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A few minutes before Boris Johnson’s convoy passed on its way to the prime minister’s questions this week, about a dozen people emerged from the sidewalk and into the busy intersection in front of Parliament.
As they hastily sat down and tried to stick their hands to the road, they were surrounded by dozens of police officers. In a matter of seconds they were lifted, or dragged, back to the pavement. The protest ended almost before it started and minutes later the prime minister’s caravan sped past without hindrance.
The action was one of dozens of Extinction Rebellion non-violent civil disobedience protests, from a migrant justice demonstration outside the Home Office to the blockade of a slaughterhouse in Manchester, that have taken place in major cities across the Kingdom. United for the past two weeks to try. to highlight the escalation of the climate crisis.
Unlike previous XR rebellions in April and October last year, in which thousands of people blocked much of central London day after day, protesters have focused on what they say are some of the key players pushing for the climate crisis, from the UK government to right-wing thinktanks and media companies, from fossil fuel companies to large infrastructure projects.
The numbers on the streets have been lower, mainly due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, and the more specific actions have not caused the same level of disruption or captured the public imagination to the same extent that they did last year. .
However, the XR organizer says its more focused campaign has given the movement a renewed sense of purpose.
“In the past we have raised a very widespread alarm that needed to be done,” said Clare Farrell of XR. “But there are things that are structurally important to understand about the causal reality of this crisis and I think we have done a fantastic job of drawing attention to them.”
‘Release the truth’
A key target of the protests were right-wing think tanks and lobbying organizations that activists say are playing a crucial role in downplaying the climate crisis. Last week, XR activists joined novelists, poets and playwrights, including Mark Rylance and Zadie Smith, to rally outside 55 Tufton Street in London, a place infamous for hosting meetings of thinktanks and lobbyists linked to denial. of climate science and the oil industry.
A few days later, XR upped the ante, using trucks and bamboo scaffolding to block roads outside the printing houses of a number of national newspapers, including the Sun, Times, Daily Telegraph, and Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday, with banners reading “Free the truth ”and“ 5 thieves control our news ”.
The action not only blocked the printing houses of those newspapers, but also affected the distribution of other titles, including The Guardian. For the first time since the protests began, XR was high on the news agenda and was once again the subject of heated public debate. The nature and purpose of the protests drew harsh criticism, with Prime Minister and Home Secretary Priti Patel accusing XR of undermining democracy and press freedom, and calling the group “criminals” and a threat to the style of British life. In anonymous briefings, the government even raised the idea of classifying XR as an “organized crime group.”
And it wasn’t just the Conservative Party that criticized the action. Labor leader Keir Starmer called the blockade “an attack on the cornerstone of democracy” and the newspapers themselves, as well as commentators from the media and the Publishers’ Society, have since lined up to denounce the group.
But for XR, and many in the broader environmental movement, the action was seen as legitimate and necessary. They argued that much of the right-wing press, owned by a handful of billionaires, has played a key role in downplaying the climate crisis and undermining the structural changes needed to address it; that much of our press, in fact, is far from free.
Angus Satow, co-founder of the left-wing environmental group Labor for a Green New Deal, told The Guardian: “We desperately need groups like XR to highlight the political and economic players who are driving this climate crisis. Many of the big ideas that were being discussed in relation to the climate crisis when the coronavirus hit seem to have been forgotten by politicians who are fighting to get us back to a normalcy that will be disastrous.
“We need groups like XR and the school strike movement to keep up the pressure and make the climate crisis a priority issue.”
Zoë Blackler, a journalist who works on XR’s media team, said that despite the backlash from the establishment, the protest over the printed works had been “really galvanizing throughout the movement.”
He said that while it had brought in a great deal of negative media coverage, with journalists tracing the private lives of those involved, contacting former members for information about the group, and reaching out to funders to repudiate them, he hoped it had also opened a space. . for important conversations about the climate crisis and media ownership.
“I imagine there are now conversations in the newsrooms about how they are covering the climate and ecological crisis … I hope that when things have calmed down this will lead to real progress in the quality of the reports.”
Environmental justice
A criticism of XR before his latest rebellion, especially from black and ethnic minority groups, was that his tactic of encouraging mass arrests ignored the reality of police racism and effectively made the protests the exclusive property of privileged whites.
The September protests were intended to be different, with XR working more closely with other groups and acknowledging the connections between structural racism, inequality, and the climate crisis.
Daze Aghaji, who has been involved with XR since the beginning of last year, said that the last two weeks had been the most diverse rebellion yet.
“There is still a lot of work to do on this, but we are learning … we are having good conversations with other groups, listening and making sure that we are much better to make sure everyone knows that they are welcome.”
Black environmental activists outside of XR say the movement was making progress, but urged the media to highlight the work of other grassroots groups that focus on climate and racial justice.
When XR ended his latest rebellion on Thursday, he was already preparing his next campaign. According to those involved, it will take the form of a ‘money strike’, in which people will be encouraged to withhold debts or taxes from institutions that are seen as fueling not only the climate crisis but also structural racism and further inequality. wide.
Released less than two years ago, the group still thinks big. His actions over the past two weeks did not capture the public’s imagination as he had in April of last year. By attacking the right-wing media, they have become a formidable enemy and, according to some critics, may have distracted the press and public from their central message on the climate crisis.
But as evidence for the climate and ecological emergency mounts, from the melting of glaciers in Antarctica to the wildfires in California and the widespread destruction of wildlife and the natural world, XR still believes it has a crucial role. to play.
When Boris Johnson appeared in parliament for the PMQ on Wednesday, Arnold Pease, 92, of Manchester, was being arrested outside for his involvement in the protests.
As the police took him away, Pease said: “We are here to continue to hold you to account. Are 92-year-old great-grandparents called “organized criminals” for doing what it takes to protect their grandchildren? The criminal inaction of the government in the face of the greatest existential threat we have faced is the true story. “
