Alexandra Plows

Environmental direct action in Manchester, Oxford and North Wales: A protest event analysis

Abstract Direct action campaigns against new roads in the UK received much attention, but campaign groups were locally organised and little is known about how they worked. Protests by three local environmental direct action groups in the years 1992–2001 are examined. Their repertoire was confrontational, targeted mainly at business and the state. Most protests were small-scale and most were unreported in either local or national media. In the larger groups, in Manchester and Oxford, most actions were carried out locally and direct action groups worked mainly alone. In the smaller Bangor group, campaigners sometimes needed alliances with less radical groups to campaign effectively, and travelled more to events outside their locality. Environmental direct action groups remain largely autonomous from strategic alliances. Their protests are challenges to the norms underlying political and capitalist institutions rather than calculated attempts to influence government. Evidence that their actions were affecting public debate sustained and revitalised action more than did changes in political opportunities.

Explaining the fuel protests

We describe and analyse the fuel protests in the UK in September and November 2000. We draw on theories of social movements to explain the success of the first of these protests and the failure of the second. We show how the loose, network forms of organisation contributed to the success in September, and the attempts to impose more formal organisations helped to cause the failure in November. We also show how the success of the protests depended on the articulation of the aims of the protesters with dominant social forces in British politics, in particular the oil companies, the police, and the mass media.

Blackwood roads protest 2004: an emerging (re)cycle of UK eco-action?

Abstract Using the Blackwood (South Wales) roads protest during February to April 2004 as a case study, the article discusses the potential for a re-emergence of UK eco-action, examining the possibility that re-engagement with ‘single issue’ environmental protests is a probable direction for the UK direct action movement. Tactically and strategically, Blackwood could be a signifier for a new environmentally focused ‘cycle of contention’ which explicitly makes the links between the environment/climate change, and the frames of oil, war and capitalism which have been some of the key discursive repertoires of the anti-globalisation and anti-war movement(s). A potential return to ‘single issue’ eco-action should not be seen as ‘wheel reinvention’ but rather evidence of a movement which has reflexively built capacity over an activist generation. The article provides evidence of predisposed and latent mobilisation potential; emergent networks and campaigns focusing on eco-action in the United Kingdom.

‘Make do and mend’ after redundancy at Anglesey Aluminium: critiquing human capital approaches to unemployment

This article tracks workers’ responses to redundancy and impact on the local labour market and regional unemployment policy after the closure of a large employer, Anglesey Aluminium (AA), on Anglesey in North Wales. It questions human capital theory (HCT) and its influence on sustaining neo-liberal policy orthodoxy – focused on supplying skilled and employable workers in isolation from other necessary ingredients in the policy recipe. It is concluded that HCT and associated skills policy orthodoxy are problematic because supply of particular skills did not create demand from employers. Ex-AA workers faced a paradox of being highly skilled but underemployed. Some workers re-trained but there were insufficient (quality) job opportunities. In picking up the pieces after redundancy many workers found themselves part of a labour ‘precariat’ with little choice but to ‘make do and mend’.

Human rights and genomics: science, genomics and social movements at the 2004 London Social Forum

Abstract The third meeting of the European Social Forum (ESF) was held in London during October 2004 with a broad ranging formal agenda and a penumbra of affiliated workshops and cultural activities. We draw on participant observation in all sessions dealing with science and genomics and offer an evaluation of Rothmans (2000) argument that NGOs and protest movements have a vital role to play in consolidating and disseminating the UN Universal Declaration on the Human Genome and Human Rights. The paper positions the ESF as a constituent part of the World Social Forum network, identifies the key ESF networks and actors concerned with science and genomics, and analyses the various action, grievance and mobilisation frames generated within the 2004 ESF. It concludes with a discussion of the potential of this networked movement milieu to realise the goals identified in Rothmans work.

Profile - The Fuel Protests of 2000: Implications for the Environmental Movement in Britain

In the second week of September 2000 networks of farmers and hauliers protesting against high fuel prices launched a series of pickets of fuel depots in the UK which stopped most distribution of petrol within a few days. This was part of a wave of similar protests across Europe, which had begun in France in early September. The protests received strong support in polls of public opinion and in the editorial columns of many newspapers, as well as from the leader of the Conservative Party. The first wave of protests ended with a 60-day ultimatum to government to reduce fuel taxes. When the protests resumed in November divisions had emerged among the protesters diminishing their size and the government and police were much better prepared, and were able to prevent even the symbolic actions planned by protesters. It was the surprise effect of the first wave of the protests and the effects of panic buying which created greatest impact. A common perception of these fuel protests has been that they should be seen as a counter-movement against environmentalism. In this instance perhaps they were reacting against the achievement of the environmental movement in gaining high fuel taxes. The fuel protests were seen as presenting significant challenges for environmental movements since, given their popularity, this points up problems in advocating strategies to deal with climate change, congestion, and urban air pollution. Our aim here is to show that the relationship between environmental groups and the fuel protesters in Britain at least, was more complex than this picture would suggest. Our argument deals only with the UK and focuses on fuel protesters rather than public opinion in general.

Labour market intermediaries: a corrective to the human capital paradigm (mis)matching skills and jobs?

Abstract The orthodox supply-side human capital theory (HCT) paradigm is inadequate for understanding and adjusting to labour market volatility in UK regional economies like Wales. This article explores the role of regional labour market intermediaries (LMIs) in matching supply (skills) and demand (job opportunities) in regional labour markets. Some LMIs emerge because the HCT paradigm is failing. One Welsh LMI, Shaping the Future (StF), is explored empirically using qualitative methods. StF mainly adopted HCT tenets, but with some emergent demand-side focus. Despite helping workers adjust to labour market shocks, LMIs are not equipped to fix the structural demand-side problem of finite quality job opportunities in deindustrialized regions that accentuate skill use. A broader ‘skill eco-system’ paradigm is required, emphasising the foundational economy.

Egg Donation in the UK: Tracing Emergent Networks of Feminist Engagement in Relation to HFEA Policy Shifts in 2006

This paper provides a critical account of recent controversial UK policy (Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority; HFEA) moves, and public responses, in relation to the sourcing and use of human eggs for biomedical research; specifically egg ‘donation’, for cell nuclear transfer (CNT). The paper will focus primarily on growing feminist criticism, in terms of (health) risks and other issues, such as concerns over the remit of public engagement and the policy process; the possible commodification of women’s bodies and issues of globalised political economy; broader socio-cultural concerns such as the stigma of infertility; and ethical problems with the concepts of ‘informed consent’ and ‘informed choice’.