• 1 Minutes
• 1.1 Local aviation
• 1.1.1 Pros
• 1.1.2 Cons
• 1.2 Didcot power station
• 1.2.1 Pros
• 1.2.2 Cons
• 1.3 Incinerators
• 1.3.1 Pros
• 1.3.2 Cons
• 1.4 Nuclear transport through Oxfordshire
• 1.4.1 Pros
• 1.4.2 Cons

Minutes¶

This meeting was the postponed discussion (from Satuday 8th) about potential local campaign directions

Each of the 4 ideas was summarised with a brief discussion of positive and negative aspects of the campaign.

Local aviation¶

Pros¶

• This is a winnable campaign; this isn’t a part of critical local infrastructure
• It’s good timing to target local aviation
  • New pro-local-aviation government and the decision to cancel Heathrow’s third runway
  • Recession: people will be angry about elite & exclusive transport anyway
• Fits in well with our general anti-capitalist aims
• Local, defined target
• Strong potential for interacting with the community

Cons¶

• Is there a contraction in the airline industry anyway (because of the recession)?
• There are few targets for action in this campaign
  • We could look at e.g. fuel suppliers, airline offices etc. — it’s worked before
  • We can take the media with us; it’s not a huge problem that Oxford airport is vaguely far away

Didcot power station¶

Pros¶

• International solidarity potential (coal mining is far more destructive than coal burning)
• Good timing, with the imminent “energy gap” and the need to find alternatives
• Media benefits of targetting an iconic location
• Good vehicle to raise the “local energy question” — where is our power from as a region?

Cons¶

• Lack of engagement with the local community
  • Lots of jobs seen to be tied up in the power station (even though it’s not really a big employer)
  • Recession leads to push on cheap energy: coal is the cheapest
  • This might not be a crushing weakness; action doesn’t need to be community-led
• It’s not seen as bad; we’d have an uphill struggle to convice people of the health impacts, and then to build on that
• It’s closing in 2015 anyway
  • … but we should make sure we keep track of that
• Is this more suitable for single actions than sustained campaigns?
  • We need to make sure we start one
• This isn’t a piece of local infrastructure, it’s more national

On both the “pro” and “con” side, the fact that there is no local campaign against the facility was mentioned. Having no existing campaign allows us to define the campaign and set our own terms for it, but it makes it much more difficult to gain local support.

Incinerators¶

Pros¶

• Potential movement-building benefits; people are heavily involved with the incinerator campaigns at the moment and might want to find a more general climate action group
• The appeal could be successful, and there could be more work in the campaign (which we could help with)
• It’s easier to stop something being built than to campaign for its removal

Cons¶

• The issue is more-or-less resolved; what could we really contribute?
• It’s not a national issue, and there’s no national campaign that it could be part of
• The people already working on it probably aren’t particularly radical, and the anti-incinerator campaign in general doesn’t have much of a radical message

Nuclear transport through Oxfordshire¶

Pros¶

• Campaign politics

Cons¶

• There’s a lack of a direct climate link (in the sense that people may be confused on hearing that “Thames Valley Climate Action” has taken an anti-nuclear action
• Why is this a good campaign for TVCA? What’s the link to us?
• It doesn’t provide a focus for general campaiging, it’s just one target