I’m conflicted, as I do believe that action for the sake of the climate is morally correct, but that these actions aren’t accomplishing much of anything at this point.

Andreas Malm has done a few talks about XR, Just Stop Oil, or Insulate Brittain vs groups like Tyre Extinguishers, Ende Gelända, or Les Soulèvements de la Terre: his conclusion is that the former groups have done some amount of good with consciousness raising but at this point those who are going to be moved or sympathetic have been ‘activated’ and further nuisance activities alone will not advance the cause further and could instead harden people against the movement because it is action that is seemingly targeting ‘regular people’ and not the ones responsible for the situation we are in. He commends the groups for targeting banks and other institutions but doesn’t believe actions like blocking roads for the sake of doing so (obstruction of access to specific targets is another story) or throwing powder on a game advance the cause.

He goes on to say that arrests should never been seen as some kind of virtuous thing and instead should be seen as failures because it is taking people out of the movement and making their further contributions more difficult and potentially dangerous for their continued freedom.

I generally defend blocking roads as an act of protest, but I also understand the idea that there needs to be further escalation targeting the actual polluters because you will never turn all of the western public to your side.

Here are a couple of the talks I’m referring to, interesting to listen to the perspectives:

Panel discussion on potential future of the movement

Individual talk about where we stand today