This weekend what has been described as " Climate Camp " will take place at Helensburgh. This will be a gathering of people for the purpose of making a protest about plans to expand Metropolitan Colliery, the oldest coal mine in Australia.
According to the organizers this will be a " family friendly festival ", complete with activities for children and workshops and speakers to provide informed information on various subjects.
This claim of non violence usually precedes all such protests, and a similar " Climate Camp " at Newcastle degenerated into criminal activity that saw people arrested and charged.
The police will be there in force and will include members of the riot squad, dog squad and other specialist branches. If events follow the normal course for such gatherings it will result in an invasion of the colliery property, damage of various kinds - and the citizens of Helensburgh will be inconvenienced by a wild mob roaming their friendly little town.
Everyone has a right to voice their opinion, but when that right also takes the form of mindless violence the very foundations of democracy are threatened. The actions of a few outrage the tolerance of the many and this leads to pressure to change the laws and dilute the right to express an opinion.
We are seeing a strange attitude taking over the minds of protest organizers world wide. There are people who want to deny the leaders of countries to meet together to plan to solve world problems - and this effort usually results in property damage, torched cars and general mayhem.
Hopefully " Climate Camp " will be reasonably peaceful, but there is every chance that the event will be taken over by violent elements who have no interest in the objectives for which it is being held, but have an anarchist outlook and want to provoke confrontation for their own ends.
Nobody will be surprised if Monday's local newspaper reports on this event with lurid headlines !
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