“WE HAVE NOTHING

I HEAR AN ARMYthe urban guerrillas issue

the battle for heathrow

THE WORLD FROM YOUR SOFA

substance.Pol i t ics.Culture.Ideas

REBEL ART: knit graffi ti.guerrilla gardening

LEFT TO LOSE”

the digital revolution

ON-TREND ETHICAL FASHIONget guilt-free style

HOW GOVERNMENTS

March 2009http://journalism.cf.ac.uk/substance/

HOW TO CHANGE

CONTROL THE MEDIAinternational report

CONTRIBUTORS

J

Wars don’t just happen when governments declare them. All over the world, ordinary people are embroiled in their own battles. Some fi ght to kick cigarettes, stick to a diet or to wake up in the morning without reaching for the

pills. Others fi ght against injustice and corruption, and in the name of human rights. Some are simply fi ghting just to stay alive. In this issue we celebrate these people’s battles – whether they’re fi ghting to defend the environment, tell the truth or just to decorate the city. We all have our inner guerrilla. Let yours speak.

Substance. x

Editor// Jessica BatemanDeputy Editors// Cari Thomas, Sarah Shearman

Features Editor// Ed VanstoneDeputy Features Editor// Amy LewisArts Editor// Sofi e JenkinsonNews Editor// Eleni CashellWriters// Alex Davies, Emyr Price, Nick Bishop

Design// Sarah Shearman, Cari Thomas, Oliver Smith, Sofi e Jenkinson

Production Editor// Jordan FarleySub-Editors// Huw Davies, Andy Rennison

Online// Rhian Jones, Joseph Smith

8.The battle for HeathrowPlane Stupid head a legion of ordinary people fi ghting the plans for a third runway

12.Guerrilla gardeningWe brighten up the concrete jungle – one potted plant at a time

14.The digital revolutionInternet activism has come of age. Find out how to change the world from your sofa

16.Drop stitches, not bombs

18.Fighting for the free wordAround the world, governments control the media through violence and intimidation

20.The war of the roads

Just how easy is it to cut your Just how easy is it to cut your carbon foocarbon footprint? Amy tries some rationingsome rationing

Nick Bishop meets Oonagh Skrine, a 22-year-old activist and champion of refugee rights

Knitted graffi ti is sweeping the globe... but just who is behind it?

4.Incoming

6.Submatter

Arts section

24.Fashion: People Tree vs. The High Street

26.Music: Sparky Deathcap,

Diplo, Lily Allen

30.Art: George Richardson, Root Ginger preview

28.Film: Frost/Nixon, Defi ance, Tropic Thunder DVDTropic Thunder DVDTropic Thunder

29.Literature: Sebastian Barry, Kurt Vonnegut

31.Amy’s eco challenge

11.Substance hero

Regular substance

32.Creative space

Forget hoodies and gangs - we investigate the real turf war on our streets...

EDITORIALContents. 3

substancence.Pol i t ics.Culture.IdeasPol i t ics.Culture.Ideas

Urban Guerrillas

22.Substance observesHuw Davies wonders: whatever happened to the Green Party?

THE BATTLE FOR HEATHROWJen is one of the many campaigners who

have taken up the fi ght against Heathrow’s plans, and joins an emerging class of regular, unaffi liated citizens standing side-by-side with the usual eco-groups.

As passenger numbers have neared the airport’s capacity and rival European hubs have expanded, Heathrow’s owners BAA have gradually stepped up proposals to get their new tarmac. Businesses and Downing Street now feel that the economic gains make a third runway a necessary evil.

Yet opponents argue that despite the Government setting several green-minded restrictions and conditions on it, the new runway will still dramatically increase pollution, not only damaging the environment

but making it impossible for Britain to meet its own emission targets.

Members of action group Plane Stupid are among the most vocal critics of the proposals, gaining particular notoriety for their direct action against airports. They successfully breached security at Stansted last December and joined a fl ashmob protest at Heathrow’s Terminal Five shortly after last month’s announcement.

Plane Stupid spokesperson Wiz Baines, 25, started campaigning during university, and has since participated in several bouts of activism while keeping up a full-time job. “The Government needs a total overhaul in how it tackles climate change,” she says in light of the runway announcement. “It’s

stirring a lot of people into action.” And it is this action that is proving most

interesting. Though the traditional forms of protest practised by groups such as Plane Stupid and Greenpeace are present and correct, the third runway is provoking a surge of ordinary people taking a stand – as Wiz is more than aware.

“They [the Government] have got no idea what’s coming,” she warns. “There are people now preparing to take direct action. A wide spectrum is getting involved, residents from Sipson included.”

The village of Sipson received much of the press coverage surrounding the announcement, as its entire community faces demolition under the runway plans. Living in nearby Richmond, Jen explains how she and many residents set to be affected feel they are left with no alternative.

“After years and years and so many people against it, I think direct action is the only option,” she says. “I am a law-abiding

citizen and have been all my life. I don’t want to be involved in direct action. But there is no other way.”

Prominent environmentalists are sensing this hardening of the public’s resolve. They include John Stewart, chairman of the Heathrow Association for the Control of Aircraft Noise (HACAN), who was last year voted Britain’s most effective green activist by The Independent.

He suggests that there are two main reasons behind the rise in ordinary people willing to get involved in direct action. “One is that the more conventional campaigning

hasn’t really got them anywhere,” he argues, “and two is that people have been in contact with organisations like Plane Stupid.”

And it seems such people have been welcomed with open arms. Wiz reveals how, far from simply informing people where and when the next protest is happening, her group has sought to mobilise these would-be eco-warriors.

“There has been a lot of training arranged for local residents,” she tells me, “as a lot of these residents, including 60- and even 70-year-olds, have expressed interest in non-violent direct action – getting info on what’s involved in being arrested, and how to chain yourself to things.”

This is a radical step to take, but it appears to be striking a chord with the citizens under threat. Far from being unique, the third runway is one of several issues where the general public is rallying like never before.

The same month that Heathrow’s third runway was given the green light saw

The environment, having been a political hot potato for several years, has struggled to stay on front pages over the last few months as the economic

meltdown has gathered pace. But last month saw one eco-issue wrestle its way back into the headlines.

The announcement on January 15 that Heathrow’s third runway is to get the go-ahead may have given the media spotlight back to green lobbies, but for nearby residents such as Jen Bland, this is one issue that never went away.

“That third runway will never be built,” she promises me, “because we have nothing to lose. We have nothing to lose.”

It’s not just Plane Stupid fi ghting the runway plans. Andy Rennison meetsthe ordinary people driven to action

“If you plough ahead without consultation then you will get these problems”

Features. 09

Then Transport Secretary Alistair Darling releases a white paper on the future of air transport, including the key proposal of a third runway at Heathrow.

Annual environmental event Climate Camp is held just a few hundred metres from Heathrow. More than 2,000 people attend.

The Government begins a three-month public consultation over the plans for the new runway and a sixth terminal.

Plane Stupid protesters interrupt a House of Commons parliamentary inquiry into the future of BAA.

Four Greenpeace campaigners with a banner reading ‘CLIMATE EMERGENCY – NO THIRD RUNWAY’ climb onto a plane at Heathrow shortly after it lands.

Five Plane Stupid activists claiming an unfair consultation process over the proposals ascend the roof of Parliament.

Anyone looking down from the sky sees a giant ‘NO’ made up of 3,000 protesters on a fi eld near Sipson, a village threatened by the potential third runway.

Greenpeace purchases a plot of land in Sipson in a bid to delay any expansion of Heathrow. Elsewhere, Terminal One is the site of a 250-strong polite protest in the style of an Edwardian-era picnic.

The Government gives the fi nal go-ahead for the third runway. Labour MP John McDonnell is suspended from the Commons for fi ve days after picking up the mace (an ornamental club symbolising Parliament’s royal authority) in protest against the lack of consultation over Heathrow’s plans.

Hundreds of activists stage a fl ashmob protest in Terminal Five, spending an hour in red t-shirts chanting, “No third runway”.

another campaign against the Government suffer a blow, as a court ruled against a judicial review of Westminster’s plans to build a dozen new eco-towns.

The application for a review was made by the Better Accessible Responsible Development (BARD) campaign – a collection of residents who have staged several protests in those areas set to be affected.

BARD spokesperson Melanie Riley pointed to a recurring sentiment to explain the increase in everyday people taking action.

“There’s a sense of Whitehall closing ranks,” she suggests, “and this wouldn’t be true if local people felt more involved. If you plough ahead without consultation then you will get these problems.”

It seems that rather than being born of some militant tree-hugging agenda, the 21st-century activist simply feels frustrated with and ignored by the Government. The fi ght goes on for the likes of Jen, Plane Stupid and BARD, but what do their futures have in store?

One citizen-turned-activist whose battle has ended is mother-of-fi ve Rachel Evans, who hit the headlines two years ago when she fought proposals to build a gas pipeline near her home in Trebanos, south Wales. Even now, she echoes the disgruntled mood of today’s campaigners.

“Frankly, we got pissed off with being ignored,” she says. “There was no consultation, like we had no right to know what was happening in our own backyard. If we had proper representation for the community, it could have been a quite different atmosphere.”

Despite eventually losing her battle against the National Grid’s scheme, Rachel has words of encouragement for the ordinary campaigners of today. “I think it is very empowering,” she argues. “I was speaking up for an area I have lived in for many years and I feel like I had a responsibility to the community.”

So does this wave of activism suggest the Government is irreversibly divorced from its public? Hazel Blears is the current Secretary of State for Communities and

Local Government, responsible for engaging the public with its politicians.

Following the publication of a white paper last July entitled Communities in Control, Real Power, Real People, Ms Blears spoke Real Power, Real People, Ms Blears spoke Real Power, Real Peopleof reconnecting with the British public,

announcing, “empowerment isn’t just the right thing to do; it’s the smart thing to do.”

Signs of good intentions, perhaps. But

what would Ms Blears say to citizens such as those mentioned here, who feel so disenfranchised? Somewhat ironically, despite innumerable attempts to question her and her department, Ms Blears proved unavailable for comment.

With election turnouts in decline for decades, the Government is no doubt eager to quell the disillusionment of voters like Jen. But she is one of many who feel that democracy has abandoned them. “I think it is a lost cause,” she sighs. “I don’t think anyone trusts the Government anymore.”

It seems that the era of the traditional long-haired pressure group is over, as more and more regular citizens take up arms – fi ghting not for a manifesto or some new world order, but for their communities, for their families and for themselves. Whatever the broad future, the sight of a Sipson pensioner chained to a JCB is now a real possibility.

I am a law-abiding citizen and have been all my life. I don’t want to be involved in direct action but there is no other way

COUNTDOWN TO TAKE-OFF

May 31, 2008

August 14-21, 2007

January 17, 2009

February 27, 2008

February 25, 2008

November 28, 2007

November 22, 2007

December 16, 2003

January 13, 2009

January 15, 2009

10. Features

O O N A G H S K R I N E

Most people would fi nd juggling two jobs in the urban jungle of Bristol diffi cult. Fewer still would have the drive and

passion to dedicate their remaining free time to helping others. Oonagh Skrine is one such marvel. When she’s not working, Oonagh volunteers to help asylum seekers in Bristol and runs a local history project for in Bristol and runs a local history project for underprivileged young people. She has also spent several months working with deprived communities in France.

It was this that inspired her to help refugees. Her fl atmate, from Sierra Leone, was wrongly refused asylum. Constantly worrying whether he would be deported, he was left anxious and destitute until the correct decision was reached. “You could just see the effect of having nothing to do while he waited – how depressed it made him,” said Oonagh. “It just wasn’t right.”

The shock of living in a new country made Oonagh realise just how diffi cult it must be for people traumatised by persecution, confl ict and environmental disaster. “I was receiving support, the EU was looking after me and I still found it really diffi cult,” she admits. “So when you think of asylum seekers coming from a horrendous situation – it’s just unimaginable what they are going through.”

Oonagh is convinced more should be done to help asylum seekers and refugees. “When people fl eeing for their lives try to come to Britain, we turn them away. So you

automatically suspicious of asylum seekers. They’ll presume the worst and be as unhelpful as possible at every stage.”

The UK shelters just three percent of the world’s refugees. Most people seeking asylum go to a neighbouring country rather than travel as far as Europe, let alone the UK. Many more are ‘internally displaced’ within their own nation, in that they have left their homes and cannot return, but cannot cross the border. In Sudan alone, there are three million people in refugee camps and many more left uprooted and defenceless by the confl ict.

Oonagh believes that if more people had the chance to meet asylum seekers attitudes would be more tolerant, and that through understanding the full horrors faced by those fl eeing countries such as Sudan, Somalia and Iran, we might have a more just asylum system.

“Ultimately, asylum seekers are some of the most vulnerable people in the country,” Oonagh says. “And they are approaching us for protection. That’s something we should always be honoured and happy to give.”

Substance Hero. 11

don’t have to go abroad to fi nd human rights problems,” she says.

At Bristol University Oonagh became president of Student Action for Refugees (STAR), organising refugee awareness campaigns and helping local refugee children learn English. She is now a key player at Bristol Refugee Rights, working to ensure asylum seekers get the right advice so their claims can be made properly. She also helps them settle into life in the UK.

As Oonagh is quick to point out, being an ‘asylum seeker’ does not guarantee safety. Asylum seekers are people merely seekingto be protected, looking for a country to give them refugee status. Huge numbers have their applications turned down, only to then be accepted on appeal. Oonagh believes the sheer number of original refusals suggests fl aws in the process. “It’s hostile and closed towards the people it should be trying to help,” she adds.

Oonagh believes Britain turns away many in need of sanctuary. “There is a culture of disbelieving asylum seekers wherever possible,” she says. “The Government is

A tireless campaigner for refugee rights, refugee rights, Oonagh tells Oonagh tells Nick Bishop Nick Bishop the truth about asylum inBritain

GUERRILLA GARDENING

It was early light when we set out. The town was sleeping; the cold relentless and numbing. We pulled our jackets around us and headed down the road. No one was to be seen, but we wanted

that. To be caught would mean failure. Weeks of planning weighed on our shoulders. Our mission was not going to be easy.

I checked the equipment: seeds, trowels, chemicals, bulbs. The ground was hard with

frost. We all looked at each other thinking the same thing… would the daffodils grow?

This is guerrilla gardening: a movement that started in the 1970s and has been gaining momentum ever since. In a nutshell it is a non-violent, eco-friendly form of activism

in which areas of unloved urban land are tended to by the public. It is often carried out as a political gesture in order to highlight the Government’s ownership and misuse of land.

Activist collective ‘Reclaim the Streets’ organised a notable gathering of guerrilla gardeners outside London’s Parliament Square on May Day in 2000. Thousands came together planting vegetables and fl owers, dancing around maypoles and restyling

Churchill’s hair into a turf mohican.Other guerrilla gardeners are motivated

by purely environmental reasons. They want to invest in the land – to use urban spaces to grow fl ower gardens or crops. They venture out at night enlisting the help of

local community members; by morning the urban desert is transformed – brightened by fl owers, scented by herbs, a utopian vision fertile with possibility.

Richard Reynolds, the man behind www.guerrillagardening.org and author of On Guerrilla Gardening, encourages local On Guerrilla Gardening, encourages local On Guerrilla Gardeningpeople to form such groups. “My online community page is the best place to do this,” he says. “It’s a matter of registering your interest... or at best just getting out there solo and encouraging others to follow!”

This was our revolution – a chance to take back the derelict side-streets in Cardiff’s run-down, student-infested, beer-bottled run-down, student-infested, beer-bottled Cathays. We created a small garden of hardy crops to delight passers-by forevermore. A local resident, Lila Elliot, 23, emerged to comment on our hard work. “I love it,” she says. “I don’t have a garden so every time I walk past, it will make me smile.”

Mission accomplished.

GUERRILLA GARDENINGCari Thomas and the substance troops swap spray cans for seeds when brightening up the streets

1. Set co-ordinates: Find an unloved patch of land somewhere near your home. 2. Enlist troops: Set a date, then begin enrolling suppor ters. If you are struggling, click onto www.guerrillagardening.org and spread the word across the community forums.3. Take up arms: Choose your plants wisely – think Take up arms: Choose your plants wisely – think Take up armshardy, colourful and seasonal. Then try to find a cheap source. www.primalseeds.org detail suitable plants. They suggest sprinkling mustard seeds everywhere – a plant that helps to fer tilise the soil. 4. Chemical warfare: Resor t, if necessary, to arming your- Chemical warfare: Resor t, if necessary, to arming your- Chemical warfare:self with chemicals. Many guerrilla gardeners use compost to nourish the soil, but those without space employ the help of red worms to decompose their food into rich compost.5. Seed bombs: For hard-to-reach areas mould seeds and soil together to make seed bombs, then aim well.soil together to make seed bombs, then aim well.6. Never leave a plant behind: Don’t give up on your Don’t give up on your patch of land – return to water and weed.

Don’t give up on your

Guerrilla Gardening battle strategy:

Features. 13

To be caught would mean failure. Weeks of planning weighed on our shoulders. Our mission was not going to be easymission was not going to be easy