[matilda] Climate Camp Officially Injunction-Free!

[Danny Chivers]

Dear friends,

Because there have been a lot of contradictory things in the media about
BAA's attempted injunction and the Camp for Climate Action, we're sending
out this email to let you know that everything's fine and the camp is most
definitely still on - see below. Also attached is the workshop timetable
for the camp - check it out, it's looking fantastic!

Please forward this email on to everyone who might want to come to the camp.

Best wishes,

Danny Chivers
Camp for Climate Action Networking Group

****************************************************************

Here is a bit more information about what actually happened with
yesterday’s injunction outcome, which should hopefully clear up any
confusion based on unclear and misrepresentative press stories.

First and most important: the camp is NOT covered by the injunction, and
you will not be breaking the law by coming to the camp! The camp is going
ahead as planned – not because it’s ignoring an injunction, but because it
is not affected by the injunction.

Second, this was a victory for us and for freedom to protest, not for BAA.
BAA originally sought an incredibly wide-ranging, draconian injunction
that could have affected 5 million people and that covered a wide
geographical area including the Piccadilly line and parts of the M25
motorway. What they got was an injunction that is civil and not criminal
(ie. no additional powers of arrest), against 3 named individuals and the
group Plane Stupid,  and with a much reduced geographical area over which
the injunction applies.

EVERYONE is free to come to the camp WITHOUT breaching the injunction,
including those named on the injunction. In other words, the judge denied
most of the original injunction, and gave BAA something much smaller and
much less powerful.

However they tried to spin the story yesterday (by the way, the reason
their ‘BAA wins injunction’ story got out first is because they sneakily
started talking to the press before the hearing was over!), BAA are
definitely not the winners in this case. The entire hearing has been a
farce, with the judge at times confused, at times thoroughly unimpressed
at BAA’s inability to decide exactly what the injunction covered.
Embarrassment continued as BAA was denounced across the board, by everyone
from the big NGOs to Ken Livingstone and the political parties to civil
liberties groups. And finally, yesterday BAA were ordered to pay all court
costs, apart from Plane Stupid’s.

So, BAA got very little of what they were originally seeking, got nowhere
on attempting to stop the camp, gave the camp loads of free publicity, and
are now out of a considerable chunk of change. We won, not BAA.

Loads of people have now heard about the camp who might not have
previously; but equally some people might be worried that this injunction
will affect them if they come to the camp. Please forward this email and
help to spread the word amongst your networks that the camp is not covered
by the injunction, and yesterday’s outcome was in fact a real victory for
protest at Heathrow this summer.

Below is the text of a Camp for Climate Action statement read out
yesterday in front of the High Court:

The Camp for Climate Action is going ahead.

We accuse BAA of abusing people’s right to freedom of expression.

We accuse BAA of pushing for the expansion of airports in the full
knowledge that it will lead directly to climate change and indirectly to
the deaths of millions.

We accuse BAA of lying to local people, having first promised an end to
the expansion of Heathrow in 1978.

We accuse BAA of being climate criminals. A crime for which they cannot be
punished under UK law and which the government is actively supporting them
in committing.

If you accept the right to life of the millions of people that will die
because of climate change, then you can’t stand by. Serious and immediate
action becomes essential.

Today we are sending out a call to anyone

* that believes that BAA are the real criminals in this case,

* that knows that governments and corporations will not solve the problem
of climate change but that it is down to ordinary people to find the
solutions,

* that sees that we are living beyond what the earth’s resources can
sustain and need to create major social change to live sustainably.

BAA’s legal action shows the lengths carbon criminals will go to defend
their emissions. Come to the Camp for Climate Action from the 14th to the
21st August and join the ever-growing movement for real action to prevent
climate catastrophe.

>From the Camp there will be a day of mass action on Sunday the 19th August.

The responsibility to tackle climate change lies with us all.

www.climatecamp.org.uk
07858 177 178 / 07772 861 099
press at climatecamp.org.uk