"Peaceful" Activism--a Greenpeace Artform

Not Playing By the Rules

We confess being guilty of the odd smile or two when news broke that Greenpeace has tilted its lance at Russia.  This is not to say, of course, that the Russian record when it comes to preservation of the environment is stellar.  Far from it.  But Greenpeace has a higher calling than ordinary human beings.  It is more than willing to disregard the law when it comes to its own particular, peculiar version of  rabid environmentalism.  When the "fragile" arctic environment was deemed to be at risk from Russian offshore drilling, Greenpeace engaged in its trademark "peaceful" protest which involved assailing and climbing up on the rig.  The Russian coastguard steamed in and arrested the lot, seizing its boat.

Now Greenpeace has been getting away with this sort of thing for years in the West.
  It blatantly disregards the law and the property rights of others, always arguing that the end of environmental purity justifies its  illegal activities of trespass, theft, destruction of  private property, and impeding others in their lawful activities.  In the West, when authorities (usually after days of delay) finally gin up sufficient courage to "escort them off the premises", Greenpeace turns around yet again and plays the victim card.  "We were only engaged in peaceful, non-violent protest.  We are the good guys.  Big business has suborned the authorities which are persecuting the innocent."  Blah, blah, blah.  The media dutifully write it all up, sharing in the moral outrage of the protesters. 

Now it seems things have taken a rough turn.  Greenpeace foolishly decided that it could try the same tactics on the Russians.  This, from 3News

Greenpeace says a group of activists, including two New Zealanders, has been arrested by the Russian Coast Guard during a protest in the Arctic.  The 25 people on board the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise were protesting against oil producer Gazprom's drilling operations at the Prirazlomnaya platform. The Russian Government controls 50 percent of Gazprom through various shareholders.

According to Greenpeace, Coast Guard officials boarded their vessel using a helicopter and ropes, locking the activists inside a room on the ship. They allege some had guns pointed at them.  Greenpeace says the ship is now being back to the nearest port, which could take up to a day.  The Arctic Sunrise was circling a Gazprom drilling platform in the Pechora Sea at the time. Greenpeace says this was in international waters, making the Russian authorities' boarding illegal. "We are a peaceful organisation and our protest has done nothing to warrant this level of aggression," says Greenpeace International's executive director Kumi Naidoo.

The lobby group says it was protesting against Gazprom's disregard of the environmental dangers of deep sea drilling.

Greenpeace is a master of deception and the half-truth.  To this point in the account it would appear that the Arctic Sunrise was cheerfully sailing along in international waters minding its own business, when suddenly and unexpectedly they were beset by the Russian Coast Guard, boarded, and seized.  The aggression of the Russians was, therefore, illegal, a violation of international laws of the sea. 

Only that is not the whole truth.  The day before two little Greenpeace foot-soldiers had scaled the drilling platform.  They were the aggressive lawbreakers.  Since they had been aided and abetted by the Arctic Sunrise, the latter was complicit.  Claiming that Greenpeace was a pure as the driven snow, while Russia was acting illegally is typical of Greenpeace lies, deception, and dissembling.  We have seen and heard it all before. 

Except this time Greenpeace is not dealing with self-loathing Western authorities.  The Russians read from a very different script.  The "activists" (a word that covers a multitude of sins) are going to be charged with piracy--the maximum penalty for which is 15 years imprisonment and a fine of 500,000 roubles. 

Two activists tried to climb onto the Prirazlomnaya platform on Thursday and others assisted from small inflatable boats. The Greenpeace protest was aimed at calling attention to the environmental risks of drilling for oil in Arctic waters.  "When a foreign vessel full of electronic technical equipment of unknown purpose and a group of people calling themselves members of an environmental rights organisation try nothing less than to take a drilling platform by storm, logical doubts arise about their intentions," Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin said in a statement.  (NZ Herald)

In Greenpeace newspeak, "peaceful activists" means their cadres do not carry guns, nor do they assault human beings.  Because they are thus "peaceful", they are in the right.

"Peaceful activism is crucial when governments around the world have failed to respond to dire scientific warnings about the consequences of climate change in the Arctic and elsewhere," Greenpeace International executive director Kumi Naidoo said in a statement.  "We will not be intimidated or silenced by these absurd accusations and demand the immediate release of our activists," he added.

But they do assault the property of others, and thus are about as peaceful as a burglar, a thief, a brigand, and--yes--a pirate.  The kabuki theatre is starting to play out as normal: Greenpeace is the persecuted innocent; it needs money (usually these stunts are choreographed as major fund raising opportunities); it pressures Western government to protest the "illegal" actions of the arresting government (which usually backs down and withdraws charges or slaps the "activists" with a wet bus ticket), and Greenpeace goes on its merry way with fatter wallets.  Only this time, we suspect it is going to be different.

Turning pirates into martyrs is not likely to play with Russian authorities.  Prison sentences in Russia will be worked out in hard labour camps in Siberia.  Not a pleasant prospect.  Our prediction: Greenpeace will scrupulously avoid "environmental activism" in the Arctic for a long long time to come.  The Russian government does not know how to play the game. 

Doing evil that good may come is casuistry from the Lake of Fire.
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