Labour split by leadership call for action against climate crisis blockades
JVL Introduction
The Labour shadow justice secretary Steve Reed, with the support of Labour’s leadership, has called for injunctions to prevent the direct action of environmental groups from stopping the movement of oil lorries and blocking London bridges.
He has become a cheerleader for Priti Patel’s extremist political vision embodied in the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill which threatens the fundamental right to protest.
“Just Stop Oil” and “Extinction Rebellion” are attempting to drag environmental policy forward, in the small window left to avert runaway climate catastrophe but their actions are condemned by the Labour leadership. Ed Miliband, shadow minister of the environment, supports this antagonism to climate activism. He should know what a dreadful failure he and others have made of efforts to preserve the flourishing of nature and future generations.
The leadership now aligns itself with the climate denying, authoritarian hard-right of English politics. Yet, Greens are likely to surge in the May ’22 local elections as young people and left-wing ex-Labour voters respond to Labour’s lack of commitment to rapid decarbonisation and to progressive politics more generally.
Tony Booth, JVL environment officer
This article was originally published by the Guardian on Sun 17 Apr 2022. Read the original here.
Labour split by leadership call for action against climate crisis blockades
Plea by shadow justice secretary Steve Reed for nationwide bans on activists’ tactics angers many on left of party
Loading article text…
One plus does emerge from this appalling story – that there are clearly still party members who have integrity and willingness to challenge the reactionary passivity and anti-struggle, anti-activism stance of the Labour establishment.
’60 largest banks in the world have invested $3.8 trillion in fossil fuels since the Paris Agreement’
60 of the world’s largest commercial and investment banks have collectively put $3.8 trillion into fossil fuels from 2016 to 2020
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/24/how-much-the-largest-banks-have-invested-in-fossil-fuel-report.html
And it’s no doubt getting on for another $trillion since 2020!
“inappropriate and counterproductive” is what centrist liberals always tell protestors who want real progress. It’s always ‘the wrong time’ and it’s better to work behind the scenes with an attitude of mutual respect. MLK’s Letters from a Birmingham Jail show that the Black liberals and white liberal allies of his time said just that. In 1930s Germany, Jewish community leaders, liberals and realists all, thought they could work with the Nazis for mutual tolerance. It never works.
We all know what will happen next. If you oppose NATO you are expelled. If you express sympathy with climate protests you will be expelled!