Blockade AustraliaSome might call them crazy outlaws, others the future heroes of our history books. Blockade Australia is a resistance group that emerged as a response to Australia’s lack of COP26 pledges. Australia is one of the world’s largest producers and exporters of coal. ScoMo did not sign the phase out coal pledge, yet Australia has already warmed by 1.44°C out of the 1.5°C threshold, a fact that has increased wildfires and drought in the land down under.
Blockade Australia is people taking back their power. Courageous young activists are abseiling off coal handling machinery, blocking trains by laying down weeks at a time on tracks leading to Newcastle Coal Port and organizing mass protests in Australia’s largest cities. The blockades are said to have disrupted at least $60m in exports.
“I’m doing this because I’m 24 and already grieving the loss of my planet. Australia is a violent and exploitative system predicated on infinite expansion and the extraction of wealth from the Earth. It is fundamentally incompatible with our planet’s life support systems.”—Emily
This week a blockade activist got arrested and sentenced to 12 months in jail. It starkly reminds me of an earlier article: the wrong people are getting arrested. When the youth is scared shitless for their future and are forced out on the streets, yet get arrested, it begs the question… for who are politicians really working for? It’s time the world’s corrupt leadership is outed, and somehow arresting activists is doing just that.
“The problem is that our system is based on exponential growth, that revolves around money and power which is unjust and unequal. All life forms suffer because of the human actions of the corrupt and exploitative systems of our government and multinationals. I’ve come here to do direct actions because I feel it is one of the ways for me to stand up for what is right.”—Jacinta young activist
