Hackney climate activist ‘doorstepped by counter-terrorist police’
Ewa Jasiewicz holding the No Dash for Gas banner (right) with fellow activists after the court hearing in Nottingham
A climate activist convicted of aggravated trespass for her part in a protest says officers from the Metropolitan Police’s counter-terrorist command paid her an “intimidating” visit while she was on bail.
Ewa Jasiewicz was part of a team of activists from group No Dash for Gas who scaled 80metre high chimneys at energy company EDF’s West Burton power plant last year and succeeded in shutting down the facility for a week in protest at the government’s plan to build dozens of new gas-fuelled power stations.
She pleaded guilty to aggravated trespass at Nottingham Magistrates’ Court and was sentenced earlier this month to 150 hours of community service – a sentence she is now appealing.
Ms Jasiewicz, 35, a freelance journalist and former union organiser, said she was doorstepped at her home in Clapton over the Christmas holidays by two plain clothed officers from SO15, the Met’s specialist operations branch with high level clearance to work with intelligence agencies.
She said that during their visit the officers warned her not to go within 50metres of any power station – a condition attached to her bail.
She said: “They said ‘You can’t go within 50meters of any power station, do you understand. That includes the Isle of Grain facility in Kent.’”
Only later, when she looked up this power station, did she realise she had been driving “quite close” to it, she added.
“The only conclusion I can draw is that maybe they had been following me,” said Ms Jasiewicz. “Maybe they had observed me or were tracking my phone. They were quite intimidating. They weren’t friendly.
“These are the people who are now tracking us and defining our activities as terrorism.”
A Met Police spokesman said: “We do not discuss who we may or may not speak with in connection with any ongoing investigation.”
No Dash for Gas is holding a four day action camp called Reclaim the Power at West Burton in August aimed at raising awareness about fuel poverty and renewables.
Ms Jasiewicz said: “Our protest was about making a clear and dramatic stand against the government’s dash for gas, the plan to build 40 new gas-powered power stations to make the British energy system reliant on gas for the next 30 years, something that will send bills through the roof.
“It is also unaffordable climate-wise. The government’s own panel on climate change said we will be in violation of our legal obligations to reduce our emissions dramatically by 2020 and 2050.”
She added: “This is also about power and who sets the price in energy, and who dominates the market in energy. Fundamentally energy belongs to humanity. We’ve all got the right to energy and access to it in a way that is not dependent on how much money we’ve got”
EDF insists it is committed to low-carbon power stations and increased energy efficiency.
A spokesman said: “We support the right to peaceful protest. However, any unlawful action is of serious concern and puts at risk the safety of the individuals involved.”
Reclaim the Power takes place from 17-20 August. For more information see www.nodashforgas.org.uk
She’s a convicted criminal – did she expect them to bring her to a cafe for tea and a chat?
She should be grateful the police informed her of her bail conditions as clearly she didn’t listen to the magistrate.
As for them following her – if she’d broken her bail conditions, they would have arrested her. It’s as simple as that.
That’s outrageous! This is pure intimidation. Who do these people work for the us or EDF. I’m sure the owners of EDF will be tucked away in their cosy climate controlled mansions when climate change gets out of control, God knows they can afford it with all the money they are making from us.
A big well done to Ewa for putting herself on the line for the future of the planet. I’m petrified of the long term effects of climate change, it’s too much too comprehend, every year we wait things get worse. I’m pretty sure ” low-carbon power stations and increased energy efficiency” aren’t going to cut it.
Criminalising dissent from British government and likening activists with terrorists. Nothing new, but it is happening on a bigger scale nowadays. Well done to Ewa Jasiewicz and No Dash for Gas for exposing our government close links with huge corporations. It is thanks to actions like those that people all over the world might still have a future.
To ‘whatwhat’ Ewa is a convicted criminal, but to a lot of us she is a hero, not just over the climate issue but also in other struggles she is involved in such as the campaign to free Palestine. Sophie Scholl, a young Christian student, was also described as a criminal by the Third Reich following her brave campaign against the fascist regime in Germany at the height WW2; she was hanged for her beliefs and refusal to compromise. So Ewa, in the wonderful tradition of Edith Cavell, Sophie Scholl, Rachel Corrie, my thanks for what its worth and my admiration for your courage and tenacity.
And as soon as the government sticks up more Windfarms, you’ll be complaining they ‘blight’ the environment. That energy to make your tripe-filtered, skinny latte has to come from somewhere!
Excellent news . This delightful specimen saw fit to deface the walls of the Warsaw Ghetto with political graffiti . Lock her up and throw away the key .
Ewa is an anti-Semite who mocked the sufferings of the Jewish people who endured the Holocaust – babies, small children, whole families murdered together – by scrawling ‘Free Palestine’ on the wall of the old Warsaw Ghetto in Poland, which witnessed such horrors of Jewish families starving to death together on the streets of that city. Ewa compares this horror to the Israel-Palestine dispute! She is a pathetic racist. She should be ashamed of her ignorance and arrogance. But as a supporter of Palestinian terror against Jewish civilians and the blowing up of babies and parents in pizza bars, and cafes or old people celebrating Passover in a hotel – well that just typifies the Neo-Nazi butchers who populate the Palestine Solidarity Groups round the world, doesn’t it. So no surprise there then.
Lock her up and throw the key away – or better still send her back to Fascist Poland where on a recent visit I saw for myself the masses of anti-Jewish graffiti which covers the walls of its towns – on adverts, old Jewish cemeteries, blocks of flats – though hardly any Jews even live there!!
Absolutely in agreement with the last comment .
This wretched woman supped from the milk of virulent Polish antisemitism . How appalling that she besmirched the memories of the millions of murdered Jews by desecrating the walls of the Warsaw ghetto .
Just another far left racist using the cover of so called antizionism in order to go about their primary cause .
We’ve seen it all before including Greta Berlin and Alice Walker . This harridan is in the same mould .
Martin Sugarman & Sinclair – there is nothing anti-Semitic about making a comparison between the atrocities of the Warsaw ghetto and those of Gaza – another populous walled-in and blockaded because of their religion/ethnicity.
Many political commentators of international standing have made this comparison including Marek Edelman, the leader and military mastermind of the resistance to the Nazis in the Warsaw ghetto uprising.
What does “besmirch the memories of the millions of murdered Jews” however, is the relentless abuse by zionists of the term anti-Semitism for their own political ends.
Sorry chum
If you think the selection of men women and children for extermination in their millions part of which took place within the Warsaw Ghetto is the same as what is taking place in Gaza then you are either seriously unhinged or someone who buys into this particular antisemitic trope as presented by the PSC / BDS .
If you see fit to compare Israels defence of its citizens as similar to that of the wholesale destruction of European Jewry in the war you are antisemitic
If you call for the dismantlement of the state of Israel thus denying the right of the Jewish people to their own self determination while demanding the same right for the Palestinians you are an antisemite .
If you hold Israel alone to higher standards than any other country including the UK and USA who in their own war on terror have managed to kill far more innocent people then Israel in their own war on terror , you qualify as being antisemitic .
If you refer to Israel alone as akin to Nazi Germany you are antisemitic . You get pleasure in the analogy and you appease your conscience for what Gentiles perpetrated during the war .
If you condemn Israel for defending itself while studiously failing to condemn those responsible for the murder and wounding of thousands of Israeli civilians by homicide bombers during the two Intifadas , you are an antisemite .
If you seek to impose your own views on what Jews consider to be antisemitic , you are indeed an antisemite . You would not see fit to tell a black person on what they should or shouldn’t consider as racist .
Take a long hard look in the mirror at your own issues before pedalling your bias and agit prop
Incidentally , I don’t believe the Jews of the Warsaw ghetto benefitted from this .
http://www.rootsclub.ps/
Fine dining Gazan style
I find it amazing that people like Youwhat?! can find some equivalence between the Warsaw Ghetto and Gaza. The Warsaw Ghetto was created by the National Socialists (ie Nazis) with the sole purpose of murdering Jews. But contrary to what Youwhat?! and others might think and say, there is no wall surrounding Gaza.
There are of course security barriers to try and limit the actions of a government (Hamas) whose charter calls for the total destruction of Israel and death to all Jews worldwide; but while it may have been successful in limiting the incursion into Israel of terrorists and murderers, this hasn’t prevented some 20,000 missiles being fired from Gaza at civilian targets in Israel since 2007. (How many missiles were fired by the Jews in the Ghetto at the Nazis?)
And it hasn’t stopped Israel from allowing the free passage of some 25-30,000 tonnes of food and other materials into Gaza every week whilst the Egyptians increase their control and passage of goods into Gaza via its southern border without any comment whatsoever from those who constantly complain about Israel’s so-called maltreatment of the citizens of Gaza.
And it hasn’t stopped Israel providing medical treatment for thousands of Gazan citizens whose government prefers to spend international aid funds on rockets and missiles instead of hospitals and medical facilities. (Even relatives of members of the Hamas government have been treated in Israel but they don’t publicise this.)
And it hasn’t stopped hundreds of Gazans crossing into Israel every day for work because their government has made no attempt whatsoever to develop the economy in Gaza. After all, why should they try to create something useful when the western world – but not their Arab brothers in the oil-rich states – is prepared to simply hand over billions of dollars? Would you work for a living if you were a recipient of such uncontrolled and unaudited largesse?
I can’t decide whether Youwhat?! is a bigot or is simply ignorant of the facts. If it’s the latter, then perhaps he/she should do some proper research before drawing such an odious comparison. If it’s the former, facts don’t matter to him/her especially if they conflict with his/her prejudices. A bigot is a bigot is a bigot.
Sinclair – two examples of ethno/religious nationalist movements rounding up hundreds of thousands of people by their religious/ethnic backgrounds and herding them into ghettos for the furtherance of their ideology is worthy of comparison.
That does not mean that one “is the same as” the other.
Your second offering is nothing but “ifs”. Why don’t you read what people actually say rather than making wrong guesses?
Poor old YouWhat! – Sinclair and Bonnie Prince Charlie have you stumped totally. You are an ignorant bigot. If the Jews of Israel had practised ’rounding up Palestinians’ into ghettos, why is Israel’s population one fifth Arabs? We are obviously not good at it, and that is because it was never the intention!
The Jews always chose a two state sharing of the land; the Pals wanted it all and to drive the Jews into the sea – and we have been there for 4,500 years and over 3000 years longer than the Arabs who stole it from us in the first place.
The Pals fought a war of extermination against the Jews and failed in 1936, 1948, 1967 and 1973. And 1 million Jews have been expelled from Arab lands in the last 100 years and most went to Israel – that is twice the number of Pal refugees in 1948! Those Jews had lived in those countries BEFORE the Arab invasion of the Middle east. Go back to school.
Whats a “climate activist”doing driving down to Kent?All those fumes.Surely counter productive.Should have gone by push bike.