December saw Plane Stupid protesters disrupt the flights at Stansted and a saboteur crash a 500MW turbine at the Kingsnorth power station. But, asks Abigail Edge on her Grassy Roots blog, how effective is direct action?
“Direct action protests are a way of speeding up change and getting people to listen by showing society leaders that you are willing to break the rules for a cause you believe in,” Ben Stewart of Greenpeace tells her. He was one of six people arrested last year for climbing the 250 foot chimney of Kingsnorth power station and painting the Prime Minister’s name in big white letters down the side of it.
“The idea is to engage in non-violent creative confrontation to spark a debate to bring about change,” he says.
And as Abigail points out, there are also pitfalls to campaigning outside the law. As well as the personal risks – such as arrest, injury or worse – there is the danger of people misinterpreting your actions, resulting in public vilification.
“As far as the media are concerned, once you’ve broken the law you don’t have a reputation to lose,” says Ben. “They think they can say what they like about you. I’ve heard some crazy stuff about Greenpeace planning to plant bombs to reduce the world’s population and that sort of thing.”
It goes to show how direct action protests can sometimes cause more harm than good, discrediting the organisation behind the protest and deflecting attention from environmental issue itself, she says. However the press have been relatively sympathetic to Plane Stupid Stansted invaders, because they have been so articulate in conveying the reasons behind their protest and getting people to relate to that. And the mystery Kingsnorth saboteur has been awarded the nickname of “the green Banksy“; a superhero title, of sorts.
It seems as long as people continuing attempting to make their voice heard through imaginative peaceful protest, people will listen. Some may find these protests shocking, unnecessary or just plain inconvenient. But only by being taken outside of our comfort zone can we begin to appreciate what is really important.
To read the full article, Shock tactics: Kingsnorth and Stansted, visit Abigail Edge’s Grassy Roots blog, or read it on Guardian Blogs.
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