[ad_1]
More than three hours after a coal train protest in which activists locked themselves on the train tracks at Dunedin train station, the atmosphere remained “quite friendly,” police say.
Dozens of protesters are at the station where they stopped a coal train from the Bathurst Resources Takitimu mine in Southland to Fonterra’s Clandeboye milk processing plant in South Canterbury.
About eight people had locked themselves in the tracks.
A police spokeswoman said that the police were monitoring the protest and that dialogue between the police and the protesters was continuing.
There have been no arrests and the dialogue continues in a “quite friendly” atmosphere, the spokeswoman said.
The protest group is made up of members of the Coal Action Network Aotearoa, Environmental Justice Ōtepoti and Extinction Rebellion Ōtepot / Ōtautahi / Invercargill.
KiwiRail was part of the dialogue, and a northbound freight train with about 40 cars passed the station, closer to the platform than the blocked train, apparently without incident, shortly before 10 a.m. M.
One of the protest organizers earlier asked people on the platform to move away from the edge because the train was approaching.
A KiwiRail spokeswoman said KiwiRail was aware that a freight train had been delayed leaving Dunedin this morning due to protesters.
“We are always concerned about the safety of anyone who enters the train tracks or into our terminals, and this is being handled by the police,” the spokeswoman said.
In the original protest, a daily train, apparently usually with about 28 coal cars and some other goods, was due to leave Dunedin station at 7:30 a.m. M.
The protesters said that while the train was traveling at very low speed towards the rail crossing north of the train station, shortly before 7:30 am, a group of protesters with flags advanced near the tracks in front of the train to alert the driver.
When the train stopped, another group of protesters locked themselves in the tracks in front of the train, preventing it from moving, and then a group of seven protesters, carrying banners, climbed into two adjacent coal wagons toward the rear of the train.
Other protesters joined this second group, on the platform, and continued to celebrate the protest, including with Scottish flutes.
Environmental justice member Otepoti and a media liaison for the general protest group, Fiona Clements, said that today’s protest action was “very personal” and linked to her Kai Tahu whakapapa (ancestry) .
“My whakapapa is on the line, being transported like charred bones, no longer of meat but of stone,” he said in a printed statement distributed by protesters.
It had ancient ties to the Takitimu Mountains overlooking the Bathurst Coal Mine, but the land was being desecrated by “carving and burning coal in the factories of Fonterra.”
One of the protesters, 79-year-old Michael Fay, said he was “just doing what my conscience demands.”
“I’m here for these young people, right here on the track next to me. It is morally unacceptable to do nothing while their future is ruined in this way. [railway] line.”
Ric Carson, a protester who helps liaise with police, said the coal train symbolizes the continued use of coal for industrial agriculture, despite the recent declaration of a climate emergency.
There was extensive debate on agricultural emissions, but insufficient awareness of the role of fossil fuels in supporting industrial agriculture, although now the right thing to do was to leave carbon in the ground.
The protest was aimed at highlighting the link between fossil fuels and industrial agriculture, he said.
At around 11:30 am, the protesters said things were continuing normally and there had been no “escalation”.
The group previously said it had three demands:
“We say to the State, Fonterra and Bathurst Resources that they must be honorable bargaining partners and honor Te Tiriti or Waitangi”:
– Stop the expansion and protect Te Whenua from further desecration.
– Implement a just transition from the extractive industry by focusing matauranga maori and supporting Tauiwi and Tangata Whenua to prosper with Papatuanuku.
– That the government stop subsidizing and investing in the extractive industry.
