October Rebellion's Decision Making System

I'm mostly in this thread to listen, but I witnessed some beautiful moments of on the spot decision making at the BBC occupation re: how the action would be done, as conditions changed on the ground (when to leave, how people on the balcony came down + how we responded to the Kurdish protestors joining us, which I think we handled brilliantly with human microphone & temperature check)

I felt a real unity in these moments - rare times when creating space to hear everyone results in insightful, inclusive actions and restores faith in assists of decentralisation.

Can I clarify about direct actions - was the process for decision making around actions like Canning Town covered in this strategy Linda? (eg. was that Telegram poll with ~3,800 responses part of the agreed process around proposed actions?) The resources above are beautiful and impressive but still quite overwhelming.. I wonder if we could make it even quicker/ easier to find the most relevant bits of info..

Writing as a parent group coordinator (PGC) for south-east region, my experience was that the PGC team was really tight and worked well together, sharing what was going on in the various working groups and making decisions about the site based on these various information sources. The best example of how things worked - one night at Vauxhall we heard that the coordination teams at Trafalgar needed to leave ASAP as they were exhausted, and were inviting other regions to take over. Within about half an hour we managed to locate enough regional PGCs for a quorate meeting, run a telegram poll on the regional broadcast channel asking if our rebels wanted to move our region to Trafalgar, integrate the information that they overwhelmingly did with our judgement that we could practically do it, and so make the decision to move our base their that night (the police took it the next day but that's by the by). The most problematic aspect was that the random rebels bit just never took off. I personally really wanted it to, but generally I think there was a sense that the PGC team was really close knit and knew each other well through all the planning that it would have felt hard to integrate the random rebels. So we basically just didn't do it, sorry!

As an ordinary, non-arrestable Rebel, here are my impressions...

The tube action was extremely controversial, was planned and executed using national resources, but without the proper consultation with the relevant national teams, and went ahead against the wishes of the membership under the fiction that it was organised by an independent affinity group. I believe it was an abuse of power.

The communication channels used (telegram channels and the daily newsletters) felt very one way, often not up to date with what was happening on the ground. I was not aware of any way of sending information back.

The telegram bot to match people to roles was a good idea, but ended up spamming me with available roles all over the Rebellion, not knowing where I was. It also seemed impossible to turn off.

People seemed to expect the October Rebellion to be April II - but it certainly wasn't. And sequels are never as good as the original film!

There were no safe places at first - would be nice if these were organised by affinity group beforehand. So people were less flexible (carrying or worrying about huge rucksacks of camping equipment).

We seem to have achieved less (no great surge in membership, for instance). We were getting some of the establishment on our side about the outrageous, London wide section 14, but the tube action seemed to distract attention from that.

There seemed to be little nationwide media attention (was it suppressed, or was it just their unwillingness to cover the same story again?)

I would like to see Rebellion III being radically different, to get more media attention, to disrupt the elite rather than the working class (not bus or tube, more private jet and Bentley), and to hammer home the message better.

Radically different? How?

I think that rebellion 3 will have to be designed to have much greater impact.
In October we wasted much of our supply of arrestables on actions too small and too little disruptive to have any effect or to attract media attention.
We need to conserve our arrestables only for actions which are so disruptive that they will be bound to be reported.
The only such actions in October were City Airport and Tube.
Trafalgar Square was a good central location and should be retained for future actions, unless we decide to swap it for Parliament Square.
However, we need some truly safe locations, such as church halls, Quakers halls, Community halls - for safe storage of sleeping and other personal possessions and as a resting place on 6 or 8 hour shift.

We should select these types of high disruption targets: blockading Parliament - nobody in or out for 24 hours +
blockading Downing Street - same as above
blocking M25/ M1/ M4 or similar in multiple phases for several days
blocking airports: City, Heathrow, Gatwick, whichever
Bring the tube in central London to a standstill: multiple waves of rebels to ensure lengthy disruption even as rebels are arrested and removed. It should include at least 6 lines, each line blocked by 3+ AGs at 1 hour intervals, the selection of station to be taken by the AGs so no possibility of leakage.

Blockade the BBC - their coverage is minimal - but blockade it long enough to disrupt normal broadcasting. Maybe even invade their studios particularly during live news broadcasts

We should be less reluctant to commit 'criminal damage'. I was arrested, having been searched, for the possession of chalk!
If chalk is classed as an article likely to be used for criminal damage, why are we restricting ourselves to such short term methods? We should start using permanent spray paints to plaster XR symbols all over the place and to create murals.

No prior warning to police: in October we sabotaged our own actions

just a few initial ideas for a more effective Rebellion
Let's do it like we actually believe that it is an emergency!

If you block the tube or the motorways, knowing that the vast majority of XR members are against such actions, I, and many others, will be leaving XR. Likewise if you start using permanent spray paint.
We must stop attacking the ordinary working person, and start concentrating on the people responsible for 90% of the problem.

Yes, by all means close parliament, City Airport, the banks, the media, the oil companies, the hedge funds, etc.

Stop attacking the people least responsible for the problem, least able to do something about it, and most likely to support us. I know they are easier targets than the elite, but that doesn't make it right.

In any case, April III just won't achieve much. We need to do something sufficiently different for the media to recognise it as a new and different story they haven't covered before.

All XR actions 'attack' the people least responsible for the problem.
Everytime we take a site, traffic is disrupted, ordinary people suffer, delivery drivers lose income, electric cars are just as dirupted as Chelsea Tractors.
That argument lacks logic.
We disrupt NOT to attack any particular class of people, but to gain media attention.
When we occupied Waterllo bridge - what was it about that bridge we objected to?
Nothing.
It was simply a means to an end. Just like disrupting tube lines.
IMHO

All XR actions in the past did this. I am suggesting that we consider changing this. I am not saying we should only do actions that do not affect working class people, I am suggesting that our actions should have a point in addition to getting the media's attention.

I have a number of reasons for this...
* The media are already tired of us blocking roads and public transport. They have stopped covering it.
* The elite are 90% of the problem, we should be disrupting them first.
* We keep talking about how middle class we are, and how we want to attract the working class, ethnic minorities, the dispossessed, the downtrodden, etc. But they are the people we seem to concentrate on disrupting, presumably because they are easier targets.