We cannot claim to be an inclusive movement looking to build a hopeful future if our actions are making it more difficult for disabled people to survive in the present.
Doing XR Better is a collective of disabled and abled rebels. We believe that Extinction Rebellion (XR) is our current best hope of driving system change on a scale needed to combat the climate crisis - a crisis that will disproportionately impact the vulnerable, and especially the disabled. However we believe that XR inevitably - as a product of society - reflects bias and ableism in ways that can directly harm these groups. We are powerful when we act. Disruption is powerful. But we need to think carefully - more carefully than that! - how and where we use these tools. XR can and should do better. We would expect that most rebels would agree with this statement and desperately don't want to be part of an oppressive system ...but hoping, and vaguely intending to do better isn't enough. We want to be part of a conversation and a practical roadmap for our movement actually become better. That is ultimately the purpose of this blog.
When taking disruptive action, XR needs to actively mitigate against harm by baking into its action design templates a consideration of how actions might impact vulnerable groups. If a harm is identified, can the action be changed? Can other action be taken alongside to mitigate? Above all we must act with empathy.
To be absolutely clear, this is NOT speaking against disruptive direct action. Disruption is necessary to achieve the level of system change necessary. We are clear that inaction will also lead to great harm! However it is possible to be disruptive whilst also looking out for the most vulnerable and taking them with us. This doesn’t happen by good intentions, or by hoping, or by looking sad and saying sorry after the fact. These are some practical steps that XR as a movement can take to do what we are doing now, but to do it better.
1: Acknowledge that people won’t just be magically aware of their own bias.
It is an innate consequence of privilege to be unaware of how situations might affect marginalised groups, where you yourself might sail through. It doesn’t make you a bad person to be unaware of life-experiences you have never encountered. However, it’s important to recognise that those life-experiences exist. XR has a large contingent of white, abled, middle class activists, many of whom are new to activism. That’s a great and powerful thing! But it is not realistic to expect that just because people are well-meaning, they will innately be able to see problems that they have never personally encountered. It needs an active process in the action design to stop and consider from a wider perspective.
2: Actively train on action design
XR has a strong tradition of distributed training, with courses such as the NVDA, de-escalation, legal observer and Heading for Extinction talks syndicated across the country.
Existing NVDA training could have a short section on action design added. This doesn’t need to be long at all - the course is already a bumper 4hrs - but should address the idea that at the design stage you pause to think about action impacts. THEN you act. This isn't to prevent action - it's to make our actions better and ultimately stronger.
We would also like to see a detailed training resource covering practical ways to think about action impact and mitigating impacts for the most vulnerable. This could be anything from a set of slides, to a facilitated online zoom course, to in-person training. It should cover practical ways to change your action to minimise harm while still taking disruptive action. We are approaching this from a disability perspective, but such a course should cover race, poverty etc. In the XR DIY spirit, we would be interested in working with any and all - other marginalised groups, any with experience of training and facilitating - to make this a reality. We intend to use this blog to start putting together resources that can be used for this purpose. Training like this would allow people to be more disruptive in their action, through feeling confident that their disruption was not causing serious or biased harm. That is a principle of non-violence.
As with all XR training materials, uptake would be entirely voluntary. However our sense is that most members don’t want to be accidentally dicking on the vulnerable, that waiting for a large body of people to go away and independently teach themselves about structural bias won’t be fast enough, and that there would be demand. It’s certainly clear that there is a need. Marginalised groups must be at the core of developing such training - nothing about us without us - but there will be ways that mainstream XR can help and amplify such that the entire work of educating the movement does not rest on those who also bear the most impact.
3: Adopting the fourth demand:
The US branch of Extinction Rebellion has a fourth demand (alongside tell the truth, net zero 2025 and people’s assembly) demanding a just transition that prioritizes the most vulnerable people. This is key. This is the basis on which we should be thinking about how and where we target actions. Having this demand agreed as a part of XR UK is a key plank in getting the wider membership to actively think about what a just transition would look like and how vulnerable people can be protected by our actions as well as during our actions.
4: Updating the fourth demand:
The fourth demand should be updated by Extinction Rebellion UK to explicitly address disability alongside race and poverty. Disability is a further very significant factor in making people vulnerable both to climate change and to disruptive action. Of course disability, poverty and race are not exclusive and will often overlap, along with other marginalising factors.
[Current text of the US fourth demand:
“We demand a just transition that prioritizes the most vulnerable people and indigenous sovereignty; establishes reparations and remediation led by and for Black people, Indigenous people, people of color and poor communities for years of environmental injustice, establishes legal rights for ecosystems to thrive and regenerate in perpetuity, and repairs the effects of ongoing ecocide to prevent extinction of human and all species, in order to maintain a livable, just planet for all.” ]
Summary of action points for XR UK:
Acknowledge that this problem reflects structural bias in society and won’t just “solve itself” without affirmative action
Bring in a short segment to the NVDA training on considering marginalised groups in action design
Create a longer set of training materials considering practical approaches to action design, how to recognise if your action might be disproportionately reinforcing oppression, how to modify your action to mitigate this (while still acting disruptively)
Update the fourth demand to explicitly reference disability.
Adoption of the modified fourth demand by Extinction Rebellion UK
What can you do?
Follow us, and engage with us. We are keen to hear from other individuals or working groups in XR or the wider climate justice movement. You can message us or follow our blog via our facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/doingxrbetter/
Or contact us by email on doingxrbetter@gmail.com