<
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/article/2024/jul/07/blockade-australia-climate-protest-newcastle-trains>
"It was right on sunrise when Ian Fox, 67, began dangling above a busy railway
on a cold Newcastle morning.
The South Australian hadn’t been in the Hunter for long before he suspended
himself above the train lines on 25 June. As he hung there, a sign was unfurled
below him that said: “Survival depends on non-compliance.”
While New South Wales police acted swiftly to end his action, it was just the
start of a rolling series of protests that has seen at least 26 people arrested
– and more than 200 passenger trains cancelled – over a two-week period.
Planned by Blockade Australia, whose protest at a major port in Sydney in 2022
prompted the NSW government to introduce new anti-protest laws, the group says
the daily climate protests are calling for change at the heart of the issue.
“We are drawing focus on the political and economic system of this continent …
we believe that is the core of the problem,” says Brad Homewood, a spokesperson
for Blockade Australia.
“Even the IPCC [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] has called out
capitalism and colonialism as the major drivers of the climate and ecological
crisis, and we just don’t hear enough of that. We certainly don’t hear it from
any politicians, and we don’t hear it from a lot of other climate groups.”
The IPCC’s sixth report, released in 2022, included colonialism as one factor
that increased the vulnerability of some groups to the effects of climate
change."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
