Heavy sentences for the M25 plotters may encourage more protesting.
This will not help the Just Stopping of Oil one little bit.
Will there be protests to release the JSO five, as there was for Julian Assange? Roger Hallam, with his martyr/sainthood complex, is completely different to Assange. The former planned to break the law, endanger lives and make himself the Gandhi (or is it the Malcolm X?) of Britain; the latter exposed the US military breaking the law and killing civilians. The political temperature really changed as more of us became aware of the facts around Assange, whether the physical protests had much influence is debatable, but in no way was his release from prison a victory- Assange had to plead guilty though he committed no crime and the years he was held illegally without charge was taken as time served. The US made their point and a brutal example was made of him.
Heavy sentences for the JSO! plotters may lead to more protests. The protests are deliberately designed to maximise annoyance, may indeed have the opposite effect and may switch people off the environmental message completely. Those interested in maintaining the status quo like to control both sides of the discourse on fossil fuels and the environment. Rockefeller funded the Club of Rome, there’s Jetty money in JSO and Chris Hohn, the billionaire donor to Extinction Rebellion, apparently has a €730m stake in Heathrow airport.
The rilled up JSO!ers may bump into the Stop Ulez!ers and the rest of the anti climate policies crowd. Both disrupting the ‘system’ instead of being ‘complicit’ in it; but for diametrically opposite reasons, desiring opposing outcomes; more climate policies vs less or none! The only people this disruption will hurt will be those dependent on the public transport, care and health system, not politicians nor the oil industry.
Pulling out of Vietnam and releasing Assange when the temperature got too hot are very straight forward things to do and are very different to what the JSO/ER protestors are asking from us and our governments.
Capitalism is based on growth and the continued extraction of fossil fuels; renewables are just too cheap to support it.
Those 'raising awareness' by breaking the law are asking for a complete restructuring of our society and economy which will need all the good will, clear thinking, tolerance, understanding and communication skills we have available to us, as well as the utmost effort from us all.
This will not be achieved by pissing people off.
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