Exciting news! The new executive director of Greenpeace USA was nicked last week, on his very first day in the job. Phil Radford, just 33, was part of a team who hung a huge banner from a crane near the US state department: The banner said “Stop Global Warming. Rescue the Planet”, and that is exactly what Radford has said he is planning to do.
There are some people who are just born activists, and it must be said that Radford appears to be one of them. Don’t let his youth fool you: Radford’s been campaigning since he was in high school. He founded Power Shift, the organisation which has been persuading cities and companies around the US to shift to using renewable power and held, more recently, two enormous youth conferences that were inspiring reminders of the fact that US youth do still want to get up and make their points. The situation for activists in the States, lets not forget, has been grim for a long time. Under George W Bush they knew that no environmental progress could be made. Indeed, not only did Bush pretty much hate environmentalists, he seemed none too keen on campaigners either, and at one point tried to sue Greenpeace for allowing members of its staff to protest on board a boat bringing illegally logged wood to the States. Fortunately the lawsuit was defeated, but his views on protest, no matter how peaceful, were made fairly clear. Bush waged a war against “ecoterrorism”, declaring it to be one of the greatest threats of the modern age. Under his government, “ecoterrorists” who had set fire to buildings and cars, were given prison sentences more commemsurate with murder: Jeff Luers, for example, who set fire to three SUVs in 2000, was sentenced to 22 years in prison. (That has now been shortened to 10.) No one denies the seriousness of arson and damage to property. But there is a difference between these crimes and violence against other human beings which should be recognised in the severity of the sentences.
So why is it exciting that Radford was nicked for a banner hang? Well, campaigners in the US may be hoping now for a more lenient attitude. Over the last year environmental activists have been busier and busier - organising conferences, blockading coal mines and recently blockading the power station which helps to keep the lights on in Washingon DC. (That last action was organised by Radford, just before he took on this new job, by the way.)
A few weeks ago 44 campaigners were arrested for protesting against the plans of Duke Energy to increase their coal burning capacity - suddenly civil disobedience is breaking out all over the States, and it’s very very exciting to watch.
Where will it end? Phil Radford’s arrest, I suspect, is not the last we will hear of him.
Oh no. This is - I fervently hope - just the beginning.