Journalist and author George Monbiot is trying to get arrested today as part of the Extinction Rebellion Climate Emergency protests in London. There have been over 1,400 arrests of XR rebels in London and the Metropolitan Police have now imposed a blanket ban on London XR protests.
A few hours after this column is published, I hope to be in a police cell. I don’t yet know what the charge will be, where I will be arrested or when, but I know that if I go home this evening without feeling the hand of the law on my sleeve, I will have failed. This may sound like a strange ambition, but I believe it is a reasonable one.
If I succeed, I will be one of many. In the current wave of Extinction Rebellion protests, more than 1,400 people have so far allowed themselves to be arrested. It’s a controversial tactic, but it has often proved effective. The suffragettes, the Indian salt marchers, the civil rights movement and the Polish and East German democracy movements, to name just a few, all used it as a crucial strategy. Mass arrests are a potent form of democratic protest.
They work because they show that the campaigners are serious. When people are prepared to jeopardise their liberty for their cause, other people appear more likely to listen to what they say, and more likely to recognise its importance. Those who founded Extinction Rebellion researched these histories and sought to apply their lessons to the greatest predicament humanity has ever faced: the gathering collapse of our life support systems.
I have proposed commencing rebellion to the Climate Crisis on 31 October 2019. A discussion of that proposal follows.
Unfortunately this blog is very one-directional. I get very little feedback to anything that I publish. It is however widely-read and can provide a lead. At the very least please consider what I am proposing.
The big problem with the date I proposed is that it coincides with the UK’s possible no-deal Brexit. Rebellion in UK could be misrepresented as opposition to Brexit by disgruntled anti-Brexiteers. I proposed this date on the basis that I do not expect Brexit to happen and it’s Halloween. Any action now in UK could be misrepresented as opposition to Brexit.
Analysis and proposed tactics needs only to be adequate and sufficient. I suggest that we need to rebel to show that climate destruction is no longer tolerated, we really are all in this together and that we have a responsibility to young people, the Planet (including nature) and future generations.
Traditional politics has proved to be totally incapable of dealing with the climate crisis. Indeed, it is even responsible for causing climate destruction. Fundamental changes are needed to protect our Planet.
I am not associated with Extinction Rebellion although they have my support. I am impressed by their media representatives and pink boats.
Strategy
Planning and preparation is key. I suggest autonomous action targetting travel (particularly private transport) and being as effective and productive as possible which means trying to avoid arrest.
Bicycles and small motorcycles are good transport. Traffic lights can be disabled, roads can be blocked using large vehicles e.g. buses, stop vehicle and then disable. Planning and preparation – simple tools needed and practice.
… [S]tarting Monday 15 July Extinction Rebellion UK will return to block streets day after day creating open public spaces for creative resistance in five cities in England, Wales and Scotland – Bristol, Cardiff, Glasgow, Leeds and London. People are coming together through a set of UK wide regional acts of nonviolent civil disobedience to demand the Government ACT NOW to halt biodiversity loss and reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2025.
Marking the beginning of preparations for Extinction Rebellion’s next International Rebellion which will begin on Monday 7 October 2019, the Summer Uprising will follow on from this weekend’s East London Uprising.
Each site will have family-friendly spaces, live music, print
workshops, speeches and more. Everyone is invited to join this exciting
coordinated Summer Uprising in the city of their choosing:
In Bristol the focus will be on rising sea levels. This reflects the
city’s maritime history and its risk of floods, which NASA research
warns are likely to be a regular occurrence by 2050 if climate breakdown
isn’t urgently addressed. 22,300 residential Bristol properties will be
at risk, and flooding is likely to affect power stations.
Russell Arnott, 38, Oceanographer, University of Bath “We
are taking action in Bristol to tell the Government to act now on
climate change and ecological breakdown. Average sea levels have risen
by 23cm since 1880 with devastating consequences. This is causing
destructive erosion, flooding, more frequent hurricanes and powerful
storms, killing and displacing millions worldwide. We have to wake up to
the facts. This is a crisis to deal with, here and now.”
For updates on Bristol, follow Extinction Rebellion Bristol on facebook, twitter and their website.
Cardiff will be transformed by the arrival of concerned citizens from
across Wales who are determined to highlight the need for the Welsh
Government to dramatically accelerate its actions in tackling the
climate crisis and ecological emergency.
They will be occupying a central space in Cardiff – meeting from 11am
Monday outside Cardiff National Museum. Dressed in yellow, protestors
will represent dead canaries inspired by the words of Irish President
Michael D Higgins, “If we were coal miners we’d be up to our knees in dead canaries”. The sixth mass extinction is here and it’s time to act now.
Stephen Lingwood, 37, Extinction Rebellion Cardiff “People
are dying right now of climate chaos in places like India. It’s only
going to get worse. We’re at the beginning of the sixth mass extinction
and a climate genocide and the government’s inaction is, in my view,
criminally irresponsible.”
For updates on Cardiff, follow Extinction Rebellion Cardiff on facebook and their twitter.
Glasgow / Scotland’s focus for the Summer Uprising is solidarity with
climate refugees. Climate crisis and ecological breakdown are not
distant threats: all around the world people are already dying and being
displaced. The future effects of the Climate and Ecological Emergency
that we in the UK are terrified about – floods, food shortages, droughts
and resulting conflicts – are already a reality for millions of people
in the Global South/Majority World. The Glasgow event will have live
music, a ceilidh, speakers on climate justice and refugee solidarity,
and family activities with Wee Rebellion.
Daniel Armstrong, 24, Extinction Rebellion Scotland “As
the climate continues to break down, more and more parts of the world
will become uninhabitable. Immigration is already seen as a big issue
but it will only increase as more people are displaced. But if you’re
faced with unlivable conditions due to extreme weather, food shortages
and drought, you have no choice but to leave. From the perspective of my
hometown Glasgow, where refugees are welcomed, we stand in solidarity
with those affected not just by climate chaos but also those displaced
by this global crisis.”
For updates on Glasgow, follow Extinction Rebellion Glasgow on facebook and their twitter.
Rebels will target Leeds’ financial sector, which is the biggest and
fastest growing outside London, to draw attention to the links between
banking and the climate and ecological emergency. Demands will be made
for the finance industry to radically clean up its act and invest to be
part of the solution, not the problem.
Rev’d Jon Swales (B.A Hons, M.A, MLitt), 41, Leeds “Too
often we remain silent in the face of injustice, oppression and
extinction. I will not be silent for the sake of the world’s most poor.
“The Extinction Rebellion protests in Leeds will allow the alarm
bell to ring loud and clear in the City in which I live and work. If
this call is heeded perhaps we can avert the worst of what is yet to
come. I intend to play my part in non-violent and love shaped protest.”
For updates on Leeds, follow Extinction Rebellion Leeds on facebook and their twitter.
People are invited to gather outside the Royal Courts of Justice
(time TBC) in solidarity with all climate activists defending our planet
around the globe. We demand climate justice for all and call on
Government to make ecocide law. We stand with those laying their bodies
on the line to defend the natural world and commend their courage. We
are nature defending itself!
Fletcher Horobin-Worley, 45, Extinction Rebellion London: “The
time to debate climate change is over. Now we must talk of climate
justice. Now we must talk of moral obligations. Right now thousands
suffer and die every year in the global south due to climate change.
Entire island nations are being wiped of the map. Now we must meet our
duty to shoulder the burden of adapting to climate breakdown. ”
For updates on London, follow Extinction Rebellion London on facebook, twitter and their website.
The long-awaited climate-emergency post. I have taken some time to decide what’s necessary to say. This post may be revised and expanded but the main points will remain.
Climate change, the climate emergency or crisis is a fact. The poles are melting, sea levels are rising, seas are turning to acid, polar bears and penguins have nowhere to live. It’s taken repeated record temperatures and a little girl for it to be accepted such was the power of climate denial.
Political parties that deny climate change – right-wing parties like UKIP and Nigel Farage’s Brexit party “In terms of policy, there’s no difference (to UKIP)…” are sucking up to the ultra-rich showing that they present no threat to their interests. ed: many prominent Brexiteers are climate change enthusiasts.
It is safe to assume that the World’s plants and animals do not have a concept of ownership. They do however have as much right to live, to exist. The rich do not own the planet and do not have the right to destroy it.
Unless you’re filthy rich, it’s unlikely whatever you do is going to make any noticeable difference. It is the rich who have superyachts and private jets. It is the rich who fly abroad for meals. It is the rich who travel with entourages. It is the rich that own private islands.
There is an exception – a secondary lesser class of human that is climate-dirty: those who travel a great deal especially those that commute by airplane. People who fly regularly are climate-dirty.
A wider issue: the rich are in charge. Wars are conducted at their behest and for their benefit. The whole bullshit narrative of terrorism and consequent anti-Muslim racism is for them. It is their bullshit narrative to divide and control, to weild their influence. There is one main nation-state behind terrorist attacks, often aided by another one or two nation-states with police and intelligence agencies playing along with it, turning a blind eye. Terrorist attacks are often timed for political objectives of no advantage to Islamists. You have to be really stupid to believe that a disabled old man could achieve so much from a cave in Afghanistan and that it didn’t provide the excuse for yet another war for the dirty black stuff.
edit: I am aware that I have power and influence which I tend to regard as transitory and temporary. The climate emergency is a big deal and I am laying the blame exactly where it belongs.
later: I need to write about corporate climate destruction while this post is about lifestyle climate destruction. Corporate solar exploration appears particularly futile and climate destructive. Trips to outer space for the rich? ed: It’s space tourism for the rich to further destroy the planet.
