I wrote this as a Facebook post on July 20th, just after the Summer Uprising in which XR occupied five cities for a week. Distributing ourselves around the UK was counter to a core part of XR’s strategy: to focus on the centre of political power. It felt hastily planned compared to April, and it seemed more an exercise in maintaining our momentum than a step towards a sustainable world. The document linked, by Rupert Read, is well worth a read, and addresses some key tactical concerns of mine.
Dear Rebels,
Congratulations on the Summer Uprising. We’ve shown that we’re still about, still disruptive.
However, from the streets and from the news, it has felt to me like we have far less hope than in April. Then, we spoke about staying on the streets of London until our demands were met. Now, we seem to have lost sight of the possibility that we might succeed. In April we didn’t win, and indeed we’ve seen the scale of the resistance to the societal change that we (correctly) say is necessary.
I am not the only rebel who has been far less comfortable with our disruptive tactics this summer, compared to April. Across the country, we’ve been disrupting ordinary people: the response, in person, has been mixed. Without an end on the horizon - without a hope of averting the climate catastrophe, this disruption is much harder to justify, and the negative reactions much harder to dismiss.
Further, we have now made some progress, and we’ve seen around us just how much work we have to do. In my eyes, we have become softer. We’re cooperating with the police to a large extent, and it seems that we don’t have the spirit of rebellion that we had before. This is understandable, given the people we are disrupting, the distance to our destination. But we must maintain our disruptive capabilities if we are to use them to force the government to protect us and our civilisation. Nonviolence is essential, but we must hone our nonviolent tactics to ensure they remain effective, and carefully consider the target of each action. We must listen, reflect, learn.
We must remember the truth, the same truth which we shout at the government to tell. If we knew that truth ourselves, we would throw ourselves vigorously against the promises that the police will be cracking down harder next time. We must use this truth to convince each individual tool in the police machine that protecting their lying, incompetent, destructive government is not only not in their interests, but may cost them their children’s futures. We must be unrelentingly scientifically rigorous, so that we can justify our calls for change. We must also remember that the police are not our enemies, but they are the shield that the government hide behind while they get on with their ecocidal idiocy.
If my job was to protect the power of people who will destroy the world our children are to inherit, I would not do my job. Any policeman who does, is either ignorant, or evil. Yeah I said it.
I’ve been trying to put into words exactly why the Summer Uprising has felt uncomfortable, and what we must do before October. It turns out, somebody has already done a fantastic job. Rebels, please please devote some time to this document here. I feel it has some absolutely crucial insights which could get our goal of a sustainable world back onto the horizon.
Love, rage, nonviolence, solidarity, strength, and all those sorts of things.