- Trial of XR Climate protesters starts today – defendants speak out
- Solidarity protest outside court, “Protest is not a crime”
- People Before Profit express solidarity with defendants and say “big business polluters” should be on trial instead
Protesters gathered outside the Criminal Courts of Justice today in solidarity with two climate activists who face possible imprisonment for taking part in an Extinction Rebellion climate action last March. Two activists are accused of criminal damage for painting ‘No more empty promises’ on a government building as part of a protest about government inaction on climate change.
Speaking about the trial People Before Profit Climate Action spokesperson, Brid Smith TD said:
“People Before Profit want to express our solidarity with Orla and Zac. They took a stand to highlight the climate crisis and demand action. It’s the big business polluters and the government politicians who twiddle their thumbs while the world burns who should be on trial, not these peaceful protesters. Orla and Zac sounded the alarm, it is the government who are scandalously planning to expand Ireland fossil fuel infrastructure with up to nine new gas plants.”
Defendant Orla Murphy said:
“On the 19th of March 2021 I took direct action against the Irish government for their empty promises on the climate crisis. I didn’t do this lightly and have already spent 5 weeks in prison for it. This is not what I thought I would be doing at 19. I thought I’d be studying and building a future but I do not have a future. That is what our government have done to it’s young people. It has stolen our futures. At 19 instead of studying I went to prison.
“This summer a town in Canada was wiped off the face of the earth. One day it existed the next it didn’t. The towns name was Lytton. That’s the reality of the climate crisis. What’s already happening. Floods, fires, typhoons and it’s only getting worse. Instead of acting on this crisis, our government is leading us into a 2-degree world with empty promise after empty promise.
“So yes I threw paint at Ivy house and I’d do it again because I refuse to stand idly by as our government sell out the young people of Ireland and condemn us to the horrors of a 2 degrees world while bragging about how it’s protecting is.”
Fellow defendant Zac Lumley said
“The world is barrelling towards temperatures that will render vast swathes of the earth uninhabitable yet the Irish government is missing even its most basic environmental targets. The government will continue to make empty promises, but they are not capable of change— under capitalism, action on the climate and ecological crisis is impossible, as profit accumulation is sought at all cost to the environment, health and human life. The only solution is workers taking power, to plan the economy democratically, for the interest of humanity, not profit.”
People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy also attended the protest in solidarity. In 2017 Deputy Murphy also faced charges for taking part in an anti-water charges protest but was unanimously found not guilty. Deputy Murphy said:
“It’s clear that the establishment is trying to use the full force of the law to try to bully and intimidate protesters. It is important to restate that protest is not a crime. In a time of mounting ecological and social emergencies, with few precious years to act, we must stand with those who dare to resist and join them in bringing attention to the failures of this government and governments around the world. The silence from the Green Party politicians is deafening today, they really have abandoned the climate movement they claimed to represent and are part of the problem, not the solution.”
ENDS
