‘A new phase’: why climate activists are turning to sabotage instead of protest

www.theguardian.com

Tougher laws said to be inspiring clandestine attacks on the ‘property and machinery’ of the fossil fuel economy

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silence7 @slrpnk.net

5mo ago

‘A new phase’: why climate activists are turning to sabotage instead of protest | Tougher laws said to be inspiring clandestine attacks on the ‘property and machinery’ of the fossil fuel economy

www.theguardian.com /environment/2025/mar/08/a-new-phase-why-climate-activists-are-turning-to-sabotage-instead-of-protest

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Global_Liberty @lemmy.ml

5mo ago

‘A new phase’: why climate activists are turning to sabotage instead of protest

www.theguardian.com /environment/2025/mar/08/a-new-phase-why-climate-activists-are-turning-to-sabotage-instead-of-protest

36 comments

"Those who made peaceful reform impossible have made violent revolution inevitable."
- Ronald DickMonald
Countries are making the act of protest itself criminal. If the risk of penalty is in the same ballpark I can see how some folks will elect for direct action over pleading for public attention that never seems to come.
Vandalize anything that doesn't belong to an individual or small business. I hit abandoned buildings and street signs (without covering the lettering) most but everything is fair game at this point. Especially ads. Stickers, paint, wheat paste or whatever. To be silent is to be complicit. I want us all to be able to tell the next generation that we fought and stirred shit up.
- Here's some better advice for protestors/saboteurs: DO NOT CONFESS TO YOUR CRIMES ON SOCIAL MEDIA
  You hit abandoned buildings and street signs? Ohhhh no sirree, SOME UNKNOWN PERSON hit abandoned buildings and street signs. No idea who it was. Not one clue.
  
  Thanks for the advice. Personally, I'm trying to inspire others who would normally just be upset about the political climate, so I'm taking that risk. But if/when I want to go incognito, I'll take that under advisement.
- Why wreck an abandoned building or house? That greatly decreases the chance that the building can be rehabilitated for use again and likely will result in its demolition and replacement. Those buildings could have been restored for use by the community but it's made a lot harder if everything is damaged and covered in graffiti.
  Countless beautiful historical buildings have been lost forever because vandals destroyed them beyond repair before they could be saved. Even worse when it's someone's house left abandoned after they pass away (usually old people), and people come and destroy what might be the last few things to remember that person by. Vandalism of abandoned buildings just saddens me.
there’s an old saying: “you may as well hang for a sheep as for a lamb”.
- In for a penny, in for a pound.
why climate activists are turning to sabotage instead of protest
Because violence and sabotage brings attention
- I'll be even more frank: because it's the only thing that works.
  
  No it doesn't. You don't see protests in North Korea don't you?
- Not just attention, but increases risk so companies avoid such activities if they know the reward (dividend paid to shareholders) doesn't justify the risk (equipment being damaged, assets being burned)
  
  Don't forget the cost of insurance. That's the big one. If it stops being possible to insure fossil fuel infrastructure, then investments shift to renewables that can be insured. It's pretty simple economic math.
  Edit: that also works in all levels of the economy. Pipeline constitution vehicle get torched every time there's a pipeline built? Uninsurable therefore reduce or stop investment. Cas in cities always get flat tires and vandalized? People won't buy cars they can't insure.
The goal of both is to start reducing or simply stop large scale actions that are doing damage to the environment. If peaceful protesting is being prevented or simply is just being ignored, then the next step is directly stopping things. If it's vandalism or misdirected damage, that's not really accomplishing the goal and can be used against activists and their message.
The caveat is that most changes either through successful protests or more direct measures will harm others at some point, but I fail to see a way around that when we live in a society where everyone is dependent in many ways on the society continuing its destructive path. The longer we wait to change, the worse it will be for more people, and at some point it won't be protesters that cause the change, but the environment or some other factors like demand exceeding supply that cause huge suffering.
- Vandalism is a crime. Causing economic harm to a business that is causing mass extinction is sabatogue, not a crime.
They are making protests illegal or almost impossible in some places
When you risk as much when protesting. Why not ? This is less risky too. A protest police know when and how to arrest people.
The machine must be prevented from working at all. Good work.
The fucking Guardian, of all papers, is partially paywalled now. Either you give up your privacy, or you hand over money.
Any chance anyone has a workaround so I can read this?
- Hm weird I'm not getting a paywall. Just the same plea for subscribing that you can dismiss.
  
  This is what I got. Pay or give up your privacy.
  I understand they use adverts, but that doesn't mean they need to know everything about me.
  As DuckDuckGo put it, they display adverts by displaying relevant ads based on searches. You searched for a car? They display car adverts. You searched for a book? They display adverts for a new novel.
  They don't need a track of and psychological analysis of every person's habits.
- Check out this archived link of the article
  
  Thank you!
"Direct action gets the goods."
I wonder how difficult it is to sabotage one of those gigantic coal digging machines.
- Just puncture a hydraulic line, right?
Luigi had countless fans metaphorically sucking his dick before it came out that he allegedly did it. I wonder if a similar thing could happen with an oil refinery or something.
Edward Abbey, ecodefense, monkey-wrenching, it’s not new. Ecotage came out in ‘72. The monkey wrench gang came out in ‘75.
- You're totally right, direct action for ecological/environmental/etc is not something new.
  And thank you for your input. You mention some stuff I did not know and I will gladly look into.