ON a field in Kinneil Estate in Bo’ness, it looks like a well-run mini-festival has sprung up overnight. There’s rows and rows of tents, signs announcing timetables and events taking place, a kitchen and even compost toilets.
Welcome to Climate Camp Scotland, which appeared on Wednesday just one mile away from the Ineos terminal in Grangemouth, where oil and gas arrives from the North Sea.
The exact location was kept secret until the last minute to prevent any attempts to prevent it being set up.
By Friday afternoon, around 200 people had arrived at the site – as well as a police van parked conspicuously parked at the entrance a short distance away.
The hive of activity included activist Mim holding a cut-out eye in her hand – the reason for which only becomes clear when she points to a table full of home-made masks of billionaire Ineos owner Jim Ratcliffe.
She is attending her third protest camp in Scotland and says it is one way in which the climate justice movement can “resist and build power” – as well as focus on practical issues such as planning.
“I think it’s really important that we come together as a climate movement and talk about what a just transition looks like,” she says.
“And also meet folk like and get to know people around the country.
“I think often climate action could be focused on capital cities and the real climate injustices are happening outside of the cities, that’s why we do camps like this.
“And also just to show big billionaires like Jim Ratcliffe that people are watching him and we are not going to stand for what they are doing and we’re going to stand with the people of Grangemouth.”
At the camp there’s an emphasis on a family friendly atmosphere and working with the local community, including trying to highlight concerns about living near the site.
Organisers say everyone from curious dogwalkers to groups of teenagers have stopped to ask questions, with one local even dropping over some leftover pancakes.
The activists staged a “day of resistance” yesterday, which included direct action and hundreds marching to the gates of the Ineos facility.
Mim says: “I do think that we need in this country to have a bit more of a militant spirit about resisting injustice, because people are having a really bad time.
“And it’s because we’ve been absolutely squashed for hundreds of years, and every revolution we’ve tried to have has been, to a certain extent, squashed by the state.
“I think we could foster a bit more of a spirit of resistance, and that’s what we hope to do.”
Workshops are another key part of the activities at what has been billed a “people-powered festival of resistance”.
The subjects being covered over the weekend range from discussions on knowing your legal rights and the cost of living crisis to practical sessions on climbing for activists and protest drumming.
On Friday afternoon, a group gathered sat on bales of straw in one tent discussed independence for Scotland, with energy, oil and gas and land reform emerging as key issues.
Connor Beaton, of the Radical Independence Campaign, organiser of the workshop together with Socialists for Independence, says it is the second climate camp he has taken part in.
“Last year when it was in Aberdeen and we also did a Radical Independence Campaign workshop there and in that we were talking a lot about tactics and what we could learn from the climate justice movement,” he says.
“They’ve got a great experience of direct action and there’s been so many discussions in the Scottish independence movement about using direct action, but we don’t have as much actual experience, so we’re trying to trying to learn.
“This one is more actually zooming out and talking about what are the reasons that people who are interested in climate justice, for example should care about independence and also vice versa.”
Beaton argues while many said the focus should be on gaining independence first before these type of discussions, it was possible to do this “in tandem”.
“Actually we can probably get independence quicker if we work together with climate justice activists or the trade union movement or anti-racism movement and we actually incorporate those goals into independence,” he says.
“In 2014, when the public opinion shifted in the last few months of the campaign, it was when people connected independence to things they want to see changed – especially austerity at that time was a huge issue.
“People vote for independence because they saw that that was a way to change the current UK Government’s economic programme.
“And we wanted to broaden that even further and say if you care about a just transition from North Sea oil and gas, independence is a quicker and easier way to achieve that than expecting Westminster to do it.”
The camp will be packing up tomorrow, moving on before there is any attempt by the authorities to evict the site.
Jessica Gaitan Johannesson, of Climate Camp Scotland, said: “We’re here because while Ineos makes hundreds of millions in profit each year, the people of Grangemouth pay the price with their health, workers pay with their job security, and all of us with the collapse of our climate.”
Responding to the camp, a spokesperson for Ineos said: “This is our home, where we operate a safe sustainable business that serves the Scottish economy well, provides skilled jobs and essential products while meeting its climate responsibilities.
“Ineos is one of the last remaining large-scale manufacturing companies in Scotland.
“We provide many of the basic raw materials that are essential to many of the products that we all use on a daily basis, from mobile phones, to water and gas pipes, to medical products, cars, buses and trains, tents, waterproofs and training shoes. Even wind turbines and solar cells need the products made here.
“And we are making good progress, significantly reducing the emissions from our operations.”
