Mistaken Identity: XR Business is no more.

A letter to the Extinction Rebellion community from Gail Bradbrook in response to the issues arising from the creation of an entity called XR Business in April 2019.

Hi Everyone,

I’m Gail Bradbrook from Extinction Rebellion based in the UK. I have been supporting a group of people associated with the business sector to think about what Extinction Rebellion means to them. A similar process has happened for arts and culture, for academics, and for various other communities of interest. This independent group formed in a busy period without full involvement of Media and Messaging and wider teams.

The entity, formerly known as ‘XR Business’, will now be more clearly communicated and branded: it is not part of Extinction Rebellion.

It will obviously therefore no longer be called ‘XR Business’.

It is essentially similar to ‘Culture Declares Emergency’ in format (also not part of Extinction Rebellion but closely related in ideas and vision), though challenging and educating business and finance, rather than culture in Extinction Rebellion demands and the reality of our global Emergency:

https://sites.google.com/view/culturedeclaresemergency/home

I believe this engagement and dialogue with communities beyond our comfort zone is vital, and having met with their team who have done some great groundwork and were eager to address concerns over naming and communication, I am confident this will create a valuable channel towards massive systemic change we need as a planet! We need to throw all our expertise at this, driving real change from the inside and out.

I sincerely apologise for the confusion and anxiety this has caused. What this shows is the need to be in much better communications with the XR community.

I also believe that additional, very radical messaging from some business and finance leaders regarding the need for systemic change is also needed and I would welcome that. If that is possible we will take wider feedback before anything becomes official.

I hope this helps, with my colleague William Skeaping we will be on a zoom call at midday UK time on Monday 29th April:

https://zoom.us/j/981619575

Sending love to colleagues across the world. Dr. Gail Bradbrook

Ps. I have a YouTube video on economics if anyone is interested in my personal view on the subject.

Gail Bradbrook Extinction Rebellion Co-Founder Movement Strategy and Finance teams