Greenpeace Comes Aboard

In June Greenpeace activists infiltrated a meeting on motorway widening in Solihull with "Screaming Briefcases" fitted with concealed loud speakers and cassettes. A speech given by Alan Whitfield, the Road Programme Director of the Government’s Highways Agency was disrupted by the sound of the roar of heavy lorries and the message “No More Roads".

On the 14th of July Greenpeace and Earth First! joined together in a unique action on the M65 construction site. The "Rainbow Deconstruction Company" turned up at about 6.00am with two diggers. Painted green and adorned with white doves and flowers, they were followed by a trailer full of tree saplings. The 60 strong work force then turned the scarred Cuerden Valley into an almost peaceful garden with creative road blocks tree planting and stone mosaics. It took security guards at least an hour before they realised it was their turn to sit the diggers!

On July 22nd Greenpeace activists delayed the building of the £300 million second Severn bridge by chaining themselves to a concrete foundation section. Security guards tried to prevent the protest and one Greenpeace volunteer was kicked in the face. They managed to delay the placement of the concrete by at least 12 hours.

On the night of the 14th August the Greenpeace ship “Rainbow Warrior" had a tug of war match with Spanish fishermen when they tried to seize their oversized drift nets. Eventually the fishermen cut loose the section which had been winched on to the Rainbow Warrior. Fishermen then threw lead weights at activists and tried to ram their inflatables before returning to the fishing grounds. Greenpeace say that all the nets in the area were between 3 and 5 km long, European Union regulations prohibit drift nets longer than 2.5km. Greenpeace is campaigning for an outright ban on all high seas drift nets.