The first year of XR is coming up. So if we need a “rapid transition” to the next stage, what can we all learn from them?
The speed and scale of XR’s success over the last year has been a lesson to many organisations committed to transformation (including ourselves). So it’s interesting to see an assessment of their progress, one year on, by a group of seasoned campaigners.
The Rapid Transition Alliance, featured on A/UK and set up by New Economics Foundation ex-director Andrew Simms, has written this assessment of XR which is fascinating, generous and usefully critical at points.
We’ll go back to front, and begin with their conclusions:
Key lessons for rapid transition
Global mobilisations can be formed with minimal funds in a short time-frame if they fill a political void, catch a zeitgeist and communicate with simplicity. It’s possible to learn and apply lessons from the success and failure of previous campaigns.
Being open about its organising values, intentions, methods and a commitment to “learning by doing” creates a movement with a clear model for change that people can identify. And where they agree in principle, people are also free and empowered to act independently.
Self-organisation can be fast, flexible and effective. It has limitations in terms of resources and in balancing individual and collective responsibilities.
Going back through the piece, RTA make these interesting points. Firstly about its social timing:
The timing of Extinction Rebellion’s appearance also seems to coincide with a societal awareness of intergenerational tension and conflict of interests. Older environmentalists who have been campaigning for decades and feel that their actions have failed to have any impact on government policy decisions have joined actively with much younger people inspired by Greta Thunberg’s School Strike.
The movement seems to have galvanised those who feel they have nothing left to lose and are willing to get arrested for the cause. Many people joined their children and grandchildren in protesting – particularly because of the focus on non-violence and that fact that XR sites are all drug-free, including alcohol.
XR have also used the niche-nature of today’s world to attract people from different areas of the community: XR famers, XR lawyers etc.
Next, on how XR is a kind of response to the collapse of faith in traditional democracy:
In terms of the UK, where it first started, the rise of XR has come at a time when national politics in the UK is at its most divisive, frustrating, and where key policies on energy and infrastructure have been seen to push against needed climate action.
The stop-start, binary process of Brexit has prevented action on other important policymaking, including crucially combating climate change. The timescale of any possible progress looks painfully slow against the relentless speed of climate change.
However, its international appeal shows that XR has tapped into similar feelings elsewhere. Perhaps this is more about reinvigorating democracy to respond to current needs.
For example, XR uses participatory democracy processes such as People’s Assemblies, where communities can consider issues and take decisions to model how these might work in wider society.
And finally, RTA zoom in on the movement culture of XR:
Protest movements are often synonymous with confrontation and anger, but XR advocates a “regenerative culture” that looks to love, respect and cooperation for inspiration, which has directly engaged police and other authority figures rather than aggressively confronting them.
Some critics have criticised a perceived lack of ethnic diversity in XR, its middle class nature and its willingness to inconvenience innocent bystanders, with one isolated incident of disruption to London underground services drawing particular attention. Others have raised concerns about whether adequate legal training has been provided, particularly for younger activists risking arrest.
Ironically, the commitment to engage positively, has also led to some complaints that XR has an uncritical attitude towards cooperation with the police. At the time of writing this, XR members have returned home to regroup, and as part of their stated method, they intend to learn from their mistakes and successes, respond to these criticisms and challenges, and plan next steps.