More than 100 people were arrested on April 13 last year when police raided the Iona School in Sneinton, Nottingham. They had planned to trespass at the coal-fired Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station in Nottinghamshire, the UK’s second largest power station, and shut it down for a week. 20 activists of this group were convicted of conspiracy to commit Aggravated Trespass. click here for more. We’ll have to wait until sentencing to see the extent to which the British state will go to criminalize peaceful dissent, but the application of conspiracy charges in this case reflects the growing tension between activists and governments in the “Developed World.” Marie Mason and Eric McDavid are among the many activists who have been given extreme sentences on the basis of conspiracy charges in the US.
