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eyesopeneng-blog · 7 years

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Cuadrilla - We See You

In July, Reclaim the Power visited Preston New Road and set up camp at Maple Farm to the west of Cuadrilla’s fracking construction site on the Fylde in Lancashire. On Thursday 27th July, at 4:45AM, Lancashire police facilitated the delivery of an 18 vehicle lorry convoy to the site, outside the window allowed by the traffic management plan, as stated within the planning permission. Fylde Borough Councillor Liz Oades stated: "“Mr Egan appeared to suggest that they had the agreement of the police to break planning consent which, if true, is very disappointing and questionable. Surely it must be wrong for the police to encourage unlawful actions. To cite public safety is simply not good enough. I know of no other industry which requires 50 police officers to operate in this way and I seriously question the cost of policing, at taxpayers expense, what is, in effect help for a private company.”

Geoff Driver at Lancashire County Council, we see you. We see that you are under investigation for financial fraud and that you appear to be in an untenable position. You’ve failed to hold Cuadrilla to account for multiple breaches of the planning permissions and the traffic management plan, which itself is a requirement of those planning permissions. We wonder how on earth you can hold the most senior role at LCC, whilst being under suspicion of a very serious offence. It beggars belief that you are wearing two hats. What a rotten state of affairs.

When a public service such as the police operate against the wishes of the people, allowing a private company to gain, it’s known as corruption. Matthew Wright’s programme on Channel 5, on the morning of July 28th, suggested that the police and Cuadrilla may have colluded to achieve the “rig delivery". Corruption however is a greater crime and one that it’s easier to prove in this case.

Cuadrilla - we see you for attempting the climate crime of fracking in England. We note that you fracked here on the Fylde six years ago and caused two tremors. You also attempted to exploit shale gas and/or oil from under the soil in Balcome, West Sussex in 2013, but were sent packing by activists.

Lancashire police - we see you for allowing this to happen here between Blackpool and Preston. Cuadrilla - we see you for the human rights abuses and violence that your security detail have inflicted upon activists. To the multiple police forces of England who have been present on Preston New Road, we see you for the crimes you have allowed to happen and turned a blind eye to. We see the disgraceful behaviour conducted by your officers on a daily basis. Know that you will all be held accountable for your crimes. A day of reckoning will come for those within the officer ranks for leading these operations.

We have noticed that nine forces from England have now been used in the Mutal Aid program to police the operation near Little Plumpton, including a Specialist Operations (SO) officer from the Metropolitan police. Are all these officers local? It seems impossible that this would be the case. To the English police, we note that you are just pawns in a chess game, just simple people following orders, sometimes against your will. We know that you are not the real enemy and we recognise that you yourselves are also victims of Conservative government austerity under the 20 - 20 - 20 programme and privatisation by stealth. We observe that G4S operate from within your ranks at Lancashire police stations. When will you realise that you are being used to perpetuate criminal activities? To the officer from the Metropolitan police, SO 5111, we see you and would like to ask what you're doing here? You’re a long way from home. We know that SO officers are here for reasons of "national security" and “counter terrorism” ops. Are you really that stupid? The real terrorists are Cuadrilla and the real "counter terrorists" are surely anti-fracking activists. What are you actually doing here? Shouldn’t you be investigating ISIS cells who operate on British soil?

As activists, we're proud to be labelled “domestic extremists” by a Tory government who think that Orwell’s 1984 was a training manual. We marvel at the story you’ve gifted us here, SO 5111. One day, maybe you too could be a Napoleon or a Snowball in your own Animal Farm.

We thank the North Wales police for pulling out of the Mutual Aid operation. We consider this matter closed and you will not be held accountable for your two week involvement.

By contrast,within our network, anti-fracking activists not born in Lancashire are welcome on the A583 and at the community camps here, as are international water protectors such as American Indigenous leader William Hawk, who has visited a number of times in July. The people of Preston New Road Action Group, Roseacre Awareness Group and New Hope Community Camp have welcomed them. Reclaim the Power mobilised everyone they could, as this is an issue of national and global importance.

We see you Francis Egan, Cuadrilla CEO, for your lies and your deceit. We acknowledge that in the BBC interview that was broadcast on the morning of Friday 28th July, you openly admit to breakching the traffic plan by delivering vehicles to the site at 4:45AM, and using the police, thus outing yourself as the criminal you are. We see the climate catastrophe you are attempting to initiate by building a super-sized fracking well pad at Little Plumpton. It’s going to be a straightforward trial against you. We recognise that a Labour government under Jeremy Corbyn will probably not be sympathetic to your desires. The evidence is stacking up - it's clear that you are a public nuisance and a menace to society.

Francis Egan, we also note that you are not yourself a local. We understand that you were born in Ireland and that your company Cuadrilla are 45% owned by Australian company AJ Lucas. We note also that Cuadrilla are registered in the Cayman Islands for tax purposes. 45% of the remaining equity in your company is “dark money” and the investors beyond “Lord" Browne and Riverstone Holdings are not known. We know that The Vampire Squid, Goldman-Sachs are involved in financing this fugazzi. We need not say more with regards to The Squid. We know that many of these investors will be from overseas. This much is obvious in our globalised, financialised world. The Cayman Islands are in the Caribbean, which is definitely not local to the Fylde, Lancashire or England. We understand that companies offshore their finances in secrecy jurisdictions, such as the Cayman Islands, in order to perpetuate tax avoidance and evasion. This may or may not be a crime under current British and international laws but we desire accountability and we do not see this as acceptable business practice. Given your company structure, your comments in the media about activists not being “local” are truly pathetic.

Francis - it appears that fracking on the Fylde is a national issue of great importance to the Conservatives and their corporate backers, such as yourself. Fracking for gas in the north and oil in the south is government energy policy and therefore a national issue. This is why Reclaim the Power have reached out to protectors across the country. How else do you expect us to defend our land, water and air from the pollution we know you will cause if this continues? We know that there is a media blackout on the issue (perhaps there is even a D Notice in place) and that the onshore oil/gas industry and the government are complicit in silencing the media. This is unacceptable. The medias role is to call out crime, corruption and collusion when they see it, not stay silent. As such, we are having to generate our own alternative media, which tells a very different story to the one fed to people daily via their TV screens and newspapers. We know that the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 News are no longer fit for purpose. Our right wing print media are also guilty of lies and propaganda, whilst climate crimes such as fracking, aviation expansion, opencast coal mining and nuclear power generation are committed on British territory. We know that our media have been captured by special interests, which include the fossil fuel industry, arms companies and the financial sector. It’s truly a tragedy that all of this is playing out in real time and in public view. The farce has been normalised, which has made our role in calling it out a straightforward one.

We also find it strange that you call us “professional protestors”. No-one is paying us for the role we play here. Who exactly is supposed to be funding us? We have heard suggestions that it’s either Greenpeace or Russia. This is pure comedy. Blackpool Greenpeace did do one direct action earlier this year but all the activists involved were volunteers and not on their pay role. NGOs such as Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth are both against fracking but activists at PNR have not been paid for any frontline work we do here. We laugh at your pathetic attempts to reinforce this lie in the mainstream media. It’s a process known as Manufacturing Consent and it isn’t fooling anyone.

Mr. Egan, it’s also rather odd that you call us out for the kind of protest we are participating on the A583. It’s called direct action and there is no imaginary line which we can or cannot cross. If we need to break a minor law, such as obstruction of the highway, in order to prevent a greater crime such as fracking, then we will do this. It’s not for you or INEOS CEO Jim Ratcliffe to define where this line is. Unlike us, the police forces of England and Wales do have a line that they should not cross, which is outlined in the police code of conduct. Police officers should be held accountable for any transgressions of this code. As non-violent protectors, we are offended that Cuadrilla, the police and your security detail are violent towards us. If you need violence to enforce your ideas, then your ideas are worthless.

To the British State and Cuadrilla, we note that your use of violence and disproportionate force is a clear violation of our human rights, which we will not tolerate. We will go much further to stop drilling at Little Plumpton and will hold you to account for what has happened here since January. Fracking is a red line which climate activists across the world will not allow to happen in England.

Theresa May and David Cameron, we see you for enabling the unconventional oil and gas industry to get a foothold on English soil. We see all the corrupt and incompetent cabinet ministers you have used to support your fallacious reasoning. We acknowledge that you were sponsored into power by companies that exploit hydrocarbons in the North Sea and that the onshore extreme energy industry is merely an extension of this. We have seen what has happened in the USA, Australia and countries in the Global South where fracking has occurred and we will not allow England to be cannibalised in the same fashion. Note that when the day of reckoning comes, you will have no immunity for what you have done.

Cuadrilla, Mr. Egan and the British government, we see you - real eyes, recognise, real lies.

Fracking on the Fylde and across England must be stopped. We have undertaken multiple direct actions to highlight the climate injustice of fracking for extreme energy and the human rights abuses seen daily on the A583. Anyone complicit in allowing fracking to happen is now on notice. This has already gone on for far too long.

We want Cuadrilla to stop work on their frack pad and discontinue any further plans to frack in England. We also want the British government to retract their ridiculous position on extreme energy and embrace renewables. A full apology must be issued from both parties and compensation can then be considered for those affected.

Cuadrilla, Francis Egan, Theresa May, David Cameron, George Osborne, Liz Truss, Amber Rudd, Andrea Leadsom, Micheal Gove et al - we see you.

We see everything and the eyes of the world are watching.

We can supply a fully referenced version of this document if required alongside reams of video and photographic evidence and personal witnesses to support our claims.

We are Eyes Open England and this is our first news bulletin.

With thanks to #BlackLivesMatter for the inspiration for this article and their direct approach to calling out those in power for their crimes. We should all stand together against the abuses of a fascist state. We must not allow corporate or police violence to be perpetuated any longer in the UK against people of any colour. We must also recognise that many British companies operating overseas are complicit in violence against people of colour communities in the Global South. This must end. We will not rest until the cycle of terror ends in the UK and overseas.

#Cuadrilla PrestonNewRoad Lancashire Fylde Policing Corruption Fracking ExtremeEnergy

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