Punching actions or more polite mobilization? In the United Kingdom, the decision of Extinction Rebellion to cease controversial spectacular operations rekindles the debate on the mode of action of environmental organizations, some defending their radicalism in the face of the climate emergency.
After dozens of blockades of roads or oil depots, the organization Extinction Rebellion (XR) announced on 1er January want to suspend this kind of operations to concentrate on the organization of a big demonstration against the inaction of the government, next April.
Created in 2018 on the principle of resorting to civil disobedience in the fight against climate change, the organization assumed the risk of arousing the hostility of part of the population, but also of arrests in the face of authorities.
Since then, it has been overtaken by even more radical groups, such as Just Stop Oil, created in early 2022, or Insulate Britain, which has been fighting since 2021 for the insulation of housing in the country.
The first was particularly talked about in October when several activists sprayed the famous canvas with soup. The sunflowers by Van Gogh exhibited at the National Gallery in London, as part of a month of daily mobilizations.
These two organizations also reacted quickly to XR’s announcement. “It is 2023 and we are hurtling towards the loss of an orderly civil society at high speed, with extreme weather conditions affecting tens of millions of people and our country becoming unrecognizable,” commented Just Stop Oil, calling to go from “disobedience to civil resistance”.
For Insulate Britain, the strikes by nurses or railway workers which are currently shaking the country show that “disruptions are essential to demand the changes that governments do not want or are too afraid to apply”.
Its activists “are ready to continue to risk being sent to prison” because of their actions, the group added in a statement sent to AFP.
Twenty members of Just Stop Oil and a dozen of Insulate Britain were in prison at the end of 2022, according to the organisations.
Broaden your support
For James Ozden, founder of the Social Change Lab, XR “sees that its strategy is reaching its limits”, because “there has not been a clear breakthrough in climate policy or public opinion like the one achieved in 2019”. , during its first large-scale actions in the United Kingdom.
This change in strategy, which is not yet followed by other branches of XR elsewhere in the world, also comes at a time when the British government is tightening the crackdown on what it calls “guerrilla warfare” tactics. “.
It is therefore perhaps “a way of trying to engage more people with less risk-taking”, analyzes Oscar Berglund, researcher in international public and social policy at the University of Bristol. Even if according to James Ozden, “many activists are extremely committed and ready to assume the legal consequences of their actions”.
“We have our troops, but we need more people” including some “who may not be comfortable with being arrested”, recognized on the ITV channel Marijn Van De Geer, door -word of Extinction Rebellion.
By positioning itself as a “moderate organization”, XR could “garner more support”, even if its demands remain much more radical than those of historical NGOs such as Greenpeace or the WWF, “which work more with the political and economic elites”. , analyzes James Ozden.
However, she should not stop protesting. “We are not going to stop direct actions, but we are going to target the pillars of power. We will no longer disturb the population, ”said Ms. Van De Geer.
Repeated blockades of major roads around London by Just Stop Oil campaigners in the autumn have infuriated many a Briton and made civil disobedience groups the target of the conservative media.
But will the bet of gathering 100,000 people in the streets on April 21 work? “A mass movement is not decided by a snap of the fingers”, but “they are good organizers with a lot of experience”, believes Oscar Berglund.