Legal costs for Burning Pink trial

Aim

Raising funds towards legal costs for activists of Burning Pink (Beyond Politics) facing crown court trial in January

Beyond Politics

Trust in politicians has crashed and burnt. It’s not surprising. Most politicians obviously do not have our best interests at heart. Their personal ambitions are put first, leaving them vulnerable to corruption. The rich and powerful gain access to decision-makers and block any changes that threaten their wealth and privilege. Politicians are left impotent, unable to face the major issues of our time in a fair and just way for the benefit of society.

James Dyke @JamesGDyke

"Anyone who at this point says “we need more political will to keep 1.5 alive” without then pointing out the need for transformative change & how even incremental change has proved so difficult, is not seriously engaging with the severity of the situation.

1.5 is a political/social construct. And one we very much support. The skepticism at the time then (and now) is that our current climate policy system cannot deliver the radical change required. Incrementalism & economic optimisation is not going to cut it. We are in a crisis."

Citizen's Assemblies

Burning Pink (previously Beyond Politics) was created to deal with this injustice. It aimed to bring about change to the political system with the introduction of citizen-led decision making. Citizen’s Assemblies in particular. To do that Burning Pink set out to inspire people to action, and empower people to demand the systemic change that’s so badly needed.

A core idea of citizen’s assemblies is empowerment of the people. Taking decision-making away from the few and giving it to the many. The vast majority of people have never had any significant say in the decisions that affect their lives. Citizen’s assemblies aim to change that. By taking a group of randomly selected people, representative of the population, and guiding them through a process of learning, deliberation and, ultimately, decision-making. For more information on citizen’s assemblies: https://involve.org.uk/ or https://www.sortitionfoundation.org/

Burning Pink

Societal collapse, and the violence it entails, will occur without immediate action on the climate emergency. The motivation behind Burning Pink actions was to bring about the change needed now, in a non-violent way, so we can work together to avert this catastrophe. Actions during the summer of 2020 focused on some of the organisations propping up this status quo - political parties, NGO's trade unions, etc - in an attempt to work collaboratively with them to bring about this political change that’s so essential to our survival.

Burning Pink's pleas to these organisations for collaboration in the face of climate disaster went unanswered. Burning Pink activists took non-violent direct action to highlight the lack of meaningful action from these organisations.

Legal Trial

12 people representing BP were arrested for these actions. During a 4-6 week trial in Wood Green Crown Court, starting 9th January 2023, the 12 activists will be tried by the state for conspiracy to damage property. These actions, it will be argued, are neccesary to create the change needed in these extraordinary times.

Not all the defendants have access to legal aid or the funds needed for legal representation. One of them is being charged with conspiracy despite only being at one of the actions to take photographs. This blantant state repression is becoming much more common as those with the power and money crackdown on anyone trying to invoke real change. Legal representation is required if they are to have any chance of a fair trial.

Please donate to help fund the defence of these dedicated people who all continue to work bravely for environmental and social justice.

Surplus Funds

After paying legal costs, any surplus funds will be donated directly to Climate Action Support Pathway (https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/climate-action-support-pathway) and XR's UK Legal Defence Fund (https://chuffed.org/project/legal-costs-extinction-rebellion-uk) to help cover costs in other climate action cases.

This project successfully funded on 22nd February 2023