Loomio
Tue 22 Oct 2019 10:36PM

What have you learned from the Canning Town action?

LF Luke Flegg Public Seen by 51

This action has already happened.
Perhaps you feel this was a stupid action. Maybe you think it was amazing.

What do you think about its impact and what are you taking away / learning from it?

LM

Larch Maxey Wed 30 Oct 2019 4:05PM

That many people in xr haven’t read “this is an uprising”, or our Theory of Change and that
we need ways to have open, empowering conversations.

LF

Luke Flegg Wed 30 Oct 2019 7:12PM

Aye... it makes me wonder if it's be smart to have a clearer 'onboarding' (use whatever word you like) process for new rebels, as most of us didn't go through one, other than probably attending a local group meeting.

Perhaps some kind of shiny badge of honour people can wear or some kind of initiation or ritual for people who've demonstrated they actually understand XR's theory of change, could make it clearer who's just jumped onboard wrongly assuming they 'get it' and who has actually understood. I think there can be some shared responsibility if there's lots of 'out of touch' rebels who are just following without really understanding (and some of them suberting/ co-opting/ just getting mad that XR isn't what they expected) as this is surely partly a failure of how we onboard..

PM

Paul Martin Wed 30 Oct 2019 8:42PM

A significant and growing proportion of rebels in Cornwall have had XR inductions and probably still would see the Canning Town action as working against the ToC.

TF

Tony Franks Thu 31 Oct 2019 1:48PM

That people who planned this action are too much in their XR bubble, they worked out the practical necessities, but ignored the local demographics.
We are constantly entreating ourselves to decolonise, to be more accessible to working class and BAME background people whilst putting white, middle class people on top of trains in working class areas.
There is the hypocrisy that is unavoidable in our economy, and then...

PS

Paul Sousek Sat 2 Nov 2019 3:23PM

The Tube Action was an example of where we need to be if we wish to be taken seriously. The main problem with that action was that
a) it was in the suburbs - shold be in central London
b) it was an a too small scale - needs to include several lines, each disrupted and an AG in central London and in several waves so that the disruption continues after arrests. AGs alone should choose the stations to ensure no leakage of information.

NL

Nikki Locke Sat 2 Nov 2019 7:49PM

The tube action was an abuse of power by individuals in XR UK circles, who used XR UK facilities to recruit, plan, publicise and execute an action, without using the procedures put in place to make sure the action was in line with XR UK policy, and then pretended the whole thing was done by independent Affinity Groups to avoid having to take any notice of the opinion of the vast majority of the members.

It attacked the greenest transport system in London. It attacked the working class, the people least responsible for the emergency, least able to do anything about it, and the very people we want to support us. The only reason it got on television was that one of our rebels got into a fight with members of the public.

Where in theory of change does it say we should ignore the elite who are 90% the cause of the catastrophe, and concentrate our efforts on easy targets?

NL

Poll Created Sat 2 Nov 2019 10:15PM

How do you feel about the tube action Closed Tue 5 Nov 2019 10:02PM

How much do you agree with these options

Results

Results Option Points Mean Voters
It attacked the working classes, whose support we want, rather than the elite 24 6.0 4
It was an abuse of power, organised using national resources but pretending to be an independent Affinity Group actiona 19 4.8 4
It was off message, because it disrupted the greenest form of transport 16 4.0 4
It was a great idea because it got media attention, which is more important than anything else 16 4.0 4
It was a violent action 6 1.5 4
Everyone is guilty of causing the climate emergency, so everyone is a legitimate target 1 0.3 4
Undecided 0 0 71

4 of 75 people have participated (5%)

PS

Paul Sousek Sun 3 Nov 2019 10:48AM

9 - It was a great idea because it got media attention, which is more important than anything else
1 - It was an abuse of power, organised using national resources but pretending to be an independent Affinity Group actiona
1 - It attacked the working classes, whose support we want, rather than the elite
1 - It was a violent action
1 - It was off message, because it disrupted the greenest form of transport
1 - Everyone is guilty of causing the climate emergency, so everyone is a legitimate target

Its not about 'targets', its about disruption

GS

Graham Snyder Mon 4 Nov 2019 12:54PM

6 - It attacked the working classes, whose support we want, rather than the elite
2 - It was an abuse of power, organised using national resources but pretending to be an independent Affinity Group actiona
2 - It was off message, because it disrupted the greenest form of transport
2 - It was a great idea because it got media attention, which is more important than anything else
0 - It was a violent action
0 - Everyone is guilty of causing the climate emergency, so everyone is a legitimate target

It's not just about support, it's about behaving ethically. And I think for this kind of protest to be both ethical and effective:
- it should not disproportionately affect already disadvantaged demographics (I think it did)
- the messaging has to be highly effective and disciplined to preempt obvious criticisms (I think it wasn't)
- rebels should expect hostility and mentally prepare themselves for it (I feel they were underprepared)