Recently, Greenpeace US’ support of the Standing Rock Sioux in resisting fossil fuel expansion was met with a devastating Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation (SLAPP) from Energy Transfer, the company behind the pipeline. This is a dangerous assault on basic human rights. SLAPP suits are designed to intimidate, drain resources, and silence public debate. Their goal is fear, not justice. They serve the financial interests of a tiny few and cost the rest of us our natural world.

If companies can use lawsuits to silence anyone who criticises them, however valid, the right to free speech becomes meaningless. If you have ever spoken up - or will ever speak up - for any kind of change, you should see this for what it is: an attack on your basic human rights.

The Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) stands in solidarity with Greenpeace, with the Standing Rock Sioux, and all those who exercise their fundamental right to peaceful protest. The ability to speak out, challenge injustice, and hold power to account is the foundation of any functional democracy. When those in power can silence dissent with impunity, it is not just activism that is under threat. It is democracy itself.

Many of the rights we take for granted today were won through peaceful protest, always in the face of fierce opposition by vested interests. From women’s right to vote, to the end of slavery and apartheid and the civil rights movements of the 20th century, the critics have uniformly been on the wrong side of history. The same is true today.

If the UK and Europe are to live up to their democratic ideals, then our leaders must take a stand, here and now. Repressive lawsuits and authoritarian restrictions on freedom of speech, assembly and protest have no place in democratic societies. These rights must be actively, openly and consistently defended.

Positive change is only possible when people have the freedom to speak up, organise, and demand accountability. That freedom must be protected at all costs.

At EJF, our priority has always been to lift up the voices of those who would otherwise go unheard. We call on all governments to prevent corporations from abusing the courts to silence them. A healthy democracy listens, engages, and responds, without allowing whoever has the ‘deepest pockets’ to wipe out our freedoms, our fundamental human rights and our future security.

We believe, now and forever, in the fundamental right to speak out for a fairer, more just world. We stand for freedom of speech, peaceful protest, people, and our planet. We stand shoulder to shoulder with Greenpeace.

Photo credit: Fibonacci Blue from Minnesota, USA, CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons