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From The Socialist newspaper, 3 October 2018
Big business calls the tune: anti-fracking protesters jailed
photo John McSporran (Creative Commons) (Click to enlarge)
Three anti-fracking activists became the first environmental protesters to be imprisoned since 1932. Then, Lancashire Ramblers carried out a mass trespass on Kinder Scout in the Derbyshire Peak District.
The three - Simon Blevins, Richard Roberts and Rich Loizou - were jailed for taking part in a lorry protest lasting nearly 100 hours outside Cuadrilla's shale gas site.
The prosecutor claimed that the protest caused traffic disruption, inconvenience to businesses and additional costs. Under capitalism, big business calls the tune and the government and the judiciary usually dance to it.
The High Court injunctions used against anti-fracking protesters could well be used by other capitalist companies seeking to prevent peaceful protest.
John Sibbald, Wakefield and Pontefract Socialist Party
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The coronavirus crisis has laid bare the class character of society in numerous ways. It is making clear to many that it is the working class that keeps society running, not the CEOs of major corporations.
The results of austerity have been graphically demonstrated as public services strain to cope with the crisis.
The government has now ripped up its 'austerity' mantra and turned to policies that not long ago were denounced as socialist. But after the corona crisis, it will try to make the working class pay for it, by trying to claw back what has been given.
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In The Socialist 3 October 2018:
Labour Party conference
Labour conference shows: Blairites must be ousted
Socialist Party campaigns against the Blairites at Labour conference
Socialist Party reports and campaigns
'Tories must go' demonstration in Birmingham
Anti-fracking protesters jailed
Save Wirral NHS walk-in centres
More party than protest, but great response to socialist ideas at Leicester Pride
Socialist Party news and analysis
Zombie Tory government: general election now
Shocking new data on declining life expectancy
NHS pay discrimination - militant union action can achieve fair pay for all
Maximus profitus: disabillity profiteering scandal
Workplace news and analysis
Catering and courier workers strike together
Coordinated catering and courier strikes
York NHS workers strike against privatisation
1,000 head teachers march on parliament
Camden - Unison members in pay fight
Socialist Party feature
International socialist news and analysis
USA: crisis follows Supreme Court justice nomination
Indonesia tsunami - a disaster compounded by capitalism
Socialist Students
Enthusiasm for Socialist ideas at the freshers fairs
Opinion
The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists: one-man show's new take on lively socialist classic
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