So how did we keep ourselves busy last year?
Well, the first thing that came to mind is we did a lot of campaigning. Our main campaign targeted the government's "brilliant" idea to get the demolition squad in and destroy a village, then get the mixers in and cover their new created wasteland with tarmac and create a new runway (for good measure they also want to add an extra terminal, more motorways, etc..) thus giving Heathrow the highly sort after accolade of Britain's biggest source of CO2!Like others around the country, we didn't think this was an as inspired idea as some people thought. So, we rolled up our sleeves and hit the streets to find likeminded people and give them chance to become beneficial owners of Airplot (This is a piece of land that Greenpeace and a bunch of mates bought in the targeted village). We held stalls high and low around London, often joining up with our friends from Islington and occasionally our wider London ones.
We campaigned on streets, at farms markets, green fairs and some of us went to Wembley to do a stint of it before sharing the stage with U2. No matter where we went, we met loads of people who agreed with us (funny that…) and joined the 65000+ who are opposed to it.
With so many people opposed to airport expansion, we had to tell our MPs and get them to do something about it. For most of us, our MP is Gorgeous George so we invited him to plant an apple tree with the Spitalfield city farm young farmers and us. This tree, like hundreds more around the country is twinned with a tree on the Airplot.
Trees are not the only thing you’ll find on the Airplot. Last spring, some of us joined others and took part in a bit of gardening on the plot and around rest of the village of Sipson. In addition to planting fruit and veg, we planted flowers that had been donated by the Chelsea Flower Show.
In June, a bunch of us packed our bags and headed off to Glastonbury to join other volunteers from around the country and take part in a variety of activities. Some cooked, others campaigned, some surveyed and others watched skaters. What we did all share was a great time. Glastonbury wasn’t the only festival that people went to and although on a smaller scale, Waveney Fair was also attend by members of our group.
Last summer we also took part in a giant human chain – the Milli-band- around Kingsnorth power station (another wonderful project, this time they want to build a new coal power station).
To show that you don’t need to jet off to some exotic location to have a good time we organised a stay-cation and went camping one weekend in Epping Forest.To fight off the cold during the winter months we kept ourselves busy by helping out on the Rainbow Warrior when it came to visit. This included more campaigning, giving people tours, carrying out watch shifts and dressing up as polar bears. We also went along to the Wave, which was the biggest environment related demonstration that the UK had ever seen.
Finally some of us went to Copenhagen in December to get involved with the International Greenpeace presence in the city during COP15.
In addition to all we welcomed new members to the group, spent numerous hours hanging out together in pubs and shared some great experiences and good times.
Come join us!
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