Thread by @RogerHallamCS21

theguardian.com/environment/20…

1/"The environmental protesters who demand systemic change have also grasped this fundamental truth. In Fridays for Future, Green New Deal Rising, Extinction Rebellion and the other global uprisings against systemic environmental collapse, we see people..

2/ …mostly young people, refusing to consent. What they understand is history’s most important lesson. Our survival depends on disobedience." There are so many things wrong with this. First, "environmental protest" is the opposite of creating "systemic change".

3/ The latter is brought about by civil resistance. This is not "environmental" it is a political movement against a genocidal regime. It is not "protest" - it does not protest about something, it makes sure it changes through material disruption.

4/ Civil resistance typically involves hundreds in prison, and tens of thousands of arrests. Don’t fetishise the young - they are at present overwhelming captured by NGO narratives of performative action and embedded in self pitying vulnerability narratives…

5/ ..,pushed by radical left "duty of care" ideologies. Civil resistance is driven by a "duty to revolt". Actual civil disobedience around the world on climate is being driven by women over 50.

6/ Fridays for Future, Green New Deal Rising and XR are absolutely NOT involved in uprisings - an uprising is an episode of civil resistance. The gate keepers in these spaces are dedicated to stopping an uprising "because people get hurt".

7/ The situation on climate is totally fucked because the climate movements have NOT learnt that that survival depends on disobedience. Only when they lose all hope will they became rebels and put their lives on the line. Till then we aren’t even in the ballpark of survival.