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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