GOING…going…eventually gone! Sheffield’s world famous Tinsley cooling towers have been demolished – after a spectacular but botched first attempt. A substantial part of the North tower – about a third of it – was left standing, like a giant finger pointing skywards above the M1 motorway section.

In 1938 the Blackburn Meadows power station was built to power the Steel industry of Attercliffe, a former industrial suburb of northeast Sheffield, lying on the south bank of the River Don, it originally grew as a small hamlet centred on Attercliffe Chapel, and was part of the parish of Sheffield. The name Attercliffe can be traced back as far as an entry in the Domesday book -Ateclive- meaning at the cliffe, a small escarpment that lay alongside the River Don.

Attercliffe has long been an industrial area, but by the early 20th century, there was also a large residential population and high-class shops, John Banners Department Store (Banners) in particular. The area declined post World War II as slum housing was cleared and not replaced, while industries closed or moved to larger sites further out of Sheffield.

Its location on the Sheffield Supertram, the completion of the Five Weirs Walk and construction of the Don Valley Stadium and Sheffield Arena in the 1990s brought some life back to the area. As part of this regeneration, new house building started in 2002.

Meadowhell, the shopping centre, is within a stones throw from where the towers stood, and was built by Bovis on the site of a derelict steelworks. It was opened in 1990. With a floor area of 1,500,000 sq ft (139,355 m²), it is the sixth largest shopping centre in the UK.
The owners British Land Company PLC is one of the largest property development and investment companies in the United Kingdom. It converted to a Real Estate Investment Trust when REITs were introduced in the United Kingdom in January 2007. It is headquartered in London.

The Cooling Towers overlooked Attercliffe and Sheffield for the past 70 years, the M1 motorway next to them was constructed in four phases; the majority of the motorway was opened in 1959 and between 1965 and 1968.

The two ends of the motorway were extended later; the southern end in 1977 and the northern end in 1999, part of the motorway goes over the Tinsley Viaduct, a two-tier road bridge in Sheffield; the first of its kind in the UK. It carries the M1 and the A631 1033 metres over the Don Valley, from Tinsley to Wincobank, also crossing the Sheffield Canal, the Midland Main Line and the former South Yorkshire Railway line from Tinsley Junction to Rotherham Central. The Supertram route to Meadowhell runs below part of the viaduct on the trackbed of the South Yorkshire Railway line to Barnsley.

The viaduct was opened in March 1968 and cost £6 million to build. The structure is unusual in that it is built as steel box girders, at a time when most long span bridges were being built of post tension concrete deck design. This use of steel has allowed the viaduct to be strengthened, in 1983 and again in 2006. The recent works to strengthen the bridge were a very complex operation, with a lot of the work happening inside the Box beam spine. The works took over 3 years and cost £82 million (14 x the original bridge building cost).

Along with this there is the Blackburn Meadows sewage works, this having a impact in the quality of life for people in the area, where school children have to be timed in and out at playtime due to the pollution, and people are often left with the windows shut near the Sewage works.

The owners E-0N have an plans to build a £60 million biomass-fueled power plant, and on the 16th July 2008 they received approval for this plant at the former Blackburn Meadows power station, it is without doubt this along with plans to expand (and build housing) from the Owners of Medowhell will see an increase pollution for the area.

On the 24th August 2008 around 10,000 people came out to watch Sheffield’s world famous Tinsley cooling towers be demolished, and in a defiant moment, the North Tower stood for over 2 hours with a ‘raised finger’ of resistance.

Like the protest over their plans to build a coal fired power station at Kingsnorth in Kent, see: http://www.climatecamp.org.uk/home E-On’s plans must be resisted, and their application for a Biomass Generator has not been actually been granted.

In a rare moment, Attercliffe MP Clive Betts condemned the destruction as “an act of historical vandalism”.

And we could not agree more.

A group of local people and others have asked E-ON and British Land to donate a large sum of funds to The Tinsley Tree Project for the planting of trees in the area to reduce the pollution; As part of the Campaign to save the Towers http://www.dontgo.co.uk/ Sheffield launched a project named:

COOLING THE TOWERS is our project to turn the disused cooling towers on the edge of Sheffield into massive new works of art.

We want a new symbol for our city, representing what Sheffield means today: creative, independent and different. We’ve won Channel 4’s Big Art Project, and they’re helping us make it happen.
How crass then was it of E-ON to come along and trespass against the desires of the People of Sheffield, who openly said No to the demolition, and supported this project.

We must stop the plans for a biomass-fueled power plant, and look towards forcing E-ON to drop these plans, if this is at all their intention.

Some people suspect, and rightly so, that there are no real plans for their proposed project, that the demolition was to increase and market the land of the former Blackburn Meadows power station for profit gain. Neither the plans for a biomass-fueled power plant, or the selling of this land must happen, we must begin again to campaign for a better use of this land, such as a nature reserve connecting to the the Blackburn Meadows Nature Reserve, and that monies are given for planting of trees in the area along with improvements to the footpaths of the canals, this opening them up for better public use.

The derelict rail line that runs past this site, and behind the former Magna Steel works is used as extension for the Supertram, this would be a true green revolution and place Sheffield on the green map giving back what E-ON and British land have so far been allowed to take from the People of Sheffield. We must act to make this happen and if need be force them to stop what MP Clive Betts names as an act of historical vandalism. It must be stopped.

GOING…going…eventually gone! Sheffield’s world famous Tinsley cooling towers have been demolished – after a spectacular but botched first attempt. A substantial part of the North tower – about a third of it – was left standing, like a giant finger pointing skywards above the M1 motorway section.

images 1
images 2
images 3

Barcode is in the wonderful, iconic Lake District walking the hills. Now, we have all talked about the Marmite Architecture that is The Cooling Towers, and as one brutalist structure comes to an end another emerges and engages people in conversation, of course the front page and further 2 pages in this week’s Telegraph is lazy journalism and just hype for the property developers.

The Car Park that has so many nicknames that has emerged is a clever structure and we all like due to that fact, being a Car Park and more to follow is where we begin to disagree, as we disagree with the demolition of the Cooling Towers, here in Sheffield we have some real opportunities to go green, make a statement about this city.

Letting the Cooling Towers be, and just simply regenerating the surrounding land into a nature reserve, opening the derelict Rail Line for a Supertram Extension to Rotherham, donating the land that runs down from Magna (former steel works and a clever re-use) to J34 for community allotments would have been a better choice.

But this is not about choice, and when has Capitalism been about that? No, the regeneration of Sheffield with its new car parks and statement architecture is about pandering to the needs of the Middle Class, who do not have the fucking misfortune to live in Tinsley where the school children have to be timed in and out of school due to pollution levels, we have an apocalyptic vision of people in Tinsley in Gas Masks. The New E-ON 60 Million Bio-Mass generator, the plans of Meadowhell owners British Land, will do nothing to ease the pollution of this community. Where are the Soap Dodgers when you need them, so over 300 were hurt at climate camp, oh well all you can do is laugh..

We can but watch the regeneration of Sheffield, and ask those involved to Donate a part of Their Gain for the planting of Trees in Tinsley, E-ON has increased the cost of fuel and an average home now will fork out over £1,500 a year, will this make people more green, of course not.

If Climate Change is real, then lets take a look at the real opportunities we have in Sheffield, to do something to act and stop it, one move would be to stop the crass plans for further mass regeneration, a shopping centre the size of Meadowhell is due over the next few years in the City Centre of Sheffield, another Car Park (this time 10 storeys) is due, and the working class are told they’re to blame for climate change, perhaps we do need to make the middle class history.

We will not be around at the Demise of the Cooling Towers, as we have no desire to be part of the spectacle, we prefer the revolution of everyday life – see you on the streets..

The Long And The Short Of It. | 21.08.2008 12:43 | http://indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/08/407232.html?c=all |

It was less than a day after the RWB festival finished that local news reports in the Denby area started reporting that the residents were adamant the event would not be held on their doorstep next year.

The fact that local worries about clashes between the left and right had been building for several months was it seems only recognised by one group of anti-fascists and blatantly missed by others.

Indeed the usual suspects of old school trade unionists and ‘jump on the bandwagon’ Trotskyite groups, who had not even begun to mobilise until a couple of months prior to the event, ultimately seem to be stuck in the old left madness of negotiating with the police for no other reason than then becoming the ‘legitimate’ state sanctioned protest, guaranteed to do nothing other than portray themselves to be the vanguard in the struggle against British fascism.

This tactic is not missed on the majority of the left in Britain, and has created such apathy that a protest today is lucky to bring out less than a fifth of people it would have done a decade ago.

Their loss of all radical thinking has led to the inability to form any kind of strategy, such as one that recognised it would take very little effort to sway local feelings to those of outright objection to the RWB being held in the future.

This goes way over the heads of it’s instigators who are lost in the illusion that joining the machinations of parliamentary acceptability, somehow still maintains a revolutionary zeal with an ability to actually do anything other than become part of the problem.

How these groups, many linked to the SWP in one way or another, can even achieve the pitiful numbers they brought out to march past the RWB, is nothing short of a miracle. It is likely however that even those attending are in the not too distant future most likely to ‘burn out’, dejected and disillusioned, with what has become about as radical as a ‘walk in the park’.

Thankfully however it appears all is not lost. One organisation, Antifa, since it’s birth a few years ago, has constantly harangued and bitten chunks out of British fascist groups. leaving them with a constant headache they appear not to be able to medicate against.

The formation of Antifa, built by a handful of ex members from the untimely ‘drawing down’ of Anti Fascist Action as well as mobilising from the ranks of small but highly politically astute British anarchist groups, has rejuvenated a militant tradition going back to Cable Street, the Spanish Civil War and the 43 Group.

Watching their ‘tactics’ over the last year in the build up to the RWB has been nothing short of watching political genius at work. By appearing to be mobilising a mass group of activists from the UK and abroad it was always going to be a headache for local authorities not willing to take any chances.

Successful ‘no platform’ style actions against the British National Party and the likes of neo-nazi cult group the British Peoples Party, Antifa seemed to know that even by simply turning out a handful of people willing to do nothing more than produce five minutes of chaos, would be more than enough to produce the desired result, a Red White and Blue Festival no longer being held in Denby and the BNP organisers with a major problem on their hands i.e.

“Where do we find a local authority next year willing to take a chance on hosting the RWB?”

Amusingly, the fascist and neo-nazis on Stormfront have been having a field day.

Their belief that the propaganda put out by Antifa was actually implying the organisation genuinely believed they would shut down this years festival, and the far-rights lack of knowledge of ‘left-wing’ groups in general, the bigger picture seems to have completely passed them by.

So buoyed up with seeing a genuinely vociferous but small protest result in mass arrests they have convinced themselves Antifa have been crushed and those arrested are going to be doing years and years behind bars, which is about as likely as Nick Griffin joining the SWP!

Interestingly enough, at the time of writing, Antifa have not even officially confirmed they were actually there, another strategy which shows the level of a political militant awareness that leaves the far-right nervously cackling from the sidelines, convincing themselves all is well in their ‘fatherland’.

Where the rest of the British ‘left’ go from here is at present unclear. While the likes of the SWP have already claimed some kind of victory out of actually doing nothing at all, it is of genuine concern that people will still fall for their redundant and impotent style of politics.

One thing is for certain. If the SWP and their front groupings such as the UAF are allowed to continue their nonsense, the genuine fervour of many on the so called ‘left’ will remain untapped.

There remains an anti-fascist militancy in Britain that is sitting in the wings just waiting for its chance to ignite. Let’s hope that the likes of Antifa are able to light the spark.

Their actions up to now and the likelihood that their inspired militancy has stopped the RWB being held in Denby in the future suggests they are.

-writes this report of his visit to the so called Climate Camp.

Yorkshire NUM website

In August, me an Arthur Scargill enter another big field to fight the corner for the miners and coal our industry and cause. Last time it was that field at Orgreave, this time it’s the Climate Camp at Kingsnorth Power Station and instead of thousands of cops there’s thousands of eco-warriors who now believe coal is killing the planet and want to stop all new coal stations.

If truth were known, they want to close down all coal stations per sae. This time there is only Arthur, and me, we have no squads of pickets, no marching bands and no flying banners. It is in many respects as daunting a prospect, but it shows the quality of this man, our differences aside, he came into the teeth of opposition with an unpopular and untrendy message, among people who are hardly receptive to his old school brand of Marxist-Leninist socialism but prepared to debate till the cows come home why the NUM and clean coal technology are allies in the struggle for a socialist ecology and a just world.

Arthur is now 70 and I am 60, I think we present a figure of two rather battered and scarred alley cats come for a peace conference with the league of dogs. This is a sad and confusing conjuncture of forces. I have never in my life experienced a situation where the miners and what we do is the unpopular foe except among the ruling class and Tories.

Outside of the Young Conservatives, I have never known young people regard mining and pit heads as their enemy. What is worse is that these are my traditional constituency on the Anarchist left, they have the aura of the hippies, they aspire to the freedoms and love of life, which our 60s/70s generation did. I come across the Newcastle and Scottish camp, and know many of the activists from the Toon scene and demonstrations. Previously we have always held each other in a silent mutual respect, now there is a mutual distance, coolness, a sort of mutual Et tu Brutus. However, I see here also the mortified conviction of my own anti-nuclear youth. The conviction that myself and the world were on the brink of extinction. The certainty that if we delay we are all doomed to a wretched and painful end. Now it is climate change, and the gathering speed with which the earth is crashing toward climatical obliteration ironically for all carbon based creatures and vegetation on the earth as we know it. A change, which will cleanse us all from the surface of the globe for eternity.

The camp like some latter day Woodstock; they are a commonwealth, locked in debate and dedication, little communities with kids romping through the fields, longhaired, dreadlocked, singing and dancing. It is deeply wounding to be the enemy.

This is an anti-Durham gala, everywhere are Workshops on mining, on resistance around the world to mining of all descriptions, pictures of headgear and open cast, industry and miners, and the campaigns against them. It is like a Durham miner’s gala on bad acid. Instead of everywhere a celebration of the miners, our work, our communities, are protests for its end. I am shocked that many left groups are now Groupies to the eco movement and have abandoned all attempts at class analysis.

Arthur’s worst critic in the field is the local secretary of The Socialist Party, who tells him the NUM and miners’ struggle was yesterday’s cause, this was where the struggle was now, that Eon and the big generators to facilitate their profits are using us. I argue the opposite that every attack on coal feeds the nuclear agenda, sets the agenda for government policy. I remind them too that they are enthusiastic supporters of EON when it comes to ramming wind turbines down the throats of protesting locals resolved not to have them.

Around the tent, are dotted Trade Union members of the SWP are they now ready to bury him having once been full of his praise? For a month, the Weekly Worker has carried uncritical adverts for the camp while the Morning Star warned me I was underestimating the forthcoming climate holocaust and declined my article criticising the camp.

I have the honour to have wrote the official NUM bulletin The Miners and The Climate Camp, which Ken Capstick the Miner’s editor has managed to reduce from 8 sides to four with a bit of clever editing. I’ve humped 2000 of them in a huge bag from Doncaster and have spent the morning spreading them round the field, where they are received with less than enthusiasm. About 150 protesters turn up to the tent, where Arthur and I are speaking from 1500 in the field. Their bottom line argument is we shouldn’t be generating so much power anyway, it should be cut by 50% and we need to get use to not having electricity.

Arthur gets one of the Greens scientific officers to admit she was talking about taking out all nuclear and coal capacity, which would leave Britain virtually without power generation of any sort.

They are non-plussed by the fact that we both accept practical renewables, that we see solar energy as the long-term future for the planet. That many other clean sources, as long as they are not equally environmentally damaging (like land wind turbines) should be deployed along with mass insulation projects and energy saving programmes. But that coal should be the base supply agent and buy the world a breathing space so long as we developed carbon capture systems to burn it cleanly.

There is sympathy for the miners generally accepted as the most exploited people in Britain over the last century, but there has to be losers if we are to save the Planet, and we have been chosen to be it. Few people believe that CO2 capture works, and anyway will not be ready ‘in time’ to stop the climate going into free fall.

At the same time as facing the Climate Camp and linked to it across the left and green movement, more and more people are coming over to the Government programme for nuclear power, and an end to coal mining and coal burning in Britain. I have argued far and wide that clean coal is the alternative to a civil nuclear programme. I am stunned to be told the NUM’s new policy supports both coal and nuclear although I still claim this to be untrue. It needs urgent clarification, because this is a central plank in our defence.

I am asked to give a Workshop on the relevance and importance of the great 84/5 coal strike, nine people come. The relevance clearly isn’t too well established.
‘The Earth’ becomes an abstraction, humanity is some sort of foreign and alien invader and the storm troops, this time not of the TUC but of tidal waves, poverty and death, are the miners.

Of course, Arthur’s arguments are not totally mine, he talks of ‘dirty foreign coal’ and unfair competition, slave labour and child labour, these are not my arguments. Import controls are not a progressive answer, in my view, but I am for a level playing field of subsidies and a ‘fair trade’ standard of terms, conditions and union rights, which would be, for the millions of coal miners abroad as much as for us. We agree though that clean coal technology is an achievable science now, and it is vital that it is applied wholesale across coal generation.

The cops are arseholes as usual I am stopped and searched two sometimes three times a day, against my consent and often with force. Indeed, I am almost arrested, which would have been proved interesting in court. They could hardly argue they had reasonable grounds for suspecting I was going to sabotage the Power Station when I had gone down two thirds of the country with half a tonne of literature in its defence.

They attack the camp on numerous occasions and lay into protesters with truncheons; day after day, they line people against the fence from the very youngest toddlers to very old people, and search and harass them. Arthur makes a very strong Statement to the media at the gate, in defence of the right to protest and welcomes the protesters invitation to him and to debate this vital issue.

It was a privilege to stand with Arthur again, in the teeth of opposition again, though we could have done with thousands more supporters so short sighted ‘greens’ are not allowed to dominate this crucial debate.

I am trying to put together a Labour Movement Conference on Climate, Class and Clean Coal in Newcastle for the end of the year, and very much hope the NUM sponsor it and supply key speakers.

This fool

Covert’s Tommy Williams ordered to retract his lie about a bomb at BNP’s RWB

Direct link to the Tommy Williams article: http://lancasteruaf.blogspot.com/2008/08/coverts-williams-ordered-to-retract-lie.html

is not all so strange, this world of mine has been in a flux of pink indians, all week been confused angry unsure what is happening, as two nations knock the shit out of each other in the name of nationalism, and it might be all so easy not to take sides in georgia/russia conflict, as an anarchist no nations no borders, it has been a week of uploading tunes to the lap top, well it had to be some Conflict if you desire a copy try http://thepiratebay.org/ i also got some Crass and it goes on and Saturday i’ll spend some time with Dan Sumption are you ready hard drive to dance well are you?

We never asked for war
Nor in the deepest darkest corners of our minds
Can we contemplate its eternal horror?
Carnage incomparable, human squander
It’s neither sweet nor fitting
Fighting; a senseless call to arms

We never asked for war.

Fucking stroll on, so the Middle Class had more than one insight into working class life.. here is this once proud nation of people who had class pride, now the counter claims from those involved in the action named Climate Camp (http://indymedia.org.uk/en/ ) are in full fucking flow oh I know I keep plugging Ian Bone but do read what he said on this (http://ianbone.wordpress.com/2008/08/08/bejing-or-kingsnorth-climate-camp-who-leads-in-the-suppression-of-protest/), as King Arthur spoke at the camp, we can only hope that their contact with the working class taught them one thing about our life under their occupation and as crass said: your parents are your first oppressors, now we ask the children to go kill them, and yourselves, if you can not join us in making yourselves history then we are more than willing to lend a helping hand..

Our next move in keeping the Debate on Climate open, is more email and conversations, public meetings anyone? We can not promise the world, but we will aim to keep open this very debate and see where it can lead, I have no problem in working with my enemy, and the enemies of my earth, our mother.

Sometimes a compromise can lead us to good things, there has been joint actions over coal, a group of people gathered at a community centre in Barnsley, and when the dreadlocked hippies arrived to come and smash up dole hill open cast site on earth day October 31s t 1997, we were only going to play football (honest) but as it happened our walk with Anne Scargill (wife of arthur) and other former and current active members of the NUM lead to some serious action, the place was totalled in the space of a couple of hours, then when over we gathered and marched off, and there it should have been, but sometimes we all get a little too excited at times and the office occupation was crass, here is to Noel (now dead) who we hope the yoghurt was good and it was in hindsight good to be arrested for its theft .

Following over 36 hours in a police cell, court cases where the Middle Class refused the unity we had seen at Dole Hill, lessons were learned.

Now a thought for next years action, think of your location, think of your words and the hype (over 400 people from across england) came to dole hill, from just one flyer, word of mouth and a rented mobile (bill still owing) and we ensured the place was closed.
I have a good idea, Sheffield anyone, now lets take the power and make this land as ours, lets remember No M41 and claremount road, fuck the fluffy vs spikey debate, lets get militant and show the police and other enemies of our class we can organise, remembering 2009 will be 25 years on from The Great Strike of 1984, any one for another Orgreave, lessons from The Hit Squads of then into now, now fucking stroll on…

Now how did that happen? well at times some self praise is in order well done to us, and no we did miss a thing, we waited, then we simply lifted a good report from indymedia aside from the spooks and the like it can contain good news and accounts of the class struggle as ian bone would say fucking stroll on (shit i can here him) meanwhile we have all the conflict albums as mp3,s e mail us for a download link..

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/08/405465.html

makes valid case imho ..

“Scargill’s talk came after many in the mining community had expressed dismay at the camp’s anti-coal position, particularly slogans such as ‘no new coal’, and ‘leave it in the ground’. This they felt condemned the coal mining communities to dole and the ‘dung heap’, something they experienced in the 80s and 90s during the Tory assault on the miners.

I will attempt to sum up the arguments of Scargill and Dave Douglass, who was also speaking at the meeting on Monday and will be with us until Thursday:

Roughly half of our energy needs are currently provided by nuclear and coal. The remainder is made up largely of oil and particularly gas. Scargill stated that British reserves of gas are almost exhausted and so unless we want to develop a dependency on foreign gas reserves, whose prices and conditions of workers we cannot control, we must soon replace this gas-based power generation.

Throughout Scargill’s talk he reiterated (with considerable passion) his complete opposition to nuclear energy, on grounds of safety and workers’ conditions. Many Uranium miners are paid compensation for illness due to exposure to radiation, on the agreement that the company is absolved of any liability. Consequently these deaths do not appear in official figures and so the human cost of nuclear energy is hidden.

Taking gas and nuclear out of the picture, this leaves the country with a considerable energy deficit which, in Scargill’s opinion, could not immediately be filled by renewable energy sources. While some efficiency measures should be taken (he mentioned insulation of all homes and workplaces), no considerable reduction in energy consumption could be achieved. With him the hippy arguments of “who needs a 30 inch plasma TV” (shouted out at the meeting), and more fundamental lifestyle changes leading to reduction in energy use are not realistic. Instead, “our children deserve the same standard of living that we have”, this also being extended to the developing world where rising energy needs must be provided for.

Scargill says this energy can only be provided by British coal, mined under hard-won conditions and very low accident rate (for the mining industry), and burned in modern coal-fired power stations fitted with carbon capture technology. Combined heat and power plants can increase efficiency from roughly 30% (which is typical of Coal, Gas and Oil) to 70%, by providing cheap household heating to communities. A number of clean coal technologies were discussed, many of which were proven in the 70s and 80s in experimental power generation plants run by the Coal Board, later being shut down by the Tory government.

The plan hinges on the viability of carbon capture and storage technologies, something which many at the meeting disputed. To this he responded that these technologies needed some development but were indeed viable, and in any case had to work, because in his opinion the burning of the earth’s coal reserves was inevitable considering growing energy needs globally. Put simply, China will burn its coal reserves with or without carbon capture, so the development of the technology is crucial.

Regarding the location of the camp near the Kingsnorth power station, Scargill said that he would join us in our protest if it was against the burning of foreign coal, mined in shocking conditions in countries like China, conditions British workers have not suffered in 200 years.

Concluding, Scargill reiterated that we must develop a unified energy policy, and that although the opinions of the miners and those of the camp are different, they are not that different. We are together in this class struggle.
Tom Morton
e-mail: tomm@riseup.net“

Clean coal tech is crucial,burning less now til thats sorted

is what Climate Camp want?

05.08.2008 13:32

Damn tories & nuclear brigade for stalling clean tech & good to see King Arthur at the camp. Thing is there are millions of workers inculding hundreds at climate camp who work on renewable biofuels, wind,hydro,solar,geothermal mining etc & want work not dole too. If you had a look around camp you can see how hard we work & how resourceful we are.We are in same boat as coal communities in fact many of Climate campers come from coal communities. Look to the hot rock programme in Durham for geothermal shaft there to heat & power nearby industry & homes. In Southampton one built radically by a labour council in early 1980’s powers a hospital,shopping centre & thousands of homes,plus heats & cools them. Shafts can be drilled & dug under existing power stations to make them CHP
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2004/dec/16/energy.renewableenergy
http://www.ncl.ac.uk/press.office/newslink/index.html?ref=1181137200

Plenty of work & long term work+profit for many people in geothermal, especially in areas where there is granite or deep mines that can be exploited for this, dont cap em!
Ive been involved in advicing a campaign in Annesley to save headstock there & use it for geothermal, this isnt very high tech or hard technology & its cheaper to do than drilling in the gulf of Mexico.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2004/dec/16/energy.renewableenergy

http://www.ncl.ac.uk/press.office/newslink/index.html?ref=1181137200
Wish I could afford to be a climate camp at moment, well done to those that are, lets get rockin!

For One Big Union & cooperative power!,
beyond the traditional workplace

see also the discussion on the topic here

http://www.socialistunity.com/?p=2680 and an article about coal mining and native communities in Venezuela: http://www.socialistunity.com/?p=2685 … a good article on the problematic of tar sands can be found here: http://climateandcapitalism.com/?p=495 &

http://www.urban75.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=7887389#post7887389

Scargill joins climate camp – to campaign

for more coal

By Mark Hughes
Friday, 8 August 2008

He is the man who has devoted his life to trying to save Britain’s coal mining industry. They are the eco-activists that are campaigning to stop the construction of Britain’s first coal-fired power station in more than 30 years. More http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/scargill-joins-climate-camp-ndash-to-campaign-for-umoreu-coal-888279.html