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So Switched On – The dream of London’s energy democracy
The train hurries south on the main line towards Brighton, carrying me away from the event I have just attended, ‘Power to Us’ organised by Switched on London at Myatt’s Fields in Brixton. Looking out from the carriage, over the roofs of the houses of Purley stacked up this steep sided North Downs valley at…
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Today’s oil drilling round could bust us through UK’s climate limits
The UK government is pushing a massive new offshore drilling programme, that will take the UK beyond its climate limits. Oil companies had until 2pm today to bid for 1200 blocks covering large swathes of the sea off North-west and North-east Scotland and England. This is the the 29th Offshore Licensing Round, and it aims to identify hundreds of millions in…
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19 Oct 2016 janeRemember Saro-Wiwa, Refining Memory booklet
This booklet was published to go with the DVD ‘Refining Memory‘ by filmmaker Judy Price and artist Andy Conio, commissioned by Platform in 2005. The booklet contains essays by Platform, Ken Wiwa jr, and five international artists shortlisted for their proposals for the Living Memorial to Nigerian writer and campaigner Ken Saro-Wiwa in the year…
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Subsidising spills – British public pays BP $300 million to drill and spill
BP came under criticism this week when it caused a 95 tonne oil leak from its Clair Field into the North Sea. The company decided not to clear up the spill, and wait for the oil to wash further out to sea. The new spill comes as BP no longer pays net taxes to the…
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For Lucy Fairley, founder of Helix Arts and Crossings
My friend and Platform ally Lucy Fairley has died, aged 70. We’ve known her and her work for nearly 25 years and worked especially closely with her in the late 1990s. She founded Artists Agency in Sunderland in 1983, and in 1987 appointed Esther Salamon to join her initially as Placement Officer, then as in…
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28 Sep 2016 annaFirst UK Pension Fund divests 100% from fossil fuels
We won! Last week the pension fund committee of London Borough of Waltham Forest became the first UK public authority to announce its commitment to go 100% fossil free. The decision to divest was unanimously agreed by both Labour and Tory councillors. Why is this important? Exactly a year ago, we published our data, showing…
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The new is being born – reflections on Paul Mason’s ‘Postcapitalism’
In these days of constant turbulence, in which what is nonsense on Tuesday becomes common sense on Wednesday, and what is common sense on Thursday becomes nonsense on Friday, I have found Paul Mason’s ‘Postcapitalism’ a valuable touchstone. This is a book profound, provocative and demanding a response. With boldness and a breadth of…
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This is water defending itself – Protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline on Westminster Bridge
Forty feet wide by ten feet high the banner drapes delicately from the solid structure of Westminster Bridge. Standing at the parapet, gazing down at the brown river, we can see the upturned faces of over a hundred passengers looking up at us from the tourist vessel ‘Millennium Dream’. They are clearly trying to decipher…
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Strip away the carapace – the Ice Age, BP, and the British Museum
It pushes me quickly to tears. I’m kneeling on the cold stone floor of the Great Court, legs tucked beneath me, one foot crossed under the other. I’m listening to a rendition of A Requiem to Sinking Cities – an agit-performance in the heart of the British Museum. Silent figures hold up two banners, ‘#DropBP’…
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13 Sep 2016 adminSolidarity with Black Lives Matter UK shutdown at City Airport
Platform has signed a statement of solidarity with Black Lives Matter and their shutdown at City Airport. We stand in solidarity with Black Lives Matter UK and fully support the inspiring shutdown of London City Airport that they led on 6 September to oppose the airport’s expansion. We agree that the climate crisis is a…
