Intakes: An activist's perspective on the fracking struggle at Balcombe

For this Intakes article, we asked one of our friends who had been along to the Balcombe site to share with us his experience of the anti-fracking campaign and to give us his perspective on its prospects for escalation.

Submitted by Johnny on November 28, 2015

Climate change is now almost universally agreed to be linked to capitalist industry and consumption, and is a massive point of tension for contemporary capitalism. Traditional fossil energy prices will inevitably continue to rise and will become increasingly uneconomical. Among the non-conventional fossil fuels that are now being exploited are shale oil and shale gas. These fossil fuels are extracted through fracking – hydraulic fracturing. Currently, the most high-profile mass direct action campaign against fracking taking place in the UK is the Sussex village of Balcombe. The campaign has some similarities to other environmental struggles in the UK in the last 20 years.

Comments

rat

6 years 7 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by rat on August 20, 2017

Surrey & Hants AF are going to use this article as a pamphlet to distribute at the anti-fracking camp at Leith Hill near Dorking.

The article is very useful as it gives a good outline of the way things unfolded at the Balcombe site and also points out the strengths and weaknesses of the resistance to fracking at that camp and beyond.

We'll write a basic, short paragraph to say why we're using it and obviously include Aufheben's introduction and acknowledge both Libcom and Aufheben.

We assume that neither the author of the text nor Aufheben will mind us distributing the article at the camp.

Steven.

6 years 7 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Steven. on August 9, 2017

I'm sure both will be very pleased about it!

rat

6 years 7 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by rat on August 20, 2017

If there are any comrades who want to get involved in the anti-fracking resistance at Leith Hill please get in touch with Surrey & Hants AF: surreyhants @ afed.org.uk