‘A new phase’: why climate activists are turning to sabotage instead of protest | Tougher laws said to be inspiring clandestine attacks on the ‘property and machinery’ of the fossil fuel economy
He said new laws further criminalising disruptive protests had made traditional, accountable methods of activism increasingly unsustainable, and a clandestine approach increasingly attractive. He pointed to the case of activists from JSO who received sentences of four and five years – reduced on Friday after an appeal – for organising road blocks on the M25.
This is exactly what myself and many others said would happen. If you punish peaceful (but disruptive) protests as hard as, say, murdering the CEO of exxon, you might as well go for the murder.
I don't really want to live in a world where vigilantes are murdering the entire board of oil companies, but i also don't want to live in a world with big oil companies destroying our climate.
I know which of those worlds I would prefer though. The last politician I voted for wasn't because I liked them, it was because the other choice was much much worse.
I've said this before; anyone that attacks art for a statement is on the wrong side of history. The only point they proved was that they were complete morons.
Now, sabotaging equipment... Or throwing soup at oil barons... NOW you're talking.