From xxxxxx <[email protected]>
Subject Can Extinction Rebellion Build a U.S. Climate Movement Big Enough to Save the Earth?
Date November 20, 2019 2:13 AM
  Links have been removed from this email. Learn more in the FAQ.
  Links have been removed from this email. Learn more in the FAQ.
[Extinction Rebellion’s ambition is no less than to save the
Earth. To win, they say they need 3.5 percent of the U.S. population
to participate. ] [[link removed]]

CAN EXTINCTION REBELLION BUILD A U.S. CLIMATE MOVEMENT BIG ENOUGH TO
SAVE THE EARTH?  
[[link removed]]


 

Aileen Brown
October 12, 2019
The Intercept
[[link removed]]


*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
* [[link removed]]

_ Extinction Rebellion’s ambition is no less than to save the
Earth. To win, they say they need 3.5 percent of the U.S. population
to participate. _

Extinction Rebellion activists bury their heads in the sand on Manly
Beach in Sydney, Australia, on Oct. 11, 2019., Brook Mitchell/Getty
Images

 

 
 

A crowd of about 200 black-clad members of the climate activist group
Extinction Rebellion gathered Monday morning at the southern end of
New York City’s financial district. Some held banners painted with
ghostly white animals or cardboard cutouts of trees and waves. In the
background, a New Orleans-style jazz funeral band warmed up tubas, and
one of the march’s emcees instructed people on the proper way to
wail. (“Dig down and pull out your grief — because you gotta
cry!”)

At the head of the procession, 20-year-old Ayisha Siddiqa took the
megaphone. She explained how she’d come to the U.S. from a poor part
of Pakistan when she was 5 years old and had lost family members as a
result of frequent power outages, which are expected to increase
globally
[[link removed]] as
the climate crisis deepens. Attention turned to Richard McLachlan, a
68-year-old New Zealander, as he and another activist began reading
Extinction Rebellion’s declaration of rebellion.

“The science is clear: We are in the sixth mass extinction event,
and we will face catastrophe if we do not act swiftly and robustly,”
the activists said. “We, in alignment with our consciences and our
reasoning, declare ourselves in rebellion against our government and
the corrupted, inept institutions that threaten our future.” It was
the kickoff to an event dubbed Rebellion Week, part of an
international series of XR actions.

As the group started moving out of the park, a figure appeared in the
distance, waving Extinction Rebellion’s green flag from atop Wall
Street’s charging bull statue. Dyed red corn syrup oozed down the
bull’s back, and activists wearing white shirts splattered with fake
blood played dead at the animal’s feet.

By sunset, police had arrested 700 people across the globe for
participation in actions under XR’s banner, including 93
“die-in” participants in New York. That was the point. By getting
arrested in visually compelling acts of civil disobedience inspired by
Gandhi, the civil rights movement, and ACT UP, Extinction Rebellion
hopes to jolt world leaders into taking action on the climate
emergency.

Since the movement was born in the United Kingdom one year ago, it has
grown to a network of at least 485 groups in 72 countries. Many
observers have responded with a reaction similar to the one elicited
by 16-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg: Finally,
someone is truthfully confronting scientists’ apocalyptic climate
forecasts with the urgency they deserve.

Indeed, Extinction Rebellion’s ambition is no less than to save the
Earth. To win, they say they need 3.5 percent
[[link removed]]
of the U.S. population [[link removed]] to
participate. But whether a largely white, middle-class movement has
what it takes to meet a sky-high ambition of mobilizing more than 11
million people to force sweeping climate action is an open question.

In the U.K., the group has been criticized for failing to center those
most severely impacted by the crisis — people of color and
marginalized communities. The New York-based chapter, founded a couple
months after the one in the U.K., is in the midst of developing its
own identity and proving that it stands for those who have the most at
stake.

To members, sincere in their belief that a mass-appeal climate
movement is what’s needed to quell catastrophe, drawing in
front-line communities is life or death. As McLachlan put it, “This
has to explode. It has to get bigger if it’s going to work.”

Preventing the Airplane from Taking Off
The weekend before the rebellion began, some 40 people sat in a circle
in a community art space in the West Village as Bill Beckler, an
Extinction Rebellion activist with a neatly trimmed beard and
loose-fitting jeans, laid out terrifying climate scenarios. He
described “hothouse Earth
[[link removed]],”
a scenario introduced in a 2018 paper, in which processes initiated by
climate heating, like permafrost thaw and forest dieback, become
self-reinforcing feedback loops, causing the release of more
greenhouse gases and stemming the planet’s ability to absorb them.
He referenced another study
[[link removed]]
that says there is a 5 percent chance carbon dioxide in the atmosphere
could present an existential threat to humanity by 2100
[[link removed]].

“If you told me to get on a plane that has a one in 20 chance of
crashing, I wouldn’t get on that airplane,” Beckler said, his
voice breaking with emotion. It’s Extinction Rebellion’s job to
keep the airplane from taking off. “You guys are the ones.”

Beckler was there to train the group in nonviolent direct action, a
requirement for anyone who wants to be arrested at an XR action. He
was joined by Chelsea MacMillan, who wore her hair in a tidy pixie cut
and had the posture of a yoga instructor.

He asked the group to close their eyes and take a moment of silence to
let the facts he’d laid out sink in. “Hope is an empty, useless
thing right now that stops people from doing what they need to do,”
Beckler underlined.

Extinction Rebellion was founded in October 2018 by activists in the
United Kingdom who had been despairing over the climate crisis. One
co-founder, 47-year-old Gail Bradbrook, has written
[[link removed]]
that the personal breakthrough that led to Extinction Rebellion was a
direct result of two weeks she spent tripping on psychedelics in Costa
Rica. Her background is indicative of the emphasis XR places on
personal transformation.

Two months later, the New York wing held its first mass meeting.
MacMillan, who founded the Brooklyn Center for Sacred Activism, told
The Intercept she was attracted to the “regenerative” spirit of
the movement, which encourages members to share their feelings and
openly process grief. “We’re going to see things collapse.”

Extinction Rebellion’s No. 1 demand
[[link removed]] is that those in power
“Tell the truth” about climate change. It’s why activists scaled
the New York Times building in June and unfurled a banner that read
“Climate change = mass murder,” with “change” crossed out and
replaced by “emergency.” The group demanded the paper of record
follow a set of standards [[link removed]]
that includes front-page climate headlines daily and the removal of
financial conflicts of interest. Police arrested
[[link removed]]
66 people. Less than a week later, New York City declared
[[link removed]]
a climate emergency. (Whether the declaration will have much impact is
a separate question
[[link removed]].)
XR pressure later led the Times to drop its sponsorship
[[link removed]] of
the energy industry’s Oil & Money conference, an event it has had a
relationship with for 40 years.

The truth, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
[[link removed]], is that governments must act to cut
greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030 if they want to give humanity
a 50 percent chance of avoiding unmanageable climate outcomes. Finding
those odds unacceptable, Extinction Rebellion demands the goal be met
by 2025. “Even if it sounds politically infeasible, it doesn’t
matter. … We have to do it,” Beckler explained to the group.

He said the way to achieve that is to fulfill the third demand: a
citizens’ assembly [[link removed]].
Rather than endorse the Green New Deal, Extinction Rebellion argues
that randomly selected individuals from the general public, reflective
of U.S. demographics, should decide how the government should resolve
the crisis. They would hear from experts and stakeholders before
delivering recommendations. “The government enacts what the group
comes up with,” he said.

That demand hasn’t been met in the U.S., but in the U.K., Parliament
agreed to convene a citizens’ assembly last June, after police
arrested more than 1,000 XR activists for blocking intersections and
gluing themselves to infrastructure. The assembly’s recommendations
will not be legally binding.

Although the U.K. movement makes only three demands, the U.S. chapter
added a fourth: a just transition that establishes reparations for
“Black people, Indigenous people, people of color, and poor
communities,” where the sources of climate pollution pay for the
damage they’ve caused.

The Police Are Not Your Friends
After the massive April protests in the U.K., Wretched of the Earth
[[link removed]], a
grassroots climate justice collective, published an open letter
[[link removed]]
to Extinction Rebellion. “Our communities have been on fire for a
long time and these flames are fanned by our exclusion and
silencing,” they wrote. “Without incorporating our experiences,
any response to this disaster will fail to change the complex ways in
which social, economic and political systems shape our lives.”

The central XR tactic of mass arrests was at the heart of the
criticism, since arrest is more risky for people of color, low-income
people, and immigrants. In the U.K., Extinction Rebellion is known for
communicating its plans to law enforcement and at times has given the
appearance of viewing the police as collaborators. “The strategy of
XR, with the primary tactic of being arrested, is a valid one — but
it needs to be underlined by an ongoing analysis of privilege as well
as the reality of police and state violence,” Wretched of the Earth
wrote. “Though some of this analysis has started to happen, until it
becomes central to XR’s organising it is not sufficient.”

The relationship with police in the U.K. may be shifting. The same day
as the direct action training, police raided
[[link removed]]
a London building where Extinction Rebellion activists stored
equipment, and arrested 10 people for conspiracy to cause a public
nuisance. Specialist protest removal teams
[[link removed]],
made up of officers from across England, arrived in London to help
handle the glue and locks protesters use to block infrastructure.

Meanwhile, activists in Paris were met with tear gas
[[link removed]]
as they barricaded themselves in a mall for 17 hours. And in
Australia, Extinction Rebellion members were preparing to fight
legislation designed especially
[[link removed]]
for them by the Queensland parliament, making activists who possess
lock-down devices subject to
[[link removed]]
up to two years’ imprisonment.

MacMillan, like all Extinction Rebellion activists The Intercept
interviewed, was well aware of the criticisms. She said part of the
work of Extinction Rebellion U.S. is “finding the balance of using
white privilege we have in the movement to stop the mess we’re
in,” while also building relationships with communities of color.
Although the group met with police in advance of the Rebellion Week,
they did not share details of their plans. “We didn’t tell them
anything except what’s on the website,” McLachlan said.

At the training, MacMillan discouraged activists from antagonizing
police, but she also emphasized that the police were not their
friends. “We try to maintain a quiet, neutral stance with police.
We’re not trying to be buddy-buddy,” she said. “We are against
the police as a tool of the state.”

Flatbush Attempts to Show the Way

On the Friday before the week of action, members of Extinction
Rebellion Flatbush gathered in a blue-painted room with mini flags
from countries around the world hanging from the ceiling. Located in
the heavily South Asian Brooklyn neighborhood of Kensington, the space
is an adult daycare during the day, but after 4 p.m., it’s the
Pakistani American Youth Society community center.

Shahana Hanif, a 28-year-old Bangladeshi American and City Council
candidate with a bright smile, described to the group how she worked
to open the Avenue C plaza, which has become an important gathering
place for Kensington — and a starting point for movement building.
Next, Bhumika Muchhala’s young daughter played on her lap as she
explained the concept of climate reparations and described her work
with the Third World Network, which brings the perspective of the
“global south” to international gatherings like the United Nations
climate talks. She pointed out that 100 corporations are responsible
[[link removed]]
for 71 percent of global greenhouse emissions and that the U.S. is
responsible
[[link removed]]
for the largest proportion of carbon emissions driving the crisis.

Extinction Rebellion Flatbush, one of a growing number of
neighborhood-based XR groups in New York, organized the event as a
starting point for bringing in people who are more reflective of the
neighborhood. “Flatbush is trying to show the way,” said XR
Flatbush member Lorna Mason. But although about 40 people attended,
very few appeared to be of South Asian descent.

[Carrie Ellman-Larsen, left, and Shahana Hanif, who both helped a
Muslim immigrant find safety after she decided to leave an abusive
household, in Brooklyn, March 18, 2019. For Muslim immigrants
desperate to flee their abusers, there are almost no safe options. A
community in Brooklyn organized to change that. (Kholood Eid/The New
York Times)]

Shahana Hanif in Brooklyn on March 18, 2019.

Photo: Kholood Eid/The New York Times via Redux

The last presenter, McLachlan, gave a version of a talk he gives on
subway trains
[[link removed]],
one of XR’s outreach tactics unique to New York.

He conceded to The Intercept that XR Flatbush, which he helped found,
had failed in its first attempt to draw in South Asian neighbors.
“There were very few of them here,” he said. He’s hopeful,
though, that they can win trust by homing in on issues that impact
community members, like organizing for air conditioning in Brooklyn
schools.

“To be honest, I think it’s more than that,” said Kashif
Hussain, a community organizer who founded PAYS and also spoke at the
event. “I’m kind of happy they didn’t come, because the
presentation wasn’t geared toward them anyway.”

It might have been more compelling if it included slides specific to
climate impacts in South Asia, Hussain said. The presentation “is
geared toward educated folks and people who are willing to be involved
in civil disobedience.”

There have been plenty of climate-related uprisings led by people from
vulnerable communities. During Standing Rock, a massive anti-pipeline
movement led by the Standing Rock Sioux tribe in North Dakota, police
arrested more than 800 people. Indigenous people took some of the
biggest risks and faced some of the most severe charges.

In Puerto Rico, hundreds of thousands of people, including islanders
from low-income neighborhoods who had never before protested, went
into the street to demand the resignation
[[link removed]]
of Gov. Ricardo Rosselló, who oversaw the botched response to
Hurricane Maria. They won, and he stepped down.

In the Sunset Park neighborhood of Brooklyn, the Latina-led
organization Uprose has been doing climate justice work for 15 years.
The organization’s director, Elizabeth Yeampierre, said she’s wary
of new climate activist groups that have popped up asking her to join
their cause. “This is not trendy for us,” she said. “We are in
this for the rest of our lives.”

To make Extinction Rebellion successful in Kensington, they’d need a
friend of the community to take on the hard work of developing
programming around the climate emergency and organizing people who
aren’t already radicalized around the climate crisis, Hussain said.
“Community members like me could be that catalyst, but without
proper resources, it’s virtually impossible.”

McLachlan said he’s committed to doing what he has to. “I’ll
come back as often as it takes,” he said.

Preventing the Next Apocalypse
Monday’s procession moved from the charging bull to the New York
Stock Exchange, where more fake-bloodied Extinction Rebellion bodies
were strewn across the pedestrian-only road. Many marchers carried
gravestones with the names of environmental defenders who have been
murdered throughout the globe
[[link removed]].

Bob, a 50-year-old bystander, said he worked at a brokerage firm
nearby. Asked about Wall Street’s role in the crisis, he said, “I
think it’s very clear. That’s capitalism. It’s obviously
broken.”

Bob said his employer’s parent company funds oil and gas pipelines.
He threw his hands in the air. “I guess I’m a part of the problem
until I’m part of the solution.”

The procession veered east down Pine Street. In front of Trinity
Church, activists linked arms in the middle of Broadway Avenue and
blocked a two-decker tourist bus. One passenger looked down from the
upper deck with delight.

In the week that followed, New York XR members conducted a sit-in at
Columbia University’s Low Memorial Library and blocked a nearby
intersection. Activists glued themselves to an 18-foot boat parked in
the middle of Times Square, leading to 62 arrests. In the U.K., police
arrested more than 1,000 people throughout the week, as they conducted
actions at the London airport, blocked the entrance to the BBC, and
carried out other disruptive protests. XR activists held actions in
60 other cities, including Sydney, Madrid, Vienna, Buenos Aires, and
Mumbai. The premier of Queensland, Australia, announced that she would
fast-track the anti-protest legislation.

As the Monday procession broke up, many made their way toward
Washington Square Park for the launch of a weeklong Rebel Fest, where
Extinction Rebellion set up family-friendly events to complement the
civil disobedience happening in other parts of the city. Owl, a member
of the Ramapough Lenape Nation who was involved in fighting an oil
pipeline in New Jersey that would have passed through his people’s
territory, was invited to present an acknowledgment that the festival
would be held on stolen land. “The bottom line is that they have an
important message, which is what we are doing now is causing a global
mass extinction,” Owl told The Intercept.

“Indigenous people, black people, people of color have been on the
front line since before there was a formal environmental movement,”
he said. “I’m looking forward to further ties with Extinction
Rebellion, and this is a good start.”

Owl took the megaphone before the crowd of Extinction Rebellion
activists. “We’ve been through an apocalypse before,” he told
them. “And I can tell you it’s not pretty.”

*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
* [[link removed]]

 

 

 

INTERPRET THE WORLD AND CHANGE IT

 

 

Submit via web [[link removed]]
Submit via email
Frequently asked questions [[link removed]]
Manage subscription [[link removed]]
Visit xxxxxx.org [[link removed]]

Twitter [[link removed]]

Facebook [[link removed]]

 




[link removed]

To unsubscribe, click the following link:
[link removed]
Screenshot of the email generated on import

Message Analysis

  • Sender: Portside
  • Political Party: n/a
  • Country: United States
  • State/Locality: n/a
  • Office: n/a
  • Email Providers:
    • L-Soft LISTSERV