AusMM Actions Visioning

[ube]

I’d have to disagree with the idea of asking states/groups to hold off mass actions until everyone is able to do it. Pandemic and other externally disruptive factors are normal - they will always occur and we need to be able to continue. If (for example) WA were asked to start Wave 1…get cranking and then be kind of ‘directed’ not to mobilise to the city in a Wave 2 style action at the appropriate time for our momentum, it undermines the decentralised nature of the movement… this is a national project and there is national collaboration, but it is not a national movement! It is what it needs to be, wherever it is. I think Aus MM needs to offer a robust strategic framework that is inviting for Regional/Local Groups to participate in and contribute to, but that’s about it… we need to allow flexibility, but sell the benefits of the collaboration.

From WA perspective, we have a real need to get started (Wave 1) and to escalate (Wave 2 - or Wave 2 style mass action)… things have been in decline and from the XR ‘public’ point of view there is now no reason why not to get cracking, and a LOT of reasons to mobilise. We have a state election in 2021 and already we are seeing active rebels bail out to get busy on elections… I’d hope to get them wrapped up in civil disobedience instead! And also, have that movement influence the elections.

We are also anticipating a COVID resurgence here - @ManicMax will be able to comment with much more authority, but it seems inevitable, and I can tell you there are pretty much zero precautions being taken! Community transmission here will go off as it has in Vic.

Consider a whole range of externalities - what if there was another Death in Custody, sparking massive solidarity rallies/protests and possibly disruptive things, right around the time when we’d be calling a Wave 2 or Wave 3… proceeding would be tone deaf at best, and a PR disaster at worst. Bushfire crisis, flood crisis, storm crisis, drought and food crisis, international war… these are always going to happen and in fact, in our narrative, will happen more as a result of this crisis! So our movement needs to be able to absorb and carry on.

In WA we had started planning a mass disruptive action - a Wave 2 style thing, for mid-Oct. In anticipation of a more systematic, national approach, we have decided to call it off or postpone it, and shift it to be our Wave 2… but I can’t imagine we would be able to wait much longer than (say) early Nov to run it…

[ube]

Great list! A lot to do there!

I think the gathering of metrics is pretty key. We discussed this in XRWA Action WG. We felt that the best approach would be federated (where possible) - so Aus MM Actions would ask Regional Actions WGs to measure XYZ using ABC tools (a form, a spreadsheet, a meeting). This would, hopefully, bring the Regional Groups more ‘in’ to AusMM and also distribute the load of the AG Support function. For Local Groups who don’t have a Regional/State group to do that, then they just link up with AusMM directly.

The conversation regarding timing of Wave 2 might then simply be : “Hey, Regional Action Group - do you have the ability to hold a blockade for a day? Do you have (for example) 100 arrestables? Would they be well supported with pre-, during, and post-arrest support?” If yes, we talk dates, if no, we ask - “What can we do to help with that?”

We felt we’d be in the best place to run our WA Affinity Group Support network/circle - but we’d love to use common tools/methods as created by the Aus MM Actions group - no need to double-up on the various resources (for e.g. see our Affinity Group kit - what do you think? Does it look like yours? If so, lets just pick one, edit it and publish it on ausrebellion.earth. Within our kit are guides and descriptions for a variety of roles, @the-river-jordan mentioned, but just to expand, I think AusMM Actions needs to try to wrangle support for training of roles:

• Police Liaisons (with supplementary info for state-specific stuff)
• Legal Observers (with supplementary info for state-specific stuff)
• Arrestee Support
• De-escalation
• public Outreach during actions (how to talk to the public, how to recruit at actions)
• De-escalation
• Wellbeing/Regen - including the debriefing and regen cycle as Jordan mentioned
• Media liaison - how-to write media releases, or we provide templates to go with the template actions

I know that @MaryH and others have made a lot of progress on consolidating some of those resources above. I wonder if AusMM support might simply be to host weekly or fortnightly trainings or discussion groups on each of the role/topics - and advertise these as a regular series. Across Australia we already have this capacity - it’s just a question of SOS coordination.

I’m kicking off my local suburb group - it would be brilliant to be able to go to ausrebellion.earth and just be able to download the guidebook for (say) De-escalation, and sign up our little group for the De-escalation session that runs every (say) Thursday evening, via Zoom, hosted by AusMM. In XRWA we currently do not have de-escalation training or capacity to run it… but someone of you out there does!!

[laura]

While I can understand the reasoning of states without COVID restrictions (currently) to get going and move ahead before others, I think that would be best done by those state groups - not AusMM.

This project isn’t precluding states and local groups from doing their own actions. Sydney is planning a Spring Rebellion, and so are other locations. Each state can do mass actions early if they are ready. I’m just not sure it’s the best use of our resources in AusMM to be organising wave 2 in in only 1-2 cities, and I can’t imagine east coast cities being ready for wave 2 by November - from both a COVID and numbers/mobilisation perspective - to hold our state capitals for an entire day (also factoring in issues of regen time and the messaging perspective).

[JaneM (Jane Morton)]

Given the considerable uncertainty about how waves 1,2 and 3 will proceed, (for example, whether states like Victoria and NSW that already have 10,000 rebels need to wait until all others reach some criterion and how the pandemic will unfold in different states) and given the complexities of the relationship of AusAMM with Coordination Circles, Actions Circles and Local Groups around Australia, I suggest adopting the terminology “Level 1,2 and 3 actions” rather than “Waves 1,2 and 3” for the Heading for Extinction talks training in the next few weeks and the mobiliser manual Building towards larger actions section.

The important thing at this stage is to be clear that we are aiming for local groups to regularly do local actions and that we are aiming to do larger and larger- and eventually sustained actions - in state capitals (and/or Canberra). The interim wording needs to be bedded done in the next week so that an updated version of the manual can be finalised for distribution to mobilisers at their training starting in two weeks and so that the HfE talks that are occurring on 10/8 and 17/8 have wording that reflects the overall idea without attempting to pin down details that are not yet clear.

I don’t think it’s helpful at this stage to be saying that the Actions group inside AusMM will be deciding such big questions as whether and how we participate in international waves of rebellion and whether states plan large actions in their capital cities.

[extinction1234567 (Jaytodaro)]

@JaneM @Vee @Dogwood @MaxCurmi @laura @Mad_Mattho

[JaneM (Jane Morton)]

At the moment discussion of Wave 1 is spread between three or four topics, but this makes things hard as the date of Wave 1 the launch of Wave 1, the date of the commencement of Wave 1, the duration of Wave 1, whether Wave 1 involves monthly local actions (and if so, whether monthly actions are coordinated in terms of date and timing) and the messaging around the launch and/or the actions - these are very much inter-related questions.

So @ManicMax, is there some way of folding the three Wave 1 actions topics into this one?

[JaneM (Jane Morton)]

I suggest that local groups are encouraged but, of course not compelled, to do monthly actions that occur within the same week, or if possible even the same day. Ideally these would be in the same week each month - eg the first week of the month - so that groups get into the habit of doing an action, doing some outreach and then taking a rest.

Ideally, local groups would receive some suggestions about possible targets, possible template actions and suggested messaging each month.

For example, if the initial Wave 1 actions are to be in the first week of September, it would be useful for local groups to know about the large action in the UK on September 1 and try to coordinate with that and use similar messaging - ‘We want to live’. See this and this and this great video. There are some international Tell the Truth actions targetting media outlets in that first week of September - including in Australia - and those actions could readily be linked into a narrative about ‘we want to live - and we demand you tell the truth’.

If Wave 1 starts on September 1 then preparation needs to rapidly ramp up starting now! We would start sharing the UK video and alerting the media that Australia will be doing coordinated actions because we want to live too. And possibly preparing for additional Tell the Truth actions.

Alternatively, the September local groups actions could be in the week between the Tomorrow (new youth group) action on 18 September and the School Strike for Climate on September 25 - both of which are focussed on the COVID Commission, gas, and a green recovery. In this case, the actions would be framed as ‘we are helping promote the SS4C action on 25/9’ and the focus would be on the gas-fired ‘recovery plan’ and how our political system is being damaged by vested interests. The actions would involve gas-related targets or the local state or federal politician’s office and the media message would focus on our concern for our kids and gas.

A third option would be the week after the SS4C - starting 26/9 September. In this case, the point would be that the political system is ignoring the SS4C that the media is not saying how serious things are and that politicians are not acting and hence we are being forced to ramp things up.

I like the idea of helping local groups push their councils to declare a climate and ecological emergency and then to follow up with pressure to fully inform the public, pressure to set up People’s Assemblies and Citizen’s Assemblies on Climate and pressure to enact a full (and just) emergency transition- to the extent that this can be achieved at the local level. Resources are here. However, I suggest that September is not a good month for this. Queensland has just had council elections and Victoria will have them in October. In Victoria, the council will be heading into caretaker mode and I’m not sure that trying to intervene in council elections is a good role for XR to take (let others try - our system is broken).

In October we cold stay on a gas/build back better focus or move to fires/weather depending on what is happening. Also happening in late October is the Queensland election with coal likely to be a major issue and the possibility of a hung parliament - with either Greens or Ronnie Katter in the balance of power. The pernicious influence of media monopolies and fossil fuel money will be on display and Tell the Truth actions could be timely, as could broader messaging on existential threat.

Another note-worthy event around then is the US election on 3 November. The US will pull out of the Paris Agreement the next day. There may be internationally coordinated actions around then.

Major events like the Sustainable Living Festival and various music festivals are being cancelled right through to March 2021. I think we will have at least six months of pandemic affected campaigning so let’s make our Wave 1 local actions count, not just to build the movement but also to gain media coverage of our message and to win victories at the local level.

So … [if I knew how to make this into a poll, I’d do that. Can anyone help? @ManicMax? @ageorge?]

Question 1: do you agree that Wave 1 consists of monthly local group actions?

Question 2: do you agree that we aim to coordinate the monthly actions so they occur mostly in a particular week of a month?

Question 3: do you agree that we aim for one or more shared themes for the actions in a particular month?

: Question 4: if we are doing coordinated local group actions in September should the date be:
(a) the week starting Sept 1 (or possibly August 28 - that’s when the UK starts)?
(b) the week 19-24 Sept approx - before SS4C?
© the week starting 26 Sept - after SS4C?

Question 5: for your chosen date, should we aim for a shared theme and similar targets and if so, what should that shared theme and targets be?

[extinction1234567 (Jaytodaro)]

just to get the responses started; as you know Jane I agree with proposals 1,2 and 3.
4. i’m thinking that we aim for a week of action after SS4C for two reasons. 1. i think there’s a chance of our actions overshadowing them if we go first. i prefer the idea of an implicit escalation where they go first. 2. gives the higher-risk action planning that’s happening now more time to prepare (which may be needed)
5. thinking a shared theme should be anti-gas recovery. seems to be the most relevant and arguably most serious climate issue in Aus right now

[Vee (Violet CoCo)]

Great Jane! Yeah I think that we should be aiming for local groups to all go out at the same time. That would be very powerful. Not sure about sharing action themes, I think people create the art to what is powerful to them. Also too much prescription is uninspiring.

I like the idea of doing the first week of every month, but it might be too soon for that, as September 1 is so close and mobilisers are only forming our first groups now. The week after the school strike would be really powerful, hold up the momentum that they create.

[the-river-jordan (Jordan)]

In reference to your question @JaneM about discussion being spread across multiple threads, the initial question I asked at the head of this thread was to the Actions WG, to vision what work we need to do to roll out wave 1, and support groups. I wanted to have discussion about what capacities we need to grow within the working group.

I identified a few questions I think we need to answer as part of the work we need to do as the Actions WG for the roll out of wave 1. This thread has detoured into trying to actually answer some of those particular questions which is jumping beyond the scope of the initial conversation I had hoped to have here.

All good discussion but all I was aiming for in this thread was to identify the things to discuss rather than start discussing them.

[Mad_Mattho (Peter Matthison)]

Personally, the “gas led recovery” strikes me as being the newest & most disastrous climate related thing (excluding covid?) that has happened lately in Australia in my opinion, it has far-reaching consequences that span decades in their intention, and it needs to be exposed and opposed. It must be on-the-nose for many Australians, it stinks of corruption, it blatantly bypasses democracy, and it will be disastrous for ecosystems and climate, it is a great “theme”. I personally think we should consider opposing the gas led recovery as our primary message during wave 1, synchronised, all around the country. And, I think as generally elder people in comparison to the school strikers, we have an obligation to support the school strikers as much as possible, the XR way of doing things may be to ask them directly what they would like us to do re timing of this if that is possible? Pretty sure I have heard Greta say that it is time for civil disobedience, well, lets bring it… I think the minimum commitment we should ask of groups is monthly actions, they can always do more, and yes, I think synchronised… Just my 2 cents worth…

[MaxCurmi (Max)]

1. I think maybe I month per month as a recommended minimum but groups should be encouraged to go hard, actions every week is actually very achievable for local groups. I think working towards a coordinated launch on sep 1.
2. Yeah maybe the first week of every month
3. Tea shard themes, if the they are general and core messaging
4. Messaging should be about demands and not about reactive things like the “gas led recovery”, we are about structural political change, talk about the political failure not that that did this tike, it’s tired and old.

[MaxCurmi (Max)]

Reposting this from the other thread. Let’s stick the core reason XR exists and why It has actual value in the broader political environment, XR is not special because of its culture or anything superficial like that. XR is proposing a political solution to political crisis, citizens assembly’s are XR’s forward facing strategy with vision. Make sure everyone knows this is why we are blocking them, they are not gonna get it unless we spell it out and actually tell the truth ourselves in plain English.
Let’s focus on this difference rather than jostling with every other NGO to be the quickest to react to whatever thing is happening that day, ie gas or coal or covid
I’m really keen to see our core messaging for September focus on the Demands, especially demand 2 and 3 which to me we not highlighted enough last year and are our core business. I think our messaging needs to focus on why we are on the road/taking the disruptive action, rather than our XR or “rebel identity”, (which I know is off putting to many people who otherwise like the plan). The demands are our points of unity, they are simple and clear.

Below are some suggestions to maybe brainstorm around?

“Net Zero Emissions by 2025”, “Binding Citizens Assembly on Climate”, “We are on track for Extinction”, “Let’s Flatten this curve too” (accompanied with hockey stick graph). I think featuring these messages alongside banners like “Join the Rebellion” also play very well and are a call to action. Also things like “Rebel Against Ecological Collapse”?

Below are some examples of how they could look (more color and art could definitely be applied but also simplicity cuts through well.

[extinction1234567 (Jaytodaro)]

on 2. i might be ignorant of some key information here, but from my understanding there seems to be better dates for the first coordinated actions, as there are already coordinated actions on the 4th september (international tell the truth actions including in SA and NSW) and in late september in vic.
i think you’ve made me uncertain of my position with 3 and 4. i agree with you that having contextually themed messaging could get in the way of our core messaging. but i’m also thinking it could be important to include significant climate-related issues with our core-messaging , because ideas like a gas-led recovery seem like such important ideas to push back on and raise awareness about. and the inclusion of issues like this can be quick and simple i think; something like “these are our three demands, this gas-led recovery, and the way its being pursued contradicts all of them.”
i’m thinking these might be things to add to the agenda tonight as well

[JaneM (Jane Morton)]

Happy to move the answers to questions away from the questions if @ManicMax or another admin can help. But can we leave the discussion here just for another day or so? (maybe we could have one topic for Wave 1 questions/topics, one topic for Wave 1 proposals, and a topic each for Wave 2 and Wave 3? (Seems a bit strange to me to separate the Wave 1 questions and the Wave 1 answers, but I’m not that fussed.)

I think we need to come to some sort of conclusion on what we are going to communicate about Wave 1 during September by tonight ideally - in time to take a proposal to the AusMM Coordinators Group. Or, failing that, at least come to a view on what to say about AusMM and local group actions in the Vic newsletter (deadline is Friday). And any other state or regional newsletters. We can’t start encouraging local groups to do local actions in September until we have some general idea what we are encouraging them to do and that overlaps with the question of what Wave 1 actually is. I’m coming at this from a Media and Messaging perspective. We’ve been asked to do some ‘launch’ promotional materials but that’s impossible till it’s clear what we are launching. And unless we decide soon, then it’s getting a bit late to be coordinating any actions in September.

[JaneM (Jane Morton)]

It’s important to remember that a lot of local XR groups have formed and burned out already. I think we should be encouraging them to do a week that has an action in it, a week that has an outreach/movement building action in it, a week where they do rebel ringing and checking in on all the group’s rebels - especially those who are new or who have dropped out, and a week off. The movement building and movement support functions are also important - and so is time off if we are going to keep going with this for a year or more.

[JaneM (Jane Morton)]

Yes I am definitely not suggesting we go to gradualist-style “100% renewables” style messaging. Any themes we used would definitely come back to the three demands, existential threat and the core XR messaging. So yes, if we did gas, it would be “gas-fired recovery=climate collapse” “our political system is broken”, “gas is cooking our mother” (picture of burning earth), “business as usual = death”, “Extinction … or rebellion” etc. I know we have been using #BuildBackBetter, but even that is a bit gradualist for me.

[extinction1234567 (Jaytodaro)]

@JaneM, @Mad_Mattho @ManicMax left the actions meeting early yesterday, so this might have changed. but there was consent to propose october 1st as a new launch date to the coordinators today. Before we encourage local groups to do something, the sequencing of actions needs to be sorted. So one reason there’s a proposed new date is because that’s when Sydney’s rebellion is starting. We need to work out if we want to encourage local groups to do actions on the rebellion days, or if they should have a day of action on their own. i’m not sure what the answer is to that one.
Something else we need to sort is when the vic actions should be done. Should they be on the same days as the Sydney rebellion actions? Or should they be in late september, before the Sydney rebellion (28th-30th)?
Re timing of coordinated actions into the future, is there enough buy- in in this thread for monthly, themed coordinated actions to be proposed to the coordinators meeting (we didn’t get a chance to see if there was any objections in the actions meeting)?

i also think if the things that need to get sorted out don’t tonight, then an emergency meeting should be proposed to work through it more. we obviously have a tight deadline, but i think these issues and others like the ones mentioned can’t be rushed and need sufficient discussion to figure out the best way forward

[JaneM (Jane Morton)]

I’m not in any rush @extinction1234567 it was only the pressure to come up with messaging for the Vic newsletter that was creating a deadline. If Actions don’t particularly want anything to go in the newsletter then let’s leave it for a while. Just checking - is there a launch date for the mobilisation project and another launch date for some synchronised (or unsynchronised) local group actions or are these two launches one and the same?

[extinction1234567 (Jaytodaro)]

oh righto. i think it’d be ideal to have something in the newsletter, but if the issues can’t get sorted tonight or tomorrow due to capacity then there isn’t much we can do about it it seems. but if it’s worked out after the newsletter goes out, i can just let all of the lg’s know about the exact plan.i’ve already explained mass mobilisation and have said that there’s going to be coordinated actions in late september or early october to most of them. so it won’t take that long or be too complex to update them with just a little more info. i’m thinking we could let them know all at once via the communication channel that can be set up soon for all of the lg’s (probably mattermost.). and for those who can’t get onto it i’ll just call

with the launch date question, that’s something still to be decided.