Will XR’s tilt towards the mainstream pay off?

As Clare Farrell, co-founder of the activist group, Extinction Rebellion took to the stage in central London on Friday, she heralded a new era for the fight against climate change.

This weekend, XR, as the group is known for short, said 50,000 people were expected to descend on Parliament Square to participate in the so-called Big One climate protest.

The event has been billed as a family-friendly, non-disruptive gathering, according to the organisers, with 200 groups from charities to trade unions taking part. It will also mark a departure from the civil disobedience that brought the group fame.

The four-day protest is a litmus test for XR since it announced it was dropping public disruption “as a primary tactic” to focus on building co-operation. But will tilting towards the mainstream help the rebels create a movement of unprecedented scale?

Founded in the UK in 2018, XR refers to itself as a flat organisation with no leaders although two of its original co-founders, Farrell and Gail Bradbrook, play prominent roles.

From the start, its has been divisive. With nonviolent civil disobedience at its core, it has blocked roads, embraced arrest and clashed with commuters after attempting to halt a London tube.

XR has used public disruption “almost as a form of lobbying” to bring climate change to the attention of governments, said Clare Saunders, professor in environmental politics at Exeter university.

The focus on disobedience has brought it fame and helped catapult its demands for drastic action to prominence, but also made it deeply unpopular with the public.

A survey by polling company YouGov this year showed that while three-quarters of 1,200 Britons polled had heard of XR, only 16 per cent liked them.

But at the same time, XR has drawn a huge following from both the UK and further afield: more than 185,000 people have signed up to receive its emails in Britain alone.

During 2019, it successfully rallied thousands of people to take part in its protests, many for the first time, both in the UK and in other parts of the world such as the US and Australia.

In recent years, the group has sought to hone its message by focusing on the financial industry’s role in backing fossil fuels, in a campaign dubbed “Money Rebellion”.

Civil disobedience has been front and centre of this project. Activists have broken windows at banks, interrupted shareholder meetings and encouraged businesses to withhold tax payments.

Alongside this it has taken a softer approach of meeting financial industry insiders with climate concerns. “Any decent capitalist has a problem with what’s going on,” Bradbrook told the Financial Times.

On Friday morning, XR’s new stance appeared to be paying off. While the rain kept large crowds away, well-known environmental organisations such as Greenpeace were visible.

Members of the House of Lords lent their backing, including former Archbishop of York Lord John Sentamu and Liberal Democrat peer and environmental protection advocate Lady Kate Parminter.

More than 300 business people took part in a side protest at the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero on Friday, later joining the main event.

The non-disruptive approach had “brought businesses on to the streets who might not have come otherwise”, said Ben Tolhurst, a director at Business Declares, a non-profit network.

Beau O’Sullivan, a strategist at Bank on Our Future, a campaign group, said he knew many people who are “rejoicing at the fact that [XR] have joined up with the likes of Greenpeace”. Bringing groups together at a peaceful event could help “legitimise” the movement, he added.

The protest has also received large financial backing from the public. It has already raised £270,000 through crowdfunding.

One of the movement’s unlikely foot soldiers is Sally Davidson, a 35-year-old primary school teacher in south London. She has been arrested 14 times and has five convictions for criminal damage, obstruction and failure to disperse.

Criminality of this kind by middle-class people is “less taboo than it was”, she said, adding that the school she works had been supportive.

For Davidson, leaving civil disobedience behind is about removing “barriers to mass participation”. “About 80 per cent of people in the UK already say they are concerned about the climate, so we don’t need to be popular,” she said.

The point is to build consensus across those already interested in climate protection, she added to bring “more of a challenge to government inaction”.

Still, not everyone is convinced about XR’s pivot away from disruptive tactics. Speaking at the protest, Linda, 67, from Battersea said radical action played an important role in keeping the spotlight on climate change. “It angers a lot of people, but for others it makes them think.”

Even XR itself seems to be unsure over whether to shun its radical roots. This week, the group threatened “unprecedented” disobedience if the government refused their demands. It had asked ministers to stop support for the fossil fuel sector and to set up citizen assemblies.

Alanna Byrne, a XR activist, said groups involved in the Big One needed to continue working together beyond this weekend: “We have to help people to understand people power, that people can change things.” But she added: “We know we need to remain radical. We can’t go soft on this situation.”