UK has led the way, with countries across the continent making mass arrests, passing draconian new laws and labelling activists as eco-terrorists

The UK has led the way in the crackdown, experts say, with judges recently refusing an appeal against multi-year sentences for climate activists who blocked a motorway bridge in east London. The three-year jail terms for Marcus Decker and Morgan Trowland earlier this year are thought to be the longest handed out by a British judge for non-violent protest.

Michel Forst, the UN rapporteur on environmental defenders since June last year, described the situation in the UK as “terrifying”. He added that other countries were “looking at the UK examples with a view to passing similar laws in their own countries, which will have a devastating effect for Europe”.

He added: “I’m sure that there is European cooperation among the police forces against these kinds of activities. My concern is that when [governments] are calling these people eco-terrorists, or are using new forms of vilifications and defamation … it has a huge impact on how the population may perceive them and the cause for which these people are fighting. It is a huge concern for me.”

  • 0x815@feddit.deOPEnglish
    29·
    1 year ago

    Threats to Germany’s climate campaigners fuelled by politicians’ rhetoric, says activist

    Senior politicians in Germany have compared Last Generation, a nonviolent protest group that has blockaded motorways and thrown paint on glass-covered artworks, to terrorist organisations such as the Red Army Faction, a far-left group that killed dozens of people in the 1970s and 80s. Earlier this year, in tweets that have since been deleted, politicians from the centre-left and centre-right parties drew links between Last Generation and the Taliban.

    The chancellor, Olaf Scholz, who has described the protests as “completely idiotic”, appeared to compare climate activists to Nazis last year after two people disrupted a panel at which he was speaking in Stuttgart. “Let me say frankly, these black-clad spectacles at different events, always by the same people, remind me of a time that lies long in the past – and thank God for that,” he said, to loud applause.

    • tryptaminev@feddit.deEnglish
      334·
      1 year ago

      the German center left and center right parties are both proto fascist. The center left party SPD of chancellor Scholz is spearheading autocratic policies like total surveillance. The former minister of justice from the SPD wanted to pass a law that forces websites to save passwords in clear text, so police could access any accounts quickly and without notice to the surveilled person. Of course this would also allow police to stage entire crimes and blame it on the people whose accounts theyd take over.

      The center right party CDU is trying to help the fascist AfD into power, by taking over their talking points, fabricating a migration crisis and spread disinformation such as the refugees getting new teeth while Germans wouldnt get dentist appointments. They also target scientists in particular climate scientist and try to undermine the trust in research and evidence, as it contradicts their shortsighted economic and social demands.

      • sic_1@feddit.deEnglish
        77·
        1 year ago

        Add that to the far left party in large parts having similar positions as the far right, no wonder Fascists are on the rise. They get support from almost everyone except the Greens and the Pirate Party.

        • interolivary@beehaw.orgEnglish
          21·
          1 year ago

          Mind giving us an example of this, or should we just assume this is the classic centrist horseshoe bullshit?

          • yetAnotherUser@feddit.deEnglish
            10·
            1 year ago

            [Context: Wagenknecht is a prominent politician of The Left party]

            While I could give examples, this piece of satire should contain more than enough context.

            Said women in that article is also very concerned about the trans lobby, which is totally not a right-wing boogeyman.

            Let’s play a game, shall we? Here’s a few quotes and you should guess whether it’s made by a fascist or by Wagenknecht. In each topic one is made by her, the other by the fascists:

            Identity politics:

            Identity politics amounts to focusing attention on ever smaller and ever more bizarre minorities, each of which finds its identity in some quirk by which it differs from the majority society and from which it derives the claim of being a victim.

            Quote by:

            Sarah Wagenknecht

            The case of the job advertisement of a student anti-discrimination office in Berlin, which asks white people not to apply, shows the whole madness of left-wing identity politics.

            Quote by:

            Fascist party

            The Green party and their politics:

            Today, prosperity and nature are massively endangered by a Green policy to which all established parties have indiscriminately subscribed.

            Quote by:

            Fascist party

            The Greens are damaging our industry and the prosperity of millions with their so-called climate policy, which does nothing for the climate.

            Quote by:

            Sarah Wagenknecht

            On climate gluers protesting climate change:

            And even more so, I reject the presumption of wanting to parent people. The climate gluers probably really believe that the world will end tomorrow if Germany does not save it by radically renouncing prosperity.

            Quote by:

            Sarah Wagenknecht

            Due to increased prices and the threat of insolvencies, many employees are already on the edge of their existence anyway. Many simply cannot afford to be prevented from arriving at work on time by privileged full-time activists.

            Quote by:

            Fascist party

            A revision to the 1980s “transsexual law”, lowering the hurdles to change your gender.

            The ideological background of the law is precisely to deny gender as a biological fact and to make it a matter of state of mind.

            Quote by:

            Sarah Wagenknecht

            Ignoring cautionary voices, for example, that such a law would encourage criminal concealment of identity, the federal government is once again not only elevating itself above scientific facts, but is once again going against the Basic Law.

            Quote by:

            Fascist party

            Immigration:

            Mrs. Merkel’s decision in 2015 opened the way to Germany mainly for young men. Real help would instead focus primarily on women, children, the elderly, the weak and the poorest. But they can’t pay traffickers and can’t survive a long flight.

            Quote by:

            Sarah Wagenknecht

            The asylum seekers and illegal immigrants who flocked to Germany in even greater numbers because of Merkel’s invitation have also been disappointed: To this day, the vast majority have no jobs. Instead, they are a massive burden on our social systems.

            Quote by:

            Fascist party

            Sources:

            I think that’s it, I’m unsure though.

            • interolivary@beehaw.orgEnglish
              4·
              1 year ago

              Huh, I’m honestly surprised that this turned out to not be yet another bullshit claim about how “both sides are the same”. How the hell does she even claim to be leftist with those opinions?

              • yetAnotherUser@feddit.deEnglish
                3·
                1 year ago

                Note: I am absolutely not an expert in her views. I have not read any of the books she published nor do I watch every single talk show she attends.

                In one of the articles I linked, she mentioned this:

                Of course, in democracy you have to bow to majority decisions in the end - but if a majority gets the feeling between elections that what moves and burdens them is no longer taken into account at all in politics, then that contradicts democratic principles.

                While this quote in itself seems innocent I think it reveals a great deal about her in combination with her other views. My theory is:

                She is a populist and does not care enough about minorities if they can be abused by populist fearmongering.

                Very often the fears of the majority are unsupported by reality. For example, the people in German states with the least amount of immigrants are the most concerned about immigration. Women who never visit’s saunas are awfully concerned about trans women in women’s only saunas.

                There’s no doubt she has socialist views (even though her secondary incomes exceed those of any other politician). But she takes no issue in combining her views with populist or nationalist rhetoric (like some sort of national socialism ;).

                Had she been around in the 1920s, I don’t doubt she would’ve been in the Communist Party. Simultaneously though, she would’ve likely been a ravaging antisemite since blaming Jews for - well, anything really - was quite popular in Germany at that time.

                Her leftism seems to be about socialism only. A socialist country where minorities are hunted down is preferable to a capitalist one where they have equal rights, it seems.

                • interolivary@beehaw.orgEnglish
                  3·
                  1 year ago

                  Yeah, based on the quotes you provided she does seem like a populist. Reminiscent of Slovakia’s Smer, actually; economically leftist (at least nominally, I don’t know about her or Die Linke’s actual policies) but otherwise completely indistinguishable from extremist right wing parties.

                  As I said in another comment, as a Finn who votes for our version of Die Linke – Vasemmistoliitto aka. Left Alliance – I’m extremely glad they haven’t gone down the populist road. Probably also why they don’t get so many voters nowadays, not enough hate for minorities and no support for literal imperialism happening next door.

            • Spzi@lemm.eeEnglish
              2·
              1 year ago

              Thanks for putting this together! Though with some pride, I can say I only got 1 wrong, the one about trans. Still hard enough; point granted.

          • 🦄🦄🦄@feddit.deEnglish
            3·
            1 year ago

            Love for Putin would be one. As long as Die Linke is keeping Wagenknecht, they have to endure comparisons like that. And I say that as someone who voted for them the last election.

            • interolivary@beehaw.orgEnglish
              4·
              1 year ago

              Pro-Putin / Russia leftists are a deeply idiotic phenomenon. As another voter for the left here in Finland I’m glad our version of Die Linke is actually leftist and doesn’t support blatant imperialism

              • 🦄🦄🦄@feddit.deEnglish
                4·
                1 year ago

                Well, in Germany we have a saying “Wessen Brot ich esse, dessen Lied ich sing”. Basically, I will support the story of whoever pays my bills.

                • interolivary@beehaw.orgEnglish
                  5·
                  1 year ago

                  Ha, we have the exact same saying here when literally translated: “kenen leipää syöt, sen lauluja laulat” or “you sing the songs of the one whose bread you’re eating”. We probably got it from you folks, we’ve got a lot of phrases that were borrowed from German.

                  • tetraodon@feddit.itEnglish
                    3·
                    1 year ago

                    Italian has a similar one. Paraphrasing: I call myself neither red nor white. I’ll go with whoever feeds me.

                    It rhymes in Italian, and it has historical references non-Italians would miss.

                    We also say that the whole world is a village!

    • jmcs@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
      81·
      1 year ago

      How to antagonize and radicalize peaceful protestors 101. If I didn’t know better (that Scholz doesn’t understand how people work), I would say he was trying to get people to start putting bombs under SUVs.