Photos from The Climate Wave

In this one you can sort-of see the march line from where the ExAct member is stood, to where it stretches behind and beyond his head..

The Great Climate Wave

Hello readers,

Here's an event for those of you who don't feel quite up to direct action and climate camping. The Wave:

http://the-wave.org.uk/

will wash through the streets of London this Saturday, and a fair few ExActers will be amidst it

There is a train going from various SW locations - The South West Wave Train - for only £30 return on the day:

http://www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/climate/news/south_west_wave_train_21911.html

(thank you to Friends of the Earth for co-organising that). Coaches can be booked to and from London for £2 each way:

http://www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/climate/news/stagecoach_21435.html

I've heard a number of people mutter apathetically that they don't see the point of it because 'nothing came of the anti-war demo', and my reply is them is:

a) When people's rights are taken from them, and their voices ignored, does that mean that they should not continue to fight and speak?

b) Isn't that what The Powers That Be *want* us to do??

c) Are you seriously suggesting that we stand aside and accept climate chaos because one march didn't change the enture course of history?

d) Can we really say that it *didn't* change the course of history? How would you have felt if no one had marched at all?!

Whatever happens, we will be able to tell our children that we marched; we acted, we adapted, and we did what we could.

Don't forget to wear blue.

WAVE!

A few photos from the CND march

Also, we get a mention here:

http://www.peoplesrepublicofsouthdevon.co.uk/2009/10/30/demonstration-in-plymouth-at-devonport-becoming-dump-for-old-nuclear-subs/

Thanks, PRSD!

And to all those who attended, of course!

Clothes Swap fundraising event - Nov 19th

Hello!

I am planning a fundraising event in help of The Big Green Idea charity.

When: Thursday 19th November 2009, from 17h45 to 21h
Where: 10, Art House, Preston Street, Exeter EX1 1DU - my place!

Here's the deal:

You bring:
GBP 2.00 and
at least one piece of clothing you would have given to a charity shop.

You get:
a bowl of home-made soup with some bread (I'll make it vegan so everybody can enjoy it) and as many clothes you like from what others brought.

The integrality of your donation will go to www.thebiggreenidea.org

You can bring one friend with you. I would however appreciate to know numbers in advance.

Please email for more details!

The Great Climate Swoop - this weekend!!

Latest news!!

On the 17th and 18th of October this year The Climate Camp is staging yet another effective protest by having a large Swoop to close one of the UK's biggest coal fired power stations, E.ON's Ratcliffe-on-Soar in Nottingham.

To do our part some of the people of Exeter and the surrounding parts will be travelling to Nottingham together, and will be meeting this Tuesday to make arrangements. Even if you would not be able to attend the Swoop itself, this Tuesday will be a chance to learn first hand more about the movement and give your support to it. The Climate Camp protest that struck the Kingsnorth coal-powered station has resulted in this:

www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/oct/08/kingsnorth-activists-protest

Meet us in the foyer of Exeter University's Amory building at 8pm.

To find out more about The Great Climate Swoop follow this link:

http://www.climatecamp.org.uk/actions/climate-swoop-2009

Hopefully see you there!

General Meeting update - October

A few of the currennt campaigns..

~ ‘Stop the Dump’ CND protest, 31^st Oct – organised by various anti-nclear groups including Plymouth CND in reaction to the fact that ‘the Government is planning to extend Plymouth's role as a dump for redundant radioactive nuclear subs’. Various green groups from around the UK will be going as well as several ExAct members. As it is on Halloween we could go dressed up as radioactive monsters/zombies- watch this space for details on a creative costume-making gathering!

~ Climate Camp update – some of you will already have dipped into Devon and Kernow’s tent at the Climate Camp held in London this year. CC members would like to set up monthly meetings for regional areas to meet, which means that Cornwall, Devon and Plymouth members meet up once a month to discuss campaigns etc. No meeting has been arranged up yet, but The Great Climate Swoop is on the 17^th of October and promises to be ‘a mega get together to close one of the UK's biggest coal fired power stations, E.ON's Ratcliffe-on-Soar in Nottingham.’ For more info see:

http://climatecamp.org.uk/actions/climate-swoop-2009

~ Climate Rush - visited Exeter on Monday, and Totnes yesterday. The Climate Rush is founded on the principle of the Suffragettes 100 years ago, ‘who showed that peaceful civil disobedience could inspire positive change. [They] demand DEEDS NOT WORDS because individual choice alone cannot curb CO2 emissions if we are to stop runaway global warming.’

Story in the Echo here:

http://www.thisisexeter.co.uk/news/Group-says-wake-climate-change/article-1359441-detail/article.html

~ Newsletter – the Summer edition is being put together now

If you have articles/updates/upcoming events to submit please email them to exactenvironmentalists@gmail.com

~ World Peace Day – was on Sept 21st this year. Book-cycle held an event on the Quay on the 20^th to celebrate peace, with music, juggling and stalls.

A message from Plymouth CND regarding the protest on Oct 31st..

On 31^st October there will be two protest marches in Plymouth, to save the City and the region from the horror of radioactive pollution and possible nuclear accident.

The private multinational corporation that owns the nuclear dockyard at Plymouth Devonport are seeking to build a new facility there to create and store nuclear waste – in the middle of a City of 250,000 people. The waste will come from sawing-up nuclear-powered submarines such as HMS Conqueror that sank the Argentinian destroyer, Belgrano, with a loss of 1500 lives of young conscripted sailors. This will add to the waste already accumulated from the current Vanguard Class nuclear powered submarines that carry the Trident nuclear weapon, with each warhead carrying nine separate nuclear bombs larger than the size of the bomb that destroyed the Japanese City of Hiroshima in 1945.

Sawing-up and storing this nuclear contamination will earn Babcock Marine hundreds of millions of pounds each year until at least 2046. Tax payers money that could be put to use building safe and clean energy turbines run by wave or wind, using most of the same state-of-the-art engineering equipment already installed at Plymouth Dockyard at the tax-payers expense.

Climate Change is a great threat to us all. That’s why we must have Green Jobs for a sustainable future. Trident nuclear weapons and the nuclear-powered fleet that carry them are of no value to anyone but the armaments industry, and are costing the earth. The £76 billion (£76,000,000,000) it will cost for a new generation of Trident nuclear warheads could pay for the reduction of UK CO2 emissions.

Nuclear waste is stored at the Dockyard within 400 feet of the closest infants school, which has a special alarm in case of nuclear accident, warning children to shut windows and doors and stay inside, and warning parents to stay at home and not collect their children for fear of contamination. Now this nuclear waste is to be added to and built upon for possible the next 300 years – they have no idea what to do with it!

Any nuclear accident will contaminate not only the River Tamar and the whole of Plymouth, but a northerly wind will ensure the whole of Dartmoor and Exeter is contaminated, and a Westerly will cover the whole of Cornwall. This is a regional issue, and must be of national concern.

That is why the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, the Plymouth-based Nuclear Free Coalition of environmental groups, and the Plymouth Trades Union Council have joined together to call a national demonstration on Saturday 31^st October in Plymouth, supported by the Campaign against Climate Change and the Stop the War Coalition locally.

We desperately need your help and support. Please:

· Send out the leaflets everywhere.

· Organise collective transport to Plymouth.

· Book-in to our workshops and overnight dormitary stay on Friday 30^th October at the Quaker Meeting House, Mutley Plain, Plymouth.

· Send us a donation to help with the costs of the day.

· Let us know we have your support.

www.nuclearfreecoalition.info

With thanks and in solidarity, Plymouth CND

Exeter Clothes Swap!

Hi All!

Exeter Clothes Swap is taking place on August 8th 11.00 till 15.00 at St Sidwells Centre, Sidwell St, Exeter.

In the UK we throw away 1 million tonnes of old clothes and textiles each year. Over 7.5 billion articles of clothing go into our dustbins every year, with most ending up in landfill.
A clothes swap is an affordable, ethical way to unclutter and overhaul your wardrobe, it's also more social and a lot more fun than trawling round High Street shops.

How it works!
* When the swap opens, whatever people take is theirs
* Everybody must bring at least one item but can leave with as many as they like

There will also be Make do and Mend Stall where you can customise clothes (or bring some to be patched up), and a Knitting Stall where you can learn to knit, or knit a square of a blanket to be donated to charity groups. Also there will be teas/cakes by donation and other stalls/activities to be confirmed closer to the time.

We are holding a meeting this Thursday July 30th at 6.00 in the cafe at Exeter Picturehouse to finalise the event and publicity etc. If you would like to help out on the day, have a stall, or have any ideas, please come along! And get checking your wardrobe for clothes you're not wearing anymore!

Database of groups

Hello everyone,

So that we can help each other better the in South West we have decided to make a database of all the different groups working throughout the region.

Please use the form attached to add all the environmental, social or community group details you know that exist in the South West of England. Please email exactenvironmentalists@gmail.com to request the form. Otherwise, just send the name of the group, contact details, website (if applicable), what type of group it is, any additional info, and how active you think the group is.

Many thanks!

Photos from Bike Week 2009

On June 21st ExAct and Credition Climate Action teamed up and cycled for 12 miles from Exeter town centre to Crediton to highlight the fact that there is no cycle route for that journey, despite many people making it every day. It was a very uphill ride!

Bike Week 2009 event!

Website - now up and running!

Exciting news – the website is now up and running! There are a few improvements to be made but please head over to ex-act.org.uk and have a look.

To post comments and new threads, discussions and articles, you need to register. Anyone can register, you just need to make sure you are on the ‘home’ tab rather than the ‘forum’ tab, click ‘register’ and choose a user name and password. I have made an initial thread, please add to this with ideas for the website.

It will be a very open space, room for all to contribute. We will soon have a wiki up that can be added to and altered by anyone, a newsletter section and also a database of all the active environmental organisations in Exeter.

So take a look at ex-act.org.uk!

ExAct Spring Newsletter - click on the page to enlarge it

General Meeting update - May

This month's summary..

~ Lush campaign – the Lush shop in town wants to campaign against laws that protect the use of animal testing, particularly for cosmetics - this would provide a good source of finding for ExAct!

~ Trews Weir allotments – the council currently rents this land by Exeter Quayside as allotments, but the land is now up for sale – the council did offer to buy the land in question, but owner Adrian Rogers refused their offer. There therefore doesn't seem to be anything further that ExAct can do about this issue.

~ ExAct needs a Charter! - this will provide a structure for the group, and detail the collective objectives and ethos of the group. It will include things like how meetings are run, rules on decision-making, what is and isn't put on the website, who gets meeting minutes, etc. We also need a Mission Statement for the group, which can then be uploaded to the website for public viewing – the group voted in favour of holding a separate meeting for this that only members interested in the structure of ExAct will attend (it may be a lengthy process!).

~ Bike Week 2009 - is from 13th-21st June this year. There is a bike route between Salford and Exeter which works well and has willow planted alongside it, as well as some structures people have built. The same thing could happen with an Exeter-Crediton cycle route - Last year in Crediton there was a mass cycle ride of 50 people down the local High Street. We could do a similar thing in Exeter/put on events for bike week to highlight the need for a cycle path between Crediton and Exeter, alongside a petition to the council.

The launch of the green guerillas..

Guerrilla gardening is a form of nonviolent direct action - armed with trowels, seeds, and vision, the idea is to garden everywhere and anywhere!

The first GG event was on March 1st on the unused land behind the back of St Sidwell's Centre. Join the Facebook group for updates:

www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=53984197827&ref=ts

A lot less allotments (Trews Weirs)

A potential new campaign:

http://www.exeter.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=8721

The council currently rents this piece of land by Exeter Quayside for local residents to garden. Now the owner, Adrian Rogers, is planning to sell the site, and all allotment holders have been sent notices to vacate.

* Adrian is a Conservative candidate who ran against Ben Bradshaw in one of the elections.
* We could start a petition to the council to buy the land.
* It might actually be a legal requirement for the council to buy the land as they have a legal duty to provide people with allotment space.

Do you know anyone who owns an allotment at Trews Weir? Please email it to exactenvironmentalists@gmail.com!

* It was pointed out that a similar thing happened in Crediton. Local residents protested and won the battle to keep their allotment spaces. However in their case the local council already owned the land in question. More updates soon..

General Meeting update - April

Since ExAct members have voted not to post meeting minutes online, here is a brief summary of current campaigns.

~ Meeting management – to encourage involvement from all members and set up a structure that does not require one person to be in charge of everything - we have agreed to rotate the host of each meeting, taking it in turns to take minutes. We still use decision-making hand-sgnals used at Climate Camps.

~ 'Food Not Bombs' – collecting food and cooking it to feed to people in Exeter - the first Food Not Bombs meeting will be on Monday the 27^th of April, for banner-making.

~ Community Garden - St Sidwell’s Centre would like to invite local Exeter groups to each paint one of the concrete troughs in their Community Garden, and help to maintain one of the gardening beds

~ Sabbats event – an open-faith event to show the different ways that people celebrate the changing of the season – this is being organised with St Sidwell’s Centre.

~ ‘The Gospel of Love Choir’ - a happy non-religious choir that invites people of all abilities to sing in it, and invites community organisations to come along and join in/enjoy the show for free – we are searching for a central location to hold this! Someone suggested The Hut (in Belmont Park) and the space outside of it, covered by donations.

~ Garden skills/labour exchange group – for people with gardens but no gardening skills/confident and for people without gardens who are happy to maintain other peoples’ plots - needs to be brainstormed/planned out at a meeting for ExAct members who are interested in the idea.

~ Litter picking campaign – tidy up the streets of Exeter!

~ Newsletter/website – this is currently being put-together. ExAct members have agreed that it should be easy for members to edit/update, using a Wiki format with a forum on the website so that people can easily get involved with ExAct campaigns.

~ Database of groups - Exeter needs a database of all the local active green groups so that people can get involved with them easily

~ Recycling in Exeter - at the last ExAct stall several members of the public complained about the difficulty of recycling things like batteries and cartridges, and don’t know what to do with their compost. They would like the council to have pick-up points for these items

~ There will be a Clothes Swap event on the 8^th August at the Sidwell Centre.

Update on chalk protest

Protest for Paul Saville – arrested for using chalk! - several ExAct members attended this event, along with a lot of press (see links below!). The day before, however, the court date was mysteriously dropped! However we went along to show solidarity with Paul anyway. He sends thanks to all who travelled to Bristol to support him.

News articles here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/bristol/7992204.stm

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1168813/Police-chalk-5-000-failed-case-student-civil-liberties-graffiti.html

Protest - with chalk!

Protest Paul Saville’s arrest for expressing himself with chalk!

There has been a lot of press about this issue and there should be a good turnout on the day. The protest will take place in front of Bristol Magistrate's Court at 9:45am on Thursday 9^th April. Come armed with chalk!

And for updates from Paul, his blog is here:

http://criminalchalkist.blogspot.com/

The Criminal Chalkist

This was recently in the news:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/lawandorder/5017444/Student-facing-trial-over-writing-on-pavement-in-chalk.html

So, it has been proposed that we protest outside the court in Bristol during Paul's trial. In a way it's good that he's in the press, as his case highlights the issue of the ridiculous anti-chalk law and might make people think about it, but Paul's not too happy about it of course..

Watch this space for more info!

ExAct meeting minutes

ExAct members have decided not to publish meeting minutes online. However if you would like copies of previous minutes and have attended at least one ExAct meeting, please send an email to exactenvironmentalists@gmail.com to subscribe to our mailing list. Thanks!

Agenda #1

This is ExAct's first Agenda, based on our first meeting at The Hut in Belmont Park.

Date: Weds 3rd June 2009

Agenda - campaigns and updates

~ Hand signals reminder

~ Food Not Bombs

~ Kebele visit

~ Newsletter

~ Website

~ Gospel Choir

~ Litter-picking campaign

~ Database of groups

~ Battery recycling

~ Lush campaign

~ Edible Wild Food Walks

~ Charter

~ Garden Skill Exchange Group

~ Bike Week 2009

~ Stitch n Bitch

~ Chalk4Peace

~ Announcements/additions

Dates for your diary

~ Next ExAct meeting 17/06/09

~ Refugee Week 13-20/06/09

~ International Hug Day 17/06/09

~ Clothes Swap 08/08/09

Not every issue proposed will become an ExAct campaign- ideas are proposed and then discussed in order to be taken forward or dismissed. This depends entirely upon whether members share the vision for each campaign and feel able to contribute to each movement. Issues can be proposed at any time however, and members can contribute to each campaign as much or as little as he or she would like.

How Does ExAct work?

Consensus decision-making

ExAct works on the basus of consensus decision-making, which is a different system to voting. With voting, the majority of people who agree on something win the vote. With consensus-based decision-making, all members present at the meeting must come to a satisfactory agreement on the topic being discussed.
At the start of each meeting, an agenda is put forward of items for discussion. These can range from campaigns to group objectives, to who recieves meeting minutes. People who are interested in this topic put their views forward, and a range of views are presented before the group as a method of deciding what course of action to take. If an ExAct member disagrees with a decision made by the group at a later date, he or she can bring this up as part of the agenda at the next ExAct meeting, but in the meantime must trust that members came to the decision collectively, therefore the decision should be respected until it can be discussed and amended.

Decantralised leadership

What this basically means is that every ExAct member is a leader of the group and campaigns. To ensure that everyone gets a say and no one can 'take control' of the group, the chair and minute-taker rotate so that every meeting a different person puts forward the agenda topics for discussion, and every meeting is recorded by a different ExAct member.

Hand signals

We are using the following hand signals in meetings, inspired by effective Climate Camp meetings/discussions.

If you wish to contribute to the discussion, you raise one hand or forefinger:

If you have a 'technical point', you make a T-shape with your hands to indicate a proposal about the process of the discussion, eg "lets have a break".

To show agreement with an opinion that is being put forward, you wave your hands with your fingers pointing upwards to indicate your agreement. This gives a very helpful visual overview of what people think.

Find out more about consensus decision-making and facilitation at http://www.seedsforchange.org.uk/free/resources

The Story of ExAct

ExAct was formed in March 2009 by a group of Exeter residents who felt that not enough environmental action takes place in Devon, despite there being a number of local 'green' groups. So, we came up with a name and logo by consensus, and drafted some basic objectives for the group. Two viewpoints from members are as follows.

Viewpoint #1
ExAct is a group of people in Exeter and the South West who care about the environment and the community. We want to include everyone from those who enjoy knitting for the homeless to those who want to go on protests. Any positive act has a place on our agenda. We do not want to complain about problems we see, we want to change them. The community and environment are inseparable, as it is the local environment that the community is based in.
We first got together as a group of active people fighting for matters we felt important. We soon realised that there were many others who felt the same, but often they would often be working individually or in small groups to instigate change. So we decided that we would work together
to connect people with similar ideas and projects. We have been amazed by the positive responses we have already had from our few tables in town. There are no lack of ideas or people to implement them, we must just all work together to make a better life a reality.

Viewpoint #2
ExAct is a collaborative group bringing together the wide variety of environmental organisations in Exeter and enabling them to work together through co-operative processes. Raising awareness of issues happening in Exeter and putting people in touch with groups that they express an interest in is key.
We are also an activist group, although not a prescriptive one; the purpose of ExAct is to enable those who are interested to act on what they are interested in, rather than to prescribe the actions they should be taking.

As a fluid collective, ExAct will work best when it provides information and the hope is for the group to enable a wider and greater range of environmental activities to take place in and around Exeter. An awareness raising, friendly co-operative group open to all and welcoming of new suggestions and ideas. ExAct does not have a leader, rather a rotating Chair for meetings and will have an open, collaborative wiki site which all can edit.

Welcome!

Thank you for dropping by the new ExAct blogspot. Our website is www.ex-act.org.uk, but a lot of work needs to be done to it before information about campaigns can be uploaded, which is why we decided in the last meeting to run a blog alongside it. So, welcome! I hope you'll find it chockful of inspiring news and information.