XR UK Strategy 2022
January 23, 2022 by Extinction Rebellion
Please read a summary of the 2022 UK Strategy below.
The Strategy is divided into four sections. Story, Growth, Action and Strength. Links will take you to the appropriate part of the full 2022 Strategy document.
See also
- Full 2022 XRUK Strategy document
- Next UK Rebellion – Join us in the streets and rebel for life!
- Project 3.5 – Get involved in our most ambitious mass mobilisation plan ever.
Summary of XR UK Strategy 2022
If it was not obvious before, COP26 confirmed it. Those in power are neither willing nor capable of acting on the climate and ecological crisis. They lack the courage, conviction and creativity to do what is required.
As our planet passes multiple tipping points, and our people sleepwalk into authoritarianism, what XR does this year affects everything.
We will not be bystanders. Our Declaration of Rebellion said: “We refuse to bequeath a dying planet to future generations.”
This year Extinction Rebellion will reignite our original Theory of Change, mass mobilising towards 3.5% of the population.
The next Rebellion starts at 10:00 Saturday 9 April in Hyde Park, London
We will gather the movement together in Rebellion using focused and ambitiously creative civil resistance and material disruption. Our strategy identifies multiple strands of activity that must be coordinated. Extinction Rebellion has always been greater than the sum of its parts. This year those parts have a fundamental duty to collaborate, to act together.
What we do in our regions and nations will ultimately determine the success of our Rebellions; what we do here in the UK will act as a powerful accelerator for the rest of the world.
Think of all we have done so far as an experiment, XR paying its dues.
This year, shit gets real.
Our Goals
- Grow the movement – towards 3.5% of the population,understanding the need for a spectrum of resistance.
- Support a minimum of 3000 people in nonviolent civil resistance in April
- Tell a new story about ourselves and the reasons for our work
- Demand the end of fossil fuels. Harm is being done NOW.
- Support all rebels throughout the year
- Build new routes to change: focussing on cultural influence and defections
Our Vision
Now is the moment to step up. To participate. To refuse to be a bystander.
Now is the moment to begin building a world where love, care and freedom are prioritised. Now is the moment.
Our Demands
Our demands have been reinvigorated to reflect the reality of the situation. To the revised three, an immediate demand has been added that recognises the need to begin definable action now.
The immediate demand – to end fossil fuels – also provides us with a relatable local group action strategy that will support mass mobilisation.
TELL THE TRUTH
All institutions must communicate the danger we are in. We must be clear about the extreme cascading risks humanity now faces, the injustice this represents, its historic roots, and the urgent need for rapid political, social and economic change.
ACT NOW
Every part of society must act now to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2025 and begin protecting and repairing nature immediately. The whole of society must move into a new precautionary paradigm, where life is sacred and all are in service to ensuring its future.
BE THE CHANGE
We demand a culture of participation, fairness and transparency. The Government must create and be led by a Citizens’ Assembly on Climate and Ecological Justice. Only the common sense of ordinary people will help us navigate the challenging decisions ahead.
IMMEDIATE DEMAND: END THE FOSSIL ECONOMY
A Demand of Ourselves
We are asking all Rebels, old and new, to make (or remake) a commitment to coordinated action that delivers on our 2022 goals.
Those that seek to hinder us are well organised. We must pull together like never before.
Mass Mobilisation
We are at a key juncture. We have created the largest movement of civil disobedience in the UK since the Suffragettes – one that has spread around the world with unprecedented speed – yet we have not yet realised our original aim: to mobilise 3.5% of the population. That changes in 2022.
We are already trialling a mass mobilisation approach – worked on in conjunction with (amongst other experts) Bernie Sanders’ team in the USA. Once fine-tuned, it will be rolled out throughout the UK.
The approach will drive rapid recruitment while baking in organisational autonomy. It is a dynamic, distributed approach that will transform the Rebel experience at every step – from onboarding to action.
UK Growth
From door-knocking to Rebel ringing; house meetings to The Talk, the tyres have been kicked on all our recruitment and mobilisation tools. What works is retained, what doesn’t is improved. All in the name of reinvigorating the conversation we are able to have with the public.
International Growth and Solidarity
What happens here in the UK has a fundamental impact on the rest of the world – both in terms of XR’s growth, but also issues of international and intersectional solidarity. For the avoidance of any doubt, Extinction Rebellion is Anti-Racist, Anti-Fascist and Anti-Oppression; our work is fundamentally rooted in justice.
Where we need to be better, we will do what is required. We stand with people of colour, we stand with the trans community, we stand with women, we stand with disabled people, we stand with the Global Majority. We stand with all who are oppressed by our toxic system.
Our actions have catapulted XR onto the global stage, but we must be attuned to how they are received by the public, and weaponised by those who oppose us. This does not mean we should chase public approval or dilute what we do – far from it: actions in 2022 must brim with ambition and audacity.
Now is the time to collectively up our game, and that requires coordination, collaboration and FOCUS. We must collectively join the dots between current harm and what we need from the future, and to do that demands a singular resolve to work together. Distraction, disagreement and diverse approaches are our kryptonite.
Local Mobilising Actions
Local actions are a cornerstone of our ability to recruit and mobilise, and should be approached as a vital part of the entire XR Strategy. They should be relatable to local conditions, and wherever possible to the fourth (immediate) demand.
Affinity Groups
Affinity Groups are XR’s secret sauce! We must refocus on them. They are the bedrock of our regenerative Care and Freedom. 2022: more AGs!
Levels of Participation
It is worth reiterating: XR has something for everyone, and we want everyone to step up. Much has been made of our rebels risking arrest, and anyone who gets nicked, prosecuted or imprisoned is a total legend. But so too the oft-unheralded people in the background: the arrestee support, the finance teams, the legals, the regen, the art; people who wield spreadsheets or those who think up beacons; the clearer-uppers and the de-escalators, we are grateful for everyone, and everyone is Crew. Whatever it is we do in service, 2022 is the year to ask “Can I do more?”. Also, you might get nicked.
Accountability and Nonviolence
Being accountable for our actions is a foundational tenet of the movement and is inextricably linked to our commitment to nonviolence. As the seriousness of our context increases – whether environmentally or politically (with the Protest Bill for example) this fundamental position becomes even more crucial to the likelihood of success. Open organising, from planning to action is how we embody the change we want to see.
A revitalised Rebellion
We will be adopting a radically simplified approach to Rebellion. It will be clear, have a coherent message, and will create space for everyone to take direct action together, creating a rebel pathway.
We will be asking all Rebels to not plan autonomous actions during periods of mass resistance.
The next Rebellion starts at 10:00 Saturday 9 April in Hyde Park, London
What will make us go home? Government agreement to our End Fossil Fuel immediate demand:
NO NEW FOSSIL FUEL INVESTMENT
NO NEW FOSSIL FUEL LICENCES
END FOSSIL FUEL SUBSIDIES NOW
Building post-Rebellion
The 3.5% number is what we are building towards, and April is one step in that direction. Post-Rebellion (even with an agreement to End Fossil Fuels) we will still have much work to do, and our mass mobilisation will continue in the regions and nations. We will plan for regional summer uprisings throughout the country, and then re-group in even larger numbers in London in September. Repetition is our friend.
Defections
We will be actively pursuing a programme to seek high profile defections and whistleblowers in the key pillars of power.
We will need great reserves of strength this year.
To be able to cope with what will undoubtedly be immense challenges, we must be:
– Accountable & Honest
– Agile & Efficient
– Clear
– Respectful & Trustworthy
– Aligned
Leadership & Decentralisation
The Systems Realignment Project has recommended we streamline some of our structure. Our growth has been meteoric, and we haven’t always got it right.
We will be adopting a momentum-driven approach where authority can be distributed throughout the movement. This will enable us to be more autonomous in our local areas, and more coherent when we come together in Rebellion.
Succession
We will improve our succession planning, to be better able to grow, and also weather the loss of coordinators, whether to prison or burn-out.
Building Community Resilience & Resistance
2022 must see us rediscover our physical connection. With ourselves as we lessen our reliance on Zoom and chats, and with our wider community. COVID and an enforced online existence has seen us exist in more of a bubble than we would otherwise have done. We need to get out and mix, cross-pollinate.
We must explore new ways to make our presence felt in our communities. Start building the community we crave. Let’s be ambitious, seize the moment, be enterprising in our approach!
Strategic Finance
XR will refocus its finances in 2022 to better support actions that deliver material disruption. We will also review VLE (learning from sister movements’ insights) and ramp up the fundraising. We have learned a lot since 2018.
Spin-offs and Sister Movements
XR is not afraid of offshoots one of our most important roles is to create the conditions for such emergence. We will continue to coordinate and collaborate with these initiatives, and would ask only that this open-mindedness is reciprocated.
Support Structures and Regenerative Culture
We must support each other. This work is emotionally and physically draining. Regenerative Culture is so much more than taking a few days off: it is the caring foundation of our vision for a better society.
This year we will centre Love, Care and Compassion like never before. For each other, for those facing prison, for everyone already experiencing the effects of the climate and ecological emergency. For it is only by doing this that we will be able to find Climate Justice.
See also
- Full 2022 XRUK Strategy document
- Next UK Rebellion – Join us on 9th April and rebel for life!
- Project 3.5 – Get involved in our most ambitious mass mobilisation plan ever.