Milford Haven
The publicised action to attempt to close down Milford Haven on Saturday 15th February did not happen. This was mainly due to the massive police presence around Milford Haven which included around 300 police, mainly in riot gear, who went to some extreme measures, including welding down manhole covers, replacing fencing around the port and putting in roadblocks around the area! As well as this, local green groups and some individuals in the area were paid visits by police, both uniformed and in vain attempts to disguise themselves as protesters, in order to find out more information on the plans for the action.
A whole hospital ward was also cleared and put on standby for the day and Mr. Heslop, the Port’s main man, had police escorts to and from work as well as nice new fencing all around his home with fifty security men surrounding it!
Facing all this, and realising that not much more disruption could be caused, it was agreed that a tactical change of plan was necessary if any action was to happen. An emergency meeting was called where it was decided that people would stick to the issue of fossil fuels, and the Reclaim the Valleys III action, originally planned for the Monday, would simply be moved forward to outwit the police. Despite the geographical and technical differences, both industries are engaged in destroying the ecology of South Wales in pursuit of profit with no regard for the consequences to the local people or environment.
It was also decided that the larger group would not be told of the change of plans until the following morning and then given the option as to whether they still wanted to be part of the changed plan, as by then it would be too late for the obviously dodgy geezers (that had appeared in the newly squatted home, from nowhere) to alert the police. This is obviously not an ideal way to carry out an action but faced with a number of problems, this seemed in the circumstances to be the best way to rescue an effective action from the original plan.
As it turned out the opencast mine at Brynhennllys was successfully closed down for the day as workers were caught completely unawares and every working machine was occupied.
It was at least half an hour before a solitary policeman showed up and another half an hour before a few of his companions joined him, all others having been called to Milford Haven. Workers were mainly quiet, apart from the odd one or two that were itching to use physical force to eject people from machines, indeed anyone with a camera was particularly in danger with one guy away from the safety of the main group being attacked and having his camera smashed to pieces. Anyone who had been on the previous occupation of this site though, considered this to be nothing in comparison to the violence against protesters then. Apparently the workers are now under orders to stay calm and not to use violence. It is a shame that they did not all follow these instructions.
The driver of one digger actually aimed it at people coming towards him and as one person climbed onto his cab he spun around in an attempt to knock him off. The guy banged on the window asking him to stop which caused the emergency window to pop out as it is supposed to. This was seen as criminal damage by the workers and they wanted blood. They settled for the arrest of this one guy and in hindsight a bad decision was made allowing him to go off with the police with what smelled of a deal, leaving people with a bad taste in their mouths. What should and could have happened is that he be surrounded by at least his affinity group and be rushed off sight.
Altogether there were six arrests for alleged criminal damage. Many outlandish stories had appeared in the local press over the weeks preceding the action, with complete untruths published about both Earth First! and the planned action at Milford Haven. One of those lies was that the whole action was being put together by people outside of Wales. This was simply not true as local people, both Earth First !ers and others, being centrally involved in the action planning.
In Tenby on the same Saturday, a local Earth First!er addressed the crowd at the Friends of The Earth Rally and put the story straight about Earth First! and their support for local concern around the Sea Empress disaster. Since the events on the February 14th there have been two more oil spills off the Welsh coast. We’ll be back! Smash the Oil Industry!