State Repression
THE PUBLIC ORDER ACT, POLICE, CRIME, SENTENCING & COURTS ACT AND OTHERS.MORE.
The state has increased its powers to prevent protest, as predicted when Extinction Rebellion was founded. It is part of the process of change. Now is not the moment to turn back. Today's laws are likely to be more lenient than tomorrow’s and inaction brings greater risks. There is greater public awareness around the criminalisation of protest and free speech, the too often violent and lawless behaviour of the police, especially towards Black, Indigenous, People of colour, women, disabled people, Roma and Travellers and the LGBTQ+ community, and the influence of money in politics and policing. Clever action designs will deepen public sympathy, while making opportunities for state overreach that might provoke outrage and bring the wider public closer to rebellion.
The goal of resistance for as long as it takes in 2024 now involves higher risk than it did just a few weeks ago. Local alliance-building and recruitment of rebels ready to stay in the face of increased repression is vital to our success. There is still great privilege and responsibility that comes from living in the United Kingdom, where most of us do not yet face batons and water cannons at protests and picket lines and where so much of the historical and colonial legacy of the crises we face were made and made into law. Let us prepare for the right moment which we will decide together.
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