Changing Contours in the Politics and Policing of Climate Emergency Activism: A Case Study of Extinction Rebellion (XR)

• In Event: Perspectives on Non-Criminal Justice Responses to Delinquency

Abstract

The environmental movement Extinction Rebellion (XR) came to prominence in the UK in October 2018 after a series of visually spectacular and well publicised protests in London, including the blocking of five bridges and activists glueing themselves to the gates of Buckingham Palace. These protests were designed to seize media, political and public attention in order to raise awareness of the urgency of the climate emergency and led to over 80 protestors being arrested by police. Post these demonstrations, interest and involvement in XR mushroomed nationally and abroad. In September 2019 XR organised several days of orchestrated protest involving climate activist organisations across 150 countries. The emphasis on civil disobedience was maintained, including deliberate ‘mass arrest’ by XR ‘rebels’. While these tactics have proved axial in XRs attempts to advance its demands for action by the State, major polluting companies and fossil-fuel investors, opinion polls consistently indicate very limited support for such strategies. As a response to this - and other factors such as the tightening of the policing of protest and new legal restrictions on public demonstrations - XR UK recently announced a shift from public disruption and civil obedience tactics to peaceful protest. Directly addressing the rationale for, implications of, and potential efficacy of this sea-change, this paper draws firstly on semi-structured interviews with XR members, analysing reflections on effective forms of activism and perspectives on the underpinning reasons for the strategy shift. Secondly, ethnographic data gathered during XR protest and event observations is presented and discussed in order to explore the changing dynamics of environmental activism and the policing of protest.

Author

• Gabriel Mythen, University of Liverpool