Newcastle, July 10 – 15, 2008. The Camp for Climate Action was an inspiring six days of workshops and grassroots direct action aimed at stopping the expansion of the world’s biggest coal port in Newcastle. The Australian Climate Camp is one of seven camps held around the world in July and early August 2008. Climate change is the biggest threat to our future, and coal is the biggest cause of climate change, yet the Australian coal industry is still expanding. We need real action to keep fossil fuels in the ground – and we’re running out of time! One thing is certain, we can’t wait for Governments or the fossil fuel industry to solve the climate crisis. We must start to create the change we want to see ourselves.
The camp is a collaboration between environment groups, community organisations, student groups, and individuals.- hopefully now including you! Groups already involved include Friends of the Earth Australia, Rising Tide, the Australian Student Environment Network and individuals from local climate action groups. The camp included workshops, opportunities to learn, develop skills and share stories. It aimed to be an inspiring example of a sustainable and participatory community and will culminate in a mass, non-violent direct action focussed on the root causes of climate change. In the spirit of the great global history of civil disobedience (Gandhi’s salt march, the American civil rights movement, the shutdown of the Jabiluka uranium mine), the Camp for Climate Action was a chance for ordinary people to assert our right to a future free from dangerous climate change. Whatever your background, there is a role for you. We need people to help with the physical set up of the camp to make it as sustainable as low impact as possible. We need help promoting the camp and spreading the word, facilitating workshops, and we need people to come with their own creative ideas and plans for direct action.
We are inviting you to start organising now with your friends, your family, your Climate Action Group or your community collective or organisation. At Climate Camp, we’re calling them ‘Action Teams’ (known to many as affinity groups) – teams of people who act together at Climate Camp. Already people right across Australia are preparing their contribution to the Camp for Climate Action:
– People in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth, Brisbane, and Newcastle are organising Non-Violent Direct Action training sessions to learn, discuss and prepare (See the Upcoming Events, on the right);
– A group from the Blue Mountains is busily painting a gigantic banner to drop during the Monday actions of Climate Camp, linking their action to the Pope’s arrival in Sydney for World Youth Day, painting on their banner ‘Coal – Jesus Wouldn’t Dig It’; and
– The Youth Movement for Climate Action (YMCA!) in Brisbane made headlines with their stunt leading up to Climate Camp when they dressed as ‘Clean Coal Cheerleaders’ outside the Queensland Governments Executive Building in April. They are excited about ‘Clean Coal Cheerleading’ during the mass action with thousands of people on the Sunday of Climate Camp.
There is much you can do, with or in forming your Action Team in the lead up to Climate Camp. Contact us if we can support you in preparing for the Camp for Climate Action or see www.climatecamp.org.au/action-teams for more information. The Climate Camp organising collective.