[WSMDiscuss] Fwd: URGENT SIGN ON: Letter to Extinction Rebellion and the environmental movement (UK) / Debate on Extinction Rebellion (Tadzio Mueller)

Thu Apr 25 04:16:44 CEST 2019

Wednesday, April 24, 2019

Climate in movement…, Ideas in movement…

[The movement called XR – Extinction Rebellion – is both spreading and also getting a lot of media attention, especially in the North.  In this context - and as I understand it from the letter I am posting here -, “Wretched of the Earth, a London-based collective of activists originally from the South” has written a letter to “Extinction Rebellion (XR) and the wider environmental movement in the UK/Global North”, asking some hard questions.  In turn, the post says, 

"Some grassroots groups across the movement in the UK [who] thought it was important to jointly suggest a different approach [have] drafted a letter which can be read here <https://docs.google.com/document/d/19DpVsXCDwQ9ODGIeS0ZJD0Qtmj_o3Ya6KHEhOUPtY7Q/edit>.”

[I’m therefore posting here, for the information of those who have not seen this and for discussion, the Open Letter for sign-on that has been prepared by the latter group; in short, raising some hard questions of XR and the wider environmental movement in the UK/Global North.  This letter is already in some discussion on lists among concerned people in India, and perhaps also elsewhere.  (For those who might have wanted to sign on to the Open Letter however, I apologise for posting this a little late, but I now see that the deadline was this evening, British time.)

[To know about Extinction Rebellion, see https://rebellion.earth/ <https://rebellion.earth/>
[Just to add some thoughts and questions, the letter I’m posting here seems to take the position that it also represents the views of Indigenous Peoples.  But I’m not quite sure – but only by looking at the list of signatories, which I know is not always an adequate way of knowing - where their legitimacy to do so is coming from.  Or, for that matter, to also represent labouring peoples in struggle across the South, in general, whose struggles are also invoked.  But since the claim of moral and social authority is there, in a subject like this this is a vital question.

[I also find it striking, and worrying, that even as it raises some systemic and structural questions, this Open Letter does not mention the absence in what Extinction Rebellion is demanding – as far as I can see – of a critique of the military and of militarisation (and here, in terms of its impact on climate), on two grounds : One, where the US military for instance is by far the largest contributor to carbon emissions in the world (see, for instance, https://www.counterpunch.org/2015/07/23/72279/ <https://www.counterpunch.org/2015/07/23/72279/>); and on the other hand, where - and even in terms of any serious and sustained rebellion against what is happening in our times - it is the military alone that already has a plan for how to contain the unrest that is already opening up as a result of climate changes (see, for instance, https://www.thenation.com/article/the-future-of-climate-change-is-widespread-civil-war/ <https://www.thenation.com/article/the-future-of-climate-change-is-widespread-civil-war/>; and for the Pentagon’s plans, http://www.theguardian.com/environment/earth-insight/2014/jun/12/pentagon-mass-civil-breakdown <http://www.theguardian.com/environment/earth-insight/2014/jun/12/pentagon-mass-civil-breakdown>, and also one of their own documents :

CNA Military Advisory Board, May 2014 – ‘National Security and the Accelerating Risks of Climate Change’.  Alexandria, VA : CNA Corporation.  Accessed js 24.04.2019 @ https://www.cna.org/cna_files/pdf/MAB_5-8-14.pdf <https://www.cna.org/cna_files/pdf/MAB_5-8-14.pdf>
[I’m also forwarding here, further on below, an as-always spirited critical engagement with XR by Tadzio Mueller, who is deeply engaged with climate actions in Germany including with two of the signatories, Ende Gelände and Hambach Forest occupations, and raises important questions. (Apologies to those on CJN! in particular, for repetition !) :

Letter to Extinction Rebellion and the environmental movement (UK)
Decolonising our minds, Platform Ende Gelände, London Latinxs, Healing Justice London, Reclaim the Power, Decolonising Environmentalism, The Leap, and others

Debate on Extinction Rebellion

Tadzio Mueller

            Thanks for circulating the Open Letter, Souparna, and for your post, Tadzio !

            JS

fwd

> Begin forwarded message:
> 
> ---------- Forwarded message ---------
> From: Souparna Lahiri <souparna.lahiri at gmail.com <mailto:souparna.lahiri at gmail.com>>
> Date: Tue, 23 Apr 2019 at 23:35
> Subject: Fwd: [demandclimatejustice] URGENT SIGN ON: Letter to Extinction Rebellion and the environmental movement (UK)
> To: climate justice <indiaclimatejustice at gmail.com <mailto:indiaclimatejustice at gmail.com>>, Coalition for Environmental Justice in India <coalition-for-environmental-justice-in-india at googlegroups.com <mailto:coalition-for-environmental-justice-in-india at googlegroups.com>>

FYI

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Nathan Thanki <thanki.nathan at gmail.com <mailto:thanki.nathan at gmail.com>>
Date: Wed, 24 Apr 2019 at 05:25
Subject: [demandclimatejustice] URGENT SIGN ON: Letter to Extinction Rebellion and the environmental movement (UK)
To: demandclimatejustice at googlegroups.com <mailto:demandclimatejustice at googlegroups.com> <demandclimatejustice at googlegroups.com <mailto:demandclimatejustice at googlegroups.com>>

Dear DCJ friends,

Wretched of the Earth, a London-based collective of activists originally from the South, has written an open letter addressing Extinction Rebellion (XR) and the wider environmental movement in the UK/Global North.

For those of you who may not be aware, Extinction Rebellion have injected newfound energy and enthusiasm into the climate debate in the North, but have also been heavily critiqued for their messaging, their strategy, and their failure to involve groups working on issues related to climate justice, such as housing, employment, health, migrant and refugee rights etc. 

Some grassroots groups across the movement in the UK thought it was important to jointly suggest a different approach and drafted a letter which can be read here <https://docs.google.com/document/d/19DpVsXCDwQ9ODGIeS0ZJD0Qtmj_o3Ya6KHEhOUPtY7Q/edit> 

They are now asking groups outside the UK to:
1. Comment on the draft letter and co sign as an organisation if you agree
2. Share ideas for how to address Extinction Rebellion if they engage
3. Reply before Wednesday at 5pm BST

If you reply to me I can collect signatures, comments, and forward to Wretched of the Earth. Hope many DCJ members can engage as these trends are going to continue and possibly intensify. 

-- 
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "DemandClimateJustice" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to demandclimatejustice+unsubscribe at googlegroups.com <mailto:demandclimatejustice+unsubscribe at googlegroups.com>.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout <https://groups.google.com/d/optout>.

-- 
Souparna Lahiri
143 Khirki Village
First Floor
New Delhi - 110 017
India
Tel (R) 91 11 29541502
Mobile 91 9818147740

> Begin forwarded message:
> 
> From: "Mueller, Tadzio" <Tadzio.Mueller at rosalux.org>
> Subject: [climate justice now!] Debate on Extinction Rebellion
> Date: April 24, 2019 at 9:57:15 AM EDT
> To: Eduardo Giesen A. <cjn at lists.riseup.net>
> Reply-To: "Mueller, Tadzio" <Tadzio.Mueller at rosalux.org>

Friends and comrades,

there’s a spirited debate on some lists about the CJ-politics of XR (or lack thereof), and I wanted to get it going on this list, too.

Here’s an opening salvo:

I've been watching XR in germany quite intently, and would summarise their potential (whatever their actual reality, which varies a lot, even between local base groups in different cities): in northern countries where there is a tradition of more or less legitimate climate disobedience (UK: climate camps; Germany: Ende Gelände; etc...), XR can play the super-important role of expanding the space of disobedience to include a far larger sector of society than had previously been open to a politics that breaks rules. in other words: whereas ende gelände (like climate camp) managed brilliantly to organise 'activist social movements', and bring their powers to bear on climate change, the majority of society remained spectators. this was partly due to the fact that the folks who started climate camp and ende gelände came out of years of activism organising in radical subcultures, complete with discourses and cultural practices that give us coherence, but leave many outside of our cultures with a sense of 'i'd rather not play with them'. 

then came the epochal change that is our saint greta (i'm not being sarcastic, i'm being vaguely hegelian ;)) and f4f: a call to the rest of society to also get its asses in gear, and not leave protecting the climate to a small set of activist specialists.

and THAT's the space that XR can step into: tactically low-level blockades (as opposed to tactically much more challenging pit- or digger-blockades) in urban spaces (so no need to travel out of town to shut down a pit), that concerned but not overly radical folks can join for an hour, a day, or however long they see fit.

and secondly, they can connect their practices with the discoursive radicalism that F4F have injected into the debate, whereas us old-school CJ-folks tend to remain stuck in a climate discourse from a time before F4F.

to be honest, and this is where i'd really like to pick up the baton of what tetet said: are we sure that we're not just defending our own business as usual? what is it that F4F and XR have ahead of us, why, if it's so 'superficial', 'catastrophist', unaware of the all-important justice dimension or whatever other traditional critiques of XR we might articulate: why are they sweeping the floor with us in terms of mobilisation and media attention? and what can we learn from them?

i lived and was 'an activist' in the UK for many years, but last year in november, seemingly out of the blue, XR managed to pull something off that no other group had managed in about two decades: to mobilise some 5000 people for a blockade of london's bridges. the tactical planning seemed to have been awful, but the important thing was: totally new people joined the blockades, people who'd never done such a thing.

and today, much of the coverage (whether in the FT or the guardian) of XR focuses on this 'totally normal people are doing this'-dynamic.

what can we learn from them, then, seems to me the more interesting question than 'what are they getting wrong?'.

best

tadzio

______________________________
Jai Sen

Independent researcher, editor

jai.sen at cacim.net <mailto:jai.sen at cacim.net>
Now based in New Delhi, India (+91-98189 11325) and in Ottawa, Canada, on unceded Anishinaabe territory (+1-613-282 2900) 

Current associations : www.cacim.net <http://www.cacim.net/> / http://www.openword.net.in

CURRENT / RECENT publications :

Jai Sen, ed, 2018a – The Movements of Movements, Part 2 : Rethinking Our Dance. Ebook and hard copy available at PM Press <http://www.pmpress.org/>
Jai Sen, ed, 2018b – The Movements of Movements, Part 1 : What Makes Us Move ?, Indian edition. New Delhi : AuthorsUpfront, in collaboration with OpenWord and PM Press.  Hard copy available at MOM1AmazonIN <https://www.amazon.in/dp/9387280101/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1522884070&sr=8-2&keywords=movements+of+movements+jai+sen>, MOM1Flipkart <https://www.flipkart.com/the-movements-of-movements/p/itmf3zg7h79ecpgj?pid=9789387280106&lid=LSTBOK9789387280106NBA1CH&marketplace=FLIPKART&srno=s_1_1&otracker=search&fm=SEARCH&iid=ff35b702-e6a8-4423-b014-16c84f6f0092.9789387280106.SEARCH&ppt=Search%20Page>, and MOM1AUpFront <http://www.authorsupfront.com/movements.htm>
Jai Sen, ed, 2017 – The Movements of Movements, Part 1 : What Makes Us Move ?.  New Delhi : OpenWord and Oakland, CA : PM Press.  Ebook and hard copy available at PM Press <http://www.pmpress.org/>
Jai Sen, ed, 2016a  – The Movements of Movements, Part 1 : What Makes Us Move ? and Jai Sen, ed, 2016b – The Movements of Movements, Part 2 : Rethinking Our Dance (both then forthcoming from New Delhi : OpenWord and Oakland, CA : PM Press), open access ADVANCE PREFINAL ONLINE MOVEMENT EDITIONS @ www.cacim.net <http://www.cacim.net/>
SUBSCRIBE TO World Social Movement Discuss, an open, unmoderated, and self-organising forum on social and political movement at any level (local, national, regional, and global).  To subscribe, simply send an empty email to wsm-discuss-subscribe at lists.openspaceforum.net <mailto:wsm-discuss-subscribe at lists.openspaceforum.net>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://lists.openspaceforum.net/pipermail/wsm-discuss/attachments/20190424/e0049a05/attachment.htm>