Hundreds of protesters have marched to Aotearoa New Zealand’s Parliament in Wellington today, where streets were closed and the precinct blocked off in preparation.
The march was met by a smaller group of counter protesters from Pōneke Anti-Fascist Coalition.
About 600 protesters had gathered at Civic Square before setting off, according to RNZ reporters on the scene.
There is an extra police presence in the capital, roads have been closed and bus routes diverted with police saying officers were “prepared and on alert” and would be “highly visible across Wellington city”.
The protest has been organised by a diverse range of groups including Brian Tamaki’s Freedom Rights Coalition, the Convoy Coalition and Stop Co-Governance protesting against the UN’s “Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”.
New Zealand faces a general election on October 14.
Fact checks on UN claims For context, RNZ reports multiple news organisations have repeatedly debunked claims that the UN’s Agenda 2030 and a “Great Reset” is some sort of plan for global domination.
Hundreds of protesters have marched to Aotearoa New Zealand’s Parliament in Wellington today, where streets were closed and the precinct blocked off in preparation.
The march was met by a smaller group of counter protesters from Pōneke Anti-Fascist Coalition.
About 600 protesters had gathered at Civic Square before setting off, according to RNZ reporters on the scene.
There is an extra police presence in the capital, roads have been closed and bus routes diverted with police saying officers were “prepared and on alert” and would be “highly visible across Wellington city”.
The protest has been organised by a diverse range of groups including Brian Tamaki’s Freedom Rights Coalition, the Convoy Coalition and Stop Co-Governance protesting against the UN’s “Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”.
New Zealand faces a general election on October 14.
Fact checks on UN claims For context, RNZ reports multiple news organisations have repeatedly debunked claims that the UN’s Agenda 2030 and a “Great Reset” is some sort of plan for global domination.
Taiwanese businessman Lee Meng-chu, who disappeared in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen in August 2019 at the height of the Hong Kong protest movement, says he was initially detained for carrying a card that read “Go Hong Kong!” – a common protest slogan at the time.
Lee’s possession of the slogan, along with photos he snapped from his hotel of armed police gathering nearby, was taken as evidence that he was “a Taiwan independence activist” trying to foment a “color revolution” – a populist uprising with foreign support – in the former British colony, he told Radio Free Asia in a recent interview.
Lee, also known as Morrison Lee, has previously described himself as a political hostage targeted due to anger in Beijing over Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen’s vocal support for the Hong Kong protest movement, and her government’s criticism of the Hong Kong authorities’ response.
He was released last year at the end of his one-year, 10-month jail term for “espionage” but held under restrictions for several more months before eventually being allowed to leave for Japan in July.
He recently arrived back in Taiwan after 1,475 days away, and feels he now has an in-depth understanding of why millions of people took to Hong Kong’s streets to protest the erosion of their freedoms in 2019.
“On my first day in the detention center I understood why the people of Hong Kong want to have nothing to do with the black hole that is the mainland Chinese judicial system,” Lee, who at one point appeared on Chinese state television making a heavily scripted “confession,” told Radio Free Asia.
Landed during protests
When he flew to Hong Kong, he hadn’t expected to land in the middle of one of the biggest and most protracted campaigns of mass popular resistance the city had ever seen – sparked by attempts by then Chief Executive Carrie Lam to change the law to allow the extradition of alleged “criminal suspects” to face trial in mainland Chinese courts.
“The anti-extradition protests were under way, and when I read the headlines after getting off the plane, I saw that 1.75 million people had been to a mass rally in Victoria Park.”
“So I went along there for half an hour to take a look that evening,” Lee said.
In 2019, Lee Meng-chu snapped photos from his Shenzhen hotel of Chinese armed police gathering nearby. Credit: Provided by Lee Meng-chu
The following day, he made a business trip to Shenzhen, staying overnight and having breakfast in his hotel the next day.
“I noticed there was a gathering of armed police in a stadium … just as they were reporting the [protests] in Hong Kong, and so I took a few pictures with my phone,” he said. “That’s all I did.”
Then, as he tried to clear the immigration checkpoint to get back into Hong Kong, his nightmare began.
Customs officials searched him and found a card bearing the slogan “Go Hong Kong!” and the photos of the armed police on his phone.
“The moment they saw the card, they yelled ‘What’s this?’” Lee said. “Three customs officers came over immediately, and one of them said ‘color revolution’.”
“It turns out that under the Chinese Communist Party system, this was a breach of state secrets, so I was smeared as a Taiwanese spy, a backbone of the Taiwan independence movement, and as an anti-China force come to disrupt Hong Kong,” he said.
“I still find it so baffling to this day.”
Forced confession
After his arrest, Lee was forced to “confess to his crimes” on state television.
“It was [arranged by] some people sent by the ministry of state security in Beijing,” he said. “They started banging on the table from the start and yelled at me that I had to cooperate, that I would get a lenient punishment if I did.”
“I remember recording it seven or eight times from start to finish,” Lee said. “When they weren’t happy [with the way I did it] they would tell me and direct me to say what they wanted.”
At the time the video clip was broadcast, a police officer from the Guangdong provincial state security police was quoted as saying that Lee’s behavior was “highly typical of Taiwanese independence forces intervening in Hong Kong’s affairs.”
Lee Meng-chu was released last year at the end of his one-year-10-month jail term for “espionage” but was held under restrictions for several more months before eventually being allowed to leave for Japan in July. He recently arrived back in Taiwan. Credit: RFA
Lee said the whole charge against him was “ridiculous.”
“I think they shot their arrow, then painted the target afterwards,” he said. “They grabbed a random passer-by and tried to turn them into a Taiwan independence activist colluding with Hong Kong independence activists.”
“Former [Hong Kong] Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa said the Hong Kong protests were instigated by external forces from Taiwan and the United States … so maybe that was the context,” Lee said.
“I’m guessing that they had orders from the central government [in Beijing] to arrest two or three Taiwanese nationals.”
He said foreign governments need to stay united to make sure their nationals don’t continue to be used as political hostages.
“Only when the governments of various democratic countries unite to establish an international hostage rescue platform and pool their leverage will they be able to negotiate with the Chinese Communist Party,” Lee said.
“Only then will they be able to rescue such hostages, and let them go home and be reunited with their families,” he said.
He called on Taiwan’s 23 million people to protect the “treasure” that is their freedom and democracy.
“Only people who have lost their freedom know how precious it is – like the air we breathe,” Lee said.
Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Jojo Man for RFA Cantonese.
Taiwanese businessman Lee Meng-chu, who disappeared in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen in August 2019 at the height of the Hong Kong protest movement, says he was initially detained for carrying a card that read “Go Hong Kong!” – a common protest slogan at the time.
Lee’s possession of the slogan, along with photos he snapped from his hotel of armed police gathering nearby, was taken as evidence that he was “a Taiwan independence activist” trying to foment a “color revolution” – a populist uprising with foreign support – in the former British colony, he told Radio Free Asia in a recent interview.
Lee, also known as Morrison Lee, has previously described himself as a political hostage targeted due to anger in Beijing over Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen’s vocal support for the Hong Kong protest movement, and her government’s criticism of the Hong Kong authorities’ response.
He was released last year at the end of his one-year, 10-month jail term for “espionage” but held under restrictions for several more months before eventually being allowed to leave for Japan in July.
He recently arrived back in Taiwan after 1,475 days away, and feels he now has an in-depth understanding of why millions of people took to Hong Kong’s streets to protest the erosion of their freedoms in 2019.
“On my first day in the detention center I understood why the people of Hong Kong want to have nothing to do with the black hole that is the mainland Chinese judicial system,” Lee, who at one point appeared on Chinese state television making a heavily scripted “confession,” told Radio Free Asia.
Landed during protests
When he flew to Hong Kong, he hadn’t expected to land in the middle of one of the biggest and most protracted campaigns of mass popular resistance the city had ever seen – sparked by attempts by then Chief Executive Carrie Lam to change the law to allow the extradition of alleged “criminal suspects” to face trial in mainland Chinese courts.
“The anti-extradition protests were under way, and when I read the headlines after getting off the plane, I saw that 1.75 million people had been to a mass rally in Victoria Park.”
“So I went along there for half an hour to take a look that evening,” Lee said.
In 2019, Lee Meng-chu snapped photos from his Shenzhen hotel of Chinese armed police gathering nearby. Credit: Provided by Lee Meng-chu
The following day, he made a business trip to Shenzhen, staying overnight and having breakfast in his hotel the next day.
“I noticed there was a gathering of armed police in a stadium … just as they were reporting the [protests] in Hong Kong, and so I took a few pictures with my phone,” he said. “That’s all I did.”
Then, as he tried to clear the immigration checkpoint to get back into Hong Kong, his nightmare began.
Customs officials searched him and found a card bearing the slogan “Go Hong Kong!” and the photos of the armed police on his phone.
“The moment they saw the card, they yelled ‘What’s this?’” Lee said. “Three customs officers came over immediately, and one of them said ‘color revolution’.”
“It turns out that under the Chinese Communist Party system, this was a breach of state secrets, so I was smeared as a Taiwanese spy, a backbone of the Taiwan independence movement, and as an anti-China force come to disrupt Hong Kong,” he said.
“I still find it so baffling to this day.”
Forced confession
After his arrest, Lee was forced to “confess to his crimes” on state television.
“It was [arranged by] some people sent by the ministry of state security in Beijing,” he said. “They started banging on the table from the start and yelled at me that I had to cooperate, that I would get a lenient punishment if I did.”
“I remember recording it seven or eight times from start to finish,” Lee said. “When they weren’t happy [with the way I did it] they would tell me and direct me to say what they wanted.”
At the time the video clip was broadcast, a police officer from the Guangdong provincial state security police was quoted as saying that Lee’s behavior was “highly typical of Taiwanese independence forces intervening in Hong Kong’s affairs.”
Lee Meng-chu was released last year at the end of his one-year-10-month jail term for “espionage” but was held under restrictions for several more months before eventually being allowed to leave for Japan in July. He recently arrived back in Taiwan. Credit: RFA
Lee said the whole charge against him was “ridiculous.”
“I think they shot their arrow, then painted the target afterwards,” he said. “They grabbed a random passer-by and tried to turn them into a Taiwan independence activist colluding with Hong Kong independence activists.”
“Former [Hong Kong] Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa said the Hong Kong protests were instigated by external forces from Taiwan and the United States … so maybe that was the context,” Lee said.
“I’m guessing that they had orders from the central government [in Beijing] to arrest two or three Taiwanese nationals.”
He said foreign governments need to stay united to make sure their nationals don’t continue to be used as political hostages.
“Only when the governments of various democratic countries unite to establish an international hostage rescue platform and pool their leverage will they be able to negotiate with the Chinese Communist Party,” Lee said.
“Only then will they be able to rescue such hostages, and let them go home and be reunited with their families,” he said.
He called on Taiwan’s 23 million people to protect the “treasure” that is their freedom and democracy.
“Only people who have lost their freedom know how precious it is – like the air we breathe,” Lee said.
Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Jojo Man for RFA Cantonese.
Taiwanese businessman Lee Meng-chu, who disappeared in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen in August 2019 at the height of the Hong Kong protest movement, says he was initially detained for carrying a card that read “Go Hong Kong!” – a common protest slogan at the time.
Lee’s possession of the slogan, along with photos he snapped from his hotel of armed police gathering nearby, was taken as evidence that he was “a Taiwan independence activist” trying to foment a “color revolution” – a populist uprising with foreign support – in the former British colony, he told Radio Free Asia in a recent interview.
Lee, also known as Morrison Lee, has previously described himself as a political hostage targeted due to anger in Beijing over Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen’s vocal support for the Hong Kong protest movement, and her government’s criticism of the Hong Kong authorities’ response.
He was released last year at the end of his one-year, 10-month jail term for “espionage” but held under restrictions for several more months before eventually being allowed to leave for Japan in July.
He recently arrived back in Taiwan after 1,475 days away, and feels he now has an in-depth understanding of why millions of people took to Hong Kong’s streets to protest the erosion of their freedoms in 2019.
“On my first day in the detention center I understood why the people of Hong Kong want to have nothing to do with the black hole that is the mainland Chinese judicial system,” Lee, who at one point appeared on Chinese state television making a heavily scripted “confession,” told Radio Free Asia.
Landed during protests
When he flew to Hong Kong, he hadn’t expected to land in the middle of one of the biggest and most protracted campaigns of mass popular resistance the city had ever seen – sparked by attempts by then Chief Executive Carrie Lam to change the law to allow the extradition of alleged “criminal suspects” to face trial in mainland Chinese courts.
“The anti-extradition protests were under way, and when I read the headlines after getting off the plane, I saw that 1.75 million people had been to a mass rally in Victoria Park.”
“So I went along there for half an hour to take a look that evening,” Lee said.
In 2019, Lee Meng-chu snapped photos from his Shenzhen hotel of Chinese armed police gathering nearby. Credit: Provided by Lee Meng-chu
The following day, he made a business trip to Shenzhen, staying overnight and having breakfast in his hotel the next day.
“I noticed there was a gathering of armed police in a stadium … just as they were reporting the [protests] in Hong Kong, and so I took a few pictures with my phone,” he said. “That’s all I did.”
Then, as he tried to clear the immigration checkpoint to get back into Hong Kong, his nightmare began.
Customs officials searched him and found a card bearing the slogan “Go Hong Kong!” and the photos of the armed police on his phone.
“The moment they saw the card, they yelled ‘What’s this?’” Lee said. “Three customs officers came over immediately, and one of them said ‘color revolution’.”
“It turns out that under the Chinese Communist Party system, this was a breach of state secrets, so I was smeared as a Taiwanese spy, a backbone of the Taiwan independence movement, and as an anti-China force come to disrupt Hong Kong,” he said.
“I still find it so baffling to this day.”
Forced confession
After his arrest, Lee was forced to “confess to his crimes” on state television.
“It was [arranged by] some people sent by the ministry of state security in Beijing,” he said. “They started banging on the table from the start and yelled at me that I had to cooperate, that I would get a lenient punishment if I did.”
“I remember recording it seven or eight times from start to finish,” Lee said. “When they weren’t happy [with the way I did it] they would tell me and direct me to say what they wanted.”
At the time the video clip was broadcast, a police officer from the Guangdong provincial state security police was quoted as saying that Lee’s behavior was “highly typical of Taiwanese independence forces intervening in Hong Kong’s affairs.”
Lee Meng-chu was released last year at the end of his one-year-10-month jail term for “espionage” but was held under restrictions for several more months before eventually being allowed to leave for Japan in July. He recently arrived back in Taiwan. Credit: RFA
Lee said the whole charge against him was “ridiculous.”
“I think they shot their arrow, then painted the target afterwards,” he said. “They grabbed a random passer-by and tried to turn them into a Taiwan independence activist colluding with Hong Kong independence activists.”
“Former [Hong Kong] Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa said the Hong Kong protests were instigated by external forces from Taiwan and the United States … so maybe that was the context,” Lee said.
“I’m guessing that they had orders from the central government [in Beijing] to arrest two or three Taiwanese nationals.”
He said foreign governments need to stay united to make sure their nationals don’t continue to be used as political hostages.
“Only when the governments of various democratic countries unite to establish an international hostage rescue platform and pool their leverage will they be able to negotiate with the Chinese Communist Party,” Lee said.
“Only then will they be able to rescue such hostages, and let them go home and be reunited with their families,” he said.
He called on Taiwan’s 23 million people to protect the “treasure” that is their freedom and democracy.
“Only people who have lost their freedom know how precious it is – like the air we breathe,” Lee said.
Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Jojo Man for RFA Cantonese.
Taiwanese businessman Lee Meng-chu, who disappeared in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen in August 2019 at the height of the Hong Kong protest movement, says he was initially detained for carrying a card that read “Go Hong Kong!” – a common protest slogan at the time.
Lee’s possession of the slogan, along with photos he snapped from his hotel of armed police gathering nearby, was taken as evidence that he was “a Taiwan independence activist” trying to foment a “color revolution” – a populist uprising with foreign support – in the former British colony, he told Radio Free Asia in a recent interview.
Lee, also known as Morrison Lee, has previously described himself as a political hostage targeted due to anger in Beijing over Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen’s vocal support for the Hong Kong protest movement, and her government’s criticism of the Hong Kong authorities’ response.
He was released last year at the end of his one-year, 10-month jail term for “espionage” but held under restrictions for several more months before eventually being allowed to leave for Japan in July.
He recently arrived back in Taiwan after 1,475 days away, and feels he now has an in-depth understanding of why millions of people took to Hong Kong’s streets to protest the erosion of their freedoms in 2019.
“On my first day in the detention center I understood why the people of Hong Kong want to have nothing to do with the black hole that is the mainland Chinese judicial system,” Lee, who at one point appeared on Chinese state television making a heavily scripted “confession,” told Radio Free Asia.
Landed during protests
When he flew to Hong Kong, he hadn’t expected to land in the middle of one of the biggest and most protracted campaigns of mass popular resistance the city had ever seen – sparked by attempts by then Chief Executive Carrie Lam to change the law to allow the extradition of alleged “criminal suspects” to face trial in mainland Chinese courts.
“The anti-extradition protests were under way, and when I read the headlines after getting off the plane, I saw that 1.75 million people had been to a mass rally in Victoria Park.”
“So I went along there for half an hour to take a look that evening,” Lee said.
In 2019, Lee Meng-chu snapped photos from his Shenzhen hotel of Chinese armed police gathering nearby. Credit: Provided by Lee Meng-chu
The following day, he made a business trip to Shenzhen, staying overnight and having breakfast in his hotel the next day.
“I noticed there was a gathering of armed police in a stadium … just as they were reporting the [protests] in Hong Kong, and so I took a few pictures with my phone,” he said. “That’s all I did.”
Then, as he tried to clear the immigration checkpoint to get back into Hong Kong, his nightmare began.
Customs officials searched him and found a card bearing the slogan “Go Hong Kong!” and the photos of the armed police on his phone.
“The moment they saw the card, they yelled ‘What’s this?’” Lee said. “Three customs officers came over immediately, and one of them said ‘color revolution’.”
“It turns out that under the Chinese Communist Party system, this was a breach of state secrets, so I was smeared as a Taiwanese spy, a backbone of the Taiwan independence movement, and as an anti-China force come to disrupt Hong Kong,” he said.
“I still find it so baffling to this day.”
Forced confession
After his arrest, Lee was forced to “confess to his crimes” on state television.
“It was [arranged by] some people sent by the ministry of state security in Beijing,” he said. “They started banging on the table from the start and yelled at me that I had to cooperate, that I would get a lenient punishment if I did.”
“I remember recording it seven or eight times from start to finish,” Lee said. “When they weren’t happy [with the way I did it] they would tell me and direct me to say what they wanted.”
At the time the video clip was broadcast, a police officer from the Guangdong provincial state security police was quoted as saying that Lee’s behavior was “highly typical of Taiwanese independence forces intervening in Hong Kong’s affairs.”
Lee Meng-chu was released last year at the end of his one-year-10-month jail term for “espionage” but was held under restrictions for several more months before eventually being allowed to leave for Japan in July. He recently arrived back in Taiwan. Credit: RFA
Lee said the whole charge against him was “ridiculous.”
“I think they shot their arrow, then painted the target afterwards,” he said. “They grabbed a random passer-by and tried to turn them into a Taiwan independence activist colluding with Hong Kong independence activists.”
“Former [Hong Kong] Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa said the Hong Kong protests were instigated by external forces from Taiwan and the United States … so maybe that was the context,” Lee said.
“I’m guessing that they had orders from the central government [in Beijing] to arrest two or three Taiwanese nationals.”
He said foreign governments need to stay united to make sure their nationals don’t continue to be used as political hostages.
“Only when the governments of various democratic countries unite to establish an international hostage rescue platform and pool their leverage will they be able to negotiate with the Chinese Communist Party,” Lee said.
“Only then will they be able to rescue such hostages, and let them go home and be reunited with their families,” he said.
He called on Taiwan’s 23 million people to protect the “treasure” that is their freedom and democracy.
“Only people who have lost their freedom know how precious it is – like the air we breathe,” Lee said.
Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Jojo Man for RFA Cantonese.
Protests have continued outside Ghana‘s presidential palace for a second day running. Meanwhile, protesters have claimed that they experienced beatings by police while in custody.
More than 50 arrested
People gathered outside the presidential palace known as Jubilee House on 21 September to protest corruption and mismanagement. As the Canaryreported, a civil society group known as Democracy Hub organised the demonstrations to voice discontent over the actions of president Nana Akufo-Addo and his government.
Ghanaian police reportedly arrested more than 50 people on the first day of the protests in the capital, Accra. Amongst them was Oliver Barker-Vormawor, who heads up the ‘fix the country’ movement. Some of those arrested said the police attacked them and took their phones.
In a letter to the police inspector general, feminist and youth activist Bright Botchway said:
It is with great sadness that I report that some of the individuals unlawfully arrested during the protest have had their phones illegally confiscated and have endured physical beatings and various forms of inhumane and degrading treatment at the hands of the Ghana Police Service. These actions not only contravene our constitution but also transgress international human rights standards.
As a dedicated advocate for human rights, I strongly condemn this disgraceful conduct by the Ghana Police Service unequivocally. I firmly demand the immediate release of all unlawfully arrested and detained protestors, by the constitution and the principles of justice, democracy, and human rights.
However, police have denied the claims that they attacked arrested protesters.
Second day of protests
Despite the arrests, protesters returned to Jubilee House on 22 September:
Posts to social media showed large numbers of people had once again turned out to protest. They also showed that the police had formed barricades to stop people and, as a result, people had occupied the roads:
In the lead-up to 21 September, Democracy Hub refuted a claim by police that they had issued an injunction against the protests. As a result, the group said it would continue with its three planned days of protests up to 23 September.
In a ruling last week, a Minnesota judge summarily dismissed misdemeanor charges against three Anishinaabe water protectors who had protested at a pipeline construction site in an effort to stop the Enbridge Line 3 tar sands oil pipeline. “To criminalize their behavior would be the crime,” she concluded.
Judge Leslie Metzen relied on a rarely-used Minnesota statute that allows a judge to dismiss a case if doing so furthers “justice.” She assessed that in this case justice meant throwing out charges against Anishinaabe people committed to preserving their treaty lands. “The court finds that it is within the furtherance of justice to protect the defendants peacefully protesting to protect the land and water,” she wrote.
“I’ve never seen a judge dismiss a case in the name of justice,” said Claire Glenn, a staff attorney at the Climate Defense Project who was part of the defense team for the water protectors. She said that research undertaken by the legal team found very few cases where the statute had been cited previously.
The three defendants, Tania Aubid, Dawn Goodwin, and Winona LaDuke, were emotional as they processed the ruling during a press conference on Monday. Each member of the trio faced a range of charges — including trespass, harassment, public nuisance, and unlawful assembly — for their participation in a protest in January 2021.
“Judge Metzen proved that treaties are the supreme law of the land, and we have every right to protect for future generations,” said Goodwin, who also goes by Gaagigeyaashiik and is a White Earth tribal member.
LaDuke, however, argued that the system was not strong enough to keep their people’s land and water safe. Since the completion of the pipeline in 2021, regulators have revealed that Enbridge punctured aquifers at least four times during construction.
“The regulatory system and legal systems are not equipped to deal with the violence of the ecological crimes underway,” LaDuke, former director of the nonprofit Honor the Earth, said. As she sees it, the water protectors had no other recourse than to participate in a months-long series of protest actions meant to halt the project.
As the Center for Media and Democracy and Grist laid out in a recent investigation, Enbridge reimbursed sheriffs’ offices, the Minnesota State Patrol, the Department of Natural Resources, and even a public relations officer for work related to quelling the protests, funneling a total of $8.6 million to various agencies through an escrow account created by the state Public Utilities Commission.
According to police reports, a group of 200 protesters blocked traffic on a rural Minnesota road on January 9, 2021, as they marched toward a place where a backhoe was holding a large pipe near a freshly dug hole. Twenty or 30 people entered the pipeline construction site, stopping work. “A Native American woman I did not know, wearing a jingle dress did a dance on the edge of the trench, and would not move back,” wrote Aitkin County Investigator Steve Cook. Police issued dispersal orders, and the protesters cleared out soon after, the reports conclude.
An officer on the ground pointed to Aubid and LaDuke as potential leaders, and another investigator identified Goodwin after reviewing Facebook videos. But the trio only received citations weeks later — five misdemeanor charges for Aubid and LaDuke, and three for Goodwin.
It would be months before Enbridge reimbursed law enforcement agencies for the hours they spent policing the protest. According to an analysis by the Center for Media and Democracy, at least four local law enforcement agencies received more than $17,000 from Enbridge for assigning nearly 40 officers to the protest site that day.
“It was not necessary to have 40 or 50 police officers at any point,” LaDuke said. “This was excessive force used upon all of us — excessive prosecution, and it was incentivized by Enbridge.”
About two weeks after the protest, Enbridge machinery quietly punctured an aquifer at a similar Line 3 construction site. Over the next year, a total of more than 72 million gallons of water spilled from the earth. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources forced the company to pay $3.2 million in environmental penalties. However, a single misdemeanor was the only criminal charge Enbridge faced, and it came with a deal that said it would be dismissed after a year.
The aquifer breach was key to the defense attorneys’ argument for dismissal of the charges. At a settlement conference the day before the decision, Joshua Preston, who represented Goodwin, asked the judge to put the case in perspective.
“We just experienced the hottest summer globally on record, a documented fact that led the United Nations Secretary General to issue a statement on September 6 stating ‘climate breakdown has begun,’” he said. “Why does Enbridge get one charge while my client gets three?”
“This is the question history will ask if the state is allowed to move forward in its prosecution,” Preston continued.
At the press conference, Frank Bibeau — who is Anishinaabe and a longtime attorney for pipeline opponents — said that such arguments are typically ignored when they come from Indigenous people: “These are words we say all the time, but they never get heard.”
Prosecutors filed a total of 967 criminal cases against people attending Line 3 protests. The vast majority were dismissed, some for lack of probable cause, others via negotiated agreements. Not everyone has avoided “guilty” verdicts. In the last three months, two were convicted of felonies for participating in protests. Glenn said those cases involved prosecutorial misconduct that is still being litigated. Fewer than 20 open cases remain.
In a number of cases, attorneys attempted to argue that the involvement of the Enbridge escrow account means the arrests violated pipeline opponents’ rights to due process. However, these arguments failed to sway any judge.
Preston’s arguments about his clients’ case’s relation to the climate crisis, on the other hand, found a receptive audience in court. “These cases and these 3 defendants in particular have awakened in me some deep questions about what would serve the interests of justice here,” Metzen, the judge, wrote in a memo attached to the ruling.
“Their gathering may have briefly delayed construction, caused extra expense to law enforcement who came to clear their gathering (much of which was reimbursed by Aitkin County through Enbridge), but the pipeline has been completed and is operating in spite of their efforts to stop it through peaceful protest,” she continued. “In the interest of justice the charges against these three individuals who were exercising their rights to free speech and to freely express their spiritual beliefs should be dismissed.”
Multiple rounds of sanctions mark anniversary of 22-year-old’s death in custody of Iran’s ‘morality police’
The US and Britain on Friday imposed sanctions on Iran on the eve of the one-year anniversary of the death of a Kurdish Iranian woman, Mahsa Amini, while in the custody of Iran’s “morality police”, which sparked months of anti-government protests that faced often violent crackdown.
Amini, 22, died on 16 September last year after being arrested for allegedly flouting the Islamic Republic’s mandatory dress code. Her death sparked months of anti-government protests that marked the biggest show of opposition to Iranian authorities in years. Iranian security forces have been deployed in her home town in anticipation of unrest this weekend.
Maryam al-Khawaja fears her father, the political prisoner Abdulhadi al-Khawajar, will die soon after being denied medical treatment
A leading Bahraini human rights defender and the heads of two global rights groups have been prevented from boarding a flight to Manama, where they intended to try to get access to her father, one of Bahrain’s most prominent political prisoners.
“We were told they were not allowed to board us. Despite my being a Bahraini citizen, I was told I have to speak to Bahraini immigration … effectively we’re being denied boarding by British Airways on behalf of the Bahraini government,” said Maryam al-Khawaja, flanked by the head of Amnesty International, Agnès Callamard, and the acting head of Front Line Defenders, Olive Moore, in the departure area of Heathrow airport.
The Tory-led UK government has revealed that it invited eight countries it considers to be human rights abusers to the Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI) arms fair at the ExCeL centre in London. Accordingly, people have been protesting – making their objections to these death dealers clear.
DSEI: protests continue
The Canary has been covering this year’s DSEI. As we previously reported:
It’s a huge arms fair that hosts over 2,800 companies profiting from death, destruction, and surveillance. DSEI happens every two years – and so do the protests to it. Stop The Arms Fair (STAF) has been organising resistance. So far, it’s held a peace walk, a workshop on removing militarisation from education, and a ‘policing and prisons’ day
Then, on Monday 11 September, protests took place outside BAE Systems – one of the most notorious arms companies on the planet:
“War Starts Here”: Quakers and friends outside BAE Systems, the UK’s largest arms dealer and massive supplier to Saudi Arabia, more than £23 billion in warplanes and other military products since the start of the Yemen conflict 8 years ago. @Quakers_RoR#StopDSEIpic.twitter.com/gDXESpgH8W
There was also a poster campaign, spreading information:
Posters have appeared explaining the disastrous effect of this week’s DSEI arms fair and the weapons sales that come from it. The first highlights the impact over the eight years of the war in Yemen, the second discusses weapons sales to human rights abusers. #StopDSEIpic.twitter.com/xyFOJ3BIPA
— Quaker Roots: resisting the arms trade (@Quakers_RoR) September 11, 2023
On the fair’s opening day, Tuesday 12 September, protesters made sure that the arms dealers attending couldn’t miss the resistance to them and their industry:
Arms dealers arriving at #StopDSEI are being funnelled through a gauntlet of protesters. They have blood on their hands and we’re reminding them of the reality of their deadly trade. #DSEI23pic.twitter.com/xdKF3foojv
As an “arms dealer” carrying her arms arrives, a campaigner holds a banner saying, “Blood on your hands”. In the background, DSEI arms fair delegates look nervously for the entrance. #StopDSEI@StopTheArmsFairpic.twitter.com/EPuHWkgs0w
As arms dealers arrive, Quakers and friends meet at the gate of theDSEI arms fair to share words of people from around the world who’s lives have been devastated by the arms trade
Campaigners are outside UK Defence and Security Exports this morning telling passers-by about the DSEI arms fair and the role of UKDSE in promoting arms sales #StopDSEI – with @PeaceKingston@vfpuk & Movement for the Abolition of War pic.twitter.com/KChKDklMvx
Of course, the UK government’s definition of a human-rights-abusing state is itself entirely inadequate. Other notorious countries attending DSEI but who don’t make the government watch-list include:
Bahrain, which has only just been removed from the government’s human rights priority list.
Israel – human rights groups like Amnesty and Human Rights Watch have labelled Israel an apartheid state due to its abuse of Palestinian people in Gaza and the Occupied Territories.
As the Canary previously reported, over 40 Israeli arms companies have stands at this year’s DSEI. Independent media outlet Declassified UK managed to get into DSEI. It found the Israel’s Ministry of Defense had its own stand:
Israel's Ministry of Defence has been welcomed to London to flog its arms.
Campaign Against the Arms Trade’s (CAAT’s) media coordinator – and former Canary editor – Emily Apple said in a statement:
The list of countries invited to this year’s DSEI shows this government’s utter disdain for human rights around the world. These invited delegates will be wined and dined and encouraged to buy yet more weapons to wage wars across their borders and to repress their civilian populations at home. It makes a mockery of the Foreign Office publishing a list of human rights priority countries when the same government pulls out all the stops to sell them as many arms as possible.
DSEI is a marketplace in death and destruction. It has nothing to do with peace and security, and only exists to maximise the profits of arms dealers.
The UK government’s willingness to invite human rights-abusing states to DSEI raises huge questions about how we function as a country. So, with just a few days left of DSEI, protests are set to continue at the ExCeL centre and beyond.
Shops that serve unveiled women could be shut under draft law UN human rights body says suppresses women into ‘total submission’
Women in Iran face up to 10 years in prison if they continue to defy the country’s mandatory hijab law, under harsher laws awaiting approval by authorities. Even businesses that serve women without a hijab face being shut down.
The stricter dress code, which amounts to “gender apartheid”, UN experts said, comes one year after the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, 22, who had been detained for allegedly wearing the Islamic headscarf incorrectly. Her death, after allegedly being beaten by police, led to the largest wave of popular unrest for years in Iran.
The Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI) arms fair is taking place at the ExCeL centre in London. Meanwhile, activists and campaigners have already been robustly protesting it – causing some major disruption along the way. However, one group has revealed the extent of the Israeli state’s death and destruction that’s being represented at DSEI. It includes over 40 arms companies from the country selling their weapons there.
Stop the arms fair
The Canary has been documenting this year’s resistance to DSEI. It’s a huge arms fair that hosts over 2,800 companies profiting from death, destruction, and surveillance. DSEI happens every two years – and so do the protests to it. Stop The Arms Fair (STAF) has been organising resistance. So far, it’s held a peace walk, a workshop on removing militarisation from education, and a ‘policing and prisons’ day – focusing on how these arms of the state intersect with DSEI:
Today is policing and prisons day at the #StopDSEI protests. As well as weapons, DSEI is a one stop shop for militarised policing and the equipment and tech to repress populations.
There was also a Faith Day on Thursday 7 September. This was where people from all denominations (or those with none) held vigils, but also blocked deliveries to DSEI. Cops arrested nine people – as they usually do. Then, Climate Day on Friday 8 September saw people lock-on to delivery lorries:
Lock-on in front of a truck during climate day at #StopDSEI.
We can’t tackle the climate crisis without confronting the fact that the world’s militaries are also some of the world’s biggest polluters.
The climax of the first week of protests was STAF’s Festival of Resistance on Saturday 9 September. It included music and guest speakers:
Set list for the Festival of Resistance at #StopDSEI today. Join us at the Peace Camp near Prince Regent DLR! We hear 20 Critical Mass cyclists are now on the way. pic.twitter.com/8isZXDLRdg
People once again blocked roads into the ExCeL centre to stop deliveries – while dancing, no less:
Campaigners dance in the road outside ExCel East gate as no arms trade vehicles can go through to set up the DSEI arms fair; very quiet at ExCel west too. #StopDSEIpic.twitter.com/IboazgQE3i
There was a heavy police presence – but, curiously, they didn’t arrest anyone on 9 September:
We are following with great interest the actions happening now to stop the DSEI arms show from being able to get set up in London given the plans for a Canada Pavilion inside the ExCel convention centre. For an overview of #StopDSEI events: https://t.co/wZ2GIrxSQF#ShutDownCANSECpic.twitter.com/XwKmE7sLUT
— Peace Brigades International – Canada (@PBIcanada) September 9, 2023
STAF have more actions happening, too – including a Migrant Justice Day:
TWO WEEKS OF RESISTANCE is planned to disrupt and stop the world's largest arms fair. #StopDSEI
Join us for performances, talks, protests and more!!
However, against this backdrop of protest, a campaign group has revealed just how well-represented Israeli arms companies are at DSEI.
Israeli arms companies making a killing at DSEI
Campaign Against The Arms Trade (CAAT) research shows that over 40 Israeli arms companies – including Elbit Systems – have stalls at DSEI. The Canary has documented Elbit’s toxic work. It includes ‘battle testing‘ equipment on Palestinians. As Tom Anderson previously wrote:
Elbit manufactures around 85% of Israel’s drones which have been used to massacre Palestinians in Gaza.
For example – during Israel’s 51 day attack on Gaza in 2014 – Israeli drones killed 840 Palestinians. Drones were alsoused extensively in Israel’s 11 day attack on Gaza in 2021.
Elbit’s Ferranti factory in Oldham manufactured imaging and surveillance systems for Israel’s Hermes drones, which have been used to kill Palestinians in Gaza. Elbit is also responsible for manufacturing small calibre ammunition for the Israeli army.
It’s not just in Palestine that Israeli arms manufacturers enable death and destruction. As Middle East Eye reported, government-owned Israel Aerospace Industries has been exporting arms to Myanmar. This is despite making promises to the contrary. The UN described the situation in Myanmar as “genocidal” in 2017, after 700,000 Rohingya were forced to flee to Bangladesh.
Former Canary editor Emily Apple is CAAT’s media coordinator. She said in a statement:
Israel is an apartheid state, and it is disgusting that the UK is not only selling weapons to Israel but encouraging Israeli arms companies to sell their weapons in London.
Deals done at DSEI will cause misery across the world, causing global instability, and devastating people’s lives. Representatives from regimes such as Saudi Arabia, who have used UK-made weapons to commit war crimes in Yemen, will be wined and dined and encouraged to buy yet more arms.
Arms dealers do not care about peace or security. They care about perpetuating conflict, because conflict increases profits for their shareholders. Meanwhile this government has shown repeatedly that it cares more about the money made from dodgy deals with dictators than it does about the people whose lives will be ruined by the sales made at DSEI.
Whether it’s Elbit, Israel, or Saudi Arabia, once again DSEI – and the UK government – is complicit in the promotion of the arms industry. Meanwhile, it’s people in place like Palestine, Myanmar, and Yemen who suffer while the ExCeL centre sees millions traded off the back of their misery.
The Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI) arms fair is taking place at the ExCeL centre in London. Meanwhile, activists and campaigners have already been robustly protesting it – causing some major disruption along the way. However, one group has revealed the extent of the Israeli state’s death and destruction that’s being represented at DSEI. It includes over 40 arms companies from the country selling their weapons there.
Stop the arms fair
The Canary has been documenting this year’s resistance to DSEI. It’s a huge arms fair that hosts over 2,800 companies profiting from death, destruction, and surveillance. DSEI happens every two years – and so do the protests to it. Stop The Arms Fair (STAF) has been organising resistance. So far, it’s held a peace walk, a workshop on removing militarisation from education, and a ‘policing and prisons’ day – focusing on how these arms of the state intersect with DSEI:
Today is policing and prisons day at the #StopDSEI protests. As well as weapons, DSEI is a one stop shop for militarised policing and the equipment and tech to repress populations.
There was also a Faith Day on Thursday 7 September. This was where people from all denominations (or those with none) held vigils, but also blocked deliveries to DSEI. Cops arrested nine people – as they usually do. Then, Climate Day on Friday 8 September saw people lock-on to delivery lorries:
Lock-on in front of a truck during climate day at #StopDSEI.
We can’t tackle the climate crisis without confronting the fact that the world’s militaries are also some of the world’s biggest polluters.
The climax of the first week of protests was STAF’s Festival of Resistance on Saturday 9 September. It included music and guest speakers:
Set list for the Festival of Resistance at #StopDSEI today. Join us at the Peace Camp near Prince Regent DLR! We hear 20 Critical Mass cyclists are now on the way. pic.twitter.com/8isZXDLRdg
People once again blocked roads into the ExCeL centre to stop deliveries – while dancing, no less:
Campaigners dance in the road outside ExCel East gate as no arms trade vehicles can go through to set up the DSEI arms fair; very quiet at ExCel west too. #StopDSEIpic.twitter.com/IboazgQE3i
There was a heavy police presence – but, curiously, they didn’t arrest anyone on 9 September:
We are following with great interest the actions happening now to stop the DSEI arms show from being able to get set up in London given the plans for a Canada Pavilion inside the ExCel convention centre. For an overview of #StopDSEI events: https://t.co/wZ2GIrxSQF#ShutDownCANSECpic.twitter.com/XwKmE7sLUT
— Peace Brigades International – Canada (@PBIcanada) September 9, 2023
STAF have more actions happening, too – including a Migrant Justice Day:
TWO WEEKS OF RESISTANCE is planned to disrupt and stop the world's largest arms fair. #StopDSEI
Join us for performances, talks, protests and more!!
However, against this backdrop of protest, a campaign group has revealed just how well-represented Israeli arms companies are at DSEI.
Israeli arms companies making a killing at DSEI
Campaign Against The Arms Trade (CAAT) research shows that over 40 Israeli arms companies – including Elbit Systems – have stalls at DSEI. The Canary has documented Elbit’s toxic work. It includes ‘battle testing‘ equipment on Palestinians. As Tom Anderson previously wrote:
Elbit manufactures around 85% of Israel’s drones which have been used to massacre Palestinians in Gaza.
For example – during Israel’s 51 day attack on Gaza in 2014 – Israeli drones killed 840 Palestinians. Drones were alsoused extensively in Israel’s 11 day attack on Gaza in 2021.
Elbit’s Ferranti factory in Oldham manufactured imaging and surveillance systems for Israel’s Hermes drones, which have been used to kill Palestinians in Gaza. Elbit is also responsible for manufacturing small calibre ammunition for the Israeli army.
It’s not just in Palestine that Israeli arms manufacturers enable death and destruction. As Middle East Eye reported, government-owned Israel Aerospace Industries has been exporting arms to Myanmar. This is despite making promises to the contrary. The UN described the situation in Myanmar as “genocidal” in 2017, after 700,000 Rohingya were forced to flee to Bangladesh.
Former Canary editor Emily Apple is CAAT’s media coordinator. She said in a statement:
Israel is an apartheid state, and it is disgusting that the UK is not only selling weapons to Israel but encouraging Israeli arms companies to sell their weapons in London.
Deals done at DSEI will cause misery across the world, causing global instability, and devastating people’s lives. Representatives from regimes such as Saudi Arabia, who have used UK-made weapons to commit war crimes in Yemen, will be wined and dined and encouraged to buy yet more arms.
Arms dealers do not care about peace or security. They care about perpetuating conflict, because conflict increases profits for their shareholders. Meanwhile this government has shown repeatedly that it cares more about the money made from dodgy deals with dictators than it does about the people whose lives will be ruined by the sales made at DSEI.
Whether it’s Elbit, Israel, or Saudi Arabia, once again DSEI – and the UK government – is complicit in the promotion of the arms industry. Meanwhile, it’s people in place like Palestine, Myanmar, and Yemen who suffer while the ExCeL centre sees millions traded off the back of their misery.
As Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI) sets up at the ExCeL centre in London, activists have begun resisting it. Not far behind them are the cops – with nine arrests already, even before this notorious arms fair begins properly.
DSEI arms fair: dealing in death
The Canaryhasbeendocumenting the build-up to this year’s DSEI, an arms fair which happens every two years – as do the protests against it. As former Canary editor Emily Apple previously wrote:
supported by the UK government, and organised by Clarion Events – DSEI is a massive event for arms dealers. One of its primary functions is to allow arms companies to network with representatives from some of the world’s most repressive regimes. Companies will encourage delegates from human-rights-abusing nations such asBahrain, Qatar, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia to buy the latest weapons to suppress their own populations and/or to wage war against others.
There is no pretense. DSEI exists to connect buyers and sellers. It exists to make deals that will devastate people’s lives.
So, as DSEI began to set up on Tuesday 5 September, activists started resisting it. For example, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) held a “vigil”. It was over arms manufacturers and governments selling weapons to the apartheid state of Israel – which it then uses to kill Palestinians:
People are gathering for the Stop the DSEI Arms Fair vigil in Cundy Park, London.
The global trade in weapons, including this event, fuels attacks against indigenous and racialised communities across the world, including Palestinians.#stoparmingisraelpic.twitter.com/DGuYEdPsyZ
This evenings vigil organised by @PSCupdates making the connection between weapons sold at DSEI and oppression of Palestinian people. But also sharing positive messages of hope, creativity and resistance. pic.twitter.com/g5wqvk4SAt
PSC said in a statement that the vigil and its attendees:
condemned the presence of Israeli military officials and Israeli arms companies, which develop and use weapons in violence against Palestinians, before selling them as ‘battle-tested’ to other states. This year alone, Israel has killed over 200 Palestinians across the occupied Palestinian territory, including in military invasions, bombing campaigns, and assassinations.
Vigil attendees joined calls for London Mayor, Sadiq Khan, who has previously stated his opposition to the fair, to act to bring a halt to the event. Protesters also turned their fire on the British government, which helps organise the event through the Ministry of Defence and UK Defence and Security Exports, part of the Department for International Trade.
Then, on Wednesday 6 September, people held a “peace walk” – plus a workshop on removing militarisation from education also went on:
Images from today’s #StopDSEI peace walk from Stratford to ExCel, where the DSEI arms fair will be taking place; plus wreathes laid in the dock in memory of all those killed by wars and the arms trade. pic.twitter.com/Y0jBE3tFhK
Ded_ucation (Demilitarise Education) teach-in today outside the set up of the DSEI arms fair, talking about the links between the arms trade and the Higher Education sector. They were joined by activists from the Free Assange campaign. #StopDSEIpic.twitter.com/gecgh4udaN
However, while all these events passed off without incident, that wasn’t the case on Thursday 7 September.
Faith Day is met with cops
It was Faith Day outside DSEI – where people of all denominations (and none) come together to call for peace, and denounce militarisation (and the arms fair).
Faith Day begins at the #StopDSEI protests at ExCel in London, as people of all faiths and none gather to say no to the DSEI arms fair, which is being set up the week. pic.twitter.com/fU423QIu2v
People congregated on the road leading into the ExCeL to sing and stop vehicles entering it:
Long queue of arms fair vehicles outside ExCel as road remains filled with singing No Faith in War peace campaigners #StopDSEIpic.twitter.com/D8WwZhBA3C
Truckloads of equipment for the huge DSEI arms fair are being turned back as Quakers and others gather and sing in the road. The UK is one of the biggest exporters of weapons globally. Is this really who we want to be as a nation? #stopDSEI#fightforpeacepic.twitter.com/2Y09eQpZe7
Historically, Faith Day has been a flashpoint at DSEI protests. In 2019, cops arrested over 30 Quakers. Apple previously reported:
Quakers were sitting in silence – a key part of their act of worship – when police officers began moving through the crowd to warn people they could be arrested if they didn’t move.
Head of worship & witness for Quakers in Britain Oliver Robertson spoke to an inspector about the decision to move the police in while this was taking place. He expressed his “disappointment” in the police’s actions and that:
“it’s a spiritual endeavour. It’s the same as in the middle of a church service”.
The inspector apologised and said they:
“will take that as a learning point”.
Clearly, cops haven’t learned – as they arrested nine people during Faith Day this year:
Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT) told the Canary:
On Thursday, people of all faiths and none put their bodies in the way of this trade in death and destruction. The religious services held at the gates were powerful testaments to people’s commitment to the principles of their faith and the need to act against this deadly trade.
Deals done at DSEI will cause misery across the world, causing global instability, and devastating people’s lives. Representatives from regimes such as Saudi Arabia, who have used UK-made weapons to commit war crimes in Yemen, will be wined and dined and encouraged to buy yet more arms.
Arms dealers do not care about peace or security. They care about perpetuating conflict, because conflict increases profits for their shareholders. Meanwhile this government has shown repeatedly that it cares more about the money made from dodgy deals with dictators than it does about the people whose lives will be ruined by the sales made at DSEI.
War starts with the deals done at the ExCeL centre. Campaigners are showing that we have the power to stop those deals before they take place.
All this is before DSEI has actually even begun. On Saturday 9 September, Stop The Arms Fair has organised its Festival of Resistance – an event which has in the past seen widespread disproportionate policing. So, in the coming days expect more heavy-handedness from cops, amid more protests from people committed to stopping DSEI.
Burning Man, the transient bacchanal that attracts more than 70,000 party-goers to the remote Nevada desert for eight days every August, prides itself on its environmental bona fides. One of the festival’s main operational tenets is “leave no trace,” an essentially impossible feat for an event of its size. The Burning Man Project, the organization that runs the festival, has set a goal of becoming “carbon negative” — removing more emissions from the environment than the festival produces — by 2030.
It’s a tall order: The festival generates around 100,000 tons of carbon dioxide every year, the equivalent of burning over 100 million pounds of coal. A series of disasters at this year’s festival have brought the gap between Burning Man’s rhetoric and reality into sharp relief: First, a half dozen protesters demanding stronger environmental commitments from the organization blocked the festival’s entrance for roughly an hour before they were forcibly removed. Days later, torrential rain — the kind of event made more likely and extreme by climate change — stranded revelers in a dystopian free-for-all. But the greatest irony of all may be Burning Man’s less-publicized opposition to renewable energy in its own backyard.
Burning Man’s problems began on August 27, the first day of this year’s festival, when a blockade of climate protesters created a miles-long traffic jam on the two-lane highway into the dry lakebed of the Black Rock Desert, about 120 miles north of Reno, Nevada, where Burning Man takes place. In addition to calling for “systemic change,” they demanded that festival organizers take immediate steps to decrease the event’s carbon footprint. Burning Man, which started out as a small gathering of artists on a beach in San Francisco in the 1980s, has grown into a massive event that attracts a growing percentage of the world’s ultra-wealthy every year. The protestors, who were ultimately dispersed by police, demanded the festival “ban private jets, single-use plastics, unnecessary propane burning, and unlimited generator use per capita,” among other requests.
Cars wait in line to get into the Burning Man festival, held 120 miles from Reno, Nevada. Jordan England-Nelson/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images
Then, torrential rain spurred by a late-August hurricane and the onset of monsoon season in the desert turned the festival into a gargantuan mud pit, stranding attendees and forcing Burning Man to close the roads into and out of the festival from Friday until Monday afternoon, when conditions improved. Since no supplies could be trucked in or out, partiers were forced to ration water and other supplies. Some people, including the DJ Diplo and the comedian Chris Rock, abandoned their vehicles in the desert and walked out of Black Rock City, as the festival site is known, on foot. (It’s 15 miles from Black Rock City to Gerlach, the nearest town.) The rain caught festivalgoers off guard, but experts say floods like the one that inundated Black Rock City are a forecasted consequence of climate change.
“The well-known southwestern summer monsoon is expected to yield larger amounts of rainfall in a warming climate,” Michael Mann, presidential distinguished professor in the University of Pennsylvania’s Department of Earth and Environmental Science, told Wired.
Attendees walk through a muddy desert plain on September 3, 2023, after heavy rains turned the annual Burning Man festival site in Nevada’s Black Rock desert into a mud pit.
JULIE JAMMOT/AFP via Getty Images
A broad consensus exists, of course, on how to slow the climactic changes that are beginning to wreak havoc like this: replace the fossil fuels that currently power much of the world with a wide variety of carbon-free sources. In fact, the federal government approved one such project, a geothermal energy initiative in the Nevada desert a mile outside of Gerlach, last year. The exploratory project, funded by an international renewable energy company called Ormat Technologies, aims to find out whether geothermal — which taps naturally-occurring heat under the earth’s surface to produce clean energy — is commercially viable in the Nevada desert.
But the venture faced immediate pushback from the Burning Man Project, one of a group of plaintiffs that sued the Bureau of Land Management, or BLM, over its approval of up to 19 exploratory geothermal wells in the Black Rock National Conservation Area. The Burning Man Project, the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit, also worked with residents of the tiny town of Gerlach, the hamlet closest to the geothermal development, to appeal the BLM’s decision. The wells, the organization said, would “threaten the viability” of Burning Man’s various projects in Nevada by potentially jeopardizing local hot springs in the area and disrupting the desert ecosystem. The plaintiffs argued that BLM had approved the project without adequate environmental review and hadn’t sufficiently consulted local communities, including the Summit Lake Paiute Tribe, in its permitting process.
“People travel to Gerlach to experience the solitude of the vast open spaces and undeveloped vistas present in the Black Rock Desert,” the lawsuit said, “as well as to attend numerous events and to pursue a variety of recreation experiences in the undeveloped desert.”
After the lawsuit was filed, the Washoe County Commission in Reno ultimately voted 3-2 against the proposed geothermal project, a move that baffled clean energy experts and overturned the county’s prior approval of the project.
The claim that the region remains relatively undisturbed, given the 70,000-person party that rolls in every year, rang particularly hollow.
“Some of the hype around Gerlach has been disturbing from a scientific point of view,” James Faulds, Nevada’s State Geologist, told Grist. “The Gerlach area has already been disturbed by man.”
Faulds added that no hot springs in the area besides the ones located immediately above the actual geothermal wells would be affected by the development, and that the geothermal power plant itself wouldn’t be visible from the Burning Man festival. (The Burning Man Project did not respond to Grist’s requests for comment.)
Ormat may try to appeal the county’s decision or scrap the project and apply to build new geothermal development elsewhere in the state instead. “Ormat will continue to press forward with exploration and development of its renewable energy projects throughout the State of Nevada to help the state and federal government meet their renewable energy goals,” the company said in a statement following the county commission’s vote.
A single megawatt of geothermal energy can provide enough power for up to 1,000 residential homes year-round. That gives it a smaller land-use footprint than either wind or solar power, Faulds pointed out.
“Let’s say that power plant is producing 30 megawatts. You could drive by that and say ‘huh, that’s 30,000 homes,’” Faulds said. “That could be a big chunk of homes in a city in southern California or northern California, wherever the power is being sold to — where a lot of the Burning Man folks, of course, come from.”
As promised, workers at the University of Brighton have continued their campaign against redundancies into the new academic year. Members of the University and College Union (UCU) and their supporters “shut down” campus – and won’t be returning to work any time soon.
Brighton University and its ‘abhorrent’ bosses
As the Canary has been documenting, bosses at Brighton University are making over 100 staff redundant. A PhD researcher at Brighton University,Kathryn Zacharek, has been writing from the frontline of the dispute for us. She’s laid out how the institution is now a mess, with bosses are closing parts of it while spending massive amounts of money elsewhere.
As Zacharek noted, among the 80 voluntary and 20-odd forced redundancies are lecturers Dr Tom Bunyard and Dr Cathy Bergin. They have expertise in philosophy, critical theory, and cultural histories of anti-racism and anti-colonialism, respectively. Zacharek wrote:
After years of hard work and dedication to their students, how senior management is treating them is simply abhorrent. It is also the height of hypocrisy that an institution which prides itself on its equality, diversity and inclusion policies wants to sack an anti-racism scholar.
Of course, bosses are blaming ‘rising costs’, blah, blah, blah. So, Brighton UCU and the campaigns UoB Solidarity and PGR’s Brighton have vowed to keep up the fight against the bosses’ toxic actions. Brighton University UCU members began an indefinite strike against the proposed redundancies on Monday 3 July. They said in a statement that unless management drop the compulsory redundancies:
no preparation for the new academic year will take place and the autumn term will not start.
Now, with no movement from bosses, Brighton UCU has held good to its word – and begun disrupting the new academic year.
Shut it down
As Brighton and Hove News reported, over the summer academics from the university warned students off from enrolling there. Brighton UCU secretary Ryan Burns said:
In previous years during clearing, I would tell prospective students about how great their course would be and how much they would enjoy studying at Brighton.
But with our university management forcing through over 100 redundancies this year, many staff feel they cannot currently in good conscience encourage people to study here.
Then, the group staged a picket on Monday 4 September which it claims to have “shut down” Brighton University:
Today we shut down @uniofbrighton to protect staff & student conditions! We won't return to work until every single compulsory redundancy is rescinded!
However, people noted the absence of support from Brighton Students’ Union:
Whilst 100+ staff @uniofbrighton were forced into redundancy, many resignations are following & all prospects of sustainable/moral education are down the drain, @SUBrighton haven't said a single word! Also, MAB is not the same as redundancies. So much for "student representation" pic.twitter.com/3t3AcXSBuW
carefully planned to avoid an impact on our students and our academic standards have in no way been affected by the changes.
This is blatantly not the case – and no amount of spin will mask the fact that Brighton University bosses and their disastrous mismanagement has caused this dispute. Brighton UCU won’t be backing down. So, expect further disruption as the academic year progresses.
Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI) is one of the world’s largest arms fairs. It’s taking place at the ExCeL Centre in London between 12 and 15 September. The biannual event is always met with resistance from campaign groups and activists, who are then equally met by heavy-handed treatment by the cops. Already, it looks like this year will be no different – as police targeted activists before anything had even begun.
DSEI: stop the arms fair
As the Canary previously reported, DSEI takes place every two years. Thousands of arms dealers and defence and security suppliers gather at the ExCeL centre to court repressive regimes:
This year, over 2,800 defence and security suppliers will be courting deals. However, every time DSEI takes place, activists also descend on the ExCeL centre and its locality to protest it. Stop the Arms Fair (STAF) organises the resistance – and the Canary has repeatedly reported on this bi-annual horror show.
This year, protests began on 5 September and will run for two weeks:
TWO WEEKS OF RESISTANCE is planned to disrupt and stop the world's largest arms fair. #StopDSEI
Join us for performances, talks, protests and more!!
During the first week, activists will target the setting up of the arms fair. However, police are already disrupting protesters’ right to go about their business.
Police refused to allow the delivery of portable toilets to the protest camp saying it’s private property – even though campaigners have permission for them and it’s really none of the police’s business. The usual petty restrictions on the right to demonstrate, in other words
Moreover, cops have already been following CAAT activists – even before they reached the ExCeL centre:
Day 1 of the DSEI protests, and the police are already harassing people. These police officers clocked CAAT staff members while we were having lunch and followed us for several hours, including getting the DLR with us. #StopDSEI#ResistDSEI#DefendDissentpic.twitter.com/NOZBZmiCqO
Campaigners have suffered from excessive and violent policing at previous DSEIs. This has included cops using blanket stop-and-search powers, making arrests, disproportionate surveillance, harassment, and deploying spycops. Previous DSEI protests have also shown the institutional and systemic racism that is rife in the police. Protests by marginalised communities faced excessive police violence and harassment.
Former Canary editor Emily Apple, in her capacity as CAAT’s media coordinator, told us:
Time and again at DSEI we’ve seen the police protect the arms dealers, and repress our right to protest against this abhorrent fair. DSEI is a marketplace in death and destruction with deals done at the ExCeL centre causing global misery and devastating people’s lives.
Representatives from regimes such as Saudi Arabia, who have used UK-made weapons to commit war crimes in Yemen, will be wined and dined and encouraged to buy yet more arms.
Arms dealers do not care about peace or security because conflict increases profits for their shareholders. Meanwhile this government has shown repeatedly that it cares more about the money made from dodgy deals with dictators than it does about the people whose lives will be ruined by the sales made at DSEI.
Yet despite the violence perpetrated inside the ExCeL centre, the police view protesters as the problem, not arms dealers. But this year we’re also sending the police a message. You will be watched and you will be held accountable for repressive policing.
Cat and mouse policing
Netpol will be central to the monitoring of police at the arms fair. It’s already made it clear it wants to hear from any activists targeted by cops:
The group’s campaigns coordinator Kevin Blowe told the Canary :
There is often a huge gulf between police promises to “respect human rights” at protests and campaigners’ experiences of aggressive policing, racial profiling, intrusive police surveillance and mistreatment at the hands of officers.
This year’s opposition to the DSEi arms fair, however, is taking place in the aftermath of a growing state intolerance towards protesters and increasingly restrictive anti-protest legislation. Not all the new powers given to the police are in place yet, but the Home Secretary has decided that the definition of “serious disruption” means anything causing more than a minor hindrance, and Netpol believes this is more likely to lead to arrests in the week before the arms fair begins, when in previous years the ExCeL centre has been blockaded by demonstrators.
It is already easier for the police to impose strict conditions on a demonstrations, but we do not yet know if the Metropolitan Police will become the first to make arrests for the new criminal offences of locking-on and going equipped to lock-on. These offences target the methods by which disruption might potentially take place, rather than focusing on the actual degree of disruption a protest could lead to.
Netpol believe new police powers exist primarily to further criminalise the right to dissent and to intimidate people into not joining protest movements that the police recognise are likely to grow. That is why we are monitoring the impact of policing on the right to freedom of assembly during DSEI and are urging campaigners to tell us about their experiences.
Bear in mind that this was on the first day when cops followed activists, and blocked the entry of their toilets. With STAF organising numerous events, including a ‘Festival of Resistance’ on Saturday 9 September, the police response is likely to be more disproportionate than ever. Saturday’s event has historically seen the most repressive policing. Not that this will deter activists – it never did in previous years.
Tens of thousands of Koreans gathered in front of Seoul’s City Hall over the weekend to protest Japan’s release of radioactive water from the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant.
Japan started the gradual release of treated radioactive wastewater from the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean on Aug. 24, despite regional and local concerns, with plans to eventually pump more than a million metric tons of it into the sea.
Saturday’s demonstration drew support from more than 80 civic organizations and four political parties, including the main opposition Democratic Party.
Spreading across four vehicle lanes, demonstrators voiced their concerns with chants and displayed banners with slogans including, “Immediately stop the Fukushima water release” and “Denounce the Yoon Suk Yeol leadership.”
They also asked for a ban on imports of all Japanese aquatic products, urging Korea’s leaders to file a lawsuit against the Japanese government with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
One of the protesters told Radio Free Asia that she was against the release and the Korean government for not putting pressure on Japan.
“I am participating in this protest because I do not trust the Japanese government. I do not believe when they say it won’t have an impact,” Jeong Kim, a 23-year-old Seoul resident, said.
“The Korean government should have pressured Japan to let independent scientists verify Tokyo’s claims,” she said.
A fisherman said his job would be disrupted due to the release.
“Many families like mine, who depend on the ocean for our livelihoods, would face serious consequences,” said Seoung Min, from the southeastern coast.
Survey shows widespread concern
One of the organizers told RFA she estimated the turnout was more than 50,000 people. After the leaders addressed the main event, various groups marched in different directions around the city, disrupting traffic in many areas. The rally went on for more than four hours.
The protest comes just one day after Gallup Korea released a public survey that found three-quarters of Koreans were either “very worried” or “somewhat worried” that the Fukushima discharge would pollute Korea’s oceans and marine products.
More than 60% said they were reluctant to consume seafood products. The survey of more than 1,000 Koreans was taken from Aug. 29 to 31 nationwide.
Three protesters carry images of US, Japan, and South Korean leaders during a rally against Japan’s release of treated radioactive water from the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant into the sea in Seoul, Sept. 2, 2023. Credit: Subel Rai Bhandari for RFA
Even though Tokyo – and many outside experts – have said the nuclear wastewater is not harmful, many South Koreans and Chinese have been vocal about the potential impact on people’s health and the environment. China has banned imports of Japanese seafood.
TEPCO, the Tokyo Electric Power Company, which operates the power plant, which was damaged in a massive tsunami triggered by an earthquake on March 11, 2011, has said that the controlled discharge of the treated wastewater adheres to a meticulous nuclear purification process.
The treatment leaves all but one primary radioactive isotope – tritium, which is impossible to separate from water, and so will be diluted to bring it below regulatory standards before the release.
Many experts have called for more independent verification of the release plan, alleging that the decision to release the water was reached through a process that lacked full transparency and did not sufficiently include consultations with stakeholders from Japan and other countries.
The U.N.’s atomic watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, has been monitoring the release.
Last month, it gave Tokyo the green light to start, saying the planned discharge meets relevant international safety standards and would have a “negligible” radiological impact on people and the environment.
Over 1.3 million cubic meters of wastewater – enough to fill more than 500 Olympic-size swimming pools – currently contained in numerous water storage tanks at the facility is set to be released, which could take up to 40 years to complete.
Edited by Mike Firn and Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Subel Rai Bhandari for RFA.
This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Global Indigenous Affairs Desk.
A 54-year-old climate activist who was among hundreds of peaceful protesters criminalized for opposing the construction of an oil pipeline through pristine Indigenous lands is facing up to five years in prison, amid growing alarm at the crackdown on legitimate environmental protests.
Mylene Vialard was arrested in August 2021 while protesting in northern Minnesota against the expansion and rerouting of Line 3 – a 1,097-mile tar sands oil pipeline with a dismal safety record, that crosses more than 200 water bodies from Alberta, Canada, to refineries in the US midwest.
Vialard was charged with felony obstruction and gross misdemeanor trespass on critical infrastructure after attaching herself to a 25-foot bamboo tower erected to block a pumping station in Aitkin county. The gross misdemeanor charge, a post 9/11 law which has been used widely against protesters, was eventually dismissed after a court ruled there was insufficient evidence.
Vialard refused to take a plea deal on the felony charge, and her trial opened in Aitkin county on Monday.
“It was kind of a torturous decision. But in the end, I couldn’t sign a piece of paper saying I was guilty because I’m not the guilty party here. Enbridge is guilty, the violation of treaty rights, the pollution, the risk to water, that is what’s wrong. I’m just using my voice to point out something that’s wrong,” said Vialard, a self-employed translator and racial justice activist from Boulder, Colorado.
“I’m preparing my house for the worst case scenario,” she added.
Vialard’s arrest was not an anomaly. Minnesota law enforcement – which along with other agencies received at least $8.6 million in payments from the Canadian pipeline company Enbridge – made more than 1,000 arrests between December 2020 and September 2021.
The protesters, who identified as water protectors, were arrested during non-violent direct actions across northern Minnesota as construction of the 330-mile line expansion jumped from site to site, in what campaigners say was a coordinated strategy to divide and weaken the Indigenous-led social movement – an allegation Enbridge denies.
Overall, at least 967 criminal charges were filed including three people charged under the state’s new critical infrastructure protection legislation – approved as part of a wave of anti-protest laws inspired by the American Legislative Exchange Council (Alec), a rightwing group backed by fossil fuel companies.
Line 3 was Vialard’s first experience of civil disobedience or direct action.
YouTube
Among those criminalized were a grandfather in his late 70s, numerous teenagers, first-time protesters and seasoned activists – many of whom travelled long distances amid growing anger and desperation at the government’s lack of urgency in tackling the climate emergency.
Yet the vast majority of charges were eventually dismissed – either outright by prosecutors and judges or through plea deals, suggesting the mass arrests were about silencing and distracting protesters, according to Claire Glenn, an attorney at the Climate Defense Project.
“It was obviously not about criminal sanctions or public safety because otherwise the prosecutors would not be dismissing these cases left and right. Enbridge was paying police to get people off the protest line and tied up with pretrial conditions, so they could get the pipeline in the ground, and it worked,” said Glenn, who has represented more than 100 Line 3 protesters including Vialard.
In a statement to the Guardian, Enbridge said the protesters were not arrested for peaceful protest but acted in ways that were “illegal and unsafe”, endangering themselves and others and causing damage.
Line 3 has a long track record of environmental disasters since it began operating in 1968, including a 1.7 million gallon spill at Grand Rapids, Minnesota, in 1991 which remains the largest inland oil leak in US history. Enbridge reduced its capacity amid growing concerns about the pipeline’s safety, but in 2014 announced a multibillion-dollar project to expand and partially reroute the pipeline.
Construction went ahead everywhere except Minnesota due to widespread opposition from tribal nations, some state agencies, and climate and environmental groups. But in late 2020, regulators granted the remaining permits, and construction began in freezing cold December as thousands of Americans were dying every week from Covid.
Vialard and her teenage daughter were among thousands of ordinary people from across the US to respond to Indigenous activists requesting help in protecting their sovereign territory and water sources.
Climate activist and Indigenous community members gather on top of the bridge after taking part in a traditional water ceremony during a rally and march to protest the construction of Enbridge Line 3 pipeline in Solvay, Minnesota on June 7, 2021.
Kerem Yucel/AFP via Getty Images
“The video of Indigenous leaders calling on white people to show up and do what was necessary to protect the land was very moving. There’s been so much racism and so much abuse towards Indigenous people throughout history, that this felt like part of the work that we need to do,” Vialard said.
It wasn’t the first time an Indigenous-led movement garnered wider public support.
The huge 2016 gathering of tribes and allies defending Standing Rock Sioux territory from the Dakota Access pipeline captured the world’s attention, and inspired a global movement of resistance to fossil-fuel infrastructure projects. The protest was brutally policed but the tribe never backed down and succeeded in forcing an environmental impact study – which could eventually shut down the pipeline.
The Standing Rock success triggered a wave of new anti-protest laws and could explain why in Minnesota Enbridge made it difficult for activists – and the media – by constructing at multiple sites simultaneously, according to the attorney Glenn.
Vialard had supported Standing Rock from afar but Line 3, located more than 1,000 miles from Boulder, was her first experience of civil disobedience or direct action. The arrests were tough – but Vialard says that the environmental destruction she saw was even harder.
“People being arrested was the reality. But I was mostly worried about the destruction of pristine lands that I was witnessing. I went to the headwaters of the Mississippi, such an iconic gorgeous river full of rare species, and to turn around and see this big swath of destruction through the forest … that was really very moving to me, it just breaks my heart.”
The new Line 3 started transporting oil in October 2021.
Minnesota environmental regulators have confirmed four groundwater aquifer breaches along the new pipeline – including one last month in Aitkin county, not far from where Vialard was arrested, at a wild rice lake in an area with complex wetlands and peat bogs. Enbridge, which reported gross profits of $16.55 billion for the year ending June 2023, has so far been fined $11 million to address the breaches, which a spokesperson said “Enbridge reported transparently and corrected them consistent with plans approved by the agencies.”
Oil from tar sands is among the dirtiest and most destructive fossil fuels, emitting three times as much planet-heating pollution as conventional crude oil. Environmentalists say the Line 3 expansion was the equivalent of adding 38 million fossil fuel-powered vehicles to our roads.
Sections of the Enbridge Line 3 pipeline are seen on the construction site near La Salle Lake State Park in Solway, Minnesota on August 7, 2021.
Kerem Yucel/AFP via Getty Images
Many of the Line 3 defendants – including Vialard’s daughter – opted for plea deals, but the legal wrangling still tied people up for months or years. Some were left with a criminal record while others were able to secure a “deferred adjudication” plea in exchange for the charge being erased after a probationary period that restricted their ability to protest, find work and travel.
Vialard’s is only the second felony case to reach the trial phase, but several other Line 3 cases remain open and a misdemeanor trial against 70-year-old Jill Ferguson also begins on Monday, in Clearwater county. Next month three Anishinaabe women elders – Winona LaDuke, Tania Aubid, and Dawn Goodwin – will go on trial together on gross misdemeanor critical infrastructure charges related to a January 2021 protest.
But the mass arrests and criminalization of Line 3 activists is part of a nationwide – and global – trend of suppressing legitimate protests about climate and environmental harms, according to Marla Marcum, director of the Climate Disobedience Centre, which supports climate activists engaged in civil disobedience in the US.
“The pattern of heavier and heavier criminalization is undeniable. It’s a tactic which aims to divide and distract activists, suppress dissent and stop ordinary folks getting involved as more and more people wake-up to the urgency of the situation … tying people up for years is a huge emotional and energy drag.”
Marcum says that most environmental activists are being charged with serious crimes from old statutes such as domestic terrorism and gross trespass.
Yet since 2017 45 states have passed or tried to pass new legislation that further restricts the right to protest, and which expands penalties for protesters. At least three states – Oklahoma, Iowa, and Florida – have passed legislation providing some impunity for those who injure protesters, according to the International Center for Not-For-Profit Law, which tracks anti-protest bills.
“When a protest movement is righteous, effective and powerful, the US government responds by trying to chill, deter and criminalize rather than engaging with the issue,” said Vera Eidelman, a staff attorney with the ACLU’s speech, privacy and technology project who focuses on the right to protest and free speech rights.
A spokesperson from Enbridge said: “Protesters were not arrested for peaceful protest. They were arrested for breaking the law. Illegal and unsafe acts by protesters endangered themselves, first responders and our workers. They also caused millions of dollars in damages … including to equipment owned by small businesses and Tribal contractors on the project. We support efforts to hold protesters accountable for their actions. Activists may attempt to position this as a global conspiracy. It isn’t.”
The past two years since the arrest have been difficult for Vialard, and fighting the criminal charges has cost a lot of time, energy and lost income, but she doesn’t regret answering the call for help from Indigenous leaders.
“I was born and raised in France, and was never taught about the people and wisdom being crushed and forgotten because of colonization. But there’s so much to learn from ancient wisdom and so much to unpack within ourselves … You don’t have to get arrested, but be brave and do something that’s valuable for your future, for your children and their children’s future. It’s so enriching.”
Last month, Vialard packed up her house and headed back to northern Minnesota to prepare for the trial among those who tried their best to stop the pipeline that is polluting waterways and warming the planet.
“I am preparing for the worst case scenario. Making this decision was not an easy one, but I feel like it’s our duty to to fight when the decisions being made are so wrong. There is pollution everywhere, climate change is a reality and yet the oil and gas industry is still destroying our planet. I’m just a regular person but it’s pretty crazy to me.”
A judge has acquitted two Palestine Action activists after they blockade the entrance to a drone engine-making factory that supplies Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest privately owned arms company. Crucially, the judge let them off using a precedent of proportionately versus what they were protesting – that is, the pair’s actions were reasonable compared to what the drones would have done in the Occupied Territories.
Back in September 2022, Jasmine and Iola were protesting at UAV Engines Ltd, which is owned by Elbit Systems. This was part of an ongoing activist camp at the site in Shenstone. UAV specialises in making engines for combat drones. Palestine Action said in a press release that:
Elbit openly market these as ‘battle-tested’ on the Palestinian population. The Hermes 450 aircraft has been used to surveil and attack the people of Gaza for over a decade, decimating thousands of lives.
UAV Engines also manufactures parts for the Watchkeeper drone. The UK government uses this to surveil migrants seeking refuge here. This is despite attempts by the company, and the government, to deny that the Israeli military uses UAV Engines’ products. However, an Information Commission Office investigation revealed that UAV Engines holds a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) with the Israeli military, stopping it from saying it supplies them.
So, it’s of little wonder Palestine Action targeted the factory. As the group said on its website, on 7 September 2022 activists blocked the gates of the UAV Engines factory with two cars, forcing the factory to close for a day. The group added that:
The activists behind the wheel threw paint and quickly initiated lock-ons, preventing removal of themselves and the vehicles from the location and leaving operations halted at UAV Engines.
Using, then setting, a precedent?
Predictably, cops eventually arrested ten activists including Jasmine and Iola. However, after the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) looked at the case, it gave notices of ‘no further action’, meaning no criminal charges would be brought against them:
However, UAV Engines reviewed this decision, which led to the CPS reversing its decision and subsequently charging the two. Their trial at Walsall Magistrates Court lasted two days, starting on 29 August. Both defendants gave evidence of crimes committed against the Palestinian people by the targeted arms factory. Clearly, the judge found Jasmine and Iola’s arguments compelling.
On Wednesday 30 August, a judge found Jasmine and Iola not guilty of ‘obstruction of the highway’. The ruling was based on the principle of proportionality. This was established in the 2021 Supreme Court case of DPP v Ziegler. So, Jasmine and Iola were acquitted as, according to Palestine Action:
the judge found their action was proportionate in comparison to the crimes against humanity which they were acting to stop.
On 30 August, climate activists staged a protest against multiple insurance companies. The coalition of campaigners from Money Rebellion, Coal Action Network, StopEACOP, Extinction Rebellion, Stop Rosebank, and Just Stop Oil demonstrated outside the offices of a series of Lloyd’s of London members. They were targeting agents that have refused to rule out insuring the controversial East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP).
The ecocidal EACOP project
The EACOP project involves a 930-mile long pipeline that will transport oil from Uganda to a port in Tanzania. French fossil fuel firm TotalEnergies, China National Offshore Oil Corporation Ltd (CNOOC), and Uganda’s state oil company are partnering on the pipeline.
As the Canary’s Tracy Keeling has documented, the pipeline could be an environmental disaster. For one thing, it poses significant risks to a range of wildlife, including African elephants and chimpanzees. Crucially, EACOP will affect nearly 2,000 square kilometers of protected areas inhabited by a profusion of unique and important species.
Moreover, communities along the pathway of the pipeline could face severe impacts. For example, Human Rights Watch has suggested that the project could displace up to 100,000 people. Accordingly, in 2022, the Parliament of the European Union passed a resolution to call on developers to halt their plans.
On top of this, human rights defenders have recorded a high number of attacks on human rights associated with the EACOP project.
Protests against insurers of environmental disaster
As such, hundreds of environmental groups have come out against the destructive pipeline project. The StopEACOP movement has mobilised multiple protests in Uganda and inspired solidarity actions from groups across the world.
In this latest demonstration, campaigners railed against a number of Lloyd’s of London insurance companies that have yet to commit to avoiding the project.
Activists donned masks of insurance company bosses and gave speeches. Meanwhile, others spilled oil outside the offices of the Chubb, Travelers Syndicate Management Limited, Lancashire Syndicates Limited, Chaucer Syndicates, Talbot Underwriting, Liberty Managing Agency, Hiscox Syndicates, AIG (American International Group), and Tokio Marine Kiln Syndicates.
In light of sustained pressure from activists, multiple banks and insurers have already said they will not support the pipeline. However, the Lloyd’s of London insurers that activists singled out have not publicly distanced themselves from the disastrous development .
For instance, Japan’s Tokio Marine has refused to comment on its rumoured involvement in the project. Meanwhile, despite introducing new policy that prohibits investment in protected areas, the Rainforest Action Network has pointed out that Chubb could still insure EACOP. Of course, it too has yet to rule out insuring the climate-wrecking project.
Complicity in climate crimes
The insurers that campaigners have aimed their efforts at have a history of underwriting oil and gas schemes. For example, AIG, Chubb, Talbot and Tokio Marine were among the insurers of Australia’s enormous Ichthys liquified natural gas (LNG) project between 2012 and 2017.
The offshore LNG mega-hub and associated 890-mile pipeline sit in the world’s top 1% of oil and gas projects in terms of size. One month before the COP27 climate summit, a coalition of nonprofits similarly called on insurers to rule out financing the gargantuan LNG development’s expansion.
On top of this, a May 2023 Greenpeace Nordic report identified at least 69 insurance companies that are planning to insure Norway’s new oil and gas extraction in the North Sea.. Naturally, Lloyd’s members were on the list. In fact, the report drew particular attention to the insurance society, stating that:
Lloyd’s deserves a special note. 51 of its syndicates, managed by 28 companies, are involved in 35 out of the 38 new projects.
All in all, the Greenpeace report documented nearly a full sweep of the same backers of EACOP. Notably, AIG, Chaucer, Hiscox, Lancashire, Liberty, Talbot, Tokio Marine, and Travelers adorned the insurance hall of climate infamy.
Greenpeace concluded that:
By underwriting insurance policies they are making themselves accomplices of the climate crimes committed by the oil and gas industry and ensuring disaster.
In other words, insurance companies underwriting oil and gas projects are complicit in ecocide and climate breakdown.
Drilling begins, but the fight continues
Despite consistent protests, TotalEnergies has begun drilling in a biodiverse Ugandan national park. The oil below it sits at the heart of the EACOP project.
In early August, the company started operations in Murchison Falls National Park, in the Lake Albert region. There, EACOP joint venture companies have discovered oil fields containing approximately 1.7bn barrels of recoverable oil. These sit on the border between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Due to the large deposits of oil, the companies are developing the EACOP project to deliver crude to Tanzania for international export. Critically, the wildlife reserve is home to 76 mammal species and 451 different species of bird.
Meanwhile, local Ugandan authorities have continued to repress protest to the project. In June, Kampala police arrested four StopEACOP activists.
Activists are therefore right to turn up the heat on these reckless climate and ecologically destructive profiteers before they set planet Earth ablaze – any more than it already is.
Feature image via Money Rebellion, Coal Action Network, StopEACOP, Extinction Rebellion, Stop Rosebank, and Just Stop Oil campaign coalition.
Taking place every two years – supported by the UK government, and organised by Clarion Events – DSEI is a massive event for arms dealers. One of its primary functions is to allow arms companies to network with representatives from some of the world’s most repressive regimes. Companies will encourage delegates from human-rights-abusing nations such asBahrain, Qatar, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia to buy the latest weapons to suppress their own populations and/or to wage war against others.
There is no pretense. DSEI exists to connect buyers and sellers. It exists to make deals that will devastate people’s lives.
This year, over 2,800 defence and security suppliers will be courting deals. However, every time DSEI takes place, activists also descend on the ExCeL centre and its locality to protest it. Stop the Arms Fair (STAF) organises the resistance – and the Canary has repeatedly reported on this bi-annual horror show. As we reported in 2017:
Demonstrations happened throughout the week, with people performing ‘lock ons’ to lorries, blockading roads and camping out. Groups working alongside STAF included legal observers from Green and Black Cross, the Network for Police Monitoring (NetPol) and the British Quakers.
That year, STAF organised a ‘Carnival of Resistance’. However, as is usually the case, the protests and events were marred by over-the-top and heavy-handed policing from the cops:
This year, protests will begin on Monday 4 September, lasting for two weeks. The first week will target the setting up of the arms fair. STAF is coordinating the fortnight of resistance, with other groups organising specific events or days. These days will highlight the intersections of the arms trade and the different areas and communities it impacts, including migrant justice, arms sales to Israel, the climate crisis, policing and prisons, and more. You can find a full lost of STAF’s events here:
TWO WEEKS OF RESISTANCE is planned to disrupt and stop the world's largest arms fair. #StopDSEI
Join us for performances, talks, protests and more!!
Former Canary journalist Emily Apple is Campaign Against Arms Trade’s media coordinator. She said:
DSEI is a marketplace in death and destruction. Deals done at DSEI will cause misery across the world, causing global instability, and devastating people’s lives. Representatives from regimes such as Saudi Arabia, who have used UK-made weapons to commit war crimes in Yemen, will be wined and dined and encouraged to buy yet more arms.
Arms dealers do not care about peace or security. They care about perpetuating conflict, because conflict increases profits for their shareholders. Meanwhile this government has shown repeatedly that it cares more about the money made from dodgy deals with dictators than it does about the people whose lives will be ruined by the sales made at DSEI.
It’s therefore down to all of us to take action to resist DSEI and to shut this arms fair down for good.
The events will include a ‘Festival of Resistance’ on Saturday 9 September. STAF says this will be:
A day of music and mayhem. A day for the creative celebration of all our resistance… If you’re a performer, a singer, a clown or a just down funny guy and you’d like to share your skills and celebrate our resistance, reach out.
The Canary will be covering this year’s resistance to DSEI, as we have always done. It is crucial that STAF’s organising is supported – as DSEI is a microcosm of the violence the colonial capitalist system metes out.
Featured image and additional images via the Canary
The People’s Assembly has released further details of its protest at the Conservative Party conference – and it wants campaign groups and organisations to get involved. The Canary is happy to say it will be supporting the People’s Assembly’s action once again.
This year marks ten years since the founding of The People’s Assembly by thousands of trade unionists and community campaigners. In the past decade, we have organised hundreds of marches, protests, rallies and meetings in towns and cities across England, Scotland and Wales.
Now, as the Tory government prepares to sink lower than ever before, ramming through even more draconian laws to impede our civil liberties and our right to protest, we are all facing the fight of our lives.
This government has no popular mandate for its policies that punish us all. But unless we mobilise real determined opposition to government policies, vicious attacks on the working class will continue.
So, the People’s Assembly is going back to Manchester. It’s called for a national demonstration on Sunday 1 October. It starts at 12pm, assembling on Oxford Road:
More details are still to follow:
Join us in Mcr 1 Oct for a National Demo against the Tory Party Conference (there will also be a series of events for the duration of the Tory Conference). Let’s come together en-masse to give the Tories one final push to get them out of power. More details to follow. #ToriesOutpic.twitter.com/cZXCsOApbG
Now, the group has released its set of demands for the demo. It said in a statement that these were:
Tories Out
End the Cost-of-Living Crisis – Cut Profits, Increase Wages
Tax the Rich – Fund Social Care & Social Security
Nationalise Energy, Water, Mail and Rail
Refugees Welcome – Stop Racist Scapegoating
Scrap Anti-Union and Anti -protest Laws
Climate Justice Now – No New Fossil Fuel Contracts
End the Housing Crisis – Build Council Homes
Defend the NHS & Public Services – End Privatisation
You can get involved
Overall, the People’s Assembly said that it:
is calling on all our affiliates and supporters to help us to mobilise the biggest, most united voice from every corner of Britain in coming weeks
As always, the Canary is supporting the demo. We’re amplifying the group’s call for campaign groups and organisations to get involved. It wants them to adopt model motions in support of the demo and its aims, and share details of the demo on social media, and with their members. It is also calling on local groups to try to organise travel for people to the protest.
Some groups have already been organising coaches from across the UK:
We are organising a coach from #Glasgow to the@pplsassembly demo at the #Tory party conference on Oct 1st open to activists across Scotland
— Stand Up to Racism – Scotland (@SUTRScotland) August 21, 2023
So, if your organisation wants to protest the Tory Party conference, and support the People’s Assembly in the process, then contact the group. You can email office(at)thepeoplesassembly.org.uk for more info, and to request the model motion.
At least 20 people were wounded when police used batons, water cannon and tear gas to disperse hundreds of people who joined rallies in Indonesia’s West Papua region on the 61st anniversary of an agreement that made the territory part of Indonesia, news agencies report.
The US-brokered 1962 New York Agreement allowed Indonesia to annex the Christian-majority region after the end of Dutch colonial rule, according to a report in the UCA News.
Riot police attacked peaceful demonstrators in three locations near the provincial capital Jayapura yesterday, alleged Emmanuel Gobay, a Catholic and an official of the Papua Legal Aid Institute.
The demonstrators called on the international community to review the agreement and take action to end ongoing violence and repression in the region, said the report.
“In fact, they only held peaceful demonstrations,” said Gobay, who joined one of the rallies.
He stated that more than 20 people were beaten, with one of them later being treated in hospital.
“One person was seriously injured and was immediately transported to the hospital for treatment,” he said.
Listening to speeches
Videos and photos obtained by UCA News showed police attacked with water canons and fired tear gas while people were listening to speeches from leaders of the West Papua National Committee (KNPB), the protest organiser.
Gobay said that although the authorities viewed the KNPB as a “separatist — pro-independence — group “they should have the right to express their opinion” as guaranteed in the nation’s constitution.
“Moreover, they submitted an official letter notifying police about the programme beforehand,” he added.
He condemned the use of water cannon and tear gas on demonstrators.
These should only be for anarchic demonstrations — “not peaceful demonstrations,” he said.
The bloodied face of a protester brutally beaten by Indonesian police yesterday. Image: Tabloid Jubi
Gobay alleged that police committed criminal offences by torturing and beating protesters, and called on the Papuan police chief to immediately prosecute the perpetrators so that there was a deterrent effect, said the UCA News report.
Father Bernard Baru from the Jayapura Diocese’s Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation Commission said that this repressive action was a repetition of the discriminatory treatment of Papuans by the state.
Brutal police action ‘normal’
“In Papua, police actions like this are considered normal. This only deepens discrimination against Papuans,” he said.
Police officials were not available for comment.
KNPB spokesman Ones Sahuniap issued a statement to condemn the police brutality and claimed those who were beaten suffered serious head injuries and bled profusely.
Suhuniap said the police used rattan and batons to beat and break up the demonstration.
The KNPB simultaneously held demonstrations in Papua and in other parts of Indonesia, asking the United Nations to review the 1962 New York Agreement.
During the rallies, KNPB leaders called the New York Agreement “a violation of human rights of Papuans” sponsored by Indonesia, the Netherlands and the United States and the United Nations.
Not party to agreement
As per the agreement, later added to the agenda of UN General Assembly, the Netherlands agreed to transfer the control of West Papua New Guinea to Indonesia, pending an UN-administered referendum.
The Papuans were not party to the agreement and it paved the way for the 1969 Act of Free Choice, an independence referendum favoring Indonesian rule in Papua whuch was largely regarded as a sham.
Indonesia’s annexation of Papua and use to force to crush dissent sparked an armed pto-indeoendence movement.
Thousands of civilians, soldiers and rebels have been killed and tens of thousands have been displaced due to the conflict in the easternmost region in the past decades.
The National Union of Rail, Maritime, and Transport Workers (RMT) will be taking the fight to stop ticket office closures right to PM Rishi Sunak’s front door at Downing Street. So, save the date, as it’s going to be an important protest – not least for chronically ill, disabled, and older people.
23% of disabled people are internet non-users. Ticket vending machines are often inaccessible. Plus, wheelchair users can only get their 50% discount on tickets from an office.
Then, there was the issue of the government and train operators’ consultation. Previously, it was set to last only 21 days, and was due to close on Wednesday 26 July. However, two disabled people started one legal challenge, and five Mayors started another. The end result was the government and train operators caving in and extending the consultation. People now have until 1 September to submit their objections. The list of train operators’ consultations is here.
Meanwhile, the RMT has been taking the fight up and down the country. There was one national day of action on 9 August, and another will follow on Wednesday 16 August:
RMT Save Railway Ticket Offices National Day of action this Wednesday 16th August
RMT has organised a rally for 31 August. It will start at the Department for Transport, and is set to end at Downing Street:
#SaveTicketOffices March to 10 Downing Street On the eve of the close of the public consultation on ticket office closures, join the march to 10 Downing Street Thursday, August 31st 2023 pic.twitter.com/jxWnNgoKzZ
It’s not the first time this year that the RMT has gone to Sunak’s front door to protest. It also organised a demo in January over the Tories’ anti-trade union laws:
That so many people have responded to the consultations shows that there is mass public opposition to the Government and Train Companies’ proposals.
These damaging plans are not just about ticket office closures; they are a smokescreen for a widespread dehumanising of our railways.
Interestingly, it’s not just trade unions and campaigners coming out against the plans. The West Midlands Combined Authority voiced its objections:
West Midlands transport chiefs have declined to support proposals to close rail ticket offices across the region despite agreeing, in principle, on the need to modernise the way stations are managed and staffed.
Our railway stations are at the heart of communities around the country and if these closures go ahead the Tories will pay a heavy political price at the next election with boarded up ticket offices and de-staffed stations being a permanent reminder of the government’s vandalism of our railways.
We are urging the public to continue spreading the word about these cuts and to have their say in the consultations before September 1.
Indeed, the Tories’ “vandalism” of the railways has been ongoing since before their privatisation of them in the early 1990s, leading to a perpetual state of chaos. Now, ticket office closures are the thin end of a very corporate capitalist wedge – and the RMT and its supporters intend to make that crystal clear to Sunak on 31 August.
Hong Kong’s appeals court cleared seven prominent democracy figures on Monday 14 August. A trial had previously convicted them of the charge of organising a massive rally in 2019. The rally was part of protests against China’s National Security Law that took place in 2019 and 2020.
‘Not realistic evidence’
Courts convicted the group in 2021 for organising and taking part in an unauthorised assembly.
The group included Jimmy Lai, founder of now-defunct Apple Daily. The others included veteran unionist Lee Cheuk-yan, prominent leftist Leung Kwok-hung, rights lawyer Albert Ho, former lawmaker Cyd Ho, Civic Party founder Margaret Ng, and Democratic Party founder Martin Lee.
On 14 August, the appeals court struck down the conviction for organising the rally. However, it upheld another – for participating in the 18 August 2019 demonstration. It was one of the largest gatherings during the height of democracy protests, drawing an estimated 1.7 million people.
According to the ruling, the suggestion that the seven were at the front of the procession was “not a realistic or suitable substitute for evidence that they were involved in its organisation”.
Since the introduction of a vague and sweeping National Security Law three years ago, Hong Kong authorities have distorted laws and legal principles to punish anyone who speaks out against the government. Too often, Hong Kong judges have enabled this criminalisation of dissent.
The Committee to Protect Journalists also welcomed the news, and said that courts shouldn’t have convicted the seven in the first place:
They should not have been charged in the first place and we condemn the ruling to uphold their convictions over taking part in the rally. CPJ urges #HongKong authorities to immediately drop all charges against Jimmy Lai and free himhttps://t.co/1WRaqIZKii
However, Clifford pointed out that the group still remains imprisoned:
"Even after serving their sentences for a conviction that has now been overturned, 75-year-old #JimmyLai, Lee Cheuk-yan, Leung Kwok-hung and Albert Ho remain behind bars for questionable charges under the National Security Law. They should be released now.
— The Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation (@thecfhk) August 14, 2023
That’s because the appeals court upheld their participation conviction. It said the seven “each knew they had embarked on an activity which was unauthorised”.
Blow to peaceful assembly
Many saw the convictions in 2021 as a blow to the right to peaceful assembly in the city. They came as Beijing imposed its National Security Law, which effectively silenced dissent. However, the 18 August protest was peaceful. During the initial trial, police told the court they didn’t observe violence or make any arrests.
Ng told reporters they would study the judgement before deciding their next move. The court granted three among the seven – Ng, Lee, and Ho – suspended sentences. Meanwhile, the other four had already finished serving their terms, which were between eight and 18 months.
However, Lai, Cheuk-yan, Kwok-hung, and Ho are still in remand over three separate cases in which they are accused of national security crimes.
So far, police have arrested 260 people under China‘s national security law. 79 of them were convicted or are awaiting sentencing in Hong Kong.
Two festivals in Edinburgh have faced the anger of both campaigners and artists alike, over their respective platforming of an Israeli dance company and a fossil fuels investor. People’s objections, however, point to a larger problem: the corporate capitalist capture of culture.
Protesting Israeli cultural propaganda
The Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) and Edinburgh Action 4 Palestine organised two nights of protest over the Edinburgh International Festival hosting an Israeli dance company. In a letter to the festival’s director Nicola Bendetti, the groups said:
L-E-V are promoted by Israeli government embassies, most recently by the Israeli Consulate in Toronto last year, and are scheduled to perform in the Edinburgh International Festival (EIF) on Sunday 13th and Monday 14th of August. The inclusion of L-E-V in the Festival is being used by Israel as cultural propaganda to cover its crimes against the Palestinian people. With the current escalation of Israeli violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, EIF risks considerable reputational damage if L-E-V are not excluded from the programme.
The Israeli State has been named as an apartheid state by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and even Israel’s own major human rights group, B’Tselem. Faced with human rights abuses at the hands of the occupying Israeli military, Palestinian civil society has called on people of conscience to isolate the apartheid state as we did with apartheid South Africa.
Last year the Festival representatives announced it was joining the international boycott of Russian conductor Valery Gergiev “in sympathy with and in support of” the citizens of Kiev. [We] believe that Palestinians citizens deserve the same sympathy and support.
According to Edinburgh Action 4 Palestine’s Facebook page, the festival replied to the groups’ letter. It said:
The Festival does not hold artists accountable for the actions or policies of their governments or assume that all artists are able to speak freely about their political views.
In 2008, Israeli poet Yitzhak Laor published a copy of the contract Israeli artists going abroad with Foreign Ministry funding were by then required to sign. The contract was between the Israeli artist or company (‘the service provider’) and the State of Israel, via the Foreign Ministry’s Division for Cultural and Scientific Affairs. Its terms made explicit the promotional requirements attached to government funding for foreign tours: ‘The service provider is aware that the purpose of ordering services from him is to promote the policy interest of the State of Israel via culture and art, including contributing to creating a positive image for Israel.’ And yet this relationship was to remain secret: ‘The service provider will not present himself as an agent, emissary and/or representative of the Ministry.’
The Edinburgh International Book Festival has faced a backlash from over 50 authors. They’ve published an open letter in conjunction with Friends of the Earth Scotland. It calls on the festival to drop investment management company Baillie Gifford as a sponsor. In a press release, Friends of the Earth Scotland said:
Through an open letter, high profile authors such as Ali Smith, Zadie Smith, and Gary Younge, as well as literature professionals facilitating this year’s festival events, demand that the institution put pressure on their main sponsor, Baillie Gifford investment firm.
Baillie Gifford has, according to its own report, up to £5bn invested in corporations that profit from fossil fuels…
The authors of the letter state that they stand in solidarity with those harmed by the climate crisis, including people in the Global South and the UK who have lost their homes, their livelihoods, and been forced to migrate. They also point out the injustice of corporate greed and profit from the fossil fuel industry at a time when millions across the UK suffer from fuel poverty and the cost of living crisis.
The authors aren’t the first ones to take action over the book festival’s partnership with Baillie Gifford. Activist Greta Thunberg pulled out of appearing at the festival. She said of Baillie Gifford’s sponsorship of the Edinburgh International Book Festival:
Greenwashing efforts by the fossil fuel industry, including sponsorship of cultural events, allow them to keep the social license to continue operating.
I cannot and do not want to be associated with events that accept this kind of sponsorship.
Baillie Gifford’s greenwashing doesn’t stop in Edinburgh, though. It also sponsors/has sponsored the following literary festivals:
Hay.
Cheltenham Literature.
Stratford Literary.
Henley Literary.
The company also runs a non-fiction book prize. Without irony, Baillie Gifford has short-and long-listed books in both nature and science categories, with works such as The Planet Remade (about the climate crisis and geoengineering) by Oliver Morton, which judges long-listed in 2015.
‘OK with burning the planet’
Author of It’s Not That Radical: Climate Action To Transform Our World, Mikaela Loach noted that:
Edinburgh International Book Festival wouldn’t burn books, so why are they ok with burning the planet? Baillie Gifford’s whopping £5 billion in investments in corporations making money from the fossil fuel industry is unjustifiable in a climate crisis caused and exacerbated by these same companies who have invested more into climate denial and delay than they have into green energy. Edinburgh International Book festival must stand by their “Climate Positive” commitment and drop Baillie Gifford as a sponsor.
There’s a long history of radical art and aesthetics being co-opted for the maintenance and reproduction of capitalism. Quite a lot [of] the art world pretends to be making these radical critiques of the status quo, whilst in reality only really serving to legitimise that society.
While neither of these festivals may be co-opting artists’ work for the furthering of the capitalist system, by blurring the lines between the creative and the corporate colonialist, either via sponsorship or by platforming state-sanctioned acts, these Edinburgh festivals tread that distinctly tepid line of ‘the greater good’ and a ‘means to an end’.
After Thunberg pulled out of the book festival, the Guardian‘s chief culture writer Charlotte Higgins handwringingly summed it up by saying corporate capitalist sponsorship versus the planet burning was a bit “messy” in “reality”, because:
in the meantime, the book festival is left to sweep up the debris, and arts leaders in Edinburgh and beyond to the endless daily worry about where on earth the next untarnished penny’s to come from.
When you’re hosting huge international festivals which host some of the biggest names in the arts, it’s not a bit messy. Either you stand with oppressed peoples and against the human-induced climate crisis – or you openly admit that you’re happy to sell out to pay your mortgages under the guise of the arts. But say it with your chest, either way – because anything else is a cop-out.
In my day-to-day life, I don’t encounter many people who are politically active. As such, whenever I’m in a conversation about Just Stop Oil, it’s with someone who’s unimpressed at best, and downright incensed at worst. This has put me in an interesting position. Although I agree with the position that we need to just stop oil, I’ve also found these protests to be more annoying than anything. So why is that?
After a year or so thinking about it, I’ve got my thoughts in order. My verdict is that Just Stop Oil is fighting to make people aware of the issue, but a lack of awareness isn’t the problem.
Intentions
Specifically, I’m talking about the Just Stop Oil protests which involve halting (or slowing) traffic. My understanding is these protests are enacted to raise awareness of the issue, and the Just Stop Oil site seems to confirm this. On the donate page, you see:
Interestingly, the same page features this quote from James Özden (director of Social Change Lab):
THE EXPERTS WHO STUDY SOCIAL MOVEMENTS NOT ONLY BELIEVE THAT STRATEGIC DISRUPTION CAN BE AN EFFECTIVE TACTIC, BUT THAT IT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT TACTICAL FACTOR FOR A SOCIAL MOVEMENT’S SUCCESS.
Just Stop Oil is undoubtedly getting a lot of coverage, but how “strategic” are their actions? This drive to get coverage seems to hinge on the idea that people are largely uninformed about the situation we find ourselves in, and that if the masses only understood, they would rise up and take action. I’d argue, though, that people are actually very informed about climate change, and the issue is they simply feel powerless to enact change.
I’d also argue that Just Stop Oil’s protests are – if anything – reinforcing this sense of powerlessness.
The informed masses
Firstly, let’s look at the statistics.
In July 2022, Ipsos Political Monitoring polling showed that:
strong levels of concern about climate change amongst the British public. Overall, 84% are concerned about climate change, with more than half (52%) ‘very concerned’. Levels of concern overall have increased 8 points since April [2022] but are consistent with findings in July 2019 and August 2021 (both 85% concerned).
Similarly, when we ask when Britain will start feeling the effects of climate change, 72% say we are already feeling the effects. This is up 5 points from April but matches the 73% that said the same in both July 2019 and August 2021.
The people who are “very concerned” – 52% – is a percentage great enough that any political party able to command it would have a super majority in parliament. So if people are rightly worried about climate change, why isn’t that translating into political action? I’d argue it’s because people feel powerless to affect change, and polling supports that too. According to the Electoral Reform Society in 2021, a:
poll for the Politics for the Many campaign and the Electoral Reform Society [found] that just 5% of people feel they have a lot of opportunities to influence decision in Westminster
The question then is are Just Stop Oil protests making people feel like they have the power to influence political change, or are they doing the opposite?
Just stop…
Put yourself in the mind of a commuter. You know that climate change is destroying the planet, but you try not to think about it because you have more immediate problems – problems you have some degree of control over (even if these problems do keep getting worse by and large). Now imagine you’re on your way to your shitty job when you get stuck behind a slow march protest. Two things happen at this point:
You find yourselves unable to tackle the daily challenges of your own life.
You’re forced to confront a problem you have no idea how to fix – a problem these people want you to personally solve somehow.
When people see a Just Stop Oil protest, they put themselves in the mind of commuters because they can imagine what it must feel like to be in that position. They don’t put themselves in the minds of the protesters because they can’t imagine what it would be like to stand up to the powers that be, and neither can Just Stop Oil – that’s why they’re standing up to commuters instead.
If you want to inspire people to feel empowered, you need to show them you have power – to show them we all have power. Instead, Just Stop Oil are forcing people to confront their own powerlessness, and they’re doing so in a manner which is proving counterproductively visceral for those watching.
So what does a more effective protest look like?
…and just start
To my mind, the recent Greenpeace protest covering Rishi Sunak’s house in black fabric was a significantly more effective protest because it:
Showed the power we have to act.
Targeted the people with the ability to enact change.
Made said people panic.
(As an added bonus, it also showed that we know where these politicians live):
Greenpeace protesters drape giant oil-black fabric over Sunak’s mansion https://t.co/Sev9Vwi3CK
Another recent UK protest was the action against arms manufacturer Elbit Systems. Elbit Systems has (and in many instances now had) various sites across the UK. Unlike climate change, most people are blissfully unaware of Elbit’s presence, but the protesters didn’t attack the problem by trying to raise awareness; they attacked the problem by attacking the problem:
Following the targeting of Elbit sites in England by Palestine Action, the British Ministry of Defense is cancelling £280 million worth of contracts with Israel's largest weapons company, Elbit Systems.
The company's share price has fallen 17% in one month.
As reported in the Canary, Palestine Action targeted sites directly – including sites of affiliated companies such as Elbit’s accountants. If they’d instead shut down traffic in the town’s surrounding Elbit sites, the government would have used their actions as a means to turn the public against the movement, and they’d undoubtedly have been very successful. The government will always do this, of course, but to get away with it they need to have a convincing argument. You counteract this by not giving them that argument.
Just stop oily politicians
Increasing voter awareness is good, but it’s not enough. Of course voters need to feel empowered, but that needs to coincide with politicians feeling de-powered – and not just de-powered – they need to feel scared – to feel terrified, even. These scumbags should be waking up every day in fear of what will happen if they fuck things up, because nothing will get done unless they – and the oil companies they’re protecting – feel that way.
The increasingly notorious homelessness charity St Mungo’s saw striking workers take the fight for fair pay right to its front door on Thursday 10 August. Trade union Unite had organised a rally – and staff made their feelings over bosses’ treatment of them very clear.
Staff have been doing very badly – the average amount the charity spends on each employee fell in cash terms by 2% in 2022, and by more than 10% after allowing for inflation.
Leigh Fontaine is a manager at St Mungo’s, who’s also gone out on strike with workers. He told the BBC:
Never in my four years as a manager have I sat in a supervision with a staff member who is in tears over whether they can afford to eat next week.
But guess what? The CEO’s pay went up by 5% last year – to £189,000. That’s almost five times more than the average worker earns. Moreover, as the Canaryrecentlyreported, a ban on bosses using employment agencies to send scab staff in to cover for striking workers came into force on 10 August. As we also reported, St Mungo’s had previously been doing this. Unite said in a press release:
Up to now, St Mungo’s has been using a number of agencies to try to break the strike. Now management is tying itself in knots, wasting money in a desperate attempt to transfer agency workers on to short term contracts.
Yes, you read that right. As Novara Media reported, bosses at St Mungo’s are giving agency staff short-term contracts instead, to get around the new law. Unite said:
The charity’s actions are creating an expensive and administrative nightmare. Meanwhile Unite has recruited 350 new members since the start of the dispute. Workers are not believing the misinformation being peddled by the employer.
So, Unite members who work at St Mungo’s have been on indefinite strike since 27 June – after walking out for the four weeks prior to that. On Thursday 10 August, they took their campaign to the front door of the charity’s head office – holding a mass rally there.
They also sent support to striking comrades at Amazon:
At today’s brilliant @SMUnite rally, a huge roar of support when the strikers heard about how Amazon workers shut down the Coventry warehouse on Saturday!
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said in a press release:
Companies and organisations had already begun to use agency workers as a way to break legal strikes. Pitting worker against worker in an attempt to union bust. As of 10 August, this will no longer be an avenue hostile employers can use.
St Mungo’s now needs to focus on solving this long running dispute. They need to stop looking for ways to break the strike and start looking for ways to solve it.
According to the BBC, St Mungo’s bosses have made a new offer to Unite – which they’ll be negotiating “over the coming days”. Given that the bosses’ last offer was 3.7%, and the offer before that 2.25%, it’s unlikely they’ll offer workers anything near a decent pay rise. So, get set for the strike to continue for the foreseeable future.
(@FrankDoe101) 
TWO WEEKS OF RESISTANCE 
Check out the full list of events:
10-11am 4 Sept
We are organising a coach from 
Thursday, August 31st 2023 
(@imageplotter) 
(@andyunite) 
