Newspapers are like Nazis, says organiser of blockade
Mccarthy condemned for ‘inflammatory’ claim that ‘you guys are on the other side’ in Second World War
THE Extinction Rebellion activist who drew up the blueprint to blockade printing presses last night likened newspapers to the Nazis.
In an extraordinary attack, Donnachadh Mccarthy, one of the leading figures in the group, said: “This is like World War Two and you guys [the newspapers] are on the other side. “That is how we see it.”
He went on: “It puts you on the side of the existential threat. It is a different existential threat, but it is a bigger one than the Nazis.”
Mr Mccarthy, 61, a veteran activist, attended the protest at the printing plant in Broxbourne on Friday night, briefing journalists at the scene, but was not involved in the direct action that caused the blockade of roads, preventing newspapers from being delivered. But it has emerged that he was co-author of a plan to target the Broxbourne printing press intended to take place this spring, but which was called off because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The plan was sent to Extinction Rebellion’s so-called “action circle” for approval. The circle, according to sources, consists of about 30 activists who plot the action and are experienced in the protest movement.
The protest at the Broxbourne plant involved the erection of platforms made from bamboo to block the road along with two vans. Mr Mccarthy insisted yesterday he had nothing to do with the disruption on Friday. The instructions for “rebels” to target the Hertfordshire print plant was sent to the action circle last year. In the proposal called “the Great March for Truth & Blockade”, written by Mr Mccarthy, he identified the Broxbourne site as “vulnerable to a mass blockade”.
Although 77 people have now been charged with the disruption at presses at Broxbourne and in Knowsley in Merseyside, Mr Mccarthy, a former deputy chairman of the Liberal Democrats and an occasional columnist for the Independent,
insisted: “I was there, but not in an arrestable position.”
His comments seemingly likening the mainstream media to the Nazis drew criticism yesterday. Tobias Ellwood, a former Army captain and chairman of the defence select committee, said: “It is a tasteless comparison to make. To even use such language shows their immaturity and shows they should not be taken seriously. If there are any sensible voices among Extinction Rebellion, they should be distancing themselves from such inflammatory language.”
Critics of the Extinction Rebellion action have called it an attack on the free press, preventing newspapers from being delivered. The use of the Second World War analogy will cause upset because of the association of the Nazis with burning books and the shutting down of newspapers.
Extinction Rebellion, which launched in 2018 with a series of protests that brought London to a standstill, insists it is a non-hierarchical structure, in which local groups can take action without needing the approval of its core activists. But major protests, coordinated across the country, are centrally controlled, although the leadership remains coy about the organisers, fearing they will be charged with more serious conspiracy offences.
Alanna Byrne, a group spokesman, said Friday’s action had been “something that lots of groups had been considering doing for a long time”.
But insiders suggested the movement has been increasingly in thrall to more radical voices in recent months. The organisation had struggled to make headlines as Covid-19 put climate change on the back-burner.
There had also been battles over accusations that the movement was too white and middle class. Accusations that the movement had failed to address racism in the police were part of what has driven a more combative attitude to law enforcement. “It’s an organisation of contradictions, and eventually they’re going to come to light,” said one former activist.
Ms Byrne said actions against the media were likely to continue into the future. “Obviously the media is a pillar that we want to influence. So I can’t say that we won’t do a media sort of action in the future,” she said.
But she denied that the group had reversed their previous strategy, which focused on trying to bring journalists from the Right-wing media onside.
One of the early iterations of XR was Rising Up!, a group of activists based in Stroud, in the Cotswolds. But the leftist politics that made up that group’s 2017 manifesto were shed as XR grew, and it attempted to position itself as an inclusive and non-partisan movement.
Some in and around the group feel that image has now changed, and it has now become a more overtly Left-wing organisation. Others say that has always been the case, despite its rhetoric.
Among those charged over Friday’s protests were veteran activists including Harrison Radcliffe, 21, Hamish Haynes, 46, and Lydia Dibben, 22.