and from time to time camp members had to remonstrate with police to withdraw to the second tape line that had been put up across a “no-man’s land”. One officer shone his torch on tents at night repeatedly and had to be told to desist.

Another officer I overheard (from inside my tent) played the “Rocky” theme on his radio or phone repeatedly! A woman tackled the officers as to why they were standing so close to the inside tape. He made some excuse such as orders, and when she went away played the Rocky theme again. His colleague said: you should have played that while you were talking to her! This does not bode well for evolution!

The camp was situated next to a Sikh temple. They joined the camp from time to time and on the day of the mass action laid out a table of drinks and goodies for us all.

BAA intends to build a third runway considerably to the north of Heathrow on largely residential and agricultural land. The campsite was part of this area, as are about 10,000 houses across the town of Sipson. This will hugely expand Heathrow in area let alone plane traffic. It will destroy about 1200 of these homes. The people of Sipson were very supportive of the camp and are campaigning against the third runway in their own right.

Meetings were held on a democratic empowerment model with a facilitator who picked people to speak as fairly as possible, giving people numbers, and people wiggling hands to show appreciation rather than clapping which takes up time. Effort at full consensus was made and often achieved. Votes were tkaen for Yeses, Noes, and Stand-Asides.

A mass 24-hour action from Sunday to Monday was agreed to be a siege of the BAA headquarters near Heathrow and just south of the camp with each region making their own provisional secondary demo if necessary.

Come Sunday morning, the kids demonstration left early to walk the local streets. We were all kitted out with one page summaries of the Tyndall report attached to our hands and others carrying large pictures of people likely to suffer from climate change.

At the camp gate there was a media scrum and lots of pictures were taken of us holding up the pages one on each hand (we had put loops on the back the day before). A banner above us read ”WE ARE ARMED… ONLY WITH PEER REVIEWED SCIENCE!” (“Sounds dangerous to me, Sarge!”) Finally, the demo took off around the camp. One corner had been identified as worth trying to get beyond possible police blockades. We would have been completely hemmed in (“kettled”) if we had used the main road.

The demo strode up peaceably to the police lines but then kept going, despite the shouting and one or two baton-happy police. (There were 5 injuries we heard about). The Hull “Whippets”, as we had dubbed our group the day before, had grown to about 16 members and we found ourselves in the bean field next to the campsite, keeping our column going. Two police horses were trying to head us off, as well as another column from Runcorn, and shepherd us to the footpath. We persevered in going round them, splitting up and going back on ourselves.

The rallying cry of “Whippets!” went up numerous times as we tried to regroup. Eventually the horses were called off and we made for the edge of the field, got over a fence and into a residential area. As we headed through, people saw police heading for us so it was up and over another fence again and back into the field. We kept under the treeline so the helicopter could see us less easily but we realized we had some police on our tail. They weren’t trying to stop us or arrest people so we kept going. We made it through the side of the field and onto a footpath and followed it to the next residential area. Police were nearby so we had to double back a few times. By following the road most people ended up having too many police to deal with.

I went down a side street and met up with a few others. No police were interested in us so we just made our way towards the main road. As we got closer to BAA HQ we met up with others who made it out of the estate. I passed one of ours being “Stopped and Searched” and called out “Whippets!” as I went. The Stops and Searches were a frequent feature of camp life and we were told in legal briefings that we didn’t have to give our name and address under standard Section 40 or 60 searches (I didn’t when I was searched).

At BAA HQ on Bath Road, north of Heathrow, we could see police lines forming. Nevertheless, we got closer. I got pushed by an officer and fell backwards over a low railing, but no harm done. Riot police had begun to group now so most of us retreated. Many sat down outside McDonald’s as the riot police closed in and surrounded all exit paths. They weren’t going to attack but just to hold the protesters there but it was still intimidating. I retreated further up Bath Road and suggested crossing the road and trying the other side. I also heard that up the side street there were about 60 being held in a “kettle” by a number of riot police and couldn’t move anywhere.

Legal observers attended every action. These were usually ordinary campers who had put themselves forward for the training and who accompanied protesters on the understanding that they would be there observing rather than taking action themselves. Their presence and compiling of details afterwards was invaluable. Once we got to the other side of the road there were a few police beside us but they were not about to interfere as they were outnumbered.

And then just as we passed a structure we saw that some young women had climbed up it and dropped a banner. This really cheered people up since the girls were on Heathrow land - something the camp had agreed would be too dangerous to target – because of armed police and security guards, etc. We heard later that security didn’t hold them afterwards but just told them to scarper. I heard the teenagers were 14, 15 and 16 – and these three gems also served us all breakfast the next morning! At some stage protesters made it onto the BAA car park. There must have been a breakthrough of police lines and then just some low shrubs to step over. The actual building was surrounded by riot police so the car park was a good place to stop!

After a while the police made a charge on the car park to clear us out. I witnessed it from the front bank and saw one girl tackled around the neck by an officer and brought to the ground none too gently. The protesters very quickly all sat down. This would mean the police would have to carry individuals off so they left. I overheard one say “That’s another battle we’ve lost!”

Later, a police van tried to get out of the top car park but protesters blocked the way. They tried negotiating with the cops to get the 60 or so kettled comrades out from the far corner of the site. But none of it. Riot police moved in, cleared the way and the van left. Protesters immediately took back the entrance space and a tarpaulin appeared to protect people from the light rain! Police still surrounded the whole area but did not try to throw people off again.

Hull Whippet facilitates the meeting on BAA's car park !

As the afternoon wore on other groups arrived including George Monbiot who joined the camp. Some tents were put up and the BAA camp began to take shape. Many had come prepared for 24 hours in the car park. There were constant comings and goings to the car park. Some were substantial as when a delivery (by bike) turned up of cake, and tarpaulins.

As evening approached the feeling under the tarpaulins was quite magical. We had made it! This was our our British statement in opposition to the huge and powerful aviation industry and British Airports Authority (Spanish-owned!). One Whippet, after his stop and search, was on such good form he scored the winning goal in the BAA car park football match among the protesters (though not the cops). Another Whippet also facilitated the car park meeting on how protesters felt and what to do next. The camp continued overnight with an impressive tarpaulin structure going up with about 100 people sat beneath – and in addition a huge white rabbit, called Elliot apparently!

The rain and cold got to me so I went back to camp about 3am but returned about noon on Monday to see things still upbeat. The afternoon continued, the police kept their distance. About 3pm the camp had well surpassed its 24 hour action target and decided to return to camp. EVERYTHING was cleared up; people organized themselves for the procession home. I found one of the free camp bikes which needed taking back. There were LOTS of attendant police, vans and so on.

We were welcomed home to the site amid great cheers for every last one of us (it being me!). So all in all, a very successful camp (even though I only made the last half and missed the workshops which I hear were good).

There is a danger it becomes formulaic and a bit of a circus (every respect to the clowns!). The camp meetings focused on what was to happen in the future and the hope was that local and regional camps would seize the day and campaign locally rather than have a large single focus.

Neither should it be forgotten that while the high profile siege of BAA was going on there were some 17 other actions taking place across London and the region, targeting air traffic, all making their point and giving people pause for thought. Whatever the outcome for the camp’s future, it remains clear Britain’s commitment to climate change is pathetic, and, given the IPCC emphasis on human CO2 being the culprit, the government’s commitment to expanding airports and building more roads is the height of hypocrisy.

Martin Deane, Green Party, Hull.

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