Last month, Extinction Rebellion hit headlines for blocking the printing presses of a number of right-wing newspapers. While the movement was condemned from all sides as an attack on the free press, the group argued that it was protesting the newspapers’ suppression of the truth about the climate breakdown.
But climate activists are now vying against a pandemic for both coverage and action. Coronavirus has produced a dampening effect on climate activism: the urgency of the climate crisis has been seemingly downgraded against the present fears of a deadly virus. And with the additional backdrop of dwindling public support, activist fatigue and an increasingly hostile Conservative government, the future of XR looks more uncertain.
Almost two years on from the Declaration of Rebellion—an assembly of activists in Parliament Square which kickstarted the movement—and after thousands of arrests and numerous protests in the name of saving the planet, where does Extinction Rebellion go from here?
Changing the conversation
XR has been hugely successful in placing climate breakdown centre stage within the national conversation. The original campaign demands, announced in October 2018 included “Tell the Truth,” “Act Now” and “Declare a Climate Emergency.” After XR's "Easter Rebellion" in April 2019, which brought major sites in London to a standstill, parliament declared a climate emergency that May.The movement has also been a great accelerator for activism: the energy catalysed by Extinction Rebellion has mobilised thousands around the world to take non-violent direct action against rising carbon emissions—often older people and those entirely new to activism.
But October 2019's Rebellion, which attempted to mobilise thousands of activists and to shut down 11 sites across London, failed to capture the public and the media in the same way as previous protests had. The controversial attempt to shut down the London Overground led to angry commuters dragging activists from the tops of trains at Canning Town.
With each action, the shock factor of blockades, “swarming” and mass die-ins has diminishing returns. “It’s got to a stage where certain types of action could just be normalised which could really kill off the movement,” says Adam Williams, a climate activist from Manchester. “There are some people who are always the ones getting arrested and as the convictions stack up, I’m not sure there are many behind them ready to take over.”
A change in strategy
However, over the last year, Extinction Rebellion has undergone a subtle shift in strategy and structure. Energies will now be less focused on holding London’s streets, for example, but instead directed towards organising a series of localised, targeted actions. Examples include the latest rebellion in September—of which the printing press blockade was part—and also further actions in Manchester (the Northern Rebellion) and Cardiff (the Welsh Rebellion). Various local groups are also taking direct action in an attempt to block the construction of HS2. This could signal the end of the mass arrest strategy, previously bolstered by co-founder Roger Hallam who has now left the movement (Hallam was a controversial figure as the man behind the tactic).“What we did with the NewsCorp action showed the power of targeted direct action,” says Suzanne Savage, one of XR’s Regional Coordinators for the Midlands. “The time for non-violent direct action is not over, but how and where we apply it to greatest effect is the most important thing to consider going forward.”
Savage also explains that XR has now adopted an “ecology” of theories of change, not just involving civil disobedience and arrests, but also personal transformation and “regenerative cultures.” This comes as a welcome shift for some activists who found the mass arrest strategy performative, bordering on white middle-class virtue signalling.
A battle to fundraise—and take on policy
Partly due to logistical constraints, such as running out of money to pay its core volunteers, Extinction Rebellion’s central national team has dropped in capacity. Previously, XR's national campaign was organised by a central clutch of activists—this national strategy ran parallel to the loosely coordinated actions of local groups, who decided independently whether to join or replicate national actions.Instead, in February this year XR took on a new, more fundamentally decentralised organisational structure. The new “organic” form of organising seeks to provide accountable national direction through consultation with regional and local groups, developing pockets of civil disobedience across the country.
Beyond direct action, XR’s efforts have also focused on shaping legislation, with the group supporting the Climate and Ecological Emergency (CEE) Bill, which would expand the remit of the 2008 Climate Change Act. The CEE Bill would also enshrine Citizen's Assemblies as a tool for deliberating action.
Nonetheless, as a Presentation Bill—a certain type of Private Members' Bill —the CEE Bill won't receive a debate or a vote in parliament and is highly unlikely to become law. Like much of XR’s campaigning, the bill seems more a campaign tool to shift public opinion on the urgency of action on the climate crisis than a concrete proposal for rapid decarbonisation.
However, this recent pivot to legislative change could dilute the clear non-partisanship that helped XR construct such a broad coalition of supporters in the first place. Some argue it could mark the beginning of an “NGO-ification” of Extinction Rebellion.
Not here to be liked
“We’re not here to be liked—our job is to raise the alarm. We may want to be a popular movement but ultimately we are here to put the issue of climate on the radar and expand the Overton window,” says Savage.For many, XR is just a starting point, a force that demands something must be done to turn around ecological and climate breakdown. Its purpose is to question the climate inaction and hypocrisy of the public, politicians and media and the rest of us, rather than proffer answers to the crisis in hard policy. In an ideal world, the group would also be joined by a broader ecology of active movements, including those that push solutions-focused climate action, such as campaigns for the Green New Deal.
The most urgent question for now is whether XR can move a seemingly intractable Tory government. Theresa May’s administration was far more tolerant than Boris Johnson’s, which has cracked down hard, categorising XR as "extremists" and threatening to reclassify their activism as organised crime. What remains to be seen is how XR’s new structure and strategy will alter its place in the broader climate movement, and, fundamentally, whether those in power will listen.
