“Modern scientific comparative methods of alternative behavior can make clear progress in understanding which policies, procedures, tactics, and strategies best achieve radical goals. Radical campaigns will continue to fail unless they adopt and apply this knowledge.”
The following year, Hallam joined a small group of people living near Totnes, Devon, England, and began a number of trials to put specific policies, procedures, tactics and strategies into practice.
The protest movement that would become XR was conceived over a period of two years, starting in early 2016, over six weekend gatherings, most of which took place in activists’ homes. The group itself was a nebulous mix of environmental activists, transition cities, and anti-road activists from the UK.
Another co-founder, Stu Basden, said: Ecologist: “There were probably about 20 people in each meeting, about 10 of them were regulars, the rest came and went.”
weird
Dr. Gail Bradbrook was one such consistent attendee. Bradbrook visited Costa Rica in March 2016 and experienced an intense psychedelic journey while taking ayahuasca and other substances. She prayed for a “code for social change.” Just a few weeks after returning to the UK, she met Hallam for the first time, who spontaneously declared that he had the code for change. This story is central and telling. The Founding Myth of XR.
Bradbrook, her partner Simon Bramwell and Hallam provided continuity and momentum for the group. Call yourself Rising Up. The name, fittingly, was recycled after the failed Peninsula protests in Bristol. The new group ran what Hallam describes as “a bunch of little circular campaigns that nobody knows about now, which was really rubbish because you have to learn from failures.”
This small group was not afraid of failure, and they took the time to learn from each incident and communicate their evolving theory of change, which was then put into a series of documents as it evolved. The three spent hours together drafting a 50-page strategy summary document, which was then condensed into a 7-page briefing document. It took another year and a half to evolve. A pioneering Rising Up Overview It was finally completed in March 2018.
In a significant pattern, it was at this point that Hallam proposed rolling out the strategy as a national campaign. Bradbrook and Basden demurred, asking for another month to further refine the 10 core principles and values.
In April 2018, the group agreed to “go all out” on the newly named “Extinction Rebellion” campaign. It was a pattern that would repeat itself over the next few years. But what was so special about the Rising Up Overview, a GoogleDoc shared among some climate activists?
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Published by Oscar Berglund and Daniel Schmidt. Extinction Rebellion and Climate Change Activism: Breaking the Law and Changing the World provided a significant contribution to the climate mobilization literature in 2020. They argue that “the most striking aspect of XR’s theory of change is that it does not exist at all.” It is therefore worth highlighting how rare these kinds of blueprinting efforts have been and remain.
The writers were not just improvising. They were drawing a blueprint for the movement, sometimes literally. It is important to understand how XR is embedded in the specific traditions of movement organization.
Srdja Popovic and Matthew Miller published in 2015: Blueprint for Revolution: How to Use Rice Pudding, Lego Men, and Other Nonviolent Techniques to Revitalize Communities, Overthrow Dictators, or Simply Change the World Summarize what you have learned through your work. Otpor! In overthrowing dictator Slobodan Milosevic, Hallam said the book “that much Main text”.
that much Otpor! The protest movement and the way it was organized into texts also influenced Paul Engler and Carlos Saavedra of the Ayni Institute. Drawing on decades of activist experience, they proposed a ‘movement method’ that takes the best from the structures and driving forces that have evolved (and branched) over the past decades. Paul and his brother Mark have also published. teaThis is Rebellion: How Nonviolent Rebellion Shapes the 21st Century.
Engler and Saavedra were even more influential on the founders of XR. These thinkers were major pioneers in applying social science specifically to social movements. outline‘ The quote is no coincidence. It actually comes from Bradbrook attending a training run by Saavedra in 2017.
Destructive
Engler and Saavedra’s work is acknowledged in the second of XR’s 10 core principles:We are committed to what is needed: Mobilize 3.5% of the population to achieve systemic change. We use ideas like ‘momentum-driven organizing’ to achieve this. The Ayni Institute approach is thoroughly explored in the Movement Power series. Ecologist.
It is hard to overstate the impact of momentum on the origins of XR. It is outline‘It’s about maintaining the emphasis on the need to target pillars of support for the status quo, the need for polarization, and the need for decentralized organization. outline We also reproduced set pieces that dictated the momentum of context, values, story, and strategy.
This influence is even more evident in the conceptual horizon of the movement: XR, like Momentum, operates within the tradition of Gene Sharp. outline Quote. This again illustrates the centrality of Erica Chenoweth’s work. She is the originator of the famous (or infamous, really) argument that if 3.5% of the population were organized, we could create fundamental social change.
The XR approach and its reliance on a particular stream of ideas have been criticized. Berglund and Schmidt note that “contrary to XR’s claims, their theory of change is not substantiated by the social sciences. XR’s theory of change has emerged from a small subset of the discipline often referred to as the civil resistance literature, which is largely separate from the vast literature on social movements or critical political economy… Beyond destructive polarization, the lessons XR has drawn from the civil resistance literature are as limited as they are enabling.
It’s also important to note that XR has never simply been an expression of momentum. One of the key tensions within XR has always been the contrast, even the contradiction, between the scientific language of ‘code for social change’ and the mysticism and eclecticism that has existed from the beginning.
opacity
In fact, Bradbrook is scientifically trained in biomolecular physics and attributes much of XR’s success to psychedelic prayer in Costa Rica. She also references Tom Nixon’s concept of the source field. “It’s a way of putting where you really are coming from. I would call it a ‘spiritual container.’ There’s a sense of togetherness, vision, wisdom, and setting intentions. I think that’s a very feminine thing that’s needed as part of social change. The mobilization, the organizing part is more Left hemisphere” .
She added: “We definitely drew on existing movement theories, but some of what we brought to it was sadness and emotion. It takes a vision. That’s what draws people in, and I don’t think that’s understood. And I didn’t really understand it.
“There has been a lot of prayer work and conscious work about how to bring intention and values and regenerative culture into the movement. And there may have been writing about it, and there is nothing out there, but a lot of it detect And it’s not necessarily based on deep theory, but it might help.”
One prominent example of this sentiment was the Sacred Intention Statement by Skina Lator, which was often read before or during action in the early days of XR. A less flashy but more lasting countermeasure is Play notification text It is still often read at rebel group opening meetings today.
The regenerative element may be the deepest mystery of XR. It is partly inherent in the idea itself. Spirituality is difficult to measure. Its ambiguity is reflected in the relative lack of theoretical anchors and its peripheral position. outline Document. But another reason for the mystery is that the history of XR itself is a story of the movement losing touch with its early magic.
It’s easy to forget how weird, sensational, and successful the XR movement was in its first years. I’m going to recapture much of what happened in those early years in a series of upcoming articles. Ecologist Over the next few weeks, this will critically examine the groundbreaking strengths and subtle limitations that the Momentum tradition has given to XR. This article will form the next phase of the Movement Power project.
This author
Douglas Rogers is a writer, activist, and editor. Labeler magazine.
