- XR recognises that environmental justice is impossible without social justice and racial justice. In early 2020 after extensive consultation, XR produced the 2020 Strategy. This is an expression of voices from across our movement, from communities and experts.
- Key goals:
- People Power – Bring a million people in the UK into active support and ensure 50% of the nation see the Climate & Ecological Emergency as their top priority.
- Vision – We won’t wait for our demands to be met, we will begin to enact them, piloting new participatory systems in democracy, media and economics.
- Movement of Movements – Grow our connection to, and understanding of, wider movements for change, building stronger relationships, co-creating new stories and visions for the future.
- Inner Strength – Improve internal systems, caring for our Rebels, building our regenerative cultures, adhering to our Principles and Values. We will learn by doing, teach by showing. We will live the change
Solidarity and Justice
Extinction Rebellion UK stands in solidarity with those in the US mourning and raging in memory of George Floyd and of so many others. There can be no environmental justice without social and racial justice. We have collected loads of articles, links, films, videos which will help you to understand this area better.
- The Race / implicit bias conversation - see document
- Watch this video – Akala with Frankie Boyle
- Why every environmentalist should be anti-racist
- White Supremacism and the Earth System …. an article by Nafeez Ahmed in Insurge Intelligence
- “We are Witnessing America as a Failed Social Experiment” (7-mins watch) Dr Cornell West on the George Floyd atrocity.
- 10 Steps to Non-Optical Allyship Mireille Charper offers these steps as a brief summary, gleaned from her own experience, activism and learning to ‘allies and anyone else who was seeking advice but didn’t know where to turn’.
- Getting It Together Before It’s Too Late: Solidarity Across Race and Class (90 mins video interview) Roger Hallam in conversation with Ian Haney Lopez (author of Merge Left: Fusing Race and Class, Winning Elections and Saving America) and Dr Adam Elliott-Cooper (antiracism researcher and campaigner). They discuss the strategic racism of reactionary elites and building a multi-racial, class-conscious solidarity.
- WOW: Angela Davis in Conversation (85-mins interview and Q&A – Women of the World Festival, 2017) Angela Davis talks about a life of activism, taking in a range of subjects including the civil rights movement, feminism, intersectionality, state violence and the Black Lives Matter movement.
- A 3-min clip of her campaigning in 1969
- If Not Us Then Who? (3-mins video) “It is essential to change the face of anglo-environmentalism and amplify the real leaders and game-changers that are making a difference and fighting for our planet and the future for the next generations to come” – Leo Cerda.
- When Black Lives Matter Occupied London City Airport. In 2016, this action by Black Lives Matter drew attention to the climate crisis being a racist crisis.
- 2-min video: Shut it down
- 2-min video of the action
- 2-mins read
- Intersectional Approaches to Climate Change (2-min watch) Gloria Walton (SCOPE) says climate solutions require an intersectional approach because the climate problems we face are rooted in different kinds of systemic oppression.
- Climate Crisis – Racist Crisis: Alexandra Wanjiku Kelbert (75-min watch). In this talk, Alexandra Wanjiku Kelbert (Black Lives Matter; Wretched of the Earth) outlines the relationship between climate change and colonialism/extractivism and the way communities are resisting, creating a global movement for climate justice.
- Climate Change Isn’t Racist – People Are: Mary Heglar (5-min read) ‘We love to tell ourselves that it all started with the Industrial Revolution. But we’re telling ourselves a lie. It started with conquests, genocides, slavery, and colonialism … the climate justice movement is inextricably linked to Black Lives Matter and the movements for Indigenous rights and for immigrant rights …’
- Conservation and Racism (34-min webinar) Hosted by XR Youth, this illuminating discussion exposes the truth about the conservation industry’s eco-fascism and racism. Stephen Correy, director of Survival International; Fiore Longo, research and advocacy officer, Survival International (Congo) and Mordecai Orgada, Kenyan ecologist and author of The Big Conservation Lie provide a wake-up call.
- Rebel Radio Special: XRISN (1-hr listen) Esther Stanford-Xosei talks about the work of XR’s International Solidarity Network, alliances that have been formed and the work going on, particularly involving youth, within international struggles for liberation and climate justice. Essential connections are being formed: a true ‘movement of movements’.
- Vanessa Nakate in Conversation with Girl-Boss (34-mins video) Vanessa Nakate, a young Ugandan climate activist, shares her passion for activism and advocates for other young women to join the movement. She explains how the climate crisis is already threatening water and food supply in Africa and highlights the plight of the Congo rainforest. She also talks about environmental racism including her own experience of the media cutting out her image.
- Check your own unconscious implicit bias Harvard University
- Reading list from the nytimes
- A list of black cultural education to unlearn racism
- Inclusivity and intersectionality – Stonewall
- Inclusivity and intersectionality Peter Hopkins Newcastle University
- Black environmentalists and climate nytimes
- Systematic racism – thousands of scientists strike in protest
- Why climate movements must stand with George Floyd – left foot forward
and some videos ….
- 13th – How BLM can change the world for better for everyone
- Protesting and violence – the reality
- Comedy and Education of intersectional racism and oppression
- How ethnic minorities can come together to oppose racism
- The realities of today and links to black history (and a few jokes from Dave Chappelle)
- White fragility and a positive way forward as a white ally
- An argument against white fragility
- White Fragility