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Here's a statement from Roger Hallam on Insulate BritainInsulate BritainThis is how we win“We have to act quickly. What we do I believe in the next three to four years will determine the future of humanity” Sir David King, former chief scientific advisor to the UK government.How do a hundred people with hardly any money and no social media profile, get on the front page of the national papers in five days? The answer is easy:DisruptionDisruption is not doing a few bad things to bad people. It not about “highlighting” a few bad abstract words. It is the objective material nonviolent interruption of the economic life of society. It has to be massively transgressive, outraging, and novel. And it has to go on day after day.Why after two centuries of labour struggles there is only one tactical game in town – the labour strike. Because it works – far better than any alternative.There is only one main tactic used in the last century of nonviolent civil resistance: blocking streets roads and motorways. Because it works – far better than any alternative.Changing society in a matter of months is not subjective matter, a fashion item, a matter of identity or ideology. It is a material reality. There is a wrong way to do it and a right way. When people get serious about political change they start to focus on the job and keep their eye on the prize.Of course this does mean it deterministically produces success. It just means if you don’t do this you are pissing in the wind when it comes to overcoming entrenched power. In the carbon industrial/political complex we face the most monstrous example of entrenched power - a power that will destroy our families, communities and nations in the next three decades unless stopped. Consciousness raising without disruption in the present context is a recipe for delusion, despair, and depression. It is worse than useless.To succeed we have to bet on a popular demand. Not a demand you personally like. I want subsidies for organic farmers but no one gives a damn about that. It has to be smart – what gets the support of the people who vote for the guy who is going to make the decision on legislative change.Insulation is a great social justice demand of our time. Per unit of investment it gives the greatest reduction in carbon emissions: the biggest reduction in the murder of millions of the poor and marginalised around the world; the biggest reduction in the death of the billions of animals that die in exponentially increasing forest fires, droughts and floods. It provides hundreds of thousands of proper jobs for working people – not David Graeber’s bullshit jobs –  but jobs which make a difference and give dignity and pride back to people who have been shat on by globalised corporate capitalism for decades. And it stops the death of ten of thousands of old people, who gave spent their lives guarding our freedoms and creating our prosperity, because they can’t afford to heat their leaky damp homes.There is no justice without a demand. And there is no justice unless that demand is accompanied by disruption. And there will be no justice for ever, unless we start to win.We have three to four years to turn the world around. Our responsibilities are clear.IB is recruiting hundreds more people to sit in the road.This time will not come again.People signing up contact ring2021@protonmail.com

Matt Palmer ● 1365d

Hello Matt,I do not think anybody believes that XR are the first people in the world to block roads.I do not agree with that strategy one iota; perhaps I would say, in no uncertain terms, it is disingenuous to believe those actions will help any course; on the contrary.One thing is to block, say, Trafalgar Square (people can avoid this), but the M25????  As was mentioned before, there was a doctor stuck in the tailback and was late to reach his hospital and see his patients.  Another example was a lady stuck in the tailback and was going to be late for her cancer treatment.  I do not think that these examples are to be poo-pooed. I am sure there are other examples just as harrowing.I know that it is not XR doing this but, in all honesty, whoever it is, has lost all its credibility and worse; people are going off Insulate Britain (and XR in the rebound) ideas. It is time for climate change activists to understand that not all people using the M25 do so to go on holiday or just to have a nose.  There are critical reasons as to why people, emergency services, lorries and vans use the M25.  I hope I do not need to spell them out.Do we need to take action to combat climate change?  No dispute.  But do so by encouraging alternative means of transport (cycling is not allowed on the M25), incorporating more public transport (from east to west for example) and make it affordable.  Use trains as means of long-distance distribution (the ludicrous example of a refrigerated lorry transporting Scottish fish and seafood to be exported via Heathrow).  But disruptions like those on the M25 are, in all honesty, despicable and counter productive.Apologies for this long response.

Ivonne Holliday ● 1369d