I know I’m not the first to critique Extinction Rebellion and I will not be the last. I have a lot of problems with the group’s politics and organisation, but instead of just listing the issues I have (which appear to grow daily with every statement they make or action they take), I want to talk about what it is about this group in particular that genuinely terrifies me and leaves me despairing for the future of direct action.
To give credit where it’s due, Extinction Rebellion (XR) have managed to draw in people from all over the political spectrum and unite everyone from the far-left to first-time activists and older generations fighting for the futures of their children. I do admire how they have managed to grow immensely over such a short period of time.
Now, to give criticism where it’s due: here are the the rest of my thoughts.
Extinction Rebellion are vastly misguided and naive in their attitudes towards the police in such a way that threatens the safety of their own activists and the future of activism itself.
Though Extinction Rebellion’s rapid growth is impressive, I believe their vast scale is partially why their ideology is so dangerous. They have been irresponsible in the ideologies they are spreading to their activists, many of whom are new to activism and may not have engaged in direct action before becoming involved with this organisation.
Extinction Rebellion have been clear in their decision not to take an anti-police stance. They seemingly take a pro-police stance and see them as allies, as well as a group to utilise. Included in their handbook, This Is Not A Drill: An Extinction Rebellion Handbook, the chapter which focuses on the police is less than two pages long and fails to give any useful information on dealing with the police at protests, instead stating that the police should be approached with ‘compassion in mind’ and encouraging activists to ‘offer them flowers’. On reading this it seemed like a joke. However, thinking more about what this meant, I realised that this narrative was not only naïve, but extremely dangerous.
At their September demonstrations in Brighton and London, Extinction Rebellion protestors were filmed applauding the police for making arrests and chanting ‘police we love you, we’re doing this for your children too’, with some going out of their way to shake the hands of police officers. As someone who has been involved with a lot of direct action, pickets and big demonstrations for years, this made me feel physically sick. In my circle of far-left people engaging with direct action, it’s agreed that getting arrested is the last thing we want. I have seen friends be assaulted by police and arrested without reason. I have witnessed the police break into someone’s home and I have had police tell me they don’t care that I was assaulted on a picket line. The notion that XR activists are not taking an anti-police stance baffles me.
I cannot understand how a movement of people that call themselves rebels and aim to be revolutionary and disruptive, take an actively pro-police stance. In the history of protest, the police have not been our friends and this will never change given the nature of their role in our society. They are authorised to use force and violence to uphold laws and protect private property. They will never be on our side. They will always work for the groups that we are fighting against.
This strategy constructed by XR turns a blind eye to police information gathering, often done by the seemingly ‘friendly’ and ‘chatty’ Police Liaison Officers. The group actively encourages activists to talk to them and explain what they’re doing and why, thus unknowingly incriminating themselves. On a livestream to Facebook in September, a representative behind the camera said that Extinction Rebellion differs from other movements, due to their willingness to engage with and talk to the police. Any decent police training will teach you that speaking to the police can do no good and a lot of harm. XR ignores police brutality and structural racism, as well as the fact that police officers have previously spied on activists by tricking them into sexual relationships whilst presenting themselves as activists. They have infiltrated environmental groups and abused their power by engaging in relationships with activists to gain information, leaving women traumatised.
A ‘we love you’ ethos in terms of the police ignores the facts and while XR has briefly addressed concerns about racism and victimisation on their website, this consisted of a couple of sentences stating ‘we understand for those that have been victimised by the police that this can be difficult and alienating to witness’ and that ‘we especially ask white people to learn about white privilege.’ This stance in itself however is indicative of white privilege. It’s class privilege, age privilege and the privilege of rocking up to an environment demo every few months and living in peace the rest of the time, without having to worry about your safety and the presence of the police, which is not only a very real concern for a lot of activists, but also a concern for minority groups in general. XR merely stating an acknowledgement of structural racism and police brutality is nothing when considering that their tactics revolve around police-worship.
Experienced activist legal support group, Green and Black Cross (GBC), issued a statement about why they will no longer support XR, stating that their legal observer training was ‘inadequate and inconsistent’ and therefore dangerous. GBC also insisted that the information XR were sending out about police and prison was ‘misleading and inaccurate,’ leading to under informed arrestees taking risks they do not understand, for the sake of XR’s success.
This attitude pushed by XR will seep into younger generations’ ideas about what direct action is and put them in more danger than any other generation, both now and in the future. Extinction Rebellion believe that showing love and gratitude to the police will make them more likely to support the movement. How long will it take for them to realise the police will never support a movement that challenges the current system? In the meantime, they are putting people at risk and normalising an interaction with cops that is unheard of in most direct action groups.
When people say All Cops are Bastards (ACAB), we mean that the police uphold a system of oppression and use intimidation and violence to do so. They seldom follow their own laws and regularly break them to manipulate people who do not know their rights. They will do this at every possible opportunity: on the streets, at demos, wherever they think they won’t be caught out. No cop is your friend and they will do whatever it takes to gather intelligence. A pro-police activism movement is not revolutionary and neither it is safe nor sensible. It perpetuates the status quo at best and brainwashes inexperienced new activists at worst. If we’re going to have a revolutionary environmental movement or a mass rebellion, it needs to be anti-capitalist. It needs to be anti-state. It needs to recognise who the enemies are and who their allies are. The police will never be on their side. If Extinction Rebellion want to protect their activists and make their movement meaningful, they need to hugely rethink their tactics.
‘Compassion in mind’ and ‘offer them flowers’ - citation below
Extinction Rebellion, ‘Police, Arrest and Support’, in This Is Not A Drill: An Extinction Rebellion Handbook, (Penguin, 2019), pp. 126-127 (p. 126).
‘police we love you, we’re doing this for your children too’ links below
Tweet by XR: https://twitter.com/extinctionr/status/1119583301281435648?lang=en
Youtube Vid by a branch of XR: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQ5YrXvJSrc
‘We love you’ ethos link below
https://rebellion.earth/2019/10/20/october-rebellion-police-xr-podcast/
‘we understand for those that have been victimised by the police that this can be difficult and alienating to witness’ and that ‘we especially ask white people to learn about white privilege.’ - link below
https://rebellion.earth/the-truth/faqs/
Green and Black Cross statement link below