Crude Awakening shut down UK largest oil refinary

16 October - OIL REFINERY BLOCKADED

Climate activists launch blockade of the UK's busiest oil refinery Hundreds of Crude Awakening protestors board trains to join the blockade. 12 climate activists have blocked the sole access road to Coryton oil refinery in Essex, the UK's busiest oil depot and the largest supplier of oil to London. The all woman group, affiliated to the Crude Awakening, are locked to immobilized vehicles on both lanes of the road, preventing oil tankers from leaving the refinery to deliver oil to London.

Related: UK Indymedia: Crude Awakening Blockade | UK Indymedia Climate Feed | Youtube video | Flickr photos

Coryton refinery is 30 miles north east of London, near Stanford-le-Hope in Essex[1]. In a coordinated move, around 500 protestors from the Crude Awakening event in London boarded trains bound for Stanford-le-Hope, a short walk away from the refinery. Previously announced plans to target central London oil businesses were revealed to be a bid to outfox the police, with Coryton having been the ultimate destination all along.

Terri Orchard, who is taking part, said: "We don't have a hope of tackling climate change if we don't find a way to start moving beyond oil. But Big Oil is relentless. From the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic to the Canadian tar sands, oil companies are devastating local environments, trampling the rights of local communities, and pushing us over the edge to catastrophic climate change.

We are here at the source of the problem, at the UK's busiest oil refinery, to stop the flow of oil to London. We're here to put a spanner in the works of the relentless flow of oil and to say no more. This place, this whole industry, must become a thing of the past."

This action is taking part of the global week of action called for by the Climate Justice Action Network (CJA). From the Philippines to Argentina, people from 22 different countries are this week taking action against the fossil fuel industry[2].

The Crude Awakening is supported by a spectrum of direct action groups including the Camp for Climate Action, Plane Stupid, Rising Tide, Space Hijackers, Liberate Tate, Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination, Earth First! and the UK Tar Sands Network.

ENDS

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