just to get the responses started; as you know Jane I agree with proposals 1,2 and 3.
4. iâm thinking that we aim for a week of action after SS4C for two reasons. 1. i think thereâs 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 thatâs 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
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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.
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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.
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Personally, the âgas led recoveryâ 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 âthemeâ. 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 worthâŠ
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- 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.
- Yeah maybe the first week of every month
- Tea shard themes, if the they are general and core messaging
- Messaging should be about demands and not about reactive things like the âgas led recoveryâ, we are about structural political change, talk about the political failure not that that did this tike, itâs tired and old.
Reposting this from the other thread. Letâs 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 assemblyâs are XRâs 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.
Letâs 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
Iâm 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 ârebel identityâ, (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?
âNet Zero Emissions by 2025â, âBinding Citizens Assembly on Climateâ, âWe are on track for Extinctionâ, âLetâs Flatten this curve tooâ (accompanied with hockey stick graph). I think featuring these messages alongside banners like âJoin the Rebellionâ also play very well and are a call to action. Also things like âRebel Against Ecological Collapseâ?
Below are some examples of how they could look (more color and art could definitely be applied but also simplicity cuts through well.
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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 youâve 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 iâm 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 âthese are our three demands, this gas-led recovery, and the way its being pursued contradicts all of them.â
iâm thinking these might be things to add to the agenda tonight as well
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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 Iâm 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 canât 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. Iâm coming at this from a Media and Messaging perspective. Weâve been asked to do some âlaunchâ promotional materials but thatâs impossible till itâs clear what we are launching. And unless we decide soon, then itâs getting a bit late to be coordinating any actions in September.
Itâs 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 groupâs 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.
Yes I am definitely not suggesting we go to gradualist-style â100% renewablesâ 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 âgas-fired recovery=climate collapseâ âour political system is brokenâ, âgas is cooking our motherâ (picture of burning earth), âbusiness as usual = deathâ, âExtinction ⊠or rebellionâ etc. I know we have been using #BuildBackBetter, but even that is a bit gradualist for me.
@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 thereâs a proposed new date is because thatâs when Sydneyâs 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. iâm 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 didnât 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 donât 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 canât be rushed and need sufficient discussion to figure out the best way forward
Iâm 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 donât particularly want anything to go in the newsletter then letâs 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?
oh righto. i think itâd be ideal to have something in the newsletter, but if the issues canât get sorted tonight or tomorrow due to capacity then there isnât much we can do about it it seems. but if itâs worked out after the newsletter goes out, i can just let all of the lgâs know about the exact plan.iâve already explained mass mobilisation and have said that thereâs going to be coordinated actions in late september or early october to most of them. so it wonât take that long or be too complex to update them with just a little more info. iâm thinking we could let them know all at once via the communication channel that can be set up soon for all of the lgâs (probably mattermost.). and for those who canât get onto it iâll just call
with the launch date question, thatâs something still to be decided.
Regarding the OPâs question of visioning the action waves, I think itâs important to keep in mind the goals of each of the waves.
Wave 1âs core goal is to build movement power for waves 2 and 3.
Wave 2âs core goal is to build movement power for wave 3 by disrupting state capitals.
Wave 3âs core goal is to make the boulder move, with government forced to make concessions or (better yet) give in to our demands.
Wave 1 as it is stated at the moment has as itâs core goal to build movement capacity to plan and carry out civil disobedience actions, and normalize civil disobedience. For this reason Iâm against anything that reduces the accessibility, ease or eagerness for groups to carry out actions. So to answer these questions:
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It consists of more-or-less monthly actions, but groups should be free to change the length of the cycle to suit the needs of the group. Intense action-based affinity groups should be free to do actions multiple times a month if they want to. Groups with time-stressed members or organizers should be free to do actions less frequently - every 6 weeks, or even once in wave 1 and then plan to take part in wave 2.
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Once we have a decent number of groups acting I think it would be interesting to explore the idea of a synchronized day of action - but until then Iâd prefer groups to be free to carry out their actions at the time most appropriate for themselves.
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This could be interesting to explore, but we should keep in mind that this is a national mobilisation and some communities may have pertinent issues to do with the climate emergency that they might want to theme their actions on - Andy, for example, set up a new local group in Wollembi, who were keen to oppose the planned opening of a coal mine in their area. XR Forests might prefer to do actions themed on deforestation. Itâs all part of the climate emergency though, and all of these issues need a joined up systemic response, so thatâs why all these groups will come and shut the cities down in Wave 2.
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I think we shouldnât coordinate a synchronized start to wave 1. Wave 1 is local groups demonstrating collective power by carrying out regular actions in their communities. It will take time to set up new groups, and to invite old groups to take part. So picture Wave 1 not as a tidal wave, but as a snowball gathering size and speed.
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Nah, I donât think we should, as it would slow us down. Better to start working on the messaging for wave 2.
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@ManicMax So under your proposal there would be no launch date and no particular guidance or support for doing anything in particular in September or October? I think that would be a pity.
I completely agree that some affinity groups have their own priorities and there will be groups of experienced and well-connected rebels doing actions on forests, media, gas, councils ⊠no matter what we do.
But what about the less well connected local group members who used to meet weekly but whose local groups have been in âhibernationâ in recent months?
I think a week of action, or even a day of action, in September or early October would provide an energising focus and a reason to get back together and become active. Especially if fragile local groups didnât have to do all the extra conceptual work to come up with potential targets, messaging, leaflets etc.
I agree that one purpose of local group actions is to practice for bigger actions but thatâs not a very energising message: âcome block the street on Saturday to practice for blocking the streets in the state capital ⊠on a date that is yet to be determinedâ??
I think that our actions could be limited by the pandemic well into next year. Why not make use of this time to do something useful? Local actions fulfil their movement building purpose better if their actions have some point to them!
I think a coordinated âWeâre back!â wave of local actions would be far better for movement building. And thereâs the added bonus that they could quite possibly win some outcomes - again much better for movement building.
In this case the message goes something like:
âOur broken political system is using the pandemic as a cover for funneling money to the industries that are killing us. While we have been in isolation to protect our communities, gas and coal has been expanding and our few unburnt forests are being logged. In the last week of September and the first week of October, XR returns to the streets to amplify the voices of school strikers marching on 25 September by rebelling for life. Which do you choose - extinction or rebellion? Hereâs an action pack with ideas for local group actions and hereâs a person who can support your group in mobilising.â
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Not at all! We have action recipes, we have campaign messaging packs, and we have rebels who can help the group through the process of getting together and carrying out their first action.
We can do synchronised âweeks of actionâ but I would still encourage groups to do actions in times suitable for them.
This is perfect.
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@the-river-jordan @JaneM @ManicMax @ageorge @Vee @laura @Mad_Mattho
Have a concern with monthly civil disobedience saturdays; are most groups going to be able to prepare an impactful action every month in a way that doesnt burn groups out? If not, i propose the suggested cycle should be moved to 6 weeks. It could then be adjusted to be more regular if thatâs whatâs preferred in the feedback
I think the keyword here is impactful - these actions arenât designed to bring about change in and of themselves, but rather to be building skills and community, so I think monthly is good. Every 6 weeks is difficult to remember when the last one was, is difficult to market (eg first saturday of the month etc).
If these are easy actions, following a template or something theyâve created, and running for only a short time frame (eg a 5 min roadblock or a 20 min die in), then I think monthly should be possible. No group is obligated to do it monthly either - I think they can skip some if they are burning out.
But we need to be clear that these arenât designed to be huge, red actions every month and their shouldnât be a tonne of work involved in them.
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I think it will evolve exactly how often local groups do actions, and whether there is any coordination on dates and themes. The most urgent thing to decide is how to engage local groups in the upcoming wave of rebellion that is occurring in Sydney in early October and in many other places in the first week of October. Itâs a nightmare trying to have this discussion across multiple platforms so Iâve created a Signal chat that brings together groups that are planning actions in early October with Media and Messaging crew who can assist. @Laura would you like me to add you?
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We need to normalise civil disobedience in our culture (xr/broader) of activism otherwise weâre gonna get nowhere. the idea is that a mini roadblock is not much more difficult than asking people to sign petitions outside a mall. Also itâs about creating jingles , marketability. If we get local news reporters saying âXR as part of âcivil disobedience saturdaysâ across the nation⊠theyâre saying that instead of taking your kids to soccer on the weeekend take them to civil disobedeince saturdays to protect their futureâŠââ that kind of messaging can take off across the country⊠and it encourages everyone to do it!!
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