Friday, and the camp has grown

I'm typing this post from the Indymedia tent, which has computers and internet facilities for people reporting from the camp - all using open source software and powered by solar panels and a wind turbine of course. There's a big meeting going on in the main marquee about the action which will take place on Sunday and Monday so I'm taking the time to catch up on blogging duties!

I've just finished leading a workshop on the climate change bill which is due to go through Parliament in the next session. I and James from People and Planet stepped in to run this at the last minute when the original organisers couldn't make it. More than fifty people turned up, which shows that despite the focus here on direct action, those at the camp are both diverse, and recognise the need for a diversity of tactics in fighting climate change.

In general the workshops I've been in have been much bigger today than on Wednesday when I did my first workshop, simply because of the numbers of new people that have arrived since. Some of the media made a point of saying on Tuesday that numbers were below the 1,500 expected, but I don't think anyone expected that number to turn up for the whole week. As more and more people arrive the closer we get to the weekend, I'm confident we'll reach 1,500, although since there's no register of campers, its hard to tell.

Anyway, WDM's boarding card-style action postcard has gone down well here too - it has been particularly useful for a group doing street theatre; people who arrived this morning were handed the postcard by the group who were dressed as air hostesses (Brighton WDM did something similar last month).

Whilst the activity at the camp has focussed around workshops for the last three days, there's been direct action taking place elsewhere. On Thursday activists blocked the entrances to two private airports, saying that the use of private jets was an insult to those of us trying to reduce our carbon footprints. Then today nine people superglued themselves to the Department for Transport, remaining there for two hours until they were removed. Whilst some in government are making noises about reducing carbon emissions, the DfT doesn't seem to have got the message, and is planning for a doubling of aviation by 2020 and a trebling by 2050. Its also putting massive resources into motorway widening projects, which past experience has shown simply leads to increases in traffic using those roads. Its this mismatch between government noise and action on climate change which is one of the key messages the climate camp is trying to get across.