A potentially interesting debate that deserved more nuanced debate than the slam-dunk I don;t like that knee jerk reaction.
Yes, companies cannpt be relied on to act resposnibly, generally, eithger socially or environmentally. At heart they don;t exist to sell a product, that is incidental to theior main aim, profit creation for sharehlderrs.
However, destruction of infrastructure (or related actions like Just Stop Oil blocking roads - a sort of temporary destruction of infrastructure, may get good publicity and highlight vita;l causes - they also provoke a reaction from the State, whoich is basically acting as a lackey of the corporations here, as it wants the tax and GDP from them, and may initially at least achieve the exact opposite of what the p[rotestors / activists want.
The State legal system has something called the 'floodgates principle' - basically, 'we can't allow that or everyone would do it and we'd have total anarchy'. May not be true, but it is used to crack down on any intial protests, often, and creates the pretext for more draconian law enforcement.
So what to do. Surely not, sit back and let the planet fry, or rely on so,me nebulous non existent altruism by avaricious shareholders.
How about consumer action, exercise of choice, along with both wide and targetted publicity, nudges, guilt induction.
I guess that's all a lot harder work physically and mentally than blowing something up, though.
Dr Hillary J Shaw
Centre for Urban Research on Austerity
Faculty of Business and Law
De Montfort University, Leicester
LE1 9BH
www.fooddeserts.org
-----Original Message-----
From: Stefano Portelli <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Mon, 1 May 2023 16:56
Subject: Re: Why Blowing up Pipelines will not Solve the Climate Crisis
Let me add, for those who didn't print it and pinned it on a wall of their living room as I did, this famous quote by Fredric Douglass:
"Those who profess to favor freedom and yet depreciate agitation, are
people who want crops without ploughing the ground; they want rain
without thunder and lightning; they want the ocean without the roar of
its many waters" .
I love it, thx, Anja! - Jean
Jesus christ, what an offensive piece of capitalist apology, on
the first of May of all days, doing its very best to uncritically
shroud practices of infrastructural disruption in the language of
violence. "A commitment to ballots not bullets is
crucial"—what a fucking galling quip in the country of
mass-shootings, to compare damaging a pipeline to shooting
humans.
If any of you are curious: it's not worth the read, just
corporatist apologetics, pleading that we must simply wait for the
shareholders to fix the climate. Utter drivel.
Den 01.05.2023 08:25, skrev Ilan
Kelman:
"Why
Blowing up Pipelines will not Solve the Climate Crisis"
By Nives
Dolsak and Aseem Prakash
