The environment

Direct action will be needed. We are asking for help with that Mark Smith, one of the Vestas occupiers, spoke at a Workers’ Liberty meeting in London on Tuesday 25th August. For a full list of all stories on this website about Vestas, click here . Key stories: What you can do - practical solidarity The story so far - timeline 28 April to 18 August Why wind turbine production should be publicly owned - Government minister Joean Ruddock challenged face-to-face on her "principles" Workers and supporters speak out - interviews on 14 and 15 August Organise, debate, unite in action: Building the...

The wind-turbine-making multinational Vestas, which currently faces a fight by workers in its blade factories in the Isle of Wight (Britain's only wind-turbine-blade factories) against moves to shut those factories, has started rapidly shipping blades from stock in Southampton to the USA. Two ships carrying 90 blades each have sailed from Southampton this week (17-21 August), and a third is currently being loaded with 109 blades. According to the Vestas workers' contacts in Southampton docks, another two sailings are scheduled soon. Around 11 blades - worth over three quarters of a million...

Lanah Moody is a student at Ryde High School. Her father Justin Moody was one of the occupiers at the Newport factory. The last three weeks have been incredible. I’ve not really had anything to do with environmental activists and all the political groups before, and it has opened my eyes. Reading the socialist papers, I now know that we don’t realise how much happens, all over the world, that we don’t hear in the mainstream news. And I’ve seen how hypocritical it is, the way the Government is running the country. My dad did talk to me about it before he went into the occupation, but at first I...

On 26 August hundreds, more likely thousands, of activists will execute a mass land squat somewhere inside the M25 and set up this year’s Camp for Climate Action. There are four themes for the camp this year: • Education, through a programme of over 100 workshops; • Sustainable Living, demonstrated the physical infrastructure of the camp; • Direct Action, training for and executing the physical obstruction of the processes that drive climate change; • Movement Building. This year’s location was not chosen to target a specific industry or installation (as locations have been for the past three...

Chairing a Vestas workers’ rally in Ryde, Isle of Wight, on 15 August, Mike Godley, one of the workers who occupied the Newport factory from 20 July until evicted on 7 August, read out web postings which attacked “outsiders” in the campaign. The postings claimed that socialist and other activists who have come to the Isle of Wight from the mainland had manipulated the workers. To great applause, Mike Godley refuted the attacks. The socialists and environmental activists have been welcome, he said, and they have provided valuable help to a struggle which continues to be the Vestas workers’ own...

Interviews with workers and supporters from the struggle against closure of the Vestas wind turbine blade factories on the Isle of Wight. Chris Ash was a worker at the East Cowes Vestas factory, and was one of the occupiers in Newport. He spoke to us in mid-August 2009 The last three weeks have not just changed my views, but changed my life. Before, I was just a normal worker. I came into work, I did the job. I didn't really care what I was building. I got paid and I went home. Now I understand that we're doing something for the future, for our kids and our grandkids. It's going to help change...

About 150 Vestas workers and supporters marched through Ryde, Isle of Wight, on 15 August. The demonstration was part of a plan to take the campaign to all parts of the Isle of Wight. Most protest has until recently been concentrated in Newport, the county town of the island and the site of the main Vestas wind turbine blade factory. Next Saturday, 22nd, there will be a demonstration in Sandown. A Vestas workers' Ryde support group, made up of local people, is now being established: for more details, email portsmouth@rmt.org.uk . Chairing the rally at the start of the demonstration, Mike...

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The Guardian newspaper sold a lot of copies on the back of the Vestas dispute, including reaping some sizeable advertising revenue from the Vestas company itself. They didn't print this letter below, from Workers' Climate Action and a number of the workers, some of whom had been involved in the occupation itself. Perhaps if we had some more advertising spend... Dear Editor, Further to your report (“Vestas factory closes despite campaign”), and in spite of the redundancies announced at Vestas, Isle of Wight yesterday, the campaign to save the only major wind turbine blade manufacturer in the UK...

Protests around the country rallied to the Vestas workers on 12 August. The next national day of action is 9 September. Actions in many cities, including an occupation at the offices of the South East England Development Agency organised by Workers' Climate Action, are reported at http://savevestas.wordpress.com . On the Isle of Wight, lunchtime rallies were held in Newport, Ryde, East Cowes, and Sandown, and a 5.30pm demonstration around East Cowes, starting from and finishing at the East Cowes factory where activists are occupying the roof. In Newport and Ryde at least, contact details were...