Paul Starick: Adelaide Extinction Rebellion protest fuelled by desperate social media spotlight grab

A frenzied bid for social media attention paralysed city commuters and triggered tough new protest laws – which received instant backlash, Paul Starick writes.

Protest is a fundamental right in a functioning democracy.

Dissent must be allowed, within reasonable limits, and people must be able to hold governments to account.

The perils of the alternative, opposing views being crushed by totalitarian regimes, is apparent to anyone who’s walked the streets of Berlin, Germany.

The sunken library at Bebelplatz is a memorial to authors ostracised and persecuted by the Nazis, whose books were among 20,000 infamously incinerated on May 10, 1933. Little more than 1km away is the Topography of Terror, a museum located on the former Gestapo headquarters site, where political prisoners were interrogated and tortured. About 7km east is the Stasi Musuem, the site of the former communist East German state security service – an estimated one in six people were informers or secret police.

The struggle to safeguard the democratic rights we have enjoyed in Australia should not be relaxed. Borrowing the words of influential United States hip-hop group Public Enemy: “Our freedom of speech is freedom or death, we got to fight the powers that be.”

But, as Eleanor Roosevelt and others have said, with freedom comes responsibility.

This dichotomy has played out on the streets of Adelaide this week, when a climate change protester was charged after causing peak-hour traffic chaos when she suspended herself from a major city bridge.

Extinction Rebellion protester Meme Thorne is arrested after being brought down from the Morphett St bridge. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Brenton Edwards

The Extinction Rebellion protester who ground the city to a halt on Wednesday, Meme Caroline Thorne, 69, of Willunga, was released on bail by the Adelaide magistrates court, despite it being the third time she has caused “mass disruption” in the community.

Police prosecutor Andrew McCracken said that, in May last year, Ms Thorne glued her hands to Flinders St in front of Santos House, but received neither conviction nor penalty. Three months later, he said, she climbed on to the roof of Rundle Mall Plaza in another protest, and received a six-month good behaviour bond.

Several climate change activists have been arrested after spray-painting the Santos building and gluing themselves to the ground, in the third consecutive day of disruption. #theadvertiserhttps://t.co/bez0DIJJr3pic.twitter.com/dO9jNe5AnP

— The Advertiser (@theTiser) May 18, 2023

Extinction Rebellion protesters near the Morphett Street Bridge, where one hung suspended, delaying traffic. Picture: Facebook

These actions are typical of new-age protesting, which amounts to frenzied grabs for the social media spotlight in a bid to draw mass attention to causes.

The typical protest march just doesn’t draw enough attention, unless tens of thousands of people turn out to demonstrate obvious weight of numbers.

Extinction Rebellion’s argument is that life on Earth is in crisis, because the climate is changing faster than scientists predicted and, therefore, “this is an emergency”.

However compelling and urgent its adherents believe their cause to be, does this give them the right to vandalise a cafe or paralyse city commuters just trying to get earn a buck during a cost-of-living crisis?

Many people would argue it does not. Among them was Premier Peter Malinauskas, who on Thursday rushed “tough penalties for dangerous and obstructionist protesters” through state parliament, backed by the Opposition.

“Peacefully protesting is a fundamental part of our democracy. (But) protesters do not have the right to cause huge disruptions to others, damage businesses and put the safety of the public and emergency services at risk,” Mr Malinauskas said.

Groups including Amnesty International and SA Unions disagreed. The latter said the bill was “hasty and reactive legislation”, arguing: “Peaceful but disruptive protests and demonstrations have been integral in achieving so much of what we now take for granted in our society.”

Legal types back the concern about rushing changes to criminal law, wary of unintended consequences.

This is now the challenge. Surely it is reasonable to stop protesters holding cities to ransom with impunity. But the right to dissent must be safeguarded in our democracy.

Originally published as Paul Starick: Adelaide Extinction Rebellion protest fuelled by desperate social media spotlight grab