Monday 22 November 2021

Greens and Red-Greens: edging towards violence?

The reputations of the Swampys of this world are for being a bloody nuisance, but essentially peaceful - mostly putting themselves at hazard, in fact.  XR and Insulate are a bit more "above ground", so to speak, but still basically eschewing outright, first-degree violence.  (Death by delayed ambulance is bad enough for victims and their families, but it's at one step removed.)   The occasional window gets put in: and the blocking and slow-walking practised by anti-frackers etc doubtless cost their targets time and money.  Still, the basic thrust of green protest is broadly non-violent.

Many a hardline leftie has long despised these people, on several grounds.  They are predominantly (well OK, almost exclusively) middle class & middle aged (and, errr, white.)  They don't look to lefties for leadership (as obviously they ought).  And they espouse a kind of 'non-agency':  it's all designed to get governments to do things, rather than promoting a classical socialist programme of (e.g.) The Workers doing stuff for themselves, by themselves.  In fact, they seem to eschew effective practical agency as much as they do the rough stuff.

I detect something's changing.  There seems to be a campaign being organised against the French oil co Total for its big new East African Crude Oil Pipeline project; a campaign which intends to use the broadest range of tactics including what can only be described as sabotage, on the grounds that the project will cause Actual Harm (that much over-used word) both locally and globally; and thus, morally, should be stopped by whatever means possible.

The critique of the doctrine of non-violence now being deployed is that, although some greens espouse non-violence for ethical reasons, most adopt it as merely being the best tactic for not pissing-off the average punter, whose support or acquiescence will ultimately be needed.  But (so the new argument goes) to imagine major reforms have ever been achieved historically without violence is "peace-washing"; and climate change is serious enough a threat to demand & justify extreme actions.

We know, on the one hand, how bedsit lefties - while mostly too gentile & idle to lift a finger let alone raise a fist - often drool at the thought of violence perpetrated ... by others.  Marina Hyde's telling observation has been cited here before.  ("You only have to look at the little faces of Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell in the photos with Gerry Adams to conclude that they’d have been almost erotically impressed by the whiff of cordite".)  On the other hand, since the perceptive & predictive comment of one of our BTL anons in the wake of the 2011 riots - wait until an officer-class emerges from the tougher strain of unemployed, disaffected graduate-bedsits to take charge of the inchoate looter-plebs - we've been wondering if and when this would materialise.

Well evidently Remain wasn't enough to stir them; nor Corbyn's putative upsurge (though it might have come close around 2017-18).  2019 seemed to have thrown them right out of kilter: even BLM didn't kick off as maybe it might have.

So: watch this simmering space.  If this anti-Total effort develops into something noticeable, what price an anti-Cambo push of more than usual 'vehemence'?  Now that Sturgeon has come down against the development, presumably Police Scotland won't be under any instructions to suppress anti-Cambo organisers.  Could get messy, if Boris sticks to his guns on this one.  To use a phrase ...

ND

12 comments:

DJK said...

"...if Boris sticks to his guns..." But he always folds, under the gentlest of pressure.

Sturgeon is happy to hide behind Boris and the Greens in opposing Cambo. She'd be much less happy if she had to make a decision herself. As to whether actual violence would break out in support of the 'climate emergency', I'm not convinced.

andrew said...

Well it depends partly on whether there are any carbon neutral explosives. Suspect not.

Anonymous said...

Given Boris seems to want to out green Caroline Lucas at every opportunity he gets, is the question not why hasn't Cambo been stopped already?

Is this something that just hasn't reached his desk yet?

Don Cox said...

The definition of "black people" seems to be very vague.

Does it mean "anyone who isn't English, Scots, Welsh or N. Irish" ?
Or does it mean "people with sub-saharan recent ancestry ? (We all have sub-saharan ancestors if you go back far enough.)

Does it include Chinese colonists in Britain ? How about Sri Lankans ? Gypsies ? Hungarians ?

I'm confused.

Anonymous said...

Don, It's easy to determine if a person counts as Black. Just ask any other Black person.

Anonymous said...

I have a feeling that the green pressure will abate the moment the lights don't come on and the heat pumps/boilers don't work.

HMG is heading for a huge pile up with the current course.

At this moment, 5.30 pm on a chilly winter evening, we are using 45GW of electricity. 50% of that is produced by gas-fired power stations. An even larger amount of gas is used domestically and in industry. Another 1.5GW a
is from coal, and Boris says those will be gone by 2024.

Very little of this electricity is used for heating, whereas nearly all the domestic and industrial gas is.

We will need a LOT more electricity, both to power the heat pumps which, in the Future Homes Standard Disaster, coming to a development by you in 2025, will heat all new builds, and also to power all our electric cars. Each pump uses around 1.5kw, on pretty much full time, and charging even a dinky little VW Up will need a cooker-style 10-15kw connection.

But gas is more efficiently used in domestic central heating systems than in power stations - condensing boilers are 90%+ efficient, gas power stations 55-60% efficient.

Meanwhile there are only seven nuclear power stations in the UK, all of which are slated to have closed by 2035 and half by 2024.

"At the peak in 1997, 26% of the nation's electricity was generated from nuclear power."

New ones will apparently be built by EDF, who have been having terrible tech issues with their new designs. There's also the small matter that every nuclear plant in France and presumably some elsewhere contain large steel forgings, the manufacturer of which has been fiddling the quality figures for 50 years.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/problems-at-nuclear-components-supplier-spark-global-reviews-1481625005

Our green new future's going to be great!

Anonymous said...

I think that Nick should perhaps mention that Cambo is a potential new oil field off the north east coast. Boris he say "si" to it.

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-stop-cambo-campaign_uk_615b1b7ee4b0487c8561d785

jim said...

I thought all pipelines were potentially vulnerable but in practice they don't seem to suffer too much at least as publicly known. Here in the UK big gas lines are buried, it is a fair drag for Swampy to dig one up and making a hole with a B&D drill is a bit up close and personal. If you can't get the Semtex then going much damage is difficult and short lived - pointless. Control stations might be a bit easier but I think that base is covered.

As for overseas pipelines, well Swampy would stick out like a sore thumb and the locals are not likely to be too keen. Further, the land and nation owners are likely to have a very personal interest in only allowing permitted and paid for tap-offs. Anyone messing with the flow of cash is likely to find a bullet.

Just possibly the Green movement could raise awareness etc in the host nation - but a hard job to convince the locals that taking a beating and a bullet for a few privileged Caucasoids is a good idea. Anyway, the bus pass does not extend as far as Africa - so stay in bed.

Nick Drew said...

Jim - let's see what (or indeed if) the anti-Total mob has in mind. I suspect Head Office may be a more plausible target than hardware: but then again, Greenpeace has a history of 'accessing' hardware, even offshore. Remember, the thesis is about an officer-class emerging. & Cambo action probably wouldn't risk a bullet ...

As regards P/Ls: yes, onshore P/Ls (in this country) are mostly buried, outside of perimeter-secured plant. HOWEVER, (a) if you know what you're looking at there are many above-ground roadside manifestations along the route; (b) there is a long history of very professional theft (by E.Europeans / Nigerians et al, from countries where it is indeed a profession) of oil from P/Ls, including digging down to get access to buried lines. AND including it happening in the UK, though it's not much talked about.

Gas is, errr, a different proposition - as regards theft, that is.

(Of course in many countries P/Ls etc are as open & vulnerable as it's possible to imagine, see James Bond passim. Anyone intending to put one through Afghanistan to China must be barking mad)

Anonymous said...

Yes, Greenpeace has had an officer class for a long time, some decent sailors and climbers.

E-K - if you want to see anti-white propaganda in statistics, use google or BBC News search for "Kriss Donald" - objectively a far "worse" murder, a 15 year old boy kidnapped, tortured and burned alive - and "Stephen Lawrence".

The schools don't help, either - our education system produces young people like this - and that's BEFORE this report was implemented. Note it's the girls who are demoralised.

http://www.educationengland.org.uk/documents/pdfs/2007-ajegbo-report-citizenship.pdf

Negative perceptions of identity

Some indigenous pupils’ experience of identity issues in
the curriculum is that they have negative perceptions of
their UK/English identities:

You’re bored with it, you’re just British.
White female, Year 10

I’m not from a Caribbean country or an exotic country or
even France or Spain. I’m from nowhere like that, I’m just
plain British.
White female Year 10

It’s boring, I just want to be like from a different ‘race’, or a
quarter something.
White female KS2


jim said...

Indeed, a bit of intelligent looking etc. Locally some doubtful chaps with a cherry picker wanted access to a pole in a field next door. No documentation etc, told to buzz off. Phoned power company who revealed 'thanks v much, we get a fair bit of this'. Apparently there are power companies within power companies if you know what I mean...

Whilst travelling in a nice warm country I did notice several shacks with long bamboo poles with two hefty copper hooks hanging off the 2 wire feeder. Jolly good luck to them thought I.

Matt said...

@ ND

Who is it that'll be committing violent acts? If XR or Insulate Britain try this we'll see more of what happened in Canning Town and some very flat blood stains on the road as truckers have momentary brake failure.