#ecoactivists — Public Fediverse posts

#MonochromeMonday
2021. At Avatar Grove old growth forest park entrance. With some members of Elders for Ancient Trees grassroots activism group.

#SaveOldGrowth #TreesOverGreed #BCpoli #BCForestryReform #StopDeforestation #ProtectForests #WorthMoreStanding #LastStandForAncientForests #VancouverIsland #Activists #Environmentalists #EcoActivists #EcoJustice #PacificNorthwest #SpeakForForests #StopEcocide #VanIsle #PNW #monochrome #protest #AbolishRCMPCIRG

Protecting #Activists from #AbusiveLitigation

#SLAPPs in the #GlobalSouth and How to Respond

PUBLISHED: JULY 2020

"In #Thailand, an agricultural company files more than a dozen suits against at least 20 #defendants, targeting #workers, #journalists, and #activists who had spoken out against alleged #LaborAbuses at the company’s chicken farm. In #India, an association of #pesticide manufacturers brings a civil defamation suit against #journalists that had reported on the harmful #health and #environmental effects of pesticide use. In the #Philippines, a #mining company files suit against 85 defendants who had conducted a #PeacefulProtest near the company’s mining site, after the company’s own security forces used #lethal violence against the #protesters. In #SouthAfrica, an #Australian mining company files suit against environmental activists who had criticized a company mine during a lecture at a local university.

What do these suits have in common? They are all “#SLAPPs,” or “Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation”: suits filed not to secure relief, but to use the risks and costs of litigation to defuse criticism and opposition and discourage the exercise of fundamental freedoms. SLAPPs have long been prevalent in the #Globa North, but SLAPPs are also being used in the Global South to silence activism.

"In Protecting Activists from Abusive Litigation: SLAPPs in the Global South and How to Respond, ICNL presents the first cross-regional survey of SLAPPs in the Global South, along with the first rigorous comparative analysis of anti-SLAPP policy responses undertaken in the Global North and the Global South. Our survey shows that SLAPPs pose a serious threat to the exercise of fundamental freedoms in the Global South, particularly for activists, civil society organizations, journalists, and community members who dare to criticize powerful entities.

"Our survey, which is far from comprehensive, has identified 82 reported SLAPPs filed in Thailand, India, the Philippines, and South Africa – the most fertile fields for Southern SLAPPs – as well as #Indonesia, #Malaysia, #Armenia, #SierraLeone, and #Honduras. Key features of SLAPPs in our sample include:

- Half of the cases in our sample (41 cases) involved criminal proceedings.
- The most frequent SLAPP targets in our sample were activists and civil society organizations (CSOs) (38 cases, or 46%); journalists and publishers (17 cases, or 21%); and leaders and members of local communities (15 cases, or 18%).
- Nearly all of the cases in our sample – 75 cases, or 91% – were brought by private companies or company officials, with 34 of these cases (41%) brought by mining companies and 28 cases (34%) brought by companies associated with agricultural operations.

"Where the cause of action or charge was reported, the suit was based at least in part on a defamation charge, either civil or criminal, in 66 of 75 cases (88%).

"Of the 33 suits in our sample brought as civil actions, claims in 17 cases (52%) exceeded 1 million USD, with the average claim exceeding 10 million USD."

Full article:

https://www.icnl.org/post/report/slapps-in-the-global-south-report

#HumanRights #Whistleblowing #DigitalFreeSpeech #DirectAction #Fascism #CriminalizingDissent #WaterProtectors #ForestDefenders #EnvironmentalActivists #ClimateActivists #ClimateJustice #SilencingDissent #CorporateColonialism #EcoActivists #Censorship #HumanRightsViolations #Article20 #RightToProtest #SlowMarch #BigOilAndGas

Amnesty International: Five Ways Our #RightToProtest is Being Threatened Around the World

by James Duggan, October 5, 2022

"All around the world, right now, peaceful protestors are being imprisoned, threatened, and face physical violence from authorities. Even at home, in #Australia, our right to stand up and speak out against injustice is being taken away. Now more than ever, it’s essential we continue to fight for our #HumanRights.

"The right to protest is a fundamental human right. #Article20 of the #UniversalDeclarationOfHumanRights states that everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association. The right to protest is a way for people to defend their human rights and the rights of others when they’re threatened by governments and authorities.

"Here are five places where the right to protest is currently at threat:

1. #Australia

"Right here in Australia, governments and authorities are adopting an increasingly punitive attitude towards protestors. In 2020, peaceful protestors at a #BlackLivesMatter rally in #Sydney were met with excessive and unnecessary force from #NewSouthWales Police. Police used pepper spray and chased student protestors on horseback at the University of New South Wales, and pushed them to the ground. Both protestors and bystanders were injured in the process.

"The following year, in November 2021, a #ClimateActivist was sentenced to 12 months in jail after he climbed atop a #coal train and stayed on it for five hours to protest Australia’s #climate policies. Twenty-eight other people belonging to the same activist group were also arrested in NSW that month.

"In 2022, the NSW Government announced that disrupting any bridge or tunnel in Greater Sydney as part of a protest would result in individual fines of $22,000. This is a ten-fold increase from the previous penalty of $2,200. The NSW Government also plans to introduce legislation which would mean this $22,000 fine would also apply to protestors disrupting roads and public transport facilities.

2. #HongKong

"In June 2020, a new law came into effect in Hong Kong, referred to as the #NationalSecurityLaw (#NSL). What “national security” refers to in this law isn’t well defined, and the NSL has been applied arbitrarily at the discretion of the government and authorities to suppress #dissent and political opposition.

"In September 2021, a human rights lawyer named #ChowHangTung was arrested under this law and charged with 'inciting subversion.' She faces up to ten years in prison for peacefully commemorating the 1989 #Tiananmen Square protest crackdown. During the 1989 crackdown, an undisclosed number of people, anywhere from hundreds to thousands, were killed by authorities for gathering to protest the government’s censorship laws. At least three other activists were arrested along with Chow Hang-tung in relation to the peaceful memorial of these victims.

3. #Cambodia

"In May 2021, three young activists belonging to a Cambodian environmental campaign group called #MotherNatureCambodia were convicted to between 18 and 20 months in prison. They were arrested after they announced a plan to undertake a two-person march to the #Cambodian prime minister’s house in order to express their concerns regarding plans to privatise and develop the largest remaining #lake in the country’s capital city. They were charged with 'incitement to commit a felony or disturb social order.'

"Mother Nature Cambodia have won several major #environmental victories in Cambodia. In 2016, their efforts to expose widespread environmental destruction and human rights abuses linked to the #mining and export of #sand from coastal areas of Cambodia resulted in a total export ban on #CoastalSand from the country. As a result, the group have been targeted with harassment and repression from the Cambodian government. Multiple other activists have been charged with 'incitement,' and the group has been accused of 'causing chaos in society' and labelled 'illegal' because they’re not registered under the country’s restrictive NGO Law.

4. #Russia

"The right to protest in Russia has been severely compromised since 2004, when the Federal Law on Assemblies, Rallies, Demonstrations, Marches and Pickets was passed. The Law on Assemblies restricts who’s allowed to organise a protest and where the protest is allowed to be held, and subjects planned protests to a strict authorisation process that often results in permission being denied.

"Since 2004, legislation has been tightened numerous times. Most recently, the Russian government introduced new, heavy penalties for anyone who protests Russia’s invasion of #Ukraine. Less than three weeks after the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, almost 15,000 peaceful protestors had been arrested. #RussianAuthorities have arrested bystanders of protests and even children. Police have used excessive force against peaceful protestors, including women, subjecting them to beatings and electrocution with stun guns.

5. #India

"In India, draconian laws such as 'the crime of sedition' have been repeatedly used against peaceful protestors, journalists and human rights defenders. The slow investigative processes and strict bail conditions under these laws mean that activists and others who speak out against injustice in their country may spend many years behind bars while their trial is ongoing.

"In 2021, a 22-year-old #EnvironmentalActivist named #DishaRavi was charged with '#sedition' for sharing an online Google document that was originally tweeted by #GretaThunberg. The document was a basic 'toolkit' for #farmers in India who were then in the midst of protests against the Indian government over newly introduced agricultural legislation. The 'toolkit' included information on the protests and how to support the movement, both in person and online. Disha is a leader of India’s #FridaysForFuture movement, an international student environmentalist movement instigated by Greta Thunberg.

Source:
https://www.amnesty.org.au/five-ways-our-right-to-protest-is-being-threatened-around-the-world/

#ForestDefenders #WaterProtectors #DirectAction #ACAB #CriminalizingDissent #EnvironmentalActivists
#ClimateActivists #ClimateJustice #Fascism #SilencingDissent #CorporateColonialism
#EcoActivists #Censorship
#HumanRightsViolations
#DefendTheDefenders #ActivismIsNotACrime #ClimateJusticeNow #ProtestIsNotACrime

Green Scared?

Some Lessons from the #FBI Crackdown on #EcoActivists

2023, via @CrimethInc

"For years, the FBI targeted ecological #activists as their #1 priority. This is one of the chief reasons environmental devastation has continued unchecked.

"At the end of 2005, the FBI opened a new phase of its assault on earth and animal liberation movements—known as the #GreenScare—with the arrests and indictments of a large number of activists. This offensive, which they dubbed Operation Backfire, was intended to obtain convictions for many of the unsolved #EarthLiberationFront arsons of the preceding ten years—but more so, to have a chilling effect on all ecological #DirectAction.

"In this analysis, originally published in Rolling Thunder in 2008, we review everything we can learn from the Operation Backfire cases, with the intention of passing on the lessons for the next generation of #environmental activists.

https://crimethinc.com/zines/green-scared

#ClimateActivists #Censorship #Fascism #ELF #EarthFirst #Siskiyou #ClimateActivists #WaterProtectors #ACAB #CriminalizingDissent

Green Scared?

Some Lessons from the #FBI Crackdown on #EcoActivists

2023, via @CrimethInc

"For years, the FBI targeted ecological #activists as their #1 priority. This is one of the chief reasons environmental devastation has continued unchecked.

"At the end of 2005, the FBI opened a new phase of its assault on earth and animal liberation movements—known as the #GreenScare—with the arrests and indictments of a large number of activists. This offensive, which they dubbed Operation Backfire, was intended to obtain convictions for many of the unsolved #EarthLiberationFront arsons of the preceding ten years—but more so, to have a chilling effect on all ecological #DirectAction.

"In this analysis, originally published in Rolling Thunder in 2008, we review everything we can learn from the Operation Backfire cases, with the intention of passing on the lessons for the next generation of #environmental activists.

https://crimethinc.com/zines/green-scared

#ClimateActivists #Censorship #Fascism #ELF #EarthFirst #Siskiyou #ClimateActivists #WaterProtectors #ACAB #CriminalizingDissent

Green Scared?

Some Lessons from the #FBI Crackdown on #EcoActivists

2023, via @CrimethInc

"For years, the FBI targeted ecological #activists as their #1 priority. This is one of the chief reasons environmental devastation has continued unchecked.

"At the end of 2005, the FBI opened a new phase of its assault on earth and animal liberation movements—known as the #GreenScare—with the arrests and indictments of a large number of activists. This offensive, which they dubbed Operation Backfire, was intended to obtain convictions for many of the unsolved #EarthLiberationFront arsons of the preceding ten years—but more so, to have a chilling effect on all ecological #DirectAction.

"In this analysis, originally published in Rolling Thunder in 2008, we review everything we can learn from the Operation Backfire cases, with the intention of passing on the lessons for the next generation of #environmental activists.

https://crimethinc.com/zines/green-scared

#ClimateActivists #Censorship #Fascism #ELF #EarthFirst #Siskiyou #ClimateActivists #WaterProtectors #ACAB #CriminalizingDissent

Green Scared?

Some Lessons from the #FBI Crackdown on #EcoActivists

2023, via @CrimethInc

"For years, the FBI targeted ecological #activists as their #1 priority. This is one of the chief reasons environmental devastation has continued unchecked.

"At the end of 2005, the FBI opened a new phase of its assault on earth and animal liberation movements—known as the #GreenScare—with the arrests and indictments of a large number of activists. This offensive, which they dubbed Operation Backfire, was intended to obtain convictions for many of the unsolved #EarthLiberationFront arsons of the preceding ten years—but more so, to have a chilling effect on all ecological #DirectAction.

"In this analysis, originally published in Rolling Thunder in 2008, we review everything we can learn from the Operation Backfire cases, with the intention of passing on the lessons for the next generation of #environmental activists.

https://crimethinc.com/zines/green-scared

#ClimateActivists #Censorship #Fascism #ELF #EarthFirst #Siskiyou #ClimateActivists #WaterProtectors #ACAB #CriminalizingDissent

Green Scared?

Some Lessons from the #FBI Crackdown on #EcoActivists

2023, via @CrimethInc

"For years, the FBI targeted ecological #activists as their #1 priority. This is one of the chief reasons environmental devastation has continued unchecked.

"At the end of 2005, the FBI opened a new phase of its assault on earth and animal liberation movements—known as the #GreenScare—with the arrests and indictments of a large number of activists. This offensive, which they dubbed Operation Backfire, was intended to obtain convictions for many of the unsolved #EarthLiberationFront arsons of the preceding ten years—but more so, to have a chilling effect on all ecological #DirectAction.

"In this analysis, originally published in Rolling Thunder in 2008, we review everything we can learn from the Operation Backfire cases, with the intention of passing on the lessons for the next generation of #environmental activists.

https://crimethinc.com/zines/green-scared

#ClimateActivists #Censorship #Fascism #ELF #EarthFirst #Siskiyou #ClimateActivists #WaterProtectors #ACAB #CriminalizingDissent