Community

Building the Community

From May 2023, Extinction Rebellion will build on the momentum of The Big One, doubling down on the coalition building work, building both power and resilience. This will be achieved by: Growing the movement through coalition-building: continued coalition building through deepening and strengthening relationships nationally and locally Growing XR UK: through invitation and resonance, recruiting not just more rebels, but a wider spectrum of supporters Growing Stronger: strengthening Extinction Rebellions underlying systems, with a new focus on data capture, analysis and use for growth, and strengthening the internal ‘Self-Organising System’

XR UK will aim to return to the seat of power in Westminster only when it has the ingredients required to confront Parliament and return day after day. Until then action targets should be chosen by how much they will resonate with, not alienate, the public. XR UK's current strategic objective of direct action is to widen the spectrum of support. This will gain us the social and political capital we need to build momentum towards a pivotal moment in history. Ongoing NVDA remains critical and central to our Theory of Change.

Growing the Community: Coalition building

Collaboration with other groups achieved through the clear asks of The Big One will be used to catalyse a much deeper focus on coalition building. A mass community of civil resistance will need to be grown, strengthened, and coordinated. Joint decision-making will be needed to ensure the community is strong, representative and agile. The methods Extinction Rebellion develops for coordination will be based on the 10 Characteristics of a Healthy Community (see page 10).

Community Bases of Power

More focus on coalition building on both the national and local level will allow all groups to develop sources of political power to be drawn on when needed. This means our groups turning out to support other movements and communities, across the social spectrum. We can be clearly identified as XR but respectful of the collective, and supportive of wider aims than our own. Taking our place at the heart of communities will enable us to be a more effective resistance as well as prepare for transitions and adaptation.

Growing the Community: Most affected diasporas

Our leading BIPOC-mobilisation project, UNIFY, is coordinated by extraordinary individuals, who have a deep understanding of identity-based communities, as well as diaspora and asylum seekers from climate affected areas in the Global South. In order for these communities to be empowered to join and to participate in Extinction Rebellion, the organising must be led from within them. This project is critical to enabling greater numbers of rebels from these communities to join us. Extinction Rebellion will ramp-up diaspora mobilising, but led by those communities, and empowering their groups with support for their activities. Two projects focusing on embedding justice will be expanded in 2023. Justice Dialogues is a project creating open spaces for dialogue and enquiry into the topics of decolonisation and climate justice. It has been designed (in conjunction with an expert facilitator from the Global South and a Black British academic specialising in international justice) to be rolled out to local groups. In addition a Race Allyship Agreement is currently being agreed with several leading Black community activist organisations which will define and guide proactive interaction between XR and the BIPOC community.