Global Frackdown Carnival in Sheffield city centre, 13 October 2018. Photo: Stephanie Mullen
More than 400 opponents of fracking took part in a rally in Sheffield city centre today, according to organisers.
They said the Global Frackdown Carnival, at Barkers Pool outside Sheffield City Hall, aimed to show “the scale and strength of the opposition to shale gas”.
Groups came together from across Yorkshire and the East Midlands.
The speakers included the Labour MP for Sheffield Heeley, Louise Haigh. She said:
“There is no way we can make it safe.
“We’re not just saying ‘not in our back yard’. We’re saying we don’t want it anywhere in the UK.
“As a Labour MP, I am absolutely clear, the next Labour government will ban fracking outright in this country.”
Ross Monaghan, the event organiser, said:
“With the threat of fracking so close, and our rights to protest being curtailed by injunctions, it’s a crucial time to come together and oppose this toxic industry. 95% of South Yorkshire is licensed for fracking, as is much of Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, and we are determined to work together to stop it”.
Local campaigner, Jenny Gerrans, said:
“My daughter is 3 years old, and I want her to live in a place where there is clean drinking water, beautiful countryside and healthy ecosystems. I believe fracking threatens all of those things, and that together, we can stop it from happening here in the UK.”
The carnival part of the afternoon included speeches from local campaigners, music, street performance and anti-fracking songs. This was followed by free workshops and a fundraiser with local bands, which collected £1,732.
Categories: Opposition
DRILL OR DROP? 
Congratulations on a peaceful rally everyone, have a good frack free Sunday
It seems there will not be another Sunday quite like this again?
The barbarians are inside the gates and they are battering down the democratic doors to let more of their kind to ransack the country.
This is a day to remember, one more peaceful day and yet we will see all this in some future time as some historical if not hysterical episode of aberration of greed and insanity just as the the previous times in history and then we or our children will clean up the mess and perhaps remember this time, not to fall asleep at the wheel of life, and that the demons of self serving greed and avarice, death and destruction never quite go away do they?
There were once cries of :
Never here! Never again!
But we forgot to lock the gates didnt we? And the old enemy was never quite defeated, and the legacy of operation paperclip slipped in through the secret back door and filled our minds with dreams and nightmares of bread and babbling circuses and we took our eye off the snarling slavering jaws waiting still in the shadows for too long.
So, here we are again?
These are two songs from Supertramp, always one of my childhood favourites, before the world turned sour and filled with greed and hate, it is a warning, worth a listen:
With greatest apologies to Supertramp for borrowing your lyrics, and a few changes to suit, but i am sure you will understand that at least some of us are listening, if not everyone?
Supertramp Lyrics:
“Crime Of The Century”
Now they’re planning the crime of the century
Well what will it be?
Read all about their schemes and adventuring
Yes, It’s well worth the fee
So roll up and see
How they’ve raped the universe
How they’ve gone from bad to worse
Who are these men of lust, greed and glory?
Rip off the mask and let’s see.
But that’s not right – oh no, what’s the story?
But there’s you and there’s me
That can’t be right
Supertramp Lyrics:
“Brother Where You Bound”
There’s a red cloud hanging over us
And it’s so big and it’s gonna burst
All you people with your heads in the ground
Hey brother, where you bound?
And they’re no good and they’re everywhere
Try to tell you, but you just don’t care
Try to hear you but you don’t make a sound
Hey brother, where you bound?
Hey brother, where you bound?
And you don’t know what they’re gonna do
And you don’t know how they feel
And you don’t know what they’re tellin’ you
Is it a lie or is it real
And the next thing that you know is
That they walk out on the deal
And the message that they’re giving you
Is the same old alibi
If you don’t quite see their point of view
Then they treat you like a spy
And the phone rings and you disappear
In the middle of the night
Can’t you see they’re on the move
Don’t know what you’re trying to prove
But you sit there oh so cool
Like they never broke no rules
And the cat flies and the crow walks
And the ghost dies and the sow talks
And they tell us that they’ll be good as gold
B’lieve nothing that you’re told
Hey brother, where’s your soul?
Make a move in one direction
Try to make some compromise
But they greet you with rejection
Makin’ out you’re tellin’ lies
Then they turn around and tell you
Better get down from the sky
For the sake of all that’s holy
Listen good to what I say
I can feel them all around me
They could be here any day
But you act like you don’t know me
Why d’ you look at me that way
If there’s one thing that is clear
We gotta find a way from here
They’ve gotta leave this place
Theirs is just a hopeless case
Ain’t no one else to blame
they’re gonna lose this game
Hey brother get off my back
I gotta tell you, you’re way off the frack
They got a hatred deep down inside
Ain’t gonna let them take me alive
they aint gonna burn us down, just wait and see
Ain’t gonna let them walk over me
Boy you ain’t got no heart and soul
And your mind is weak and your blood’s runnin’ cold
They better move, they better hide
They’re gettin’ in, they’re gettin’ inside
If you get caught you better know
They’re gonna reap, you’re gonna sow
Don’t be a fool, they gotta go
Ain’t no place safe for their way
They better move on, they better move on
Well have a good quiet frack free Sunday with family and friends, and perhaps just remember, that this is something every generation has to go through, otherwise we forget to remember what really matters to human beings, and that is our future and our children and our planets ecology, without which we are nothing, and not to leave them a poisonous legacy that will blight their lives and make them curse this generation for letting this happen?
Many of us, more than the anti antis will ever admit, said NO!
And have we reached the money tipping point?
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/news/switch-to-green-energy-%E2%80%93-and-save-%C2%A3250-on-your-bill/ar-BBOjk4o?li=AA54rU
I cannot compare, am off grid, but check it out….
Another prosperous area! Starting to notice a trend where these ‘rallies’ are held?
I personally just see the same type of people in the photos as we see at other ‘anti’ events. Maybe downtrodden areas have larger amounts of people that don’t have anything better to do, or possibly not the intellect to seek facts rather than fiction courtesy of Google?
Anyway, the facts start being produced as of tomorrow. I’m looking fwd to daily updates detailing the water has not turned luminous, fire isn’t coming out of kitchen taps or buildings haven’t collapsed from an earthquake. Ah but the antis whom don’t understand basic chemistry will tell us that we won’t notice the effects of fracking till it’s too late!
I’ll predict a few more die hard anarchists being jailed in the short term.
Have you taken the Californian “f” test GBH?
You might find it enlightening?
https://www.refinery29.com/2014/06/69960/fascist-quiz
GottaBKidding – the rally was held in Sheffield, South Yorkshire because there are 6 proposed shale gas wells at 5 sites all within 20 miles, and Sheffield has excellent road and rail links. 2 of the sites are in South Yorkshire, 2 sites are in Nottinghamshire and 1 is in Derbyshire.
As for larger amount of people, South Yorkshire is more densely populated than neighbouring Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire.
Cornwall and John-o-Groats were considered for the rally but it was felt the extra mileage and extra use of fossil fuels to get people there was unwarranted.
And no one expects the water to become luminous at PNR tomorrow. A good basic understanding of GCSE Science would tell you that.
You really do say some silly things. But then, maybe you ARE kidding.
Isn,t it strange the protesters always refer to fracking in the US to support their case. yet we never see any Anti fracking protests in the US making the headlines Why is that ? could it be because it has brought much needed Prosperity to the US.
You must have missed this:
probably because it wasn’t reported in the UK main stream media.
There is massive community resistance all across the US in fracking areas, particularly now the long-term health impacts of fracking are being seen across the country, but it doesn’t get reported in the mainstream media (a bit like here, then). Ad hominem attacks on protesters in the UK – to certain people who comment here, they are either nimbys, out-of-towners, too scruffy, too wealthy, from the wrong place, too tall, too short, too young, too old – just shows that for industry supporters no protest is valid, no opposition argument is worthy of consideration, and in their parallel universe fracking has never caused any problems anywhere, ever. The fact that numerous state and national inquiries have looked at all the peer-reviewed published evidence and concluded that fracking is simply too damaging and too risky to consider doesn’t seem to matter. The fact that methane leaks and CO2 from fracking will push our planet over the edge into a climate catastrophe doesn’t seem to matter. The fact that people who live near fracking wells in the US have health problems ranging from lower birth weights and premature births to asthma and heart disease doesn’t seem to matter. All that matters is producing gas – the consequences are unimportant. No wonder they are losing the argument.
There certainly is one kind of protest that is valid – peaceful and lawful. It’s quite simple.
There is no determination in the HRA that states peaceful; remember this type of protest was introduced by civil rights groups who had had enough of being beaten up and killed by their oppressors…..
Unfortunately, the most effective protests in history broke the law of the time, that law made, policed and judged by a bias society.
Thankfully, those laws are now no longer in force but we still have a long way to go…..
Never simple….human society is too complex.
It’s a common misbelief amongst protestors that the HRA allows them free reign to break other laws and act in such a way that they breach the peace, or become a public nuisance. As we have seen lately, that’s not the case.
No it does not, and that was not what I posted. However change for the good does not come from doing nothing just because an regime can ‘apply’ a law to the act of protesting; there’s a subtle difference.
The law being applied was against public nuisance, not against protest. They were jailed for being a public nuisance….not for protesting..not for their views, but for their unlawful actions.
Protest away, to your hearts content, but do so in a lawful manner i.e. not obstructing lawful business or breaching the peace, and you have nowt to worry about.
Perhaps Sheffield would like to recover some of its steel history?
Tough. Not going to happen without secure and cost effective sources of local energy. Without that, China will undercut using huge amounts of cheap coal, causing an issue regarding climate change, and then dumping their steel products.
Is that before or after the sale of the industry to India instead of the government stepping in?
Just thinking about the current news coming out of Turkey regarding the death of a Saudi Arabian journalist.
I remember a spokesman from the GMB Union producing this presient statement…
“No fracking means UK will rely on ‘henchman, hangmen and headchoppers’ for gas”. Enough said.
Bloomin’ Eck those Norwegians sound nasty.
“The government stepping in”!!!
What you mean is the tax payer baling them out, Sherwulfe. Perhaps you would want to have the tax payer baling out Jaguar or British Salt? Or, preventing Vodaphone investing in India?
As long as there are well paid jobs created in the UK, with taxes paid in the UK, and pension funds secured for current and previous UK workers, what is the problem? If there is one then most of the wind turbines will need to be dismantled and the solar panels sent back to China.