Newsletter 34: Hell and High Water

January 14, 2020 By XR Newsletter

Dear Rebels, Welcome to our first International Newsletter of the year. As a new decade dawns, we are faced with a world already on the brink of disaster. However, amid the grief and flames there are so many of us fighting hard to make this decade the one that finally brings change to a society – and ecology – that needs it more than ever. Australia and Indonesia have been facing floods and fires of unprecedented scale. In Indonesia, the tragedy is deepened by a lack of awareness, both within the country and beyond it. The crisis is largely being…

Australia Indonesia newsletter

Read full post

History Corner – Oil Wells Drilled in the Niger Delta and those who Oppose them

January 14, 2020 By XR Newsletter

From 1956 to Today | Nigeria With the UK government’s pre-election declaration of a moratorium on fracking, now would be a good time to look at the situation of people around the world who haven’t been so lucky and continue to bear the brunt of the energy-intensive demands of western economies. Through the process of globalisation, industrial processes and the mining of natural resources have largely been exported to the global South. It’s no accident that the strongest modern resistance movements have also arisen in these regions. As the scramble for the planet’s remaining fossil fuels intensifies, the lessons…

History Corner

Read full post

XR Unchained 12

January 14, 2020 By XR Newsletter

Colombo, Sri Lanka – in front of the Australian High Commission to demand climate action, part of an international #bushfirerebellion  in solidarity with Australia. Colombo, Sri Lanka – Holy Rosary Roman Catholic Sinhala School’s mural has finally been completed, depicting 4 endangered species (an elephant, fishing cat, blue whale and turtle) with a little girl to symbolise our interconnected ecosystem. Tokyo, Japan & LA, US – XR Tokyo and XR Los Angeles held a synchronised die-in on 21st December. Rebels lay before the Tokyo Tower and under the LA Grove holiday tree at at the same time, live broadcasting…

XR Unchained

Read full post

Newsletter 33: Good COP Bad COP

December 18, 2019 By XR Newsletter

Dearest rebels, welcome to the last XR Newsletter of the year – and indeed, the decade. We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for everything you do. Whether you are a donor, volunteer, brave arrestable or quiet supporter, rest assured you are vital to the movement and XR would not exist without you. Thank you. Today we bring you another mega-issue, bursting with stories from all around the world. Firstly, the results (or lack of them) during the COP in Madrid are proof enough that our leaders have abandoned their people. As you can read below, the…

COP25 dicobedience Global Hunger Strike History Corner Madrid

Read full post

XR Unchained 11

December 17, 2019 By XR Newsletter

Austria 5 DEC | Vienna. “Keep it in the ground” action outside the headquarters of the OPEC oil cartel. Australia 14 DEC | Glenelg beach, Adelaide. Watch the video: “Dressed in suits and carrying briefcases we buried our heads in the sand at Glenelg to symbolise the Government’s refusal to confront the climate and ecological crisis. As bushfires burn and smoke chokes our cities it’s imperative that the government follow through on Extinction Rebellion’s first demand by telling the truth through declaring a climate and ecological emergency. They must work with other institutions to communicate the urgency for change.”…

Read full post

History Corner – How An Environmental Newsletter Toppled a Dictatorship & Unified Europe

December 17, 2019 By XR Newsletter

The Peaceful Revolution of 1989 | East Germany This year saw the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. This iconic event is often seen as part of a broader world history – the dissolution of the USSR, the opening up of Eastern Europe, the end of the Cold War. But the fall of the Wall was also the culmination of a vast people-led protest movement in East Germany, a ‘Peaceful Revolution’ that had been growing throughout the 1980’s. The Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) was one of the most repressive and intrusive regimes to ever grace…

Read full post

Contra la Extinción, Somos Rebelión! COP25

December 14, 2019 By Extinction Rebellion

Raquel and Sergio stood with their hands glued to the inside of Zara’s display window kissing silently and smiling, with adrenaline, fear and love coursing between their lips. The cameras and curious eyes of hundreds of Christmas shoppers watched their intimacy from the other side of the glass, attracted by the rebels outside who were singing and shouting, with banners in their hands and rage in their hearts. From that perspective, the couple appeared to be holding a gesture of surrender. Hands up! Don’t move! It was a position of vulnerability that became clear when the Policía Nacional came to remove…

COP25 Madrid

Read full post

UK Newsletter #6: Vote for the Planet!

December 09, 2019 By XR Newsletter

(Sign up here to receive this newsletter in your inbox) Dear rebels, There’s no question: these are pivotal times. With the election at our doorsteps and the crisis already engulfing our homes, we’ll need deep resilience to face the challenges that lie ahead. But tomorow is the chance for a significant change. It’s your climate – your vote – your choice. Truly bee-yond politics: rebels were bringing the truth to all major parties’ ‘battle-buses’ Today we bring you news from around the UK. Focusing, of course, on the details of the…

Read full post

History Corner – Kinder Mass Trespass 1932

December 09, 2019 By XR Newsletter

Environmental issues are commonly dismissed as middle class concerns, reserved for those who have no more pressing issues affecting their daily lives. However, people from all classes and backgrounds share the same basic needs of drinkable water, breathable air and a non-toxic, habitable planet.  We also all need a connection to wilderness, to not be stuck in exclusively human- or even machine-mediated spaces. Long before concepts of ‘nature deficit disorder’ this was understood by city-dwellers who, working all week in the factories, or unemployed during times of economic depression, would look to the surrounding hill country in their free…

Read full post

Newsletter 32: “Yet My Hunger for Change Propels Me”

November 27, 2019 By Extinction Rebellion

Dearest rebels, it’s been a time of quiet but intense struggle on the front lines of the rebellion.  Since Monday 18th November more than five hundred people have taken part in the Global Hunger Strike. From Israel to India, Ecuador to Australia, New Zealand to the United Kingdom, we have all been united in our pain and our desperate desire for change. Following in the footsteps of great change-makers and peace-bringers such as Emmeline Pankhurst and Mahatma Gandhi, rebels have chosen to go hungry as a mark of their love for the Earth and all the life that it harbours. …

Amazon COP25 Global Hunger Strike newsletter NYT XR Russia

Read full post