Fracking protesters have been sent to prison for the first time. It reeks of desperation from the industry and a clampdown on the right to protest. In 2013 I was arrested in Balcombe, West Sussex, for peacefully blockading a fracking site in solidarity with the local community. The charges against me were dropped, but today, for the first time ever, a judge sent three protesters to prison for doing the same thing in Lancashire.

All charges relating to over 350 previous acts of non-violent direct action at Preston New Road since work started in January 2017 have led to fines or community service. But, as Cuadrilla prepares to start fracking within weeks, the police have pursued the most severe charge and sentencing possible.

Where I was charged with obstruction in Balcombe, these men are now serving time under the complicated and archaic charge of public nuisance. And their incarceration is part of a wider clampdown on protest.

This year the UK is “celebrating” the suffragettes and 100 years since women won the right to vote – but the government’s triumphant narrative glosses over the radical and law-breaking tactics these brave campaigners had to pursue in the name of what was right. And ministers are overseeing a growing trend for draconian injunctions and disproportionate charges against people standing up for what they believe in. In Sheffield last year, Green party councillor Alison Teal was arrested for peacefully preventing unnecessary tree-felling in the city.

Next week 15 people will go to court facing terrorism charges for a peaceful protest that grounded a chartered deportation flight. The law they are accused of breaking has never been used against activists before and could see them sentenced to life in prison.

The case of the anti-fracking protesters jailed today goes back to July 2017, when a convoy of lorries delivering drilling equipment to the Preston New Road fracking site was spontaneously brought to a halt by protesters. Four men – including a piano restorer, a teacher and a soil scientist – climbed on top of the cabs of the lorries and between them stayed there for four days.

During the seven-day court case the defendants weren’t once allowed to contextualise their actions. They were told they couldn’t talk about why they were concerned about fracking, or explain that many people in the community welcomed being mildly inconvenienced if it delayed and deterred the much greater threat of fracking and climate change. These men were standing up for all of us against a dangerous government policy – but they were treated as thoughtless criminals.

Now three of them are in prison.

A year after the men were arrested and hours before parliament’s summer break, the government quietly granted permission for fracking to go ahead at the Preston New Road site. That same summer break brought some of the most violent impacts of climate change we have ever seen. A global heatwave brought record-breaking temperatures, raging wildfires from Sweden and Manchester to Greece and California, and heat-related deaths in several countries.

The government’s decision to launch a whole new fossil fuel industry while forest fires burned in the Arctic circle was an unforgivable and reckless act that can only worsen the climate breakdown already impacting millions of people around the world. And while their voices were silenced in court, ministers are silencing the rest of us in our communities.

In defiance of democracy and an attempt to bypass the effective resistance of local people to protect their homes and countryside, the government is now planning to force fracking through without consulting local residents. But these proposed changes and the harsh treatment of protesters tell us something – we are winning the fight against fracking.

Five years after former chancellor George Osborne embarked on his “Dash for Gas”, Cuadrilla hasn’t been able to get the industry off the ground. Its counterpart in Yorkshire, Third Energy, couldn’t muster the financial backing to get consent for fracking, and has since packed up its operation at Kirby Misperton. Now, on top of national opposition and local resistance, MPs from across parliament are joining the campaign against plans to force fracking on communities without their consent.

In the same way I did, the protesters jailed today took action as a last resort – following a call for help from a community overruled by ministers in Westminster. As momentum against fracking grows and the industry limps forward with the help of a government willing to defy its electorate, we owe it to these men behind bars to stand with the local community and stop this industry once and for all.

• Caroline Lucas is co-leader of the Green party of England and Wales, and the MP for Brighton Pavilion