Last week I went to North-West Germany to visit a new forest occupation currently taking place in the Hambach forest – the purpose of it? To stand directly in the way of the expansion of Europe’s largest open-cast coal mine. Through the construction of tree-houses and defences, by engaging with the local community and by bringing people and energy to the area, this new camp in the woods is the latest stand against the energy giant RWE (Rheinisch-Westfälisches Elektrizitätswerk), a company which plans to clear cut the area and gouge out the contents of the earth with some of the biggest death machines on the planet.

Continue reading ‘“Forests instead of Coal” – Interviews with people occupying the Hambach Forest in Germany.’

In February and March of this year, Coal Action Scotland toured the UK with the Beehive Collective’s True Cost of Coal banner. The aims of the tour were several – to make links with other local groups by visiting them in different places around the UK, to raise greater awareness of the disastrous impacts of coal mining, and to build energy for a summer mobilisation taking place this year against new coal in South Lanarkshire, Scotland.

Continue reading ‘Dirty Coal Info Tour: A summary of Coal Action Scotland’s tour around the UK this year’

Opencast coal mining in the Douglas Valley is about the ruling class destroying communities for their own financial gain. Its about ecological destruction on a massive scale for capitalism’s unquenchable thirst for cheap energy. Its about absentee fat-cat land-lords making millions off land that shouldn’t be theirs. Its about morally corrupt local (and national) government putting profit before people. Join us 12-18 July in the Douglas Valley, South Lanarkshire, to build on 20 years of community struggle and four years of direct action against the UK’s biggest opencast mining company. It’s time to Take Back the Land!

Continue reading ‘Take Back the Land! Douglas Valley action camp dates announced’

With the Council elections approaching we can look back on the last 5 years of disregard for communities, “jobs for the boys”, skullduggery, conflict of interest and downright corrupt behavior that has characterised South Lanarkshire Council. Will the next 5 years be any different? We’re not holding our breath. But for an idea of who not to vote for if you make it as far as the polling station on the 5th May, the Dovesdale Action Group have a pretty good idea. Despite the entire council leadership being rotten to the core, one sore thumb sticks out in particular, and so it seems apt at this time to say goodbye to Danny Meikle who will not stand for reelection.

Continue reading ‘Good riddance Danny Meikle’

On Saturday the 14th of April, part of the Hambach forest near Cologne, Germany was squatted by a group of activists in opposition to the planned open cast coal mine by RWE. People are more than welcome to join in the campaign. For more information see http://hambachforest.blogsport.de

They released their first declaration which you can view on Indymedia UK too.

Is it deja-vu, or did another Scottish Coal lorry overturn today in exactly the same place as the last one did just over a week ago? That’s right, another HGV headed from Scottish Coal’s Broken Cross site in the Douglas Valley to a rail terminal spilled its load at the Poniel roundabout just off the M74. How many more will have to crash before something is done about Scottish Coal’s reckless coal haulage? As many local residents are convinced, something will only be done about it after someone is killed by a coal lorry – one of the more blatant examples of how people’s lives are worth less than a load of coal in South Lanarkshire.

We were delighted to hear last week that South Lanarkshire Council had decided to reject Pattersons Quarry’s application for a 3.3 million tonne sand and gravel mine in Coulter/Lamington (near Biggar) on the banks of the River Clyde. This is the second time that the application has been rejected, and incidentally they are the only minerals applications to have been rejected by the council. Both applications sparked strong and hard-fought campaigns lead by the Clyde River Action Group.

Continue reading ‘Coal is a Class issue: comparing Biggar quarry rejection with Douglas Valley opencast’

This one came off the road at Junction 11 of the M74 spilling its load. Thankfully no one was hurt. This accident follows a constant stream of spillages, crashes and incidents in the area involving Scottish Coal HGVs. For more information see our traffic survey and details of the issues locally here.

From the Lanark and Carluke Gazette:

A HGV lorry carrying coal has overturned near Happendon services.

The lorry’s 16-tonne trailer spilled its load just off the M74 motorway at junction 11 at Poneil.

Thankfully no-one was injured in the incident, which occurred around noon.

Clydesdale chief inspector Colin Murphy told the Gazette: “The trailer of the lorry came loose, which caused the lorry to tip.

“The coal is on the verge of the road and vehicles are able to pass. There is no road closure.

“The driver of the lorry was uninjured and the coal is currently being recovered.

News emerged this week about 2 of Scotland’s major coal producing companies highlighting the financial insecurities of an industry struggling to remain viable through the current economic times. Shares in ATH Resources plumited by 42% as it reduced the expected revenues from its Muir Dean open cast coal site by £4 million. Current forecasts put ATH’s pre tax losses for 2012 at over £6.5 million and its overall market worth has been cut by a quarter.

Scottish Coal have also been reporting financial problems, being behind budget in a number of areas and with few signs of improvement on the horizon. Wet weather over the winter period was reportedly to blame for the recent shortcoming in production but with the 20% fall in coal prices over the last 5 months, reduced profitability of future contracts cannot be blamed on the weather. Palmaris Capital (16.5% shareholders in Scottish Coal) have stated, “SRG management was exploring ideas including opening new, lower-cost mines” which likely indicates further redundencies amongst workers.

Sadly, it seems that such ideas are already being acted upon in South Lanarkshire with yet more worker lay-off being talked about amongst the mines in this region showing (yet again) the ruthless and hypocritical management of Scottish Coal. Not only are communities secondary to profit margins but so too are the lower level workers treated as dispensable pawns in an unsustainable, short sighted game. Whatever direction the wind blows, the money flows one way and hard times the other.

A few years ago a massive new coal-fired power station construction programme was announced, involving 7 new ones and the first to be built in the UK for 30 years. Since then, not a single one has gone ahead, with some like Kingsnorth in Kent being put on hold indefinitely, the replacement of Cockenzie in East Lothian scraped entirely (for a gas plant) and Hunterston in North Ayrshire attracting so much opposition that it looks almost impossible that it’ll go ahead. Similarly, the much-heralded carbon capture pilot project at Longannet Coal-Fired Power Station in Fife, the only project of its kind in the UK, collapsed spectacularly after the government removed funding for it and results showed it wasn’t actually working. So what on earth is Summit Power Group, National Grid and Petrofac thinking?

Continue reading ‘Caledonia Clean Energy Project? Its a scam!’