These minutes are from an online meeting on 2nd July, names have been redacted for publishing.
- check in and go around (not published)
- aims, history and objectives of landcamp
- what went well
- challenges
- next actions + visions
1 – check in and go around (redacted for public release)
2 – aims, history and objectives of landcamp
>>history – LJN land occupation group undertook first landcamp in 2018 on a piece of public land near Peterborough (ex military base) which had just been sold off unbeknownst to the team – decided to abandon occupation and try again in 2019
LJN direct action group did various successful actions in 2018.
Hebden project was direct action group and land occupation group collaborating for the first time.
Hebden location was decided at LJN national gathering in autumn 2018. Earlier conversations with Hebden locals had welcomed the idea of having a national group come to bring greater awareness to local issues with national resonance and importance. First hebden visit with open meeting and recce in January 2019 these continued over the next few months.
>>aims and objectives – raise awareness about land issues: mismanagement of land leading to increased flooding, lack of land ownership transparency, shooting a bad use of land, need more community control, destruction of moor connected to carbon store and climate change // aim for greater national and local awareness of issues // aim to start a long term land occupation camp, a place where front line activists could recuperate.
3 – what went well – this is a raw unedited dump of peoples feedback
120 people came – many report having a positive experience – good to be there and to shake things up a bit – welcoming and friendly – food and kitchen were really good – Saturday night was fun – important to connect moor to floods – stunning location – good people – commoners choir enjoyed the experience – interesting conversations reported – got lots of people talking – great that the land was taken – was a good thing to do – to take the land and to make the land the issue – good bonding experience – beautiful – good to be doing some direct action
4 – challenges – this is a raw unedited dump of people’s feedback without comment including many duplicates
key organisers struggled with comms with others and each other
key organisers weren’t realistic about their capacities
toilets, food and water weren’t in place with six days to go
locals felt help offers were rebuffed by organisers
reliance on motor vehicles was a mistake, things should have been walked unto site
volunteers weren’t fully briefed and asked to take a risk without knowing what was happening
carbon store and climate emergency should have been key angle
action should have been focussed around the illegal drainage ditches on the moor
opportunity to do more with 120 people on the land
should have gone further and been bolder as activists
pre built compost toilets – why doesn’t the movement have them?
problem with safer spaces policy
too much secrecy and not enough information
should have had clearer vision and aims conversations with hebden residents sooner
local hosts kept in the dark
can’t be a spokesperson for something i don’t know or understand
felt like cut and paste action not what’s best for this action
openness of planning and decisions was not good enough
hosted people but couldn’t find out what was going on
thoughts and feelings weren’t taken on board
local advice wasn’t taken on board e.g. fires on site etc
not integrated enough with locals
no defined roles
individuals taking risks not the camp as a whole
not knowing what the piece of land was v. difficult
it’s a small place so we bump into people
time of year was poor
done at any expense rather than it happening for all the reasons the community wanted
(safer spaces policy was published in the camp handbook but implementation procedure was not.
handbook stated all decisions would be taken by consensus but this did not happen – additional commented added after by participant)
not enough people involved
not enough hands on deck
became reactive due to stress and tiredness
social media stuff was very hard to manage
rushed – needed more openness
coming back into a hostile local community
wrong time of year
not enough people organising
social media managed offsite raised problems and lead to not knowing where things were with farmer
total lack of capacity – rushed
shocked at how disorganised how it was and lack of plans
had to call in a lot of favours
felt like I wasn’t listened to r.e. water
local people should have been on the core team
people dragged into helping unwillingly
felt like a couple of people’s idea rather than something with wider buy in
woodcraft folk’s 16-18 year olds camp far more organised and they were run by kids!
spent a lot of time carrying things up the hill
opportunity lost to achieve a lot more
People doing lots of roles which they weren’t suited to
plan for a media tent which never happened –
Conversation
I – core of all the problems is logistics – still good it happened – many open letter people were initially involved
C – not enough trust, need more planning and putting the time in
A – online and social media stuff was toxic, open letters, Q’s experience doesn’t justify the group letter they coordinated, lots of crowd gathering online which was misguided
R – camp organisers lack of knowledge of rural communities – didn’t understand how much was being asked of local people
C – local opinion divided – some: storm in a teacup and manipulative – lots of exaggeration –
I – person Z asking for apology to farmer – Saville estate with 3 grand pianos – who should be apologising to who – why is the farmer poor? Middle class appearance of the network (noted that lead organiser is working class as were many others involved) – farmers should be allies
C – R2 doesn’t need to apologise for actions of lead organisers
A – how can we continue to act locally – public debrief? Shooting season action 12th august? Future plans – where does debrief info go –
R – how we can move forward?
K – repairing community rifts – how can we best do this? Public space
I – like to take forward in an open way – critique doesn’t have to be critical learning process
Public debrief
C – good idea – fine to have in autumn – time has past already – happy to turn up and participate – not capacity for coordinating – can do some tasks
A – public debrief is important – shame g and m can’t be here to say well done – happy for it to be autumn – letter signatories might step up on their own terms – can support this to happen – d wanted to be here and L too
I – debrief sooner would be good before 12th august if we are going to action
K – good to do something before
C – august 12th wasn’t thinking off…
R2 – landcamp has broken a lot of the key relationships in the network, many people involved still struggling with physical and mental health issues caused by trauma from their involvement and it’s hard to know what is left of the network at the moment – it is a much younger, smaller, dispersed, looser, less experienced and more fragile association of folk than people perceive it to be from the polished website and propaganda
I – R2 should make sure what they just said is minuted
R and A – get date in diary now agreed
A – do something with a local group
I – Sunday afternoon is best
R2 – public debrief – Sunday 8th September pm
A – local get together on tues 16th july – set up a whatsapp group
Put minutes on LJN website – one week to reply – initials not full names
C – interested but not committing now
R – publicise via XR and LJN
I – Invite people who we know – keep it smaller group