XR Worldwide: Paint the Streets, Wave 2: This Is An Emergency

THIS IS AN EMERGENCY! Our planet and future are under threat.
Using art and performance, break laws and social norms to raise the alarm and call for Rebellion!

We are calling to the climate Movement of Movements and all Extinction Rebels willing and able to answer to join a week of mass non-violent civil disobedience, using flyposting, art, music, performances and other displays in physical space to tell the truth on climate breakdown and ecological collapse.
—-
In April, hundreds of XRebels around the world dared to disobey and show the truth. They showed the climate and ecological crisis to the world, and called thousands to join April’s International Rebellion. Now, we’re taking to the streets en masse again, with individuals and independent affinity groups showing their love and rage through art and performance, galvanising thousands more to take action.
This time, we are proposing that Paint the Streets has three calls to action. All of your pieces for PTS should ask your audience to do one of the following three things:
1. #BoycottForAmazonia
2. Global Strike for Climate, 20-27 September
3. Rebellion without Borders, 07 October onwards

MORE INFO:

Designs drive – feel free to add your own:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1SU0I7ORhqIuQlc7JK4JkZcsqlh31GRKM?usp=sharing

Collaborative advice and guidelines document – decentralised with open editing:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1p70tDwJbw_Q7jXm7EkQv3_Ie2jLGD3gPaKlR4p0vVSs/edit?usp=sharing

ARCHIVE from Wave 1 in April:
See the original PTS Facebook event here, along with posts of others’ street artwork: https://www.facebook.com/events/2261770974141720

Original advice & guidelines document for groups taking part, created by London team:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1VFV5JpRQOUwNWQ96aWaL1pQwTLwTi5B_

WHEN?
#PaintTheStreets decentralised so successfully that it never stopped, with XRebels around the world using similar action tactics ever since. You do not have to wait to get started. However, we are aiming for a mass drive of PTS actions from 14th September onwards, encouraging as many people as possible to join the Global Climate Strikes (20-27th September) and the Rebellion Without Borders (7th October onwards).

WHERE?
Everywhere! Last April, XR affinity groups from Manchester to Mumbai took part in Paint the Streets in many different creative ways. Every town and city is your canvas – paint the streets and spread the word!
Add this event to your local XR Facebook page calendar so they can find out how to get involved. Don’t forget to use #PaintTheStreets when posting about your work on social media, and check in to see what mischief other Rebels are doing around the world.

WHY?
Climate breakdown and ecological collapse have us heading for extinction. Our government is failing to protect us, and the media is failing to tell us the full truth about how dire the environmental crises are. Big business, corporations and industries are destroying our planet with no regard for life, human or otherwise. Yet the marketing and advertising world tell us to be good consumers and keep shopping.
But we will not be silent. Another world is possible, and we know how to get there.

Even after declaring Rebellion and laying out our demands, the government and the media will not tell citizens this crucial life-saving information, so that we have a chance to act and change our system in time. They are failing us yet again. So the Extinction Rebels will do it in their place.

WHAT?
Extinction Rebellion’s demand number one is to #TellTheTruth on the climate and ecological emergency we are facing, and act accordingly, knowing that truth is real. We are facing the very real threat of extinction. Earth’s wildlife is already in a full-blown global mass extinction event. We’re losing two hundred species a day, and many wildlife populations are in massive decline or on the brink of being wiped out altogether.

Four environmental defenders are murdered every week, and people are dying by the millions every year from air pollution, heatwaves, floods, droughts and famines. Oppressed peoples such as the poor, those living in low-lying coastal countries, and the indigenous are on the frontlines of the emergency, and will likely be the first human groups on the list to die out altogether as a result this crisis.

We can stop it – but we must first wake up, and then act immediately, Rebelling for life on Earth.

HOW?
We will use stickers, posters, banners and more, covering the streets with our messages, to shake awake our fellow human beings who are sleepwalking into disaster. As we spread our messages into physical space, in front of those who have not yet heard it, we must break the spell of business-as-usual. We will reveal to the world how broken the system we live under is – and how close a better future is if we’re prepared to take action.
We’ll tell them, “Wake up, and act now. It’s time to Rebel.”

In this action, anyone can join at any level of commitment, and everyone can play their part –
From handing out flyers on street corners,
To slapping a few stickers on your way into work every day,
To standing up on the bus and speaking the truth to fellow passengers,
To replacing the adverts on train carriages and bus stops,
To performing unannounced in high streets and squares,
To flyposting to plaster our messages on the streets,
To spray-chalking stencils and slogans on the windows and walls of ecocidal companies,
To painting over advertisements and target buildings with the Extinction Symbol for hours on end until you are arrested, if you are prepared to risk your liberty for this cause.

Pick your targets carefully:
– Go to places with high footfall.
– Avoid damage to small businesses.
– Focus on destructive and unjust industries, such as those that profit from ecocide, extraction, exploitation and killing.

For examples of good target buildings and companies to disrupt, see the list of companies complicit in Amazon deforestation in the Boycott proposal here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ypD8rTt2uKHA-Bpj1pmXTXXgfREk1qnld4MTw3SgaDc/edit?usp=sharing

Read the guide linked at the top for more advice. We will pool together designs from around the world; the messages each group prints and uses is up to them to decide. If you create new designs and messages, upload them to the drive and/or post them in the discussion to get feedback from other Rebels. When they are finished, feel free to add them to the shared GDrive folder, so Rebels around the world can spread your message if they like it.

We will disrupt and brandalise neoliberal capitalist advertising, which drives endless buying of pointless stuff and trashing the planet, all so that the privileged few can make even more money.
We will tell the people the full and honest truth that the world’s government, media, and businesses want to water down, sugar-coat, or hide all together – no matter how brutal that truth is.
We will invite the people to move towards another world and a brighter future. They’re just within reach, and we know how to get there.
We will ring the alarm bell of the century, and our call to action will be heard and remembered for generations.
Above all, we will call them all to rise up with us and stand on the right side of history: joining our non-violent Rebellion Without Borders on October 7th and beyond to protect wildlife, each other, the planet, and our futures.

We’ll see you on the streets, Rebels.

See and share the Facebook event

https://www.facebook.com/events/2354984544755906/