This morning (18.july.2012) “take back the land”-activists built a new open-cast mine in the lords “garden” to enable a “closer” inside on the cause. The lord owns the open-cast mine Mainshill and the area of Glentaggart East, currently squatted by the actioncamp, where a new open-cast mine is planned.

Only a part of what the residents have to endure every day was shown to him by this action. What he did not have to see are the healthproblems, the smell of diesel, die danger on the streets and the noise.

Later during this action the police arrived but did not arrest anyone.

One of the activists involved said the shire is realising a profit of millions through the mine in Douglas Valley, but there is no agreement for the mining from the residents: 70% of the people fight against the open-cast mine Mainshill and 650 objections were sent to the council.

A resident said that everything belongs to the lord and that he makes a lot of money – without giving anything back to the community. “He makes millions and we contract cancer and asthma.”

Once more we can see that usually the people suffering from the impact of ecocidal projects are not those benefiting from the projects.

At 10:00 at saturday morning a group of 45 activists invaded Scottish Coal’s Mainshill Open Cast Coal Site near Douglas, South Lanarkshire, and shut it down for the day. Machines including a “prime mover” were occupied and all work was stopped completely. This is the first action at Take Back the Land! – the action camp in the Douglas Valley will be up and running until the 18th July. Come and get involved! More photos below.