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XR: a non-violent, disruptive climate action group Emma Goldrick
E
xtinction Rebellion (also known as XR) is the nonviolent, disruptive climate action group demanding that governments across the world take immediate action towards the threat of climate change. XR wants citizens to know the facts about the unprecedented international climate emergency that the world is in the midst of. The organisation is just beginning to build momentum in Australia, with the launch of its ‘Spring Rebellion’ entailing a series sit-ins, and die-ins, alongside activists burying their heads in sand across Sydney beaches. However, the group has been growing in size and presence across an array of countries and cities including New York, London, Amsterdam and Berlin. Jonathan Doig, a software engineer working in research at UNSW and an arrestee at a recent Extinction Rebellion protest in Sydney said he joined XR because other modes of protesting were failing and the world cannot wait. ‘I’ve been active on climate action since 2007 when I started the Sutherland Climate Action Network. I met with our local MP, Scott Morrison and briefed him on climate science, together with an academic, who had actually lectured Morrison on climate science during his undergraduate science degree. His only question was “how long until the poles melt?�’ ‘We asked him to speak up about the climate emergency, and he ignored us’. Extinction Rebellion was cofounded in 2018 by Roger Hallam and Gail Bradbrook. The movement that originated in the United Kingdom began with one hundred academics signing a call to action. This call to action launched a series of blockages and the occupying of an array of sites across central London. Citizens of London were not only engaged by the group but more importantly by the immediacy of their message, allowing the movement to grow within the
UK. The XR group began to spread internationally, describing itself as Government must tell the truth by Government must create, and be a ‘non-violent civil disobedience declaring a climate and ecological led by, the decisions of a Citizens’ activist movement’. The group’s emergency, working with other Assembly on climate and ecological emphasis on ‘non-violent’ action justice. follows a line of successful protests institutions to communicate the urgency for change. The group is gaining traction ranging from The Salt March led by not only for its public disobediMohandas Gandhi in the 1930s to ence tactics but also the series of John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s ‘BedGovernment must act now to arrests and the police brutality In for Peace’. halt biodiversity loss and reduce that activists have been subjected The guiding principles of the greenhouse gas emissions to net zero to. However, XR emphasises that global group emphasise the it ‘welcome(s) everyone and every importance of remaining a peaceful by 2025. part of everyone’ and within this, movement, including ‘We avoid acknowledges that not everyone is blaming and shaming – we live willing to be arrested and that in a toxic system, but no one this is okay. Their guiding individual is to blame’ and ‘We are a non-violent network – using non-violent strategy and tactics as the most effective way to bring about change’. Globally the group uses the logo of an hourglass in a circle, with the circle representing earth and the hourglass representing the fact The extinction symbol represents the threat of holocene that time is running extinction (or sixth mass extinction) on earth; the circle out for many species, represents the planet and the stylised hourglass is a including humans. warning that time is running out for many species. Whilst the specific objectives of XR are tailored to each country, the guiding principles are universal. The demands of Extinction Rebellion Australia are as follows:
TELL THE TRUTH
BEYOND POLITICS
ACT NOW
values further enforce that all citizens who believe in the demands and principles of XR are allowed to act in the name of XR. Christine Freels, a former strata manager and now a fulltime climate-action activist spoke about XR’s principles, stating: ‘XR is the best chance we have to get the necessary changes. XR welcomes everyone, and everyone can play a part in saving our future. We owe it to our kids and grandkids to give them a planet they can survive on.’ ‘I have adopted grandchildren: Alex is almost 2 and Ava is 4 weeks old. It breaks my heart to think of what is facing them if we don’t act. I want to be able to tell them that I was part of saving their future, not part of the problem’. ‘I am proud to be revolting.’ Extinction Rebellion now has the challenge of exercising their inclusive values and maintaining their global presence to ensure their demands are met. XR is working to engage people from a diverse range of backgrounds, to unite together towards the shared urgency the planet requires. The movement is now holding ‘100% family-friendly events’ in a further attempt to demonstrate that all are welcome and that this crisis transcends barriers of age.
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