Tag: extinction rebellion

The Dead And Those About To Die – Climate Protests And The Corporate Media

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17 November 2020 — Media Lens

The Roman poet Horace famously declared:

‘Dulce et decorum est pro patrie mori.’

It is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country. Wilfred Owen, the great English poet of the First World War, described this phrase as ‘the old Lie’ in his famous war poem, ‘Dulce et decorum est’. Patriotism so often means ‘honouring’ those who ‘fell in service to this country’, grand ceremonies at war memorials, feasts of royal pageantry. And then sending yet more generations of men and women to fight in yet more wars.

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Extinction Rebellion: Rebellion against whom?

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8 November 2019 — Fightback by Benoît Tanguay

Extinction Rebellion- Rebellion against whom?

In the past year, we have seen an explosion of the environmental movement. Through the global climate strike and mass demonstrations for the planet launched by Greta Thunberg, an entire generation has gotten a taste of political action, understanding the need for dramatic change to deal with environmental degradation. It is in this context that the group Extinction Rebellion (XR) has struck a chord. For many, both young and old, the urgency of the situation requires drastic solutions, and many have therefore been seduced by the group’s actions and its calls for immediate measures to save our planet. But are XR’s methods what the climate movement needs? What exactly does XR stand for?
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Roger and me – a socialist view on Extinction Rebellion

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4 November 2019 — Red Flag

James Plested

Around 7am on the fourth day of Extinction Rebellion’s (XR) “Spring Rebellion” in Melbourne in early October the clouds to the east cleared enough for the first bright rays of sun to penetrate through to a city centre still shrouded in a cold, misty rain. A dazzling rainbow appeared above the skyline – arching over the grey and blue forest of skyscrapers as members of XR huddled in a laneway below for a briefing on that morning’s action.

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Metropolitan Police impose London-wide ban on Extinction Rebellion protests as arrests top 1,500 By Chris Marsden

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16 October 2019 — WSWS

Extinction Rebellion (XR) activists yesterday defied a London-wide ban on protests by the Metropolitan Police (Met). The basis cited for the ban Monday evening was a revised Section 14 order, of the Public Order Act, stipulating that by 9:00 p.m., “any assembly linked to the Extinction Rebellion ‘autumn uprising’…must now cease their protests within London.”

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UK: ARE YOU BEING STOPPED AND SEARCHED?

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12 October 2019 — Extinction/Rebellion

[I thought a note on police activities re Extinction/Rebellion is worth publicising to a wider audience. WB]

PLEASE CIRCULATE WIDELY

ARE YOU BEING STOPPED AND SEARCHED?
– Ask ‘Am I being detained or am I free to leave?’
IF you are told you are detained, this means you are being stopped and searched. OTHERWISE, you are able to walk away.

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Veritable Uprising or it’s The (Faux) Real Thing™: Greta and Climate Activism in a Wilderness of Projections

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30 September 2019 — Counter Currents

by Phil Rockstroh and Kenn Orphan

[An ‘alternate’ take on Greta Thunberg @ the UNGA. Long but worth reading I think. WB]

PR: Kenn, recently, this observation of mine provoked a measure of ire:  Street demonstrations, even large ones, are apropos of nothing as long as they are manifested as de facto state sanctioned protests. A march proceeds, chants are cast into indifferent air, speechifying comes to pass by the usual gasbags then the assembled head home and carry on as usual. Conversely, a strike means job walk-offs — until the strikers demands are met — not walking out and walking back in the next day.

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‘How Dare You!’ The Climate Crisis And The Public Demand For Real Action

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30 September 2019 — Media Lens

Reality clashed with the BBC version of false consensus in a remarkable edition of HardTalk last month. Roger Hallam, co-founder of Extinction Rebellion, was starkly honest about humanity’s extreme predicament in the face of climate breakdown and refused to buckle under host Stephen Sackur’s incredulous questioning. Sackur’s inability to grasp that we are already in a climate emergency, and that massive changes are necessary now to avoid societal collapse, was clear for all to see. His line of questioning attempted to present Hallam to the BBC audience as a dangerous revolutionary, trying to destroy capitalism for twisted ideological reasons.

Sackur: ‘You want to bring down the capitalist system as we know it, is that correct?

Hallam: ‘The capitalist system is going to be brought down by itself. The capitalist system is eating itself.’

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