In the wake of arrests of activists for blocking traffic on Wednesday the Brisbane branch of Socialist Alternative has put out a call for mass lawbreaking including a continuation of their protests that have repeatedly disrupted peak hour traffic in the Queensland capital.

Catherine Robertson (right) holding a Socialist Alternative banner and a “Red Flag” newspaper at yesterday’s protest.

In a statement released on their Facebook site the extremist group claimed responsibility for the highly unpopular protests and declared that they have planned more of the same for this coming month. The group has named two dates for further disruption, the “Rebellion day” nominally being held by the “Extinction Rebellion” group on August 6th and the National Day of protest being organised by the Socialist Alternative front group “Uni Students for Climate Justice” on August 9th. In the latter they hope to mobilise thousands of University students all over Australia using their position within the National Union of Students (NUS). Greens NSW upper house member David Shoebridge, a politician well known for his open links to numerous far left extremist groups, has already endorsed the National day of protest with more Greens politicians set to follow.

Socialist Alternative have whole heartedly jumped on the Anti Adani bandwagon

Socialist Alternative have not had everything their own way however. In a fawning Courier Mail article by self-described Militant Vegan Andrea Macleod Socialist Alternative activist Catherine Robertson was allowed to complain at length about Queensland police finally arresting some of her fellow activists after almost a month of blocking traffic and annoying almost everyone.

Socialist Alternative
Socialist Alternative. Deeply concerned about mining projects in Queensland.

In quotes that took up nearly the entire article, Ms Robertson declared that the police finally choosing to enforce the law was “extremely heavy-handed” and “intimidatory” and that her and her friends had a right to block the street whenever they felt like it.

Socialist Alternative
Catherine Robertson (right) with her comrades from Brisbane Socialist Alternative.

Catherine went on to say that “the law is being used as a political tool. We know we have the majority of people on our side” and that “the only way to fight the push from the government and police — that they want to record convictions against peaceful protests — is actually for more people to take to the streets because it is in those numbers that we have the most power and we stand in solidarity. We won’t go away.

Socialist Alternative
Catherine Robertson of Socialist Alternative leading Wednesday’s protest.

It’s interesting that in her article Ms Macleod didn’t point out that Ms Robertson is an activist for a revolutionary Marxist group that wants to overthrow the government and institute a totalitarian socialist state. It might have added some context to her whining about having the “right” to break the law. Ms Macleod instead described Robertson as a “Spokesperson” for “Uni Students for Climate Justice”. This was despite the fact that at the protest on Wednesday Robertson was carrying a large banner with “Socialist Alternative” written on it and was selling the Socialist Alternative newspaper “Red Flag”.

Socialist Alternative
Socialist Alternative are very clear on how to save the planet. Good old fashioned Communism.

Maybe Ms MacLeod is short sighted. Or perhaps she has different motives. After all in April she did write an entire article defending the similarly disruptive Vegan protesters in Melbourne. Funny that.

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