extinction rebellion

From Freedom News UK

It would be prudent for me to open with the affirmation that this is an ‘opinion piece’. It is the opinion of one aging anarchist who has been active in class struggle and ecological resistance for the best part of four decades. As the bandwagon of political focus has shifted over the years, my own passions have gone in and out of fashion. One minute dancing with 40,000 comrades as we Reclaimed The Streets, the next protesting fracking with four people and a baby in a pushchair outside a branch of HSBC facing 2 x mounted police, 2 x police liaison officers, 2 x uniformed police and 2 x CID, who were sat watching from a car across the street. I have written in various guises throughout this time; defending animal and earth liberation when class struggle anarchy was in vogue, and arguing for greater class consciousness when the environment last took centre stage in the 1990s.

from Terra Nullius

by Alexander Dunlap

The second part of the interview with Peter Gelderloos continues discussing the recent climate justice movements, before discussing decolonization and the reproduction of colonial trauma. The interview concludes by talking about their forthcoming book on anarchist resistance to climate change.

Introduction

from itv.com

From the summer protest-led chaos across UK cities to the ongoing violent clashes in Hong Kong, scenes of anarchy appear alive in 2019.

Demonstrators in Hong Kong were branded anarchists by The South China Morning Post after mobilising in the streets to fight for the rights of citizens.

from Telegraph UK, by Charles Hymas

This fundamental structure, how we govern and indeed our whole way of living together, needs to change. Scratching a cross in a box every five years does not feel anything like enough nor does showing up for a demo or signing a petition. Something more is needed.

There is something overwhelmingly simple about the Extinction Rebellion (and sister movements: the student school strikes for the climate, earth strike, climate offensive), its idealism; an idealism that in part explains its resonance in the rapid multiplication and expansion of protests.

I’m not going to ramble on to much about the tactics, the validity of a road block or the fetish for a celebrity voice, We shouldn’t expect XR to uphold the value sets of revolutionary organisations.
I want to talk about a few other things… I want to talk about the things that changed a friendly “this is how to get the Anarchists onboard” opinion piece into one – just a few days and questions later – set on position that even the briefest of critical assessments should light up anyone’s red flags and tho some fantastic people are involved, there are also some deeply concerning issue that people are turning a blind eye too.

From Anarchist Communist Group

Extinction Rebellion has managed to organise an impressive number of people into a civil disobedience movement. They have managed to shut down and occupy significant parts of London including numerous major road junctions over the past week. They have many admirable principles such as “breaking down hierarchies of power for more equitable participation” and “creating a world that is fit for generations to come”. However is civil disobedience really the best method for getting action to be taken on climate change?

From AWSM

Extinction Rebellion was established in the United Kingdom in October 2018 as a movement that aims to use tactics of nonviolent direct action in order to avert the effects of climate change. Since its formation, it has rapidly spread to at least 35 other countries, including New Zealand, who have recently carried a few headline-grabbing protests, with the promise of more to come.