The modernenvironmental direct action movement in the United Kingdom started in 1991 with the formation of the first UK "Earth First!" group[citation needed] for a protest atDungeness nuclear power station. Within two years, there were fifty Earth First groups and activists linked with other parties in theroad protest movement. There were large camps atTwyford Down and theM11 link road protest. By 1997, the Government had decided to reduce its road-building plans by two thirds.
After this success, theenvironmental movement then took on local struggles such as fighting a quarry atStanton Moor and opposing a new runway atManchester Airport. It grew to include different groups such asCamps for Climate Action,Plane Stupid,Reclaim the Streets,Rising Tide andThe Land is Ours. In the 2010s, new groups emerged such asExtinction Rebellion, andGrow Heathrow camps protesting againstHS2. In the early 2020s there were series of actions byInsulate Britain,Tyre Extinguishers andJust Stop Oil.
The Earth First (EF) movement in the United Kingdom started in 1991 with a protest atDungeness nuclear power station in Kent. From its inception, Earth First was committed todirect action techniques from the group's inception, with support for only nonviolentecotage.[1]
Earth First consisted of a loose collection of groups and activists with no central organisation. After two years, there were fifty such groups, protesting in numbers not seen since the 1980speace movement. The initial Earth First action focused around the importation of tropicalhardwoods, with a protest atLiverpool docks in 1992. This action coincided with the Earth First roadshow, in which a group of activists toured the country.[1]
Most actions were organised by individual groups and attended by people from other groups in the movement, some of them wore distinctive colours. Co-ordination happened through various publications includingDo or Die, theEarth First! Action Update and laterSchNEWS.[citation needed] Activist met at regular Earth First gatherings.[2]
Earth First groups, together with many other groups, then became involved in theroad protest movement, as an attempt to reverse theGovernment's road-building programme. The first major road protest happened atTwyford Down where a permanent protest camp was set up in late 1992 to oppose the construction of a new section of theM3 motorway. TheDongas tribe arose from this camp.[1]
The firsttree-sits (occupations of trees) happened atJesmond Dene inNewcastle in 1993, organised by theFlowerpot Tribe.[3]
Other early protests includedPollok Country Park in Glasgow, River Roddlesworth and Stanworth Valley near Preston, and atSolsbury Hill near Bath and theM11 link road protest in London, where an entire street wassquatted.[4] After the eviction of Claremont Road in 1994, protesters from the Flowerpot and Dongas tribes joined the protest at Stanworth valley to build an "Ewok village" of the tree houses.[citation needed]
There were many subsequent road protests includingNewbury bypass, theA30,Swampy became well known during the eviction at the A30 camp, although there were many other smaller road protest camps. Some camps did actually result in roads being cancelled, the first such cancellation occurring in London.[citation needed]
By 1997, the Government had shrunk the road-building programme to a third of its original size. Alongside the need to save money and several reports criticising the original plans, the environmental direct action movement could claim a large role in this reduction.[5] Another sign of its effectiveness had already been seen in 1994, when the Government had passed theCriminal Justice Act. Among other things it created a series of new offences which criminalised many forms of protest.[6]
The focus of Earth First broadened over time to include protesting against theManchester Airport second runway and fighting the use ofgenetically modified organisms. At theNine Ladies stone circle in thePeak District, a camp successfully helped prevent a newquarry.[7]
The movement can be said to have given rise to a number of other groups, notablyReclaim the Streets andRising Tide.[citation needed]The Land is Ours set up the Pure Genius camp on 13 acres (53,000 m2) of derelict land which had previously housed a brewery owned byGuinness company. The squatters, includingGeorge Monbiot, stated they had occupied the land fifty years after the successes of the post World War II squatting movement.[8]
Direct action techniques have also been applied to climate-related issues. On 31 August 2006, 600 people attended a protest called Reclaim Power againstcarbon emissions at the coal-firedDrax power station in Yorkshire.[9] The protests were coordinated by theCamp for Climate Action, a ten-day camp held near the power station.[10] The campers had also blockaded anuclear power station inHartlepool, Teesside.[11]
At a later climate camp, undercover police officerMark Kennedy encouraged activists to commit aggravated trespass atRatcliffe-on-Soar Power Station and the trial of six people subsequently collapsed when this was revealed.[12]
Actions carried out by thePlane Stupid group include the grounding of planes through the establishment of a climate camp on an airport taxiway and occupations of offices belonging to airport operatorBAA and short-haul airline,EasyJet.[citation needed] On 8 December 2008, the group breached the perimeter ofLondon Stansted Airport, causing a runway to be closed for three hours and the cancellation of 56Ryanair flights. The protest was in response to the announcement that a second runway would be built at Stansted and there were 57 arrests.[13]
Grow Heathrow is a land squat inSipson, west London, on a site which might be demolished to build a new runway atHeathrow Airport.[14] It was occupied in 2010 and partially evicted in 2019.[15]Frack Off was set up in 2011, one of a number of groups set up in response to concerns about the safety offracking and other forms ofshale gas extraction.[16] Following on from these groups,Extinction Rebellion was set up on 31 October 2018, after a letter was published inThe Guardian voicing concerns about theecological crisis which was signed by 94 scientists.[17]
A series of protests by the groupInsulate Britain involvingtraffic obstruction began on 13 September 2021.[18] The groupTyre Extinguishers deflated the tyres of sport utility vehicles (SUVs) in cities around the UK in March and April 2022.[19] TheJust Stop Oil coalition of climate activism groups disruptedoil terminals across England for 12 days in April 2022.[20][21] Throughout 2022 and 2023, Just Stop Oil have continued to protest, disrupting events and slow marching.[22]
High Speed 2 is a currently under constructionhigh-speed railway network which will link London, Birmingham, Leeds and Manchester. According to theWoodland Trust, 108 sites ofancient woodland are under threat. The decision of theDepartment for Transport was that phase one, construction of a rail link from London to Birmingham, could begin on 15 April 2020. Four woodlands inWarwickshire were immediately destroyed, despite the recommended advice being to only carry out felling in autumn to minimise damage to flora and fauna.[23] Environmental campaigners had already set up occupations along the route of the proposed train line. In January 2020, HS2 Limited began evicting a series of camps in theColne Valley Regional Park which had been occupied since October 2017. Activists, including some connected toExtinction Rebellion and theGreen Party had been monitoring the work on HS2 and contested the evictions, claiming that HS2 did not own the land.[24] In May 2020, a squat inHarefield, west London was evicted.[25]
