Activists from Blockade Australia have stopped coal trains and shut down the world’s largest coal port in Newcastle. One entered the coal loading facility and pressed the emergency stop button, another climbed on top of a coal train, and others used an intricate set up of ropes to manoeuvre themselves over the edge of machinery.
The activists are protesting the federal government’s inadequate position at the United Nations COP26 summit and Australia’s role in the climate and ecological crisis. They have blockaded for two weeks and said they would continue to organise disruptions as long as Australia continues to block climate action.
Zianna a long-time environmental campaigner said: “We are here to challenge the ruling order of domination and exploitation that is buckling our life support systems … We must create true decision-making power over our lives through scaling up offensive direct action and resist injustice … Another system is possible and we know that because one existed on this continent for tens of thousands of years.”
Protesters have been threatened with 25-year prison sentences.
[Blockade Australia is calling for a mass resistance to climate inaction from June 27, 2022.]