HARVERSTER LOONS

The Mainshill protest camp has had a busy few weeks in their fight to protect the land from being turned into an open-cast coal mine (See SchNEWS 686), as earth clearing and tree-felling work goes ahead. This Tuesday (13th), they blockaded the road and stopped logging for day by placing people – and a sky-raft – in the path of the heavy machinery. One was arrested.

Last week saw some dramatic events when late on Tuesday (6th) night, the camp had a dangerous situation on its hands when a harvesting machine appeared from the darkness and began cutting through trees near to the actual camp where protesters were camped in treehouses and tunnels. The driver didn’t mind putting peoples’ lives at risk and breaking company health & safety rules, and initially tried to continue working – but after a near-miss, was chased off.

Then came another piece of heavy machinery driven by even more belligerent nutters than the first one. The driver refused to stop, with his co-driver jumping out at one point to tell protesters ‘I’m going to kill you’. Police arrived and instead of arresting the drivers for dangerous driving, claimed the campers were endangering themselves by being so close to machinery. The only concession was that Scottish Woodland agreed to stop tree felling at night.

Then the following night, pixies just so happened to sabotage three of the large machines by superglueing their locks, stopping work until late the following day.

The Mainshill camp is calling for all to get involved now. It’s off the A70 towards Douglas, South Lanarkshire

* See http://coalactionscotland.noflag.org.uk