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Getting support from XRUK

There are hundreds of actions a month across the UK. Supporting and promoting every one is impossible. The UK teams also have their own strategies, messaging and comms plans, so will always be on the look out for actions that feed into that.

XRUK can offer different types of support: ideas, logistics, money, comms, legal support etc.

There are three routes in for a group looking for support from XRUK:

  1. Action Support via the Actions Carousel
  2. Arrestee & Legal Support direct from the ALS team
  3. Promotion on XRUK channels via the Comms Request Form

And if there is any likelihood of arrests happening during the action, then inform the Back Office team so that your rebels can be supported.

1. Action support via the Actions Carousel

To get support from the XRUK actions circles (Actions, Action Support, Production, Creative, comms advice, etc), bring your action to the Actions Carousel.

To do this, you can email them here: XR-action@protonmail.com. If you don't get a reply, contact the Internal Coordinator of Actions Circle. If you don't know who that is or don't have their contact details, ask your national/regional action person (e.g. your Actions EC should be linked into the XRUK Action Planning Circle, which is a subcircle of XRUK Actions) - or if that fails, you can ask your national/regional EC to chase down the contact details of the XRUK Actions IC via the Hive.

2. Arrestee and Legal Support

The XRUK Arrestee and Legal Support team can provide:

  • Legal briefings for actions
  • Backoffice support for actions with a potential risk of arrest
  • Post arrest support for rebels.

For more information on what Arrestee and Legal Support can provide check out these pages of the Toolkit.

3. Promotion on XRUK channels via the Comms Request Form

Your action is much more likely to be promoted on XRUK channels if it is approved as a UK Action by the Actions Carousel.

Whether you follow that route or not, you still need to submit your action through the Comms Request Form. Filling out the Comms Request Form is the most important step to getting your action promoted on XR's UK channels.

For spicy actions please don’t fill in the form - contact Action Circle directly: xr-action@protonmail.com

>>> Comms Request Form <<<

These are the channels you can request via the form:

  • Movement Calendar and Events Map: if you're organising an action, get it added to the calendar and map. This is the best way for everybody - existing rebels and members of the public - to find your action (the XRUK website directs people to the map). As well as submitting via the form, you can also speak directly to your national/regional calendar admin, or even learn how to add stuff directly. Find out more on the Movement Calendar and Events Map page.

  • Rebellion Broadcast: Our Rebellion Broadcast Telegram channel is for key info on UK-wide actions, strategy and other updates. Telegram, Mattermost.

  • Movement Broadcast: This is a second Telegram broadcast channel, for UK-wide events and training . Telegram, Mattermost

  • Press: The XRUK press team publish press releases on the website and contact journalists to it picked up by media outlets

  • Social Media: Instagram, X, Faceook, TikTok, etc.

  • Email: an email sent to the XRUK mailing list

  • Website: get your action promoted on the XRUK website

  • Livestream: Events can be livestreamed on e.g. YouTube

Additional support you can request through the form
  • Spokespeople
  • Photographers
  • Videographers
  • Digital Rebellion (who can support with digital accompaniments to your action)

Working with XRUK M&M

If you are getting support from XRUK M&M (Media and Messaging) to promote your action, be aware this may lengthen the process as they will need to integrate your action into their existing work. So link up with them as early as possible to find out deadlines.

M&M will advise you on your action's messaging in order to make it fit well with their existing messaging and comms plans - so it’s best to be prepared to compromise so you can reach an agreement as quickly as possible. And get this sorted before progressing with any of your design work and creative assets.

Bottom line: if you are getting XRUK M&M support, you need XRUK M&M linked into your action team ASAP.

Working with XRUK Broadcast

If you are getting support from XRUK Rebellion Broadcast, draft a message - keep messages short and link out to further information. Consider the graphics, links, supporting documents and formatting. Read this style guide. The Broadcast team can offer support with this if needed.

Share your final copy via Broadcast Comms Telegram channel.

Give 2 weeks lead time, or more if possible, for your message to land. It can sometimes take weeks for a message to reach Local Group channels. Last minute messaging can be counterproductive.

Messages are checked and edited by the Broadcast Comms team for consistency and accessibility. The rep who brought the final post is tagged in the Broadcast Comms Telegram channel and a thumbs up must be given before the message is signed off.

POSTED! The message is broadcast and can then be shared further.

Do not share messages before they’ve been broadcast. The messages need to be checked for accuracy and accessibility and it confuses people to see different versions of the same message doing the rounds.

The Telegram broadcasts are usually synced up with Mattermost, so people can see the messages on either channel - and cascade it further from there, if needed.

(To request a message for the Movement Broadcast share it to the XRUK Comms requests reception channel on Mattermost, or submit it through the Comms Requests Form.

Working with the XRUK Website Team

If the XRUK website team want to promote your action, here's some guidelines for collaborating:

Spec: the content of the page will need to be provided in a google doc, with the headings, content, videos, making sure that any bullets are formatted, any links to other pages already defined. Graphics with the following specs can be within the document or can be provided separately. If they are not in the doc, please mark in the document where graphics to be placed

Hero image will provide a main page heading that will overlay the hero image, so you do not need the hero image to contain any text. The hero image spec for this to cater for all display sizes is 2048x850, ideally with the important image info in the top third of the image (or it'll get cut off on various display sizes). Then make the filename for the image something like [name-of-the-campaign].jpg share it with the website team.

Featured image: For campaigns pages we will require featured images so that when the page is shared it is image branded. Ideal featured images should have dimensions in the ratio 1.91:1, with bitmaps of 1200x630 which is a pretty optimal image size. This could be done either by delivering another 2048x850 hero image with file name [name-of-the-campaign]-featured-image.jpg and then webteam would use a graphics tool to crop a copy of that down to 1200x630 and then add it to the page. Or, ask a designer to supply a separate featured image file with above name and dimensions.

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