Extinction Rebellion

It’s an open demonstration, anyone can join in, so I expect they’ve got a bunch of weirdos by now who have come just for the purposes of smashing stuff up/making trouble/generally being a cunt

Friend of mine was involved in an art piece that destroyed a cctv camera, and ended up in court over it. He was most surprised, but even more surprised at what happened next: people started getting in touch with him (he’d been in the paper and had a regional artist profile) about meeting up to smash other cameras… and stuff. These were men who just liked getting organised and vandalising stuff. Suspect they would have loved the opportunity to ‘support’ extinction rebellion

Bit shocked to read in the guardian about the 3 arrested for disrupting the train, in front of magistrates this morning and told they would not get bail and would remain in custody until the 16th of May. Seems a bit much considering the lightness of the crime, breaching a law from the 1800s.

I'm not at all familiar with bail conditions etc but that seems a bit harsh doesn't it? Maybe setting a precedence to deter others?

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/apr/18/extinction-rebellion-trio-charged-train-protest-canary-wharf

I imagine it was refused as the likelihood is that they would go and do the same, or a similar, thing again. Whether that's right is obviously a different matter.

Railway laws are criminal laws and not bylaws , obstructing the railway carries a max sentence of 2 years , but I wouldn’t be surprised if DLR don’t try to recover the cost of the loss to the business,
which would be in the 6 figure range

I'm not at all familiar with bail conditions etc but that seems a bit harsh doesn't it? Maybe setting a precedence to deter others?

That the law dates from the 1860s isn't a coincidence: lots of railway laws date back to the introduction of the railways and have harsh penalties by modern standards. Arguably because the railways were built by aristocrats and the new affluent middle classes created by the industrial revolution and they didn't want commoners holding up the trains they'd invested their savings in...

The responses to this clip of Greta Thunburg are telling...

https://twitter.com/Channel4News/status/1118848859101433857

Headed through on my way home tonight, Oxford Circus is gonna be a good night out tonight it seems.....

I think this attitude undermines the protest a little - as someone said upthread it’s a political action not ‘Glasto’

https://rebellion.earth/event/uk-rebellion-shut-down-london/

First line:

Our leaders have failed us. It’s time to rebel – and have a damn good time doing it.

I just went for a chilled ride to check out their sites.

They all look peaceful and well organised (for this sort of thing), noted plenty of 'no drugs or alcohol signs'.

Good for them, the world needs a kick in the ass and a bit of inconvenience to hammer home the message.

They will be on the right side of history.

I was down on Waterloo Bridge earlier today.

The protestors are doing a great job, very peaceful friendly vibe. The over-the-top police presence is completely unnecessary imo. People are being arrested (several whilst I was there), released without charge and then coming back to protest again. There are loads of police just standing around doing nothing down at the IMAX end of the bridge.

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cycled round all the sites today
impressed with waterloo bridge, boris's garden bridge would be great
its good they've managed to hold the various sites, police not being too heavy handed, its a protest with a good vibe, lets hope tons of people turn up at the weekend and support the cause / man the barricades

A particular DJ/producer/Cinelli rider posted a quick vid on insta (I bet you’re on-here too man) a day or so ago of riding Oxford St traffic free. Looked amazing. I totally agree with this disruption - I got the coach to London yesterday, with a tandem bike in tow, on tubes and buses, and I was totally willing to suffer hours of delays.

Irony was, yesterday morning mum had to pay £35 to a taxi for a 2 1/2 mile journey because of tube signal failures. I cannot agree that protestors are the criminals.

When has a protest changed anything. The suffrogetes protesting did not get woman the vote. World war one did that. If we were serious about climate change we would building new houses prefab and stop using so much cement, concrete and bricks in construction. Not only more thermally efficient bit quicker and cheaper to build with lower emissions.

Protest like this preach to the converted and make the converted feel better about them selves.

...Vietnam?

(That was a somewhat tongue-in-cheek remark, realised irony was lost)

Not many of us are building houses tho.

If you joined in you could learn even more about alternative building materials.

You sound like fun. As mentioned above, they will be on the right side of history. A good way of putting it.

There's an article I can't find about this way of thinking. I'm not saying your point is not valid to a degree, but we need way more than cynicism right now.

You can be as pessimistic as you want in regards to this, but this isn't the time to peck at this cause; it's time to join it or at least endorse it vocally.
It's not a fight to rile against University costs or stopping a war. It's our environment. It collapses, we die. It will recover. We won't.

If these protests highlight or push for a drastic and rapid change in any way or form, then its done its job.

So you are advocating apathy and crossing our fingers that circumstance may or may not bring about the change we need to survive in the face of extinction?

You sir are a brilliant mind, thank God we have you around

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I think it’s unfair to just flame the cynicism of @cycleclinic ... actual empirical evidence of protest having changes things would be better.

To bite... I think the use of the Suffrage movements are oversimplification - from History classes in school we learned the violent protests were considered a setback, but the non-violent protesting and awareness-raising actually rallied support from some males of the time. If it weren’t for their protests then a way couldn’t have been paved toward the eventual “look what we did in men’s absence” argument when the law needed changing post-ww1 due to voters having been out of the country for too long to vote.

Similarly my tongue-in-cheek use of Vietnam, those protests informed a generation both politically and if nothing else, musically. An entire counter culture formed through it, and some of the most appreciated art (musical/pictorial/etc) of the 20th century owes a debt to that movement.

If this is your pic please delete.

Why? It shows a non-protester vandalising something in the name of ER.

Demonstration bring people together. They talk and exchange ideas, minds change. Writers cover the events, sometimes they modify their ideas and often they change how we discuss issues. Politicians see this and decide what ideas aren’t represented and decisions are made accordingly. It’s basic stuff.

A well mannered protest like this could shift opinions. Perhaps some of the public expected climate change protesters to be like continental May Day protesters (dressed in black, there to smash things, happy to use violence). The fact they aren’t... means the ideas might reach a new audience.

Even ‘failed’ protests such as the Jr Doctors strike in 2015 changed some things. Who didn’t modify their opinion of J.Hunt, who thinks he could ever now fight an election?