Power for the People not Profits for the few - Sizewell Anti-Nuclear Camp

Well, it was a great weekend @ the sizewell camp (with the exception of being camped next to nuclear reactors! something I found particularly difficult).

The weather was fantastic it couldn't have been better, and there were many beautiful banners & a great vegan Kitchen  provided by the folks from Cambridge.

Everybody was really helpful all pitching in to help & support each other as well as lot's of lively discussions and much learning! It was good to talk to people using the beach & locals & tourists alike.










 On Saturday there was a fantastic demo outside the powerstation gates which was well attended by lots of CND members & people from London.

Buddhist meditations...

Beautiful SWANs!

Lunch in the Sun

A bit of shade

 

Charles

This included some great speeches 

Ron Bailey No money for nuclear

Nikki Stop Hinkley & SWAN

Kate Hudson CND

Speakers from Kick Nuclear

Radioactive man on a recruiting drive???

a bit of street theatre,

Up & Atom!

Naughty Nellie the Nuclear White Elephant

We had a beautiful lunch in the Sun...


  

Then a symbolic blockade of the main gate where the area was cordoned off
and everyone had a bit of a dance. 

 My my didn't her maj's servants get their knickers in a knot! In the evening there was a public meeting in Leiceston the purpose of which was communicating with the local community about why we were on the beach, a number of us walked there via the beautiful lanes, unfortunately the meeting was only attended by a number of us from the camp with only one or two locals who were already known to us, still, we put the time to good use and had a useful discussion about outreach with local communities. 

We then had a lovely camp fire, 




We were joined by a couple of young local lads whom I chatted with for a while.

The local law enforcement getting themselves informed!

On Sunday there were lots of great workshops, the quality of both information & delivery were astounding.

Sizewell B

In the evening a handful of young lads on bikes came onto the camp and attempted to trash one of our banners, a group of us went over and talked with them for a while, tone of them claimed to work at the station on an apprenticeship.

 

Sizewell A station 

They were very defensive about the station proclaiming it's safety at every opportunity, I found it quite dark to see such young kids so utterly brainwashed by nuclear industry propoganda. 

I explained to them that I live near Hinkley & talked with them about the fact that we were there because we want to protect them not because we want to attack them, I told them that I understoood and shared their desire for Jobs for the local community, I implored them to make sure they did their homework before taking jobs at the station after having a brief talk about the health effects. I made clear that no matter what they did with their lives that it's important to make informed decisions! A couple of them disappeared but the remaining two stayed until we'd finished talking with them. 

Afterwards, we lit somebody's buttered sock torches! 

Afterwards, we lit somebody's buttered sock torches...

we then stood on the beach outside the PWR as part of our commemoration for Chernobyl, 

25 commemorative torches

There was a torch for each of the 25 years that have elapsed since the man-made disaster








we watched a film about the issue of radioactive waste storage in the long term in the pedal powered cinema, then fell into bed. 


On the final day Easter Monday we had a plenary where we all talked about how we felt the camp had gone and gave feedback about our favourite bits & what we thought could be better and then I did my workshop which was about Chernobyl 25 years on. 

Finally we walked to the main gate of the station again for a formal Vigil for the Victims of Chernobyl, 

this included a minutes silence for the victims being created right now by Fukushima,

Me reading and extract from the P.P.T about Chernobyl

some readings from a couple of us - I read an exerpt from the Permanant Peoples Tribunal on Chernobyl carried out in 1996 whilst the other person read out a poem about a child awaiting surgery to have their Thyroid removed. We did a bit of street art took some photo's shot some film and had another minutes silence to remember Chernobyl.


This time the power station had blockaded themselves in! All the while someone wearing clothing that identified them as a British Energy security guard filmed us, I wander how they'll try to turn that into pro-nuke propoganda?...

Intelligence gathering for British Energy/EDF

After the vigil we returned to the camp & tatted down collectively, all in all it was a very productive, informative weekend, I met lot's of new people as well as getting to know those I've already met a bit better. I hope that next year the camp is bigger if we havent succeeded in shutting down the nuclear industry by then once & for all!

We also have some interesting plans in the pipeline for Hinkley Point watch this space...