Sophisticated action

Wyn Grant's suggestion that "direct action, when it works, may stifle political action" (Features, THES , April 19) is based on questionable assumptions and representations.

Grant appears to blame protesters for the political crisis. Instead, we should place it within a wider crisis of sustainability and question its underlying causes.

Direct action is not the narrow single-issue concern that Grant suggests. Many of those who begin with a single-issue perspective have their views broadened through the melting pot of direct action.

Despite Grant's claim that activists are short-sighted and self-seeking, volunteer-run direct action networks, such as The Land Is Ours and Earth First!, develop sophisticated critiques of the sustainability crisis.

Larch Juckes Maxey
Geography department
University of Wales, Swansea