Coryton Crude Awakening Protests Photos Are Like Rag Week At The Fringe
HOW do you report on The Crude Awakening, a pun-driven climate change protest at the Coryton oil refinery, in Stanford le Hope, Essex? Do you lead with the violence, as the BBC does? It reports
“Police scuffle with oil refinery protesters”.
Only, no arrests were made so scuffle seems an exaggeration.
Do you go for the circus element? The local paper does?
12 women, affiliated to the action group Crude Awakening, chained themselves to immobilized vehicles on both lanes of the road approaching Coryton Oil refinery. They mounted ‘tripods’ across the Manorway to block traffic and climbed up the structures.
Do you go with the skulduggery? Like Demotix:
It was supported by various groups such as the Space Hijackers, Plane Stupid, the Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination, Rising Tide, Climate Camp, Liberate Tate, Earth First and the UK Tar Sands network.
Activists gathered in London at 10am forming three blocs of people, the dirty money bloc, the body bloc and the building bloc. Each left from different locations in London, Euston, Victoria and Waterloo respectively, so as not to pick up a massive police trail.
Do you go with the activists? The Metro does:
Terri Orchard, one of the demonstrators, said the only way to tackle climate change is to target the oil industry.
‘We are here at the source of the problem, at the UK’s busiest oil refinery, to stop the flow of oil to London,’ she explained.
‘We’re here to put a spanner in the works of the relentless flow of oil and to say no more. This place, this whole industry, must become a thing of the past.’
Do you see the result. This on the PA:
Hundreds of demonstrators have blockaded the road to an oil refinery and claim to have stopped 375,000 gallons of fuel from leaving the depot.
That seems to be one or two tankers.
Or do you flick through the photos and find it impossible to realise that all the protestors look white, young and like they’re on Rag Week, or handing out fliers at the Edinburgh Fringe?
Posted: 17th, October 2010 | In: Reviews Comments (4) | TrackBack | Permalink
