Charged for chalking: free speech dies in the West – Crikey

It's a long stretch from accepting that peaceful protest action should be made illegal to accepting it should be treated as domestic terrorism.But make no mistake thats where were heading.

I guess its a question of perspective.Some people, including various mining companies and most of our governments, do genuinely consider many environmental activists to be indistinguishable from terrorists.It results from a kind of corporate narcissism: the confusion of self-interest with the public interest.

If youre in power, as both major parties and some corporate players are accustomed to being, then its easy to fall into the trap of thinking that what is good for you is good for the country. Conversely, a threat to your interests is not only un-Australian -- its dangerous.

It's this instinct that drives governments to repeatedly try to slide through new laws designed to prevent or deter environmental and other advocates and activists from even speaking out on, let alone engage in non-violent protest against corporate ventures like logging or mining.It is behind the most recent push to make it easier to deregister charities if their members commit even petty offences in the course of protest action.

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Charged for chalking: free speech dies in the West - Crikey