Participating in Actions

Take Action Now

What can I do to start?

What can I do if I have an idea for an Action

Check out the separate book on Action Planning.

How the various Actions roles fit together

This diagram shows how the various roles involved in Actions work together and the typical journey a new volunteer would take in getting gradually more involved.

A version that allows you to zoom and pan around the diagram in more detail is available here.

  1. Starting in the centre, we see the various ways you might be recruited.

  2. You may not be able to phyiscally attend events and so opt for Home/Offsite roles.

  3. To start with you might simply turn up to an event and act as an Action Attendee.

  4. You may choose to become more engaged as a Non-Arrestable Action Participant. Note by non-arrestable, we mean that it is not your intention to be arrested. We cannot guarantee police response to our actions, however many actions are designed so that arrests are very unlikely.

  5. Once you have gained more experience, and/or been vouched for by someone known in the Actions teams, there are a group of roles that do carry a higher risk of arrest. Arrestable Action Participant, Overall Action Planning, Action Support Planning.

  6. Alternatively you may wish to consider some of the Street Support Roles that turn the Action plans into reality: Action Support, Media & Messaging, or Outreach roles.

As XR is radically inclusive anyone can go straight into any role except the pink ones which require prior experience and/or security verification.

Rebel Agreement

How we take action

All rebels are asked to follow our basic agreements. They provide a basis for trust so that both rebels and the public know what we can expect from each other.

Updated July 2024

Mic Check

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What is Mic Check?

It is a method to communicate with a large crowd without a PA system or megaphones.

How does it work?

If you hear someone shouting "MIC CHECK", also say "mic check" loudly, until everyone is quiet (or you can use the raised hand gesture to call for silence).

Then a person will ask a question or give direction. Everyone will call and respond (copy) so that a large crowd can hear. The message should be repeated until it reaches the edges of the group.

So if I said very slowly and clearly "we need to move from this site to site B, please follow the stewards" you would say in unison "we need to move from this site to site B, please follow the stewards" And the person next to you would say "we need to move from this site to site B, please follow the stewards".

It's not guaranteed stewards will always need to use mic checks, but it's a really useful tool to manage XR protest crowds 👍🏼 (and very cool when it happens as you realise it's a well oiled, connective collaborative collective - We are all crew 💚✊🏽).

Tips to make the technique effective

Speak in short sentences or phrases (the people around you need to hear the sentence, remember it and then repeat it).

Leave gaps between sentences so that the message can ripple out (don't speak the next sentence until you cannot hear the repeats in the crowd - this will tell you the message has spread far enough away).

If you had planned to give a speech, just go over the top key points (probably a maximum of 5 sentences).

Example

Greta giving an example of the Mic Check in 2018 Declaration of Rebellion.

Burner Phones

When on any action with a risk of arrest, DO NOT take your regular phone.

This is because the police can (and will) seize the phones of most people arrested, and as well as ending up with no phone, if the security on the phone is not super tight, they can copy everything from it whilst you are under arrest, putting you and other XR members at risk.

The best advice is to not take a phone with you at all, as burner phones can be expensive things to lose! If all you need is a couple of people's phone numbers, buy an old dumb phone. But if you absolutely need to take a smart phone (eg. you are taking photos at a spicy action), make sure that it has the bare minimum of information on it. Ensure it is not connected to any of your ordinary accounts (eg. email), and stick to the bare minimum of apps.

Burner phones should have saved only the numbers that are completely necessary. Save any contacts that are required with pseudonyms.

If you absolutely need to take your ordinary phone to an action, ensure you have a plan of someone who is much less likely to be arrested who you can give your phone to if things heat up. Ensure that they can return the phone to you when you're released.

Practical Tips for disabled protestors

Practical Tips for disabled protestors

Liberty has produced this helpful guide This includes sections on:

How to organise a more accessible protest

Liberty has produced a guide This includes sections on:

See also

Post Action Blues - a Guide to coming down to earth

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The last few years have been both a productive and challenging time for Extinction Rebellion. The movement has had to learn on its feet and adapt to a continuously changing landscape whilst experiencing new tactics from the police, and new laws from Parliament. Many conversations have been brought to light in the critiques of XR and we have seen some of the flaws within our own processes and systems.

However, we have changed the conversation. Through the action we take as a movement we continue to turn the focus upon the climate and ecological emergency. Through our creativity, adaptability and resilience we are all engaged in the mission of raising the alarm and remembering what it truly means to be humans as part of nature – that we are a part of the Earth.

We acknowledge that many communities are already living on the front lines of the climate and ecological emergency. These communities are already living a regenerative and resilient response in the face of the challenges, as the waters and temperatures rise. There is much to be learned from these communities and the cultures that are living on the front lines of the climate and ecological emergency.

A regenerative culture and regenerative action cycles are what can support this movement to sustain its work and to develop resilience in the face of the emergency. Reflection & learning are all part of the process of regenerative care and it feels as though there is much work to be done.

Practical Next Steps

On the frontline of activism we are confronted with many feelings. The impacts of the events, both positive and negative, can have long-lasting and wide reaching effects on the individuals involved. The action doesn’t end when you leave the site and go home; there could be social implications with court cases, family or workplace issues. Simultaneously, the emotional journey can unfold in subtle ways. People may feel isolated, alienated or estranged, filled with self doubt or even shame. The extent of the impact may not be apparent in the immediate aftermath of the action, and often can build over time if it is ignored.

Long-term involvement in emotionally demanding situations is easier to cope with when you have a way of being with and processing the emotional states that the situations evoke. Taking time to rest, reflect and recover after big actions is essential to processing these feelings and avoiding burnout, especially with the potential for more sustained and frequent attrition actions. Buddies, anchors, support from your Local Group, talking circles, and other ways we can resource ourselves. Exercise, time-out, nature, mediation, yoga, spending time with loved ones, can all support. Self-care is not selfish. Only by taking the time to refresh and renew ourselves as individuals can we collectively bring our best to future actions and ongoing commitments.

The Cycle of Regeneration

There is much to be learned from the cycles of nature and the patterns of the days and years. The Regenerative Action Cycle has been created from observations of these natural cycles and developed through indigenous wisdom and regenerative cultures. It is a way for us to plan, act, process and reflect in ways that are connected to a rhythm and cycle, bigger than ourselves.

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The Regenerative Action Cycle invites us to:

This then leads into the next steps for future actions:

Expanding Circles of Support

We are cultivating a culture in which we are invited to explore and empower our inner and collective resourcefulness. We can learn to draw on our own wisdom and learnings to be able to support ourselves and each other. We can do this through creating experiences of connection and safe spaces in which we are able to express ourselves and be heard and held.

The expanding circles of support are:

  1. You – Connect to yourself and your needs.
  2. Your buddy – Find someone who you can share support with.
  3. Your local/affinity/working group – connect as a community
  4. Local trained support – resourcing ourselves through trained support and input.
  5. XR Regenerative Culture – resources and services to support local regenerative culture advocates and individual activists.

Debrief! Debrief! Debrief!

Check-ins and debriefs are crucial, yet often omitted in the rush of an action or its aftermath. It can be beneficial to take a moment to ground yourselves, come together as a group and create a connected and caring atmosphere and enquire:

We advise:

Check ins during or immediately after an action → AG Check-in

Debrief 1-3 days after an action → Offsite Debrief

Ongoing talking circles/reflective spaces → Talking Circles

Connection, Gratitude and Celebration

Connection is one of the foundations of a Regenerative Culture. We live in an interdependent web of life; connecting with this web of life is the most natural, yet often most forgotten, aspect of what it is to ‘be’. It is essential for us to realise our potential as a species, characterised by our capacity to experience and express kindness, compassion and love in abundance.

Being grateful roots anything we do in an awareness of interconnectedness to all the causes and efforts that preceded us. Gratitude is a humbling process that helps us both diminish the limitations of our limited self and understand ourselves as a part of something bigger. Some people keep diaries or photo journals, or just a few moments of silent or vocal reflection at the start and end of every day.

Come together to celebrate in whatever way your community enjoys. Don’t forget to thank those who have supported you; your families and loved ones, partner groups friends and communities, for the support they have given. National celebrations and debrief will be arranged between national actions to gather lessons learned and feed into future actions.

Emotional Support

Trained Emotional Support Network (TESN) is a collective of professionals with experience in supporting people through emotional and psychological processes.

Grief Tending

Through grief we can expand our capacity to love. Many who love this earth and this life are experiencing grief in some form now. Coming together to grieve can help both our connection to each other, nature and help us stay resilient in the coming days.

Grief tending resources:

The Wild Edge of Sorrow (Francis Weller) The Smell of Rain on Dust (Martin Prechtel) The Healing Wisdom of Africa (Malidoma Somé)

Nature Connection

This can also be a good time to go and be in nature to recharge and restore yourself – sit under a tree, wander timelessly in the woods, stop and listen to the birds, nourish yourself with the beauty of the other than human world. Your practice can be deepened by dropping in to your senses and your breath, to take your body and your felt connection with the wild world for a walk. When you notice yourself drifting amongst your thoughts and with less connection to your environment, then you can return to feeling your connection with the earth, gravity pulling you in to it, and your breath.

Arrestee Support

Some rebels engaging in XR’s non-violent direct actions are willing to face arrest. We have a personal, and collective responsibility to support our rebels and need to foster a sustainable and regenerative approach to the consequences of nonviolent direct action. This process begins with adequate pre-action preparation and continues through to reliable post-arrest care. In doing so we are both extending care and compassion to each other, and ensuring the sustainability of our movement.

Please have a look at the Arrest Welfare web-page below for more information about the arrest cycle and the resources and training we have available to support our rebels through this process. Below we include a summary of some of the specific areas of support available.

Arrestee Welfare Webpage

Post Arrest Liaison (or PAL Support) can provide signposting to the above resources and also offers a sympathetic ear through telephone contact. Please email us at xr-arrestwelfare@protonmail.com if you’d like to arrange a PAL, placing ‘PAL Request’ in the subject heading.

We are also able to support you in making a self-referral to a trained talking therapist through the Trained Emotional Support Network. Just email us at XR-ArrestWelfare@protonmail.com and we can forward you the referral template.

The Arrest Welfare team also have a team of volunteers who provide Court Support and Accommodation for court appearances. Please email xr-arrestwelfare@protonmail.com if you would like to connect with these networks.

If you do not find your answer on these pages then please email the XR legal team at xr-legal@riseup.net

Travel Bursary Scheme

XRUK wants you to attend our upcoming events!

To be as inclusive as possible, a subsidy is available to Rebels who may find it difficult to meet the costs of travel, such as those with accessibility needs or who are on a low income. The bursary is available for selected actions.

Are you travelling by coach or public transport?

Apply to claim back the cost of your coach public transport tickets here

If you provide receipts for the cost of your travel, we may be able to reimburse you.

Is your group looking for support in paying for a coach?

We may be able to offer your group a loan to support the cost of hiring a coach. Please email transport@extinctionrebellion.uk for a chat!

Do you have any questions?

If you have any questions, please message the Bursary Team at transport@extinctionrebellion.uk