The worldwide protests organised by Extinction Rebellion, have put the issue of the ecological crisis into mainstream political discourse. Non-violent actions have been carried out in more than 30 countries and within them, many more towns and cities. But it has been in the UK, the birthplace of the movement, that has seen the most spectacular actions, particularly in London. Four central London locations were held, and blockaded, three of them illegally, for almost a week, with over a 1,000 arrests being made by police.
It has
astonished me that protesters held on for so long in London, but I had
obviously misjudged the numbers that Extinction Rebellion could mobilise,
especially those willing to be arrested in the process. The Metropolitan
Police, have, by and large, handled the demonstrations well, and
proportionately, as far as I can tell. I’ve been out of London for a few days,
and only managed to visit the Parliament Square camp, on the second day of that
encampment, and all was very quiet whilst I was there.
The
right-wing media has attempted to smear the protesters all week, but the best
they came up with was to call them ‘middle-class.’ Since when did the Daily Mail
see being middle-class as an insult? The accusation was that
working-class people had more to worry about, low wages, insecure jobs and public
services cut to the bone, which may well have some truth in it, but when was
the last time the Daily Mail etc championed the causes of these people? Never, is
the answer.
There are
other movements that have sprung up recently to try to force action on the
ecological crisis, such as the school students strike and Earth Strike, both
also international in their scope. The catalyst for all of this activity seems
to have been last year’s International Panel on Climate Change report, which
warned that we only had twelve years to get our act together on carbon
emissions or face runaway climate change. People have observed the almost complete
lack of urgency on the part of governments’, and concluded that they must be dragged kicking and screaming into action.
Protests were
confined to only the legal gathering at Marble Arch in London by Easter Monday,
and Extinction Rebellion has said they will democratically decide what comes
next. Judging by what we have seen in the last week, whatever is decided will be
imaginative and well supported. Protests will continue throughout the summer,
of that I think we can be certain.
What made
this rebellion brilliant was that it demonstrated that if you have the numbers,
especially the huge numbers willing to get arrested, the authorities cannot
cope. With police numbers cut back over the last decade, they found it impossible
to take back these occupied sites, and have storage space for those taken into
custody. Many of those arrested returned to the protests when they were
released after a few hours, some of whom were arrested again.
Extinction Rebellion appeared to have a misinformation plan in place too. There were rumours of the
London underground network being targeted for disruption, diverting police
resources, but in the end only a three person protest took place where
protesters glued themselves to an overland train. Similarly, Extinction
Rebellion announced an intention to close Heathrow Airport, resulting police
being drafted in from Wales to defend the airport, only for about a dozen protesters to
stand on a roundabout, causing no disruption at all.
This is how
things are likely to carry on, with mass actions as well as smaller guerrilla actions
taken by small groups, similar to the way the suffragettes operated in the early
twentieth century. Also like the suffragettes, they have clear and simple
demands, votes for women for the suffragettes, the calling of a climate
emergency by Extinction Rebellion. But beneath the surface, as with the
suffragettes, Extinction Rebellion has deeper, more radical aims.
I was interested
to note the language used on Extinction Rebellion’s twitter releases, words
like ‘held’ an area, and ‘retaken’ an area, as well as calling the protesters ‘rebels’.
It was all good natured, but the language reveals something of thinking of the
organisers, I think.
There will
surely come a point, when most of those participating in this rebellion will
realise that governments’ are not only unwilling to take remedial action, but
are also unable to do so. The democratic system is so corrupt, with corporate interests
the only ones that count for anything. As some placards on the protest stated, ‘system
change not climate change’ a slogan used by ecosocialists for some time now,
and I know of some ecosocialists who have been involved.
At this
point, the rebels will either have to give up and go home, or go from rebels to
revolutionaries. This does not mean resorting to violence, although at some point the
authorities are likely to turn to violence. The power that we have just had a small
glimpse of this past week, should be ramped up, but that will take more
numbers. We saw how the police struggled with 1,000 people arrested, what would
it be like with 10,000? With 100,000? If these kind of numbers can be mobilised,
anything is possible.
There is also
the Earth Strike planned for 27
September. If the workers, organised and unorganised can be brought on board
for the revolution, we will see an unstoppable force, powerful enough to bring
truly radical change. We could be on the verge of something almost unimaginable only a few months ago, real system change, or to put it another way, a revolution.
i take issue with the somewhat defeatist suggestion that ‘ governments are unable [to take remefial action] ‘
ReplyDeleteGovernments could, if they were so minded, refuse the corporate bribes and threats, as i hope a Corbynist Labour, or a Green govt in any country would do.
its up to us , as rebels or revolutionaries, to ensure that governments cannot govern without the consent of the people to their complacent ‘fiddling while the planet burns’.
That is the whole point of a revolution, the old order is replaced, which is what needs to happen. The current bourgeois version of democracy doesn't work, it is impossible for them to act to save the planet, which is why this rebellion has become necessary. Replace the crooks, or we have had it.
ReplyDeleteYour blog Mike suggests a need to take action against companies as well as make demands of government. Think anti apartheid campaign against Barclays. Think boycott as per against Israeli goods. Think refusing packaging in shops. Think interventions at shareholder meetings. Etc. I
ReplyDeleteI suppose we should try everything Anne, but I am hoping we will get something a bit more radical out of this.
ReplyDelete