“It is a right and duty to rebel against a tyranny of idiocy”
Time after time we’re reminded that Brexit is the most important issue facing the country. Really?
The UN is currently in the UK exploring our poverty levels – 20% of us are living in poverty in this, the 6th largest economy in the world – why? What did 20% of us do to deserve this and what’s worse, many of those in poverty, are working. How is the government tackling this? Getting rid of the old benefits system that has failed and replacing it with Universal Credit that’s being rolled out despite revelations daily of its failings and reports showing it will actually cause 3.2 million families switching to it, to lose £48 per week (maybe they could have foreseen this as Universal Credit is on £3 billion less than previous system!). For workers, the government tackles poverty by ‘topping up’ low wages with tax credits (paid for by our taxes) – in other words, we the workers help cheapskate employers to pay their staff – why? This is unworkable, illogical and makes no sense …but it happens.
Our health and social care are so underfunded that dignity, comfort and hope die along with those who ‘slip through’ the system due to the cuts called ‘austerity’ – same too for the treatment of citizens with disabilities now forced to almost literally jump through hoops to get what any natural human would want for another – an easing of suffering in an already challenging life and maybe even the chance to thrive. But… Brexit hey.
Then there’s the foreseeable disasters and events that our government doesn’t choose to see or prepare for. How many more times will we accept the sequence of statements that follow yet another report of government wrong doing, incompetence or criminality? “There will be a full inquiry” (years pass) “The inquiry’s findings show there are lessons to be learned”… end of? From the Iraq war to Hillsborough, Grenfell to (at a future date soon) fracking , this pattern is repeated and those lessons... they're never learned.
When is enough, enough? Well it seems the decision to challenge authority has been taken out of our hands; the planet itself is in rebellion for us. For all those unlearned lessons about environment, all those toxic spills, all that deforestation, all those plastic bags, all that mining, all those polluting vehicles, all that discarded waste, all those industry processes and chemicals that finally reached overload that can’t be absorbed.
The decision to act is no longer a choice we make – it is choked out of us with each gasp of asthma-inducing air.
The environment we depend on for life, has reached a point where it is becoming a threat to our existence… and we can’t win this battle by attacking it like we do most things we term a threat (that’s what got us here in the first place). Life literally depends on finding a way to deal with this but our government and the powerful industries that support it, is facing in the other direction, treading plastic-dense water, holding its nose, gripping an inhaler and claiming economics trumps all else, trade deals matter more and then there’s Brexit.
How can we expect a Government system that by the flawed design of our voting system, nearly always returns just one of two outcomes and then pits those two parties against each other in a baying and howling ritual of extreme rudeness and unprofessional-ism? It’s less about healthy debate that reaches mutual wise conclusions on behalf of the people – but instead seems to be to ensure there is no overall agreement as in order to remain in ‘opposition’ to whatever the other side is saying – one or other must oppose regardless of the plain truth of a thing. There has to be a better way and wiser minds available to devise it. But …Brexit hey.
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Rising Up
When a people’s uprising begins to form, the edges of our differences begin to bleed into each other and we start to get a feel, a sense and an awareness of our sameness through the shared goal and a falling away of caring about what might make us different. Each time too though, something seems to get planted within that seeks to re-establish walls and boundaries between us and to flash doubt and mistrust in front of us instead of trust and faith in each other and it’s that, which gives us an easy way to say ‘No that’s not for me’.
I got to this place I’m in (being actively involved in demanding a change to the way we are governed in order to ensure a safe, just (and downright enjoyable?) future, via Occupy … as you read the word Occupy… an image forms in your mind about what it was and that image is based on a mish-mash of biased, ill-informed media coverage, tales and posts you’ve read. For some it will eternally be the birthplace of our activism, a spark that lit a variety of flames - for others it will be a ‘controlled opposition’… a ‘Tavistock’ thing (never really understood what that theory was about?) or just not 'spikey' enough or way too radical… depends who you are and what you think is needed to get change to come.
The reality is that for each individual there outside St Pauls in 2011/12 – we each had our OWN Occupy; taking only the steps that individually suited us and acting together yes but autonomously. No leaders, no dictates just an acceptance that we stood side by side in addressing/acknowledging the same problem… not controlling how we respond to it.
Without taking a nervous step into Occupy on 15 October 2011, I would still be at home raging at news, fearing activists and powerless to do anything about the deeply worrying direction the government is taking us in. Now of course I may want to curse the day as activism has indeed taken over but I think it’s necessary that it does. We live in dangerous and important times and SELF-empowerment is about the only thing we can activate and control.
Extinction Rebellion came into view this year and as I knew some of those behind the idea of it, I looked closer and wondered if it would be a ‘me thing’ – I take my actions seriously; try not to waste vital energy, avoid pointless actions or those that will bring more harm than good. It’s taken me a while and I’ve followed the evolving picture of how Extinction Rebellion is shaping up and I’m now ‘in’. Not all actions that are done are the way I would do them and the best bit about that, is that it doesn’t matter; the aims are as my own, the sense of urgency shared, the demands echoed and the insistence on non-violent, civil disobedience – my insistence too. Most importantly for me, I believe the intent and motivation behind Extinction Rebellion to be honest, genuine and potentially effective.
Right now as we in the anti-fracking movement face the daily reality of being more than just ignored by government – but bullied, threatened, harmed and punished by them, we are running out of options. Daily too, the frackers do their worst and 36 seismic events are the scream from beneath our feet that there’s worse to come. Already I hear some murmurs and doubts and stirrings about Extinction Rebellion that seek to disrupt what may be the only plan there is right now –but it’s a plan I urge you to consider looking into for just that reason; we need to act and time is running out.
Our governments across the world are not facing facts of environmental degradation that will bring harm to all of us, our children and those to come and it’s ONLY US that can and must make them face responsibility and do as we insist: stop the harms, instigate the solutions and act now. We’ve rallied before as nations after wars and we’ve found limitless funds to bail out banks – we can pull together and we do have the resources – all that’s lacking is what Extinction Rebellion seeks to remedy… the willingness of government to act.
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Raging against the machine
My original doubts about Extinction Rebellion included a concern about what would come after we gathered and acted – how would that lead to change? What was the next day like? Then I studied some more and asked some question and I get it – with the aim being to wrestle back control of the system of government (not just change parties), to force their actions to replicate our wishes and the process to be used is disruptive civil disobedience that is impossible to ignore; some of us risk arrest, many simply support actions, some go to prison and we just keep doing this until the government is forced to act.
It was a method used by the Suffragettes, Civil Rights, Ghandi and as anti-frackers I suppose that’s roughly what we’re currently doing – acting in disobedience and defiance with every truck we delay. Although our actions have hugely impacted the fracking industry, we haven’t yet succeeded because the government abuses power by changing laws, applying force and enabling the harm. For 7 years we’ve held the frackers back valiantly but the actual end can only come by an act of government and they’re not going to do that unless we make them.
The government is not ‘in power’ it is ‘in office’ and we must force it to turn away from the lobbyists and face us.
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EXTINCTION REBELLION – the basics:
There are a multitude of reasons to rebel – fighting for our very survival is clearly the most powerful driver of all. Extinction Rebellion offers ugly truths too vile to face, too threatening and imminent to ignore and they are calling for unity at a time of emergency:
“It’s the equivalent of boarding a plane with a 1 in 20 chance of crashing – you wouldn’t board it but we’re willing to send our children and grandchildren on that plane. The government committing a crime against humanity – that WILL lead to suffering and death.”
They add little to no hope of best outcome, instead reminding that:
“Courage is the resolve to do well without the assurance of a happy ending”
In a nutshell – this aims to be a worldwide rebellion that forces our systems of state to stop, face the evidence and act to save the planet’s future ability to sustain us.
Extinction Rebellion Declaration states:
“When government and the law fail to provide any assurance of adequate protection, as well as safety and security for its people’s wellbeing and the nation’s future, it becomes the right of its citizens to seek redress in order to restore dutiful democracy and to secure the solutions needed to avoid catastrophe and protect the future. It becomes not only your right, it becomes our sacred duty to rebel”.
The demands Extinction Rebellion is making of our government are clear and straightforward:
“We demand the UK government declare a state of emergency, take action to create a zero carbon economy by 2025, and create a national assembly of ordinary people to decide what our zero carbon future will look like.”
DEMANDS
1. That the Government must tell the truth about how deadly our situation is, it must reverse all policies not in alignment with that position and must work alongside the media to communicate the urgency for change including what individuals and communities need to do.
2. The Government must enact legally-binding policy measures to reduce carbon emissions in the UK to net zero by 2025 and take further action to remove the excess of atmospheric greenhouse gases. It must cooperate internationally so that the global economy runs on no more than half a planet’s worth of resources per year.
3. By necessity these demands mean an initiative similar to those enacted at times of war. We do not however, wish to hand further power to the Government. Instead, we demand a Citizens’ Assembly to oversee these changes, as we rise from the wreckage, creating a democracy fit for purpose.
*On 17th November, Extinction Rebellion is calling for a mass gathering at parliament - see you there?
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