Vestas – ‘This is not the end – It is just the beginning!’ (Workers statement).

south west | protests | news report Tuesday August 11, 2009 12:35 by madboy23

After 19 days, the occupation of the Vestas wind turbine factory in Newport on the Isle of Wight ended yesterday. (See report below for witnessed account of this). As the workers left the factory they said their struggle for jobs and environment will go on and urged us to ‘…fight on!’. Many supporters will stay to picket the factory to stop equipment being removed. Others will go to support the rooftop occupation in Vestas at Cowes. The Vestas workers have been heroic and now we all need to be heroic and make sure this really is ‘…just the beginning!’. The campaigning carries on. It is up to us what happens next.

What you can do:

NATIONAL DAY OF ACTION IN SOLIDARITY WITH VESTAS WORKERS

Wed 12 August.

Vestas workers would like solidarity actions all across the UK. Workplace walkouts, direct actions etc. Please organise whatever you can with whomever you can.

We are also hoping to decide and organise some actions at a meeting in Bristol on Tuesday 11th August to coincide with the visit of one of the Vestas workers, (who is now doing a charity cycle ride!). Please check Bristol Indiemedia and Savevestas websites for exact date and details:

http://bristol.indymedia.org/

savevestas.wordpress.com

SUPPORT

Go to the Isle of Wight to support the ongoing picket. (The journey is long but easy with a direct train from Bristol to Portsmouth, followed by a short ferry ride).

Send messages of support from yourself or your organisation to savevestas@googlemail.com.

Send a donation from your trade-union or other organisation, or make a personal donation: cheques payable to Ryde and East Wight Trades Union Council, 22 Church Lane, Ryde, Isle of Wight, PO33 2NB

Organise a visible demonstration of solidarity. Take a photo with a placard that reads “Save Vestas” and email the photo to savevestas@gmail.com

PETITION

Petition energy minister Ed Miliband. His e-address is ps.ed.miliband@decc.gsi.gov.uk. His phone number in his Doncaster constituency is 01302 875 462, and at Westminster, 020 7219 4778. Flood him with calls for the Government to take over the Vestas factory and keep it producing, under new management.

Report of Vestas factory eviction – Karen Bell

I responded to an urgent request from Vestas workers to come and support them at the factory in the Isle of Wight on the day they were due to be evicted. After a 5 hour journey from Bristol, I arrived just as bailiffs had forced their way into the building, and were then attempting to reach the workers on the first floor office. I had been expecting to walk straight into a collective direct action struggle to stop the bailiffs entering the building. However, there was nothing of the kind. About 2-300 supporters were standing outside the factory in a quiet and subdued manner. I asked if there was anything we could do and was told it was too late now. Then people from various organisations began to give speeches about climate change, the heroism of the workers etc. A man from Climate Action quite rightly said, because of the rate at which we are headed towards environmental and social disaster, ‘…we all need to be heroes now’. An SWP rep, unsurprisingly, said ‘we must build a mass movement’. Then the workers began to speak to us by radio-mic while the bailiff’s broke down the various barricades they had erected in the building. They were very upbeat, repeatedly saying ‘We must fight on - this is not the end – it is just the beginning’. As the bailiffs entered the office and went on to the balcony the supporters chanted ‘shame’ at the factory owners. One of the workers then went to sit on the edge of the balcony, with his legs hanging over the side. Then, as the bailiffs were in conversation with him, he suddenly jumped over the edge. The TV cameras rushed to get a good shot. He was OK. After, the workers told the BBC that the group felt they had secured a ‘moral victory’, as they had highlighted the closure of the UK's largest wind turbine factory with the loss of 625 jobs at a time when the government had announced plans for a huge increase in wind energy capacity.

After witnessing this sad drama, I spoke to everyone I could and it seems that the supporters outside the factory had not been able to work out a practical plan of action. The workers were concerned that any type of direct action could provoke violence and that this would not help their cause in the long term. There were also concerns that there were not enough supporters at the factory to carry out the kind of ambitious action necessary. Others were tired because they had been camping there for days or weeks. By the time a plan had been agreed, it was too late to carry it out. Many Isle of Wight supporters had kept away for fear of violence or other unpleasant consequences for themselves. Who knows why other people did not respond to the appeal to go to support the workers. It seems to me we need to be much more committed, strategic and courageous if we are going to get anywhere. Although it is important to be 'building the movement’, we should not let this be at the expense of missing the moment.