When the history of the early 21st century radicalism is written, special attention will be given to the Camp for Climate Action. In an age of tokenism and denial, it has and is articulating the concerns of the majority of the population. [1] The importance, however,  does end there. In an age in which the geography of protest is largely defined by large, formalized and somewhat alienating organizations, the Climate Camp movement has on the contrary been defined largely by it’s openness, it’s participatory structure and it’s propensity for direct action. Rather than asking for change, the Climate Camp ushers in the future like the precocious child of the present. It directly confronts and blocks those whose activities threaten us all. In the process of doing so, it breaks out of the rigid command structures that other movements have relied on. In addition, Climate Camp has managed to retain an ‘articulate diversity’ of distinct opinions. While there are certainly differences of view between those who attend, synthesis is sought in place of silence.

This year, the camp takes place at Kingsnorth Power Station. Greenwash has dominated the debate and the truth of Clean Coal, (that is, that it does not yet exist, has been ignored.. For a full treatment of this argument see George Monbiot’s “Burnt Out” [2] but, to put it briefly, the technology we are supposed to be using (one might say, staking our future on) is not yet viable.

For those who haven’t been to a camp before, a bit of reluctance is understandable. I myself remember being acutely nervous upon arriving. Stepping off the bus I found a thicket of police officers and a series of marquees that looked, frankly, far too organized for the DIY gathering I had expected. Making my way to welcome area, I took note of the regional ‘barrios’ (Scotland, Newcastle etc) that divided up the camp. I would spend a lot of time wandering around the various workshop tents and was continually impressed by how well laid-out the Indymedia tents, power generation, legal support, activist support, relaxation and run of the mill working tents were.

As for the Barrios themselves, each has it’s own Kitchen, stocked from the larger Central Kitchen, in which the cooking and washing up functions are performed by volunteers from the Barrio itself. Largely, it was waiting in line for the regular vegan meals that I got to the know the various “crustees” and bad characters that would become my some of my best friends back in Edinburgh.

These co-operative kitchens, with an emphasis on eroding hierarchy and an equal division of the labour, were just one of the various attempts to make the camp  as participatory and inclusive as possible. Most impressive, however, was the ‘spokes council’ which, following a morning meeting within each neighbourhood, took any concerns about the camp to a larger meeting in which representatives repeated any concerns or ideas. It was, for the most part, a successful model of participatory democracy among people who were almost entirely strangers to each other.

The camp was also notable for it’s ethic of sustainability. Wind turbine power generators and bike generators provided much of the power for the various activities of the camp. Greywater systems were used to stop dirty or chemically polluted water from getting into the ground.

There are of course a number of reasons why even the most committed environmentalist would not attend the camp itself. Some of these are logistical while others are more political.

As for logistics, it should relieve all of those with dependant children than Camp explicitly caters for children. A child’s space, which has been developed even further this year with help from the children themselves, is provided in which there can be constant supervision and engaging activities for children to enjoy. Moreover, problems of noise from the last camp (it was, after all, next to a runway) have and are being dealt with in the current planning process.

Another aspect is transport. Given the complexity of getting to the camp and the expense of trains, the Scottish Neighbourhood group has booked a bus (with the possibility of more, if numbers require) to make the journey as easy as possible. Contact details for booking can be found at the bottom of the article.

As for political concerns, it is these to which I would like to now turn. Why bother, in a world of seemingly insurmountable problems, to spend a week in a field with some middle class student types? Even if this caricature was accurate, which it isn’t, the answer would be obvious. It’s because, tired of the freedom-to-choose-provided-it’s-already-the-right-choice doublespeak of institutionalized politicians who are determined to do everything in their power to ignore the population, the camp represents a gathering of people not ‘saying’ things, but ‘doing’ things.

The weaknesses of direct actions are obvious. In the last case, involving Heathrow, the immediate results were brief, transient and were not as glossy and coordinated as might have been hoped. However, it was also the first time in a long time that the people ultimately in control of the UK’s largest carbon emitter weren’t simultaneously the only people priveliged enough to ignore the costs of climate change. Moreover, as can be plainly demonstrated, the camp injected a massive boost to the already existing campaign against the third runway.

Moreover, the camp facilitates not only the tools to blockade and halt those investing in mass death and environmental catastrophe, but the means to build a new world in the shell of this one. With it’s innovations in participatory organization and the relationships which flourish within in it, new life is found where older models of party politics have failed.

There is much talk of creating a government for Scotland that represents “it’s people”. Well, perhaps for the first time, we could upstage this will a people that represents itself for a government.

The Scottish Climate Activists are in the process of planning this year’s Scottish neighburhood. If you would like someone from the network to talk about the camp to a group/network you’re involved in, please contact scottishclimateactivists@riseup.net. For more information, to book seats on the bus, or get involved by any other means, please contact the same address.