Photos and Report: Extinction Rebellion and 200 Other Groups “Unite to Survive”, Building a Movement Despite Mainstream Media Indifference

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On New Year’s Eve, Extinction Rebellion (XR), the disruptive but non-violent climate activist group that did so much to propel the climate crisis up the political agenda in October 2018 and April 2019, occupying bridges, and, perhaps most memorably, occupying Oxford Circus with a pink yacht bearing the message ‘Tell the Truth’, directed at politicians and the media, announced a change of tactics.

“We quit”, they announced in a press release, stating that they were making “a controversial resolution to temporarily shift away from public disruption as a primary tactic”, in an effort to build a bigger and more inclusive movement “beyond traditional divides.” As they explained, “No one can do this alone, and it’s the responsibility of all of us, not just one group. It may be uncomfortable or difficult, but the strength of all social, environmental, and justice movements lies in working together.”

It was a bold move, although there was also a certain logic to it. After the actions of October 2018 and April 2019, tolerance for the group’s disruptive tactics had waned after a group of protestors blocked a morning rush hour commuter train at Canning Town, and the Covid lockdowns had then thwarted efforts to mobilise further.

In addition, many of those committed to disruption had joined two new groups, Insulate Britain, who repeatedly blocked the M25 to demand insulation of all the UK’s notoriously energy-inefficient homes, and Just Stop Oil, who engaged not only in traffic disruption, but also branched out into shock tactics; most noticeably, throwing soup at Van Gogh’s ’Sunflowers’ in the National Gallery. The painting, of course, was protected behind glass, but although many of the responses to the action were hysterical and negative, it also demonstrated how newsworthy creative disruption can be, securing more coverage than any other action to date.

After XR’s “We quit” announcement, they began promoting ’The Big One’, an effort to get 100,000 people to gather by the Houses of Parliament from April 21. For those of us of a Romantic revolutionary persuasion, this looked like an invitation to a velvet revolution, but in fact, although that remains a dream, it was fundamentally an integral part of XR’s efforts to build a movement that was much bigger than itself.

Behind the scenes a huge amount of effort went into persuading other organisations to get involved, and by April 21 an extraordinary alliance of over 200 organisations had come together, under the slogan ’Unite to Survive’, including Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, Avaaz, Earthday, the influential youth movement Green New Deal Rising, the environmentally conscious clothing firm Patagonia, the Fairtrade Foundation, the PCS union, Don’t Pay UK, DPAC (Disabled People Against Cuts), CND, Global Justice Now, NHS workers, War on Want, Stop Ecocide and CAFOD.

The results of this commendable bridge-building were clear to see over the four days of ’The Big One’, which eventually ran from April 21 to April 24.

‘Unite to Survive’

On the Friday, April 21, 15 pickets took place outside various government departments, and at 55-57 Tufton Street, home to a number of opaquely-funded right-wing ‘libertarian’ think-tanks that are actively committed to maintaining the murderous status quo, defending unfettered big business, and denying the reality of catastrophic climate change.

Outside the absurdly-named Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (formerly the Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy) on Victoria Street, where XR groups including Scientists for XR and numerous supporting organisations were protesting, I spent some time talking to Aaron Thierry and Emily Cox, scientists who argue that civil disobedience by scientists is necessary to effect urgent climate action, and who have previously been arrested for disruptive action.

I also spent some time at Tufton Street, where XR Writers Rebel had a full programme of writers, including Zadie Smith and Ben Okri, who, back in November 2021, issued a powerful declaration that ‘Artists must confront the climate crisis — we must write as if these are the last days.’

After a visit to Abingdon Street, by the Houses of Parliament, where I heard Caroline Lucas, our only Green MP, make a wonderful speech, and also heard a suitably strident speech by the Dutch actress Carice Van Houten (‘Black Book’, ‘Game of Thrones’), I wandered amongst all the stalls set up by XR groups and other organisations — where I suddenly realised that ‘The Big One’ was a stunningly conscious festival that had taken over the heart of London — before returning to Tufton Street.

There I saw a great performance by the West Country political collective Seize the Day, who first emerged from the road protest movement of the 1990s, and finally made my first ever environmental speech, entitled, ‘We can’t trust the weather anymore’, which I wrote the night before, and which was an emotional experience for me to deliver. After a decade and a half of public speaking about Guantánamo, I hope that it’s the start of a regular new outlet for my activism, and, if the title intrigues you, I’ll be cross-posting it here in the next few days.

Afterwards, I heard Caroline Lucas speak again, and was introduced to two great organisations, MP Watch and Steve Baker Watch, co-founded by Jessica Townsend, who is also one of the co-founders of XR Writers Rebel. Their revolutionary idea is to expose to largely complacent constituency voters quite how wretched their MPs are on tackling the climate crisis (or, as with Steve Baker, how complicit they are in suicidal misinformation), on the basis that the majority of voters are actually far more concerned about the climate crisis than their elected officials are.

‘The Big One For Biodiversity March’

On Saturday, an estimated 60,000 people turned up for a family-friendly day whose focal point was ‘The Big One For Biodiversity March’, in which, yet again, the many manifestations of catastrophic climate change and the criminal activities of corporations and their political enablers were on full display, and, as on Friday, it was hard to imagine that any conversations taking place anywhere else in the country could have matched those taking place on the streets in Westminster for intelligence, compassion and empathy.

The shameful failure of the mainstream media to adequately address the severity of the climate crisis

Unfortunately, the mainstream media, shamefully and unforgivably, almost entirely abdicated its responsibility to cover this compelling four-day event by an extraordinary coalition of organisations, despite the unprecedented urgency of the cause, and the phenomenal intellectual power of those who gathered for ‘The Big One.’

It was a demonstration that, although the media have so often railed against climate activists’ disruption, when it comes down to what passes for the deplorable state of news reporting in this country, all they are really interested in is disruption, which, moreover, is generally portrayed negatively.

I can understand this when it comes to our corrupt newspapers (the Mail, the Telegraph and the Sun, in particular), but I am appalled that our main broadcasters didn’t give the weekend the coverage it deserved, when the topic is so pressing, and the advocates for urgent change to the way we operate are so eloquent, so intelligent, and so right.

All of the major channels could easily have postponed their usual broadcasting, and spent all day on Saturday and Sunday covering the protests, and inviting speakers into their studios, and it would have been the most electrifying and educational experience, but instead they either ignored it, or covered it inadequately.

The evasion was such that I think a liaison group (which I’d like to be involved in) needs to be established to ask those in charge of broadcasting why they won’t take the climate crisis seriously enough. It’s clearly no longer the case that their obsession with ‘balance’ and ’impartiality’ prevents them from comprehending that there is only one side to this story.

With almost 100% of scientists confirming that catastrophic climate change is real, and that it is very evidently man-made, broadcasters have, in recent years, finally (for the most part) stopped giving equal airtime to climate change deniers, but they still refuse to engage with the severity of the crisis, which should be featured on the news every single day, and should be the focus of other programmes investigating in depth what the problems are, and how they can be addressed.

We need to know if it’s because of ratings, or because they don’t want to scare people, and if is either of these then we need them to understand that ratings are irrelevant on a dead planet, and, most importantly, that what’s coming — and soon — is far scarier than where we are now.

This is the only crisis that the human race has ever been unable to run from, and the unbelievably grave consequences of our refusal to curb emissions and to accept that our capitalist model of existence is suicidal are making themselves clear now — not, as was generally assumed until very recently, in the 2030 or the 2040s.

What now? Building a movement and resuming disruption

Another side effect of the media’s indifference, of course, is that disruption is now back on the agenda, although XR cannily prepared for this by tying ’The Big One’ to a ‘Collective Demand’ for the government to “end all new licences, approvals, and funding for fossil fuel projects”, and to “create emergency citizens’ assemblies to lead on fair, long-term solutions to the most urgent issues of our time.”

When the deadline for that passed, at 5pm on Monday, XR issued a press release telling the government,”You had your chance — now we’re stepping it up.” As XR co-founder Clare Farrell explained, “The government had a week to respond to our demands and they have failed to do so. Next we will reach out to supporter organisations to start creating a plan for stepping up our campaigns across an ecosystem of tactics that includes everyone from first-time protesters to those willing to go to prison.”

After canvassing the opinions of tens of thousands of supporters on three ’pathways’ for the future, XR announced the results. In keeping with the non-disruptive aspects of ’The Big One’, 91% of protestors committed to organise locally, “returning to their local communities to mobilise many more people for climate action.”

However, 79% also opted to disobey, committing to “a wide range of civil disobedience and nonviolent direct action.” As spokesperson Rob Callender explained, “Effectively tens of thousands from different organisations have signalled that they are ready to move into a far more challenging and disruptive posture against a government that is gambling with our lives and futures.”

47% also opted for a third pathway, picketing, agreeing to “add their support and physical presence to the wave of union strike actions, from NHS workers and teachers to railway staff and firefighters, that have been challenging the government’s ability to govern over the last six months.”

Will it work? The more burning question we should be asking, perhaps, is ”What will happen if it doesn’t work?” Our government — either through corruption or truly idiotic denial — doesn’t care, our media has apparently infantilised itself while subjecting us to an endless parade of pointless distraction, and so it really is up to us. As I’ve taken to saying recently, including in the introduction to my speech at Tufton Street, it doesn’t matter what our day jobs are, or what our hobbies are, all of us also need to become climate activists.

As the environmentalist Chris Packham explained on Saturday, our “mission” now is to “build as wide a community as possible.”

“Our planet is in crisis and if we don’t take action then we will not protect that life, which includes us”, he said. “One thing is clear and that is that we need to step up. We want every last person who cares to get involved because caring is not enough.”

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Andy Worthington is a freelance investigative journalist, activist, author, photographer (of an ongoing photo-journalism project, ‘The State of London’), film-maker and singer-songwriter (the lead singer and main songwriter for the London-based band The Four Fathers, whose music is available via Bandcamp). He is the co-founder of the Close Guantánamo campaign (and see the latest photo campaign here) and the successful We Stand With Shaker campaign of 2014-15, and the author of The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison and of two other books: Stonehenge: Celebration and Subversion and The Battle of the Beanfield. He is also the co-director (with Polly Nash) of the documentary film, “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” (available on DVD here, or you can watch it online here, via the production company Spectacle, for £2.50).

In 2017, Andy became very involved in housing issues. He is the narrator of the documentary film, ‘Concrete Soldiers UK’, about the destruction of council estates, and the inspiring resistance of residents, he wrote a song ‘Grenfell’, in the aftermath of the entirely preventable fire in June 2017 that killed over 70 people, and he also set up ‘No Social Cleansing in Lewisham’ as a focal point for resistance to estate destruction and the loss of community space in his home borough in south east London. For two months, from August to October 2018, he was part of the occupation of the Old Tidemill Wildlife Garden in Deptford, to prevent its destruction — and that of 16 structurally sound council flats next door — by Lewisham Council and Peabody. Although the garden was violently evicted by bailiffs on October 29, 2018, and the trees were cut down on February 27, 2019, the struggle for housing justice — and against environmental destruction — continues.

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