Kate writes from the Saturday day of action against Kingsnorth power station:

A contingent of WDM’s campaigners went on the ‘Orange’ march on the day of mass action. The march was a family friendly affair, with over 1000 people dressed in bright colours, carrying beautifully made banners with slogans life ‘coal kills’, ‘burning our future: no new coal’; and ‘yes to Kingsnorth workers, no to E.ON bosses’.

We marched from climate camp to Kingsnorth power station, picking up local residents as we went along. As we walked, residents came out to talk to us and cars slowed down to cheer or talk. We gave out a leaflet that we have produced looking at the impact of climate change in Kent. It highlights the impact of new coal power in the UK and the devastating effect that it will have in the local area, as well as on the poorest people in the world.

It took us about two hours to reach Kingsnorth, and we were greeted by only a small number of police, music and speeches and it was time to break out the sandwiches. The speakers shouted above the noise of a police helicopter overhead, and gave impassioned speeches covering workers’ rights, impact of climate change and poverty on women, the contribution of capitalism to climate change and a speaker from Kingsnorth Climate Action Medway, who are local campaigners that who spoke out about the effects of Kingsnorth, not only in their backyard, but also on the rest of the world.

The march headed back towards the camp, with some people staying behind to demonstrate their resistance to the vastly increased presence of the police in the last ten minutes of the peaceful march. We headed back to the sound of steel drums, and the time passed quickly, with a detour through the village of Hoo to talk to more people about what we were doing and why, and to pop into a shop to get some supplies for the evening’s celebrations.          

There was a round up of all the activity that had happened during the day, and people headed to their various neighbourhoods to eat, drink, dance and chat some more about the clean development mechanism…I, however, managed to fall asleep by 10.30pm to the sound of the peddle powered sound system.

For more pictures from the day of action visit: http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/08/406578.html