Protesters blocked lane of SH1 at Wellington's Terrace Tunnel
Protesters blocked lane of SH1 at Wellington's Terrace Tunnel
Three protesters blocked the southbound lane of the Terrace Tunnel on Wellington's urban motorway.
It was only a matter of time before an irate tradie threw hands at them.
We don't get paid to sit in traffic.
What really stands out with these incidents is that all the handwringing against the protests themselves and how they should be 'doing it the right way' is total bullshit.
Turns out direct action (up to and including violence) is justified... If you're delayed getting somewhere in your car by 15 mins. However, nonviolent direct action about our own government dithering on the biggest crisis humanity has ever faced is too much.
Direct action is typically justifiable against the people who have the power to change things
Everyone hates these people because they're screwing over commuters, if they blocked a National party conference I wouldn't be so bothered.
Everyone doesn't hate them. You shouldn't presume everyone is as hateful and angry as you. Most people in this country are decent and nice.
I totally understand people getting angry at this sort of thing... I'm 100% behind their cause, not so sure on their tactics.
But it's just a shame that people are not as angry about the inaction on climate change. The inconvenience caused by the protesters is a micro-fraction of the pain that climate change is already causing and will continue to cause.
The whole purpose of protest is to be disruptive. Protests that don't disrupt don't get anything done because you will never hear about it and you won't know about it. Who is going to report a protest that's indistinguishable from everyday life?
Unfortunately it's also only a matter of time before climate change gets worse - we've already seen what's happening in the northern hemisphere. Regardless of who is in the road or what work you need to get to, hitting and carrying a person on the front of your car or assault deserves charges, especially as the cops cleared it in ~15 minutes anyway.
Saying that - protesting is also meant to get people on your side rather than just raise awareness. This one didn't.
If there's a gofundme for this guy's legal costs, I'm chipping in. You don't get to fuck with someone's livelihood like this.
I didn't see anyone doing jack fucking shit about Brian cult leader Tamaki blocking the motorway, so as far as I can tell, anyone can block the roads and it's totally fine.
It started with the Covid "checkpoints", and it's been downhill from there.
It's a bit late now, but what are people's thoughts on whether this is the right community for this? It seems pretty political, even if it's not about a political party.
For future posts, should things like this go in !politics@lemmy.nz or is !newzealand@lemmy.nz ok?
Edit: I think the sense I'm getting is that this would be at home in either community.
@Dave @Ilovethebomb blocking the motorway seems like public interest reporting. I guess follow-up reports on trials and mp responses is for politics.
Personally I don't think it should have to go in politics, but then I don't really mind political posts (even party political stuff, although already a bit over the election campaign!)
Yes, agreed to put it in politics.
Everything is political to some extent though, where do you draw the line?
That's the question 😆. For this one, because they are directly campaigning the government to do something, it seemed political to me. But that's what I'm seeking opinions on.
This one seems a lot more politically focused than say the article about the company intentionally damaging archeological sites that was posted earlier today.
Isn't the irony here that making cars sit idling instead of getting where they're going causes more pollution?
Who are these protests convincing? Do they even say what their demands are other than a completely unspecific and unhelpful "combat climate change"?
I'm pretty sure they have specific demands, asking for better inter-city passenger trains. It says in the article the protesters are from the "Restore Passenger Rail climate action group".
I don't know their strategy, but if their intention is to get publicity for the cause then the term "it doesn't matter what they are saying about you, as long as they're talking about you" comes to mind.
They actually are quite specific in what they want, they want a restoration of all our intercity rail services, to a level of service that existed back in the nineties. It's not about commuter rail, as many commenters here seem to think.
In other words, they want the government to spend a few hundred mill on rolling stock, and still more on other subsidies, on a service that would take nearly twice as long to go between Auckland and Wellington as a bus. They've completely lost touch with reality.
This is also ignoring the fact that diesel rail isn't that much better than road transport, and can even be worse.
In other words, they want the government to spend a few hundred mill on rolling stock, and still more on other subsidies, on a service that would take nearly twice as long to go between Auckland and Wellington as a bus.
Driving time WLG <=> AKL is about 7.5 hours. Assuming a 15 minute break every 2 hours, that's about 8.5 hours. It's 650km, so that's about 76km/hour on average. I'm sure a train can go as fast / faster than that; definitely not <40km/hour like you suggest.