Sunday 17 April 2011, 2:15pm The Tate Modern, Southbank, London

This Sunday the Tate Modern became the site of a spontaneous BP-sponsored sleep in as around 100 people answered Rising Tide’s call for a flashmob at 2:15 pm within the iconic museum.

With watches synchronised and BP-branded sleeping gear at the ready, the participants found themselves falling as one under a sponsorship-induced stupor, on the floor of the Tate Modern. The flashmob provided an excellent way to catch the attention of the browsers in the gallery, and as the sleepers lay all about the turbine hall and first 3 floors, and the public stared, our cameras were there to catch their reactions.

BP Week of Action
A week of action to kick BP out of our cultural spaces
14 – 20 April 2011

On Saturday 12th February, Bristol and Bath Rising Tide and friends went on a bicycle tour of Bristol’s Shell petrol stations. The ride was in protest at Shell’s activities in Co. Mayo where they are laying a high pressure gas pipeline; and in solidarity with the courageous local resistance to the project.

After the remains of the irish government gave approval on the 20th of January for the shell high-pressure gas pipeline and refinery in county mayo, activists have been staging blockades, actions and protests against shell in solidarity with the residents and activists of rossport. in london, on the 27th of January, LRT and Rhythms of Resistance's garage blockade was also called as a memorial to long-time climate activist val jones, who lost a long struggle against a debilitating disease just one year ago.

The day we blocked the railway from Alined Gif on Vimeo.

A puppet show by Otherstory Telling the story of Bristol & Bath Rising Tide's blockade of the railway from the Ffos y Fran opencast coal mine near Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales in April 2010. Recorded at a Rising Tide benefit at the Boneyard Bar in Bristol

The morning of Friday the 14th of January saw a few of us from London Rising Tide join the Big Society Trade Negotiators (aka UK Tar Sands Network) as they took over a coffee shop in Victoria station (to buy coffee), and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. We were there to voice our concerns about CETA (the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement) and try to get a meeting with Stephen Green, the new Minister for Trade. And we achieved both of these, which is way more than we expected from this early morning escapade.

We finally got our camera back from the police :)

Update: Restraining orders quashed
On Wednesday 1st December the Court of Appeal in London lifted restraining orders off 12 people who blockaded the Ffos y Fran coal mine in April 2010. Miller Argent have for years been operating the noisy, polluting mine, described by the Crown Prosecution Service as "a highly controversial project", despite the strong objection of the local community, some of who live within 40 metres of the mine and have to suffer black rain and noisy machinery at antisocial hours. The full court transcripts aren't available yet so we're not sure what this means for those with similar cases.

12 September 2010

Stop Hinkley

We joined a group of local campaigners in Bridgewater who blocked the Hinkley Point main gates for almost an hour this lunch-time as they demonstrated against the premature destruction of upto 435 acres of open land and wildlife habitats before major consents are approved for the two giant reactors proposed by EdF.

Image (c) 2010 D. Viesnik