Since the early 90s, eco-campaigners have been driving home the message of coming Climate Change. This awareness underpinned the British Road Protest movement, in which we participated at Twyford Down, Solsbury Hill, Newbury, and Fairmile – home of Swampy. In the late 90s the issue came more into public focus. Seize The Day played at a protest outside the BP agm in London, and organised a blockade of the Esso HQ, along with 'Rising Tide'. Our flautist Jo Hamilton worked for Rising Tide, and helped to raise the whole bands awareness.
The band have often performed with our own solar-powered PA, and on many solar, wind, and pedal-powered stages. In 2003, after our tour of India, we made the decision that the band would no longer fly, a decision reported nationally after the Climate Camp protest at the Drax power-station in 2006. You will find that many of our songs offer a perspective on global warming. Most notable on our current CD 'The Tide Is Turning' are 'Because we love our children', 'Burning Bush' and 'Flying'. A video of the song 'Flying' is released on a DVD in Permaculture Magazine, July 07. We performed outside the US Embassy at the Climate Change in March, but have not, at the time of writing, been invited to play at the global 'Live Earth' event!
Since writing our satirical song about Guantanamo Bay, 'The Shackle Shuffle', the band has become more involved in the campaign for the immediate release of all Guantanamo detainees. In particular, we have helped promote the campaign in support of Omar Deghayes, a British resident from Brighton, kidnapped by bounty-hunters in Pakistan and sent to the US torture camp in Cuba.
But Omar is only one of the horribly abused victims of the oil-inspired “War On Terror” still being held without trial at Guantanamo. Seize The Day’s protests at the Hiatts shackle factory in Birmingham have been featured in UK cinema release “Taking Liberties” and in regional media, and we will continue to teach audiences the Shackle-shuffle and keep the issue alive, until all the prisoners are freed and returned to the country of their choice, or else proven to be prisoners of war and treated accordingly.
To spend anywhere between 23 and 70 billion on re-vamping Britain’s Trident nuclear missiles – our very own WMD - is a criminal and obscene waste of resources. Existing nuclear bases should be disarmed and redesigned to perform socially useful work., with their highly skilled workforces redeployed for peaceful purposes. Much of our military budget could then be used in the fight to prevent further global warming.
Seize The Day are actively supporting the Faslane 365 campaign of continuous rolling blockades at the gates of the Faslane nuclear submarine base in Scotland, where band members have performed and been arrested more than once.
In 1998, we were invited to play 'With My Hammer' on the main-stage at Glastonbury Festival, to promote the launch of 'Trident Ploughshares 2000'. That August, we joined our first action at the Faslane Base, performing alongside folk legends Leon Rosselson and Robb Johnson on the traffic roundabout outside the North Gate. TP2000 was a courageous campaign of direct action against Britain’s nuclear WMD arsenal. Over the next few years many people entered the base and attempted to board the submarines and disable their firing capability. Their legal defence was that they were attempting to prevent an International war-crime.
The band returned to support a mass action at the South Gate in 2001.
In 2006 a new campaign of continuous blockading, Faslane 365, was launched. Shannon organised an awareness and fund-raising gig in nearby Glasgow, where the band played with Alistair Hulett, Robb Johnson, Rory Mcleod, and David Ferrard. Through the summer we recruited people at gigs to join us at our blockade on September 8-9th. There was a fantastic response, and around 80 volunteers lodged in a Glasgow Church, before closing the base for 2 hours early in the morning, and again twice on the next day. 19 of us, including band-singer Theo, were arrested and held overnight before being released without charge. There’s a video of the action on Youtube.
In November 06, Theo returned to be present with other campaigners when the UK government announced it’s intention to renew the Trident Fleet. He joined the 1st 'Power Of The Word' blockade, with Roy Bailey, Billy Bragg, Hilary Wainwright, Jay Griffiths, Adrian Mitchel, and many more writers and singers. On the 14th of Feb 2007 Theo sang 'united states' at the mass rally in Parliament Square, moments before the result of the MPs vote to support the government’s plan. On June 5th, he returned intending to be arrested again at the 2nd 'Power Of The Word' blockade.
On Christmas 2001 we went Bethlehem to support the work of the International Solidarity Movement, a Palestinian based initiative committed to non-violent civil-resistance. At this time, it was still relatively safe fror western peace activists to go to Palestine – though Israeli soldiers did threaten to shoot us at the Gaza border. The ISM group we were with included Europeans, English, and Americans, with many courageous people of Jewish heritage.
We visited homes faced with demolition, and joined non-violent mass protests. Most memorably, we resisted tear-gas attacks to act as human sheilds and protect the free movement of school-students along the road into Ramallah, after citizens demolished an illegal IDF checkpoint.
While there we met many ordinary families and discovered first hand the terrible, grindingly oppressive reality of everyday life under Israeli occupation – and the situation has only worsened since. It is a daily human tragedy which we are all complicit in.
Our insights and position with regards to Palestine and Israel are in the song Prisoner Of Palestine.
Those Palestinians – They are my people!
But people cornered in a hell they didn’t choose.
How could I not support their fight for liberation
So they can live in dignity without abuse?
And those Israelis – They are my people!
But people with a history they could not control.
Why would I not support their right to be a nation
And hold a homeland open for the jewish soul?
An archive covering Seize The Day’s participation in the movement against Genetically Engineered Crops, transgenic animal creation, and genetic modification of humans will be posted shortly. Watch video of the Stop The Crop action in Watlington, 1999.
Climate Change
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