It’s Time For a Survival Rebellion

According to the IPCC, we have less than 12 years to save what’s left of life on planet earth. This is a conservative estimate, especially when you consider that for many species it is already too late.

Some people think the best way of mitigating, or preventing the end of everything is to persuade the last few activists on planet earth to voluntarily get themselves arrested and do time in prison for the cause.

The thinking behind this strategy is based on the false assumption that Government can be persuaded to do the right thing by making ‘demands’ of it. In reality though, Government is not capable of doing the right thing, because it is owned and operated by corporate interests.

The same people who think we should all participate in mass sacrificial actions have now crowdfunded over £200, 000. This money is being used to pay the monthly salaries of a small ‘core group’, to rent posh office spaces, to print vinyl banners and to hire venues for talking shops and ‘indoor festivals’.

This ‘core group’ have recently announced that they will not be using these funds to support those who have been arrested. They will not contribute towards the cost of travel to court hearings or to pay court fines. In cases of ‘exceptional hardship’, they might stump up something towards travel costs.

“Legal – expenses
Dear Local and Affinity Groups,
Ahead of actions please make sure that Rebels who might get arrested have enough personal finances to cover travel to court in the event that they are charged. You may wish to ensure these financial resources by fundraising as a group so that the ones who are putting themselves on the line can feel safe that their court travel costs are covered and will be able to defend themselves in court. Also, please keep in mind that if your Rebels are arrested away from your local area they will need to travel to where they were arrested at least 2-3 times to attend hearings and court dates.

Central XR Finances don’t pay for court travel costs. XR Legal Support has a small hardship fund for court travel costs. Please contact xr-legal@riseup.net.
 
Finance – correction
We need to correct an item in our last newsletter: XR at a UK national level does not make a commitment to pay for arrestee support because: a) local fundraising is a way to share our information and garner support, b) we are concerned that this cost could grow beyond what we can cope with, c) there are currently insufficient funds. We are investigating the possibility of a hardship fund. We can offer support to help groups get crowd fundraisers off the ground locally- they were written about here some time ago. In exceptional cases of financial hardship, XR Legal supports rebels to pay for their travel to court (xr-legal@riseup.net).”

From XR newsletter #13

I can’t help but wonder if they will be funding the cost of ‘rebels’ (sic) attending Glastonbury and the rest of the UK’s festival circuit this year…

We urgently need a Survival Rebellion to fight against the stupidity of ecological collapse, to share top survivalist tips, to help us all prepare for what’s to come and to resist those who are intent on turning a profit out of all the panic, confusion and despair.

So today, I have launched a new twitter account – @SurvivalRebel

I might even go so far as to build a website to accompany it.

#SurvivalRebellion is not a ‘movement’ or even a ‘mobilisation’ really. It’s just a cheeky hashtag and twitter account, to offer a zero-carbon, zero-budget alternative to ‘the only game in town’ at the moment.

The plan is to focus on sharing news and information related to preparedness, deep adaptation, mitigation and radical resistance tactics, like anonymously monkeywrenching the fossil fuel criminals.

#SurvivalRebellion pledges NEVER to fleece money off our supporters to pay our small core group’s monthly salaries, nor to rent posh office space, nor to print vinyl banners, nor to put on carbon intensive, 3,000 capacity ‘indoor festivals’ at £20 a ticket…etc etc

Here’s a transparent .png of the #SurvivalRebellion logo, a cunning variation on the (explicitly non commercial) Extinction Symbol which was appropriated by that other group, who have raised over £200k using it.

UPDATE – some people were bothered by the provenance of that logo, so I’ve updated it.

If you’re interested, you can read more about why I decided to quit Extinction Rebellion, here.

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