Asking has not worked.

Voting has not worked.

Marching has not worked.

Emissions keep going up. Extinctions are on the rise. Nothing has changed.

So, is it time now for some of us to take a step over the line?

Would you commit a "crime" if you knew that doing so could potentially save thousands of lives?

Those are tough questions, and they are given thought-provoking and perhaps challenging answers in this piece...
_________________________

The environmental movement has offered waves of demonstrations, petition drives, lobbying and other forms of protest. Yet, despite all that, Earth and its inhabitants are losing the war waged against us by capitalism. It follows that a reevaluation of strategy and tactics of the environmental movement is in order, including a closer examination of how nonviolence should be understood and practiced.

In this context, we need to ask ourselves whether the destruction of planet-killing machinery is necessarily an act of violence. The answer should be no, because it prevents violence against nature. But, as a whole, the environmental movement’s dedication to the strict avoidance of property destruction is extreme in comparison to virtually all other social justice movements.
_________________________

FULL ARTICLE -- https://systemchangenotclimatechange.org/article/sabotaging-oil-and-gas-infrastructure-is-an-act-of-climate-heroism/

#Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateAction #ClimateEmergency #CO2 #Emissions #AntiCapitalism

Sabotaging Oil and Gas Infrastructure Is an Act of Climate Heroism - System Change Not Climate Change

As corporations build fossil fuel infrastructure despite protests, we must take the tactic of sabotage seriously.

System Change Not Climate Change

@breadandcircuses

Smash shit up.

Writing strongly worded letters to our representatives hasn't worked and it will never work.

The next time XR gets 50000+ people marching in central London we should refuse to leave and be like the French.

@robcornelius @breadandcircuses

If you read the research XR refer to when they talk about 3.5% gathering in the streets being enough to change the system, it's clear that's what's required - the protestors have to STAY, clogging the capital until they get their way.

It mystifies me why XR etc ignore that part.

@RhinosWorryMe @breadandcircuses I couldn't make it to the demo as Earth Day coincides with my wife's birthday.

When XR started up they were saying things like "you have to be prepared to be arrested". Then something happened.

We need to be more like the French.

@robcornelius @breadandcircuses

I think they discovered:

1) being able to be arrested voluntarily is a huge privilege, hence very exclusionary as a tactic

2) the government don't care if the jails are full or the "justice" system is overloaded - they want it that way

3) once your best warriors are in jail, activism becomes harder.

The French don't try to get arrested! They try *not* to!

@RhinosWorryMe @breadandcircuses

I think the turning point for XR was when some of their people glued themselves to a train and got abused by the travelling public.

Of course that made the 6 o'clock news...

It seems whenever XR, JustStopOil, InsulateBritain (all the same really) do something like the stunt at the snooker or Grand National the right wing press point out its rich white kids doing it and to be fair they are normally right.

Greenpeace and EarthFirst were much the same in their heyday. That episode of the Simpsons nailed it. Rich white saviours.

@robcornelius @breadandcircuses

XR had/have a lot of work to do on that front, but at least they're trying to do the work.

I think they could have overcome the train incident - they were still building numbers and boldness. It was the pandemic that scuppered them.

But it's a diversion to say they're rich white saviours. Even if they are (and as you say, there's truth in it), no ecoprotestors are acceptable to the right wing press. Just imagine what they'd be saying if XR were 100% PoC?

Those who know, have a duty to act. Besides, indigenous people and PoC are doing far more resistance than us rich whiteys are, in sacrifice zones all over the world. They just don't get even the small amount of attention we do.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/sep/29/global-witness-report-1700-activists-murdered-past-decade-aoe

#Climate #ClimateCrisis

More than 1,700 environmental activists murdered in the past decade – report

Figures likely to be an underestimate, says Global Witness, as land defenders are killed by hitmen, crime groups and governments

The Guardian

@RhinosWorryMe @breadandcircuses

Have you read the book Market Forces by Richard Morgan. That's what we are heading towards.

@robcornelius @breadandcircuses

No, but I just looked it up. Yikes.

Yeah, feeling pretty bleak at the moment.

How about Butler's "Parable of the Sower" and "Parable of the Talents"?