If you haven’t noticed, a little something called fracking has been making headlines recently, and with good reason too. With 65% of the country being given licences to be fracked on, this environmentally destructive form of fossil fuel extraction is seeing protests appear up and down the country where local communities are standing up for both their local environment and their energy futures. A focal point of this has been the ‘Battle of Balcombe’ where local residents and activists are working together to tell Cuadrilla the company currently performing exploratory drilling to frack off! I was there as part of the Reclaim the Power camp and would like to share what I saw first-hand.
Fracking is a technique used for shale gas extraction, that involves drilling into the earth and shooting vast amount of high pressure contaminated water, in order to fracture the shale and release the trapped gas. There are many arguments against this; aesthetic, the risk of contaminating water supply, gas leaks and earthquakes. Looking at the wider issue, there is the stupidity of trying to extract and burn even more fossil fuels when we are already far too reliant, as well as the how the European energy market works. Unlike in the US where shale gas led to a boom in the economy, in the UK Cuadrilla have admitted that there would be little to no change in the price of gas to users
Even with all this information readily available, the Government are still pushing ahead with this dash for gas. The movement against fracking, and the general corruption of our politicians has come to a head in Balcombe. Local residents have been campaigning and lobbying against the exploratory drilling in their area for the last two years. Although they showed that 85% of the community didn’t want fracking, they have been ignored, resulting in people blockading the gate and camping on the road. A five day action camp called ‘Reclaim the Power’ were invited to join the resistance and bring with it national and international media attention. I went along for the five days and have never met so many welcoming and caring people. Walking through the camp, strangers would smile, say hello, and offer you food, drink or conversation. There was a great amount of local residents there too. Several news outlets made it sound like a bunch of ‘professional activists’ had decided to hijack their campaign, but this simply was not true. I even got a free lift to the train station from a family of three from a nearby village who had been doing runs and bringing down supplies to the protesters from the shops. We weren’t just there to mingle, we were there to take part in mass direct action and to bring Balcombe and the government’s dash for gas to the public’s attention. On the Monday hundreds of people took part in non-violent mass action; blockading the road with bikes and dancing, arm-locking together outside the gate, occupying Cuadrilla’s HQ in LicEven with all this information readily available, the Government are still pushing ahead with this dash for gas. The movement against fracking, and the general corruption of our politicians has come to a head in Balcombe. Local residents have been campaigning and lobbying against the exploratory drilling in their area for the last two years. Although they showed that 85% of the community didn’t want fracking, they have been ignored, resulting in people blockading the gate and camping on the road. A five day action camp called ‘Reclaim the Power’ were invited to join the resistance and bring with it national and international media attention. I went along for the five days and have never met so many welcoming and caring people. Walking through the camp, strangers would smile, say hello, and offer you food, drink or conversation. There was a great amount of local residents there too. Several news outlets made it sound like a bunch of ‘professional activists’ had decided to hijack their campaign, but this simply was not true. I even got a free lift to the train station from a family of three from a nearby village who had been doing runs and bringing down supplies to the protesters from the shops. We weren’t just there to mingle, we were there to take part in mass direct action and to bring Balcombe and the government’s dash for gas to the public’s athfield, Blockading the PR company’s building and banner dropping Lord Brown’s House in London. Thanks to these actions the world’s media took notice. As well as interviews and reports in all the UK’s major news outlets, international press such as the New York Times were reporting on it.
At the time of writing there is still a camp at Balcombe that needs people’s support but what are the next steps? Groups are starting all over the country thanks to the inspiration of Reclaim the Power; Birimingham Climate Justice are an example. There will also be an international day of action against fracking on the 19th October called ‘Global Frackdown’. Keep your eyes and ears open for opportunities in Birmingham to show solidarity and play your part.
