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Leila Deen

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Leila Deen (born 1979) is a British environmental activist, campaigning on the issues of climate change, poverty and water politics. She is program director at SumOfUs in Washington, DC.[1] Previously, she led Greenpeace UK's campaign against fracking[2] and was projects director with Greenpeace USA until 2019.[3] She was previously an activist with the World Development Movement and Plane Stupid. She is most widely known for pouring green custard on the then Business Secretary Lord Mandelson in March 2009 in protest against the extension of Heathrow Airport, for which she was arrested and cautioned.

Activism

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Deen has been an activist since she was a teenager.[2] Deen was a prominent member of anti-aviation group Plane Stupid and a campaigner for the World Development Movement, focusing on water,[4] finance, and climate change.[2][5] Deen made headlines in 2005 as part of a protest at the G8 meeting in Edinburgh when she scaled a crane along with two other protesters.[6] She was quoted as saying "The crumbs of debt relief and aid increases... remain tied to debilitating conditions, which stands in direct contradiction to Make Poverty History".

In contrast to her later direct action, at the 2008 Kingsnorth Climate Camp Deen was reported to be "keen to stress that WDM does not support illegal protest methods".[7] She has called Heathrow's Terminal 5 "a glorified shopping mall"[8] and she called pro-flight counter-protesters "very misguided".[9] In 2007 she joined Brian Haw's peace camp in Parliament Square against SOCPA and the Iraq War.[10]

As a member of Plane Stupid, she dressed as a suffragette, glued herself to the doors of the Department for Transport, and blew an airhorn to interrupt a speech by Geoff Hoon.[11] She was a finalist in the Sheila McKechnie Awards in 2006 for campaigning for Economic Justice.[12]

With Greenpeace UK from 2010 to 2013 she was an energy campaigner, leading their opposition to fracking,[13][14][15][16] running their "How clean is your cloud" campaign against the use of coal energy by internet companies,[17][18] and campaigning against Arctic and deep-water oil drilling by Shell, Gazprom and other energy companies, including on board Greenpeace's MV Esperanza ship.[2][19][20][21][22] In October 2013, she became Deputy Campaigns Director with Greenpeace USA.[3][23] From February 2019, she is program director at SumOfUs.[23]

Lord Mandelson Incident

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Democracy has failed us. It's direct action, and direct action historically has been a major way that we have got change. You can look back historically through the suffragettes, through the miner strikes, through all of the major changes. It's about putting yourself in the way.

Leila Deen[24]

On 6 March 2009 Deen approached Business Secretary Lord Mandelson outside a Low Carbon summit on the government's carbon strategy at the Royal Society and threw a cup of green custard in his face, in protest over his support for a third runway at Heathrow airport. Deen lived along a Heathrow flight path in London, and had previously argued that airport expansion was incompatible with stopping climate change.[25] She was quoted as saying "the only thing green about Peter Mandelson is the slime coursing through his veins."[26][27] Plane Stupid claimed[28] that the action was in protest at the frequent meetings between BAA's Roland Rudd and Mandelson and other ministers ahead of Labour's approval of a third runway.[citation needed]

Lord Mandelson responded that "Whilst I'm prepared to take my fair share of the green revolution on to my shoulders, I'm less keen on having it on my face", and John Prescott said that "What is totally unacceptable is the way the woman walked away claiming it was her right in democracy. She should have been arrested. It is not acceptable that she should be allowed to walk away."[29] Lord Mandelson noted that "I was slightly surprised that she could just saunter off without being apprehended". Deen was arrested on 8 March over the incident,[30] and was cautioned on 9 April for causing "harassment, alarm or distress".[31]

Journalism

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Deen wanted to be a journalist when she was in her teens.[2] Deen has written for New Statesman about the 2007 G8 summit,[32] for Red Pepper about the 2003 anti-war protests at RAF Fairford[33] and for The Independent.[34] In the Guardian ahead of the G-20 protests, Deen argued that the green movement is strong as it relies on networks, built through baking cakes and making bunting rather than on violence and confronting police lines.[35]

Personal life

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Deen went to school in Brighton. She is half-Egyptian, and is also known as Leila Aly-el-Deen.[11] Her mother Sheila is a primary school teacher and Greenpeace member. Leila studied development studies and politics at Leeds University, where she voted in favour of banning The Sun newspaper from shops in the Students' Union in protest at its coverage of immigration and asylum issues.[36] She subsequently received a master's degree from Sussex University. For her mother's 60th birthday, they travelled to Morocco by train with her sister Emma as Leila would not allow them to fly.[37][38]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Author Page". openDemocracy. Retrieved 1 May 2020.
  2. ^ a b c d e Feinerman, Lynn (6 March 2014). "Women Rising Radio XXIV: Greenpeace Activists". Women Rising Radio. Retrieved 4 October 2015.
  3. ^ a b "Leila Deen". Greenpeace USA. Retrieved 4 October 2015.
  4. ^ Vicky Cann and Tim Jones, Edited by Leila Deen Down the drain: How aid for water sector reform could be better spent World Development Movement, November 2006
  5. ^ Kent facing huge threat from climate change: new map Archived 11 January 2009 at the Wayback Machine WDM, 24 June 2008
  6. ^ G8 protesters climb 150ft crane BBC News, 5 July 2005
  7. ^ Walker, Rosie: Protest and polite policemen, but no posters, please: a day inside the Climate Camp Archived 20 November 2008 at the Wayback Machine Third Sector, 11 August 2008
  8. ^ Jacobs, Catherine: New Terminal Branded An 'Ugly Icon'. Sky News, 14 March 2008
  9. ^ Davis, Anna: Demonstrators bear down on Westminster in fight against Heathrow expansion Evening Standard, 20 February 2009
  10. ^ Allen, Nick: U.K.'s Brown Faces Anti-War Protests as Exclusion Zone Lifted Bloomberg, 28 June 2007
  11. ^ a b Bingham, John; Khan, Urmee (6 March 2009). "Mandelson custard attack: Peter Mandelson covered in custard by protester Leila Deen". The Telegraph. Retrieved 4 October 2015.
  12. ^ "Economic Justice 2006 | Sheila McKechnie Foundation Awards". 2006. Retrieved 4 October 2015.
  13. ^ "Viewpoints: Do we have to choose between cheap or clean energy?". BBC News. 5 September 2013. Retrieved 4 October 2015.
  14. ^ "Greenpeace: "Fracking dream is dangerous fantasy"". Granada. ITN. 13 December 2012. Retrieved 4 October 2015.
  15. ^ "'Frack Master' Chris Faulkner takes on Greenpeace". BBC News. 7 November 2013. Retrieved 4 October 2015.
  16. ^ Farey-Jones, Daniel (21 August 2013). "Anti-fracking pressure mounts as Greenpeace plans 'spectacular' activity". PR Week. Retrieved 4 October 2015.
  17. ^ Deen, Leila (26 April 2012). "Clean Energy: If Apple Can't Afford to Think Different, No One Can". Huffington Post. Retrieved 4 October 2015.
  18. ^ Camm-Jones, Ben (18 April 2012). "Greenpeace protesters target Apple's Ireland HQ". Macworld. Retrieved 4 October 2015.
  19. ^ Stallard, Katie (24 August 2010). "Greenpeace In Stand-Off Over Arctic Oil Drill". Sky News. Retrieved 4 October 2015.
  20. ^ "Greenpeace forced to end anti-drilling protest by court order". Shetland Times. 24 September 2010. Retrieved 4 October 2015.
  21. ^ Cartmell, Matt (10 September 2010). "Voluntary Sector: 'Be braver' urges Greenpeace". PR Week. Retrieved 4 October 2015.
  22. ^ "Greenpeace justifies scaling the Shard over Arctic oil drilling". The Telegraph. 11 July 2013. Archived from the original on 15 July 2013. Retrieved 4 October 2015.
  23. ^ a b "Leila Deen". LinkedIn. Retrieved 4 October 2015.
  24. ^ Press Association (6 March 2009). "Profile: Leila Deen". The Guardian. Retrieved 6 March 2009.
  25. ^ Cleland, Gary: Third Heathrow runway to get go-ahead Daily Telegraph, 24 November 2007
  26. ^ Hines, Nico: Protester throws green custard in the face of Lord Mandelson and walks away[dead link] The Times, 6 March 2009
  27. ^ Profile: Leila Deen The Guardian, 6 March 2009
  28. ^ "Peter Mandelson: Yachtgate 2.0". Plane Stupid. Archived from the original on 5 March 2009. Retrieved 6 March 2009.
  29. ^ "Police to investigate green custard attack on Mandelson". 6 March 2009.
  30. ^ Arrest in Mandelson custard probe BBC News, 8 March 2009
  31. ^ "Mandelson custard woman cautioned". BBC News. 9 April 2009. Retrieved 15 April 2009.
  32. ^ Leila Deen's blog New Statesman June 2007
  33. ^ Deen, Leila: Flowers For Fairford Red Pepper, 22 April 2003 (in the Internet Archive)
  34. ^ Deen, Leila: 44 die in Iranian plane crash near airport. The Independent, 11 February 2004
  35. ^ Deen, Leila (31 March 2009). "G20: The cake and bunting revolution". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 April 2009.
  36. ^ Michael Pennock and Polly Curtis: Sun elipsed by Leeds students The Guardian, 14 February 2003
  37. ^ Nico Hines, David Brown: Profile: Leila Deen – the professional activist who attacked Mandelson[dead link] Times Online, 6 March 2009
  38. ^ Gurner, Richard (7 March 2009). "Mandelson slime woman's mum "proud" of daughter". The Argus. Retrieved 4 October 2015.
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