Iâm putting together my reading list for next yearâs LSE course on activism and this weekâs Guardian long read on Extinction Rebellion is going to be on it, even though itâs a bit UK-centric. It brilliantly pulls together a number of features of the rise of new social movements. Here are some extracts, but as ever, better to read the whole (5,000 word) thing:
The visionary leader: â[In 2017] the air pollution campaign, Stop Killing Londoners, had yet to gain traction with politicians or the media, but Roger Hallam didnât seem too concerned. He explained that it was partly being used to âroad-testâ civil disobedience tactics. âWithin a year or so we will have thousands of people on the streets, blocking large parts of central London for days on end,â he said. âHundreds will be arrested and the government will be forced to sit down and tell the truth about the climate emergency.â
First Followers: âOver the coming months, Gail Bradbrook and Hallam continued their conversations, along with a loose grouping of like-minded people, who eventually formed Rising Up, a network of activists committed to peaceful civil disobedience. It wasnât until April 2018 that, in Bradbrookâs home on a hillside overlooking the Cotswold town of Stroud, the idea of Extinction Rebellion was born. At the âStroud meetingâ, as it has become known, a core group of about 15 long-time campaigners, activists and academics decided that after years of small-scale political campaigns, about everything from fracking to migrant rights, they were, in Bradbrookâs words, âready to go for the âbig oneââ.â
Branding: âAgreeing on a name for the new group turned into a 25-step process that went on for weeks. When âExtinction Rebellionâ was first suggested, âthere was quite a bit of disquiet, because some people thought it was too harshâ. But eventually it won.â
Repetition of Core Message: âXRâs goals were boiled down to three demands of the government: to tell the truth about the climate and ecological emergency; to halt biodiversity loss and commit to net zero emissions by 2025; and to follow the lead of a citizenâs assembly. A presentation titled Heading for Extinction and What to Do About It was developed, and quickly became known as âthe talkâ.â
Take-off precedes strategy: âThe [April 2019] protests turned XR into a movement of global significance, with scores of XR groups springing up in cities around the world, as well as in towns and cities across the UK. By the end, XRâs representatives were sitting down for talks with senior politicians and ministers in the UK. Supporters and funders â many of whom had been sceptical before April â showered praise and money on the new movement, and in the weeks that followed, the UK parliament and scores of councils around the country declared a climate emergency. XR had changed the conversation around the crisis. Now it had a big question to answer: what next?
The movement grows, but sprawls: âPeople do not formally join XR, and there is no central membership list. Local groups can plan and carry out their own actions as long as they follow XRâs 10 core principles and values, including a commitment to non-violence and focusing on systemic problems rather than âblaming and shamingâ individuals.
Although XRâs structure aims, as its website says, to build a âparticipatory, decentralised and inclusiveâ movement, some complain that it allows those with the loudest voices â often white, middle-class men â to dominate. Others complain of endless meetings, labyrinthine decision-making processes, and the sprawling network of WhatsApp groups the organisation has spawned.â
Tensions between insider and outsider tactics: âthe months after the April rebellion were dominated by internal wrangling. On one side were Hallam and his backers, who were pushing for an escalation in provocative direct action to keep the momentum going. They believed that a relatively small group of people, prepared to keep escalating their disruptive, peaceful, direct action could bring about systemic change quickly. On the other side were people who argued the good will and moral high ground achieved in April should be used to build a broader movement, within the UK and internationally.â
The difficult second album: âit proved impossible to recreate the surprise and novelty that defined the earlier protests. Although XR held more sites in October 2019 and said it had more people arrested â 1,837, compared with 1,138 in April â the protests failed to catch the publicâs imagination in the same way. Actions that would have been headline news just six months earlier â such as hundreds of breastfeeding mothers closing down Google HQ â were now seen as par for the course by the media.â
Difficult relationship to formal politics: âThe [December 2019] UK general election was another flashpoint within XR. The Labour party offered a raft of policies to rapidly decarbonise the economy and invest in sustainable, well-paid, unionised jobs: its so-called green industrial revolution. For many people concerned about the climate crisis, this was a cause worth rallying behind. But during the election campaign, XR â to the dismay of both Labour party activists and some inside the movement â did not mobilise behind Labourâs climate offer, preferring instead to target all three main parties with hunger strikes and people dressed in bee costumes under the slogan âBee-yond politicsâ.
The clash came down to two competing ideas about XRâs ultimate purpose. For some, it was a vehicle to transform the political landscape, making it possible for existing institutions to put forward radical environmental policies. For others, the existing structures were incapable of overseeing the transition needed, and had to be overhauled and replaced.â
The charismatic founder leaves: âIn a sign that perhaps a more consensual approach was gaining the upper hand in XR, the group announced that Hallam â whom Bradbrook had previously described as XRâs âbiggest asset and worst liabilityâ â no longer had a formal role with the group. In a statement posted to Facebook on 28 July, Hallam stated that he would be devoting himself to a ânew direct action organisation/anti-political partyâ, Beyond Politics.â
Fascinating â what else should I be recommending on XR?