ciderpunx

I’ve been arrested and charged a few times for taking non-violent direct action. I think that its quite an empowering experience in a weird way. OK, so you lose your liberty for a bit, but you’re taking the power away from the politicians and taking responsibility directly for the kind of world you want to live in. Saying “no, I’m not prepared to stand by passively and let you do this and threats of violence, fines and prison are less important to me than seeing the situation changed”. Plus, when I’ve got out there was usually lots of really cool people there to give me a cheer (and chocolate ;-) ). Arrest is just a bit of an occupational hazard for people who care passionatly about the world and are prepared to take action to change it.

I’ve not found having a criminal record to be much of a problem on the job front – I work for a campaigning organisation, and, whilst they can’t do or condone anything illegal, they understand and respect my motivations. I don’t think I’d be happy working for an employer who couldn’t respect me wanting to change the world for the better.

We managed to close down Hartlepool Nuclear Power station’s vehicle access for 10 hours, using a combination of arm tube lock ons on the front gate and d-locks on the back. We let cops and British Energy staff know that, should there be an emergency situation we’d stop the blockade immediately.

The blockade was peaceful and got lots of positive press. It will, I hope, inspire the thousands of others who oppose the state/industry’s proposed new generation of nuclear power stations in the UK to get off their arses and make a difference. We can’t depend on our political and economic masters to get us out of this mess. We have to do it ourselves.

I’ve been arrested and am on police bail on suspicion of aggravated trespass. More to follow.

In the meantime, here’s some coverage of our action:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/nuclear/article/0,,1860943,00.html
http://www.climateimc.org/?q=node/607

And of the Camp for Climate Action:
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/actions/2006/climatecamp/

Actually I’ve never even looked at myspace, but I hate Murdoch and, in fact, all multinational press conglomorates, deeply and I support anything (not involving physical violence to people) that damages their business interests.

We are being taught to accept brands, products and items as being the essential ingredients of life which is helping to turn us into objects. This dehumanises us – we’re people, not customers, or consumers, or demographics. Brands are for cattle. Every time a brand is resisted there’s a chance for us to stand up to dehumanisation and say “we shouldn’t have to determine our lives in terms of sacrifice, exchange and consumption. “

Long live the iconoclasts, down with the brands!