A couple of weeks ago an organization called Climate Camp Australia organized a march protesting Coal Power. This march was held in a town called Newcastle which is supposed to be a top coal exporter in Australia and the march essentially held up coal trains for about six hours.
I commend the efforts of the organizers for putting up such a worthy event, however, I have mixed feelings about the actions of a few of the protesters who got into the train lines and began dumping some of the coal off the trains.
Don’t get me wrong, I am all for the erradication of coal power all together and I agree we must do everything we can to solve the current problems of our time, but any time you begin acting against the law and public order you come close to crossing that line between civil disobedience and “terrorism” (although I hate that word as it is the war cry of the same people who want to keep the status quo and use it to further grasp control of the masses). My view is that if we are to win this cause, we must do it in a way that will win people to our side, not oust the law abiders. It is very easy for the other side to use these quasi-anarchist actions against this movement to sway public opinion to their side.
Now, having said that, I am a full supporter of civil disobedience, and we all have a duty to enforce it when we feel there is injustice and unfairness. Any progress we have made as a global civilization has been done with the use of civil disobedience, and done properly it can change the course of human evolution… as it has in the past.
I do think that Climate Camp Australia is a great organiztion as far as I can tell, and I encourage us Americans, as well as all peoples in the world to join in this cause and create our own Climate Camps.
I have included the video from the demonstration of Climate Camp Australia 2008:
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