XR. No bosses, no hierarchy
Protests, blockades, demonstrations…
Have you ever wondered how they all come to life?
Meet Kamilka and Rakowy,
Kama, Adam and Dasza,
who work in the Extinction Rebellion movement.
They will tell you how activism looks from behind the scenes.
Extinction Rebellion, XR for short,
is a decentralized, international movement
with no leaders.
By non-violent actions of civil disobedience,
it persuades governments to act on the climate emergency.
XR invited us to one of their meeting in the gardens of Jazdów in Warsaw.
First, they told us how they turned up in XR
and what do they fight for.
I didn’t know it was civil disobedience.
I came to the meeting and was terrified.
Are we going to block the streets? What the hell?
It was disturbing… but I stayed until the end
and they convinced me.
Extinction Rebellion has three demands:
Tell the truth, Act Now and Go Beyond Politics.
The activists urge the government:
1. Tell the truth.
The government needs to declare a climate emergency
and inform the public of the need of immediate changes.
2. Act now.
The government needs to act now to halt biodiversity loss
and reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero in 2025.
3. Go Beyond politics.
The government needs to form citizens’ assemblies for climate
and environmental changes and act accordingly to their decisions.
Most organizations have laid down structures:
a board or decisions-makers.
Extinction Rebellion organized power and responsibility a bit differently.
In XR there are no bosses and hierarchy.
We say that we make decisions horizontally
It has its own nuances, of course.
There are groups with mandates for making particular decisions
and undertaking certain actions.
In XR we presume power decentralization
and also personally try to remember not to call anyone a founder,
as it forms a certain hierarchy, which we don’t want to have,
but it still remains in our heads and we’re used to it.
Someone comes up with an idea: let’s do this and that.
They present to the rest, who find it cool
and divide the work between themselves.
Those people organize around them workgroups of volunteers,
as this stage of preparations agrees with their philosophy.
I think it’s very difficult to accomplish,
especially for the new people coming in.
We live in a hierarchical world,
where bosses tell us: you do this, and you do that.
And here you need to take initiative and responsibility for yourself.
I think it’s really difficult to teach people that
and just tell them:
yes, if you have an idea, present it and go with it.
But actually, when there’s a group of people,
who want to act,
who are motivated and have the necessary space,
it all goes rapidly and is so beautiful!
Not only we don’t have hierarchy and bosses,
but the decision-making process is also exceptional.
The decisions in groups are not made by voting,
which is most frequently associated with democracy.
We don’t want that.
They’re also not made by the leader, but by consensus.
We don’t expect everyone to enthusiastically accept those decisions,
but everyone should agree that such a decision can be made.
Every activist activity is exhaustive,
therefore XR work groups have Regen.
It’s a group and space, responsible for the mental wellbeing.
It’s important to have Regen after every action,
but that’s not all.
We want the activists to understand that not only action counts,
but also yourself and your emotions.
Within Regen the activists participate in support groups,
meet in empathy circles and workshops on non-violent communication.
We asked the members why XR?
Because of the people.
I’m an activist, because the topic of climatic disaster scares me personally.
I’m terrified that such a crucial world problem is passed over.
If these words got to your heart, you can join the protagonists of the film.
We meet every Thursday at 6 p.m. in the “City Bees” house at Jazdów,
and people who want to join Extinction Rebellion
can contact a local group via FB.