To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video

Thursday morning’s actions at Canning Town by Extinction Rebellion have pushed the debate and internal conflict around the group’s strategies and tactics to the forefront.

As commuters in Canning Town were confronted with protesters calling the government to take action on climate change, there were violent eruptions and chaos for people trying to compete with the already daunting task of a morning London commute.

As a climate justice activist who has worked in the centre of London for decades, I can’t get on board with the way these protests happened.

Canning Town has a high proportion of working class people and communities of colour who are not only not the major perpetrators of the climate crisis, they are most likely to feel the impacts of the climate crisis.




Research has shown that pollution has a disproportionate impact on black communities, with Southwark, Lambeth and Hackney found to have both a higher percentage of black residents as well as increased levels of pollution. They are already living the dystopian climate catastrophes Extinction Rebellion seems to think are some future scenario.

The group has built on the work already done by grassroots groups like Platform London, No Tar Sands, Climate Camp and Bank Track who have long been shining a light on corporations, banks and financial institutions fueling the climate crisis, all the while prioritising solidarity with indigenous peoples, community consultation and intersectional analysis.

I have been working for a decade using creative non-violent direct action, taking over shareholder meetings, shutting down petrol stations and refineries and also engaging with industry such as the insurance sector.

But we have learnt to used direct action sparingly, strategically and always in consultation with communities of colour in the UK – because when the police and the state retaliate, it is not the middle class campaigner who will bear the brunt of violence.

Black and brown activists are open to being targets of violence and arrest in London where black people are over three times as likely to be arrested as white people.

I don’t think we have time to fix Extinction Rebellion and frankly it’s not what we need (Picture: GoffPhotos.com Ref: KGC-325)

Racial violence in London has only risen since Brexit along with the normalisation of openly facist views. When black youths are arrested they are more likely to be refused bail and to be given longer jail sentences than their white counterparts. People from BAME backgrounds are also more significantly impacted by a criminal record when it comes to finding work.

Yes, Extinction Rebellion are bringing attention to climate injustice. Yes, we need to continue making a point with non-violent direct action. But it has to be part of a wider, more inclusive vision beyond some medieval proposal to fill up the beds of prisons.

When strategies and proposals are drawn up, groups working with racial and social justice need to be at the table so everyone understands how climate justice is interconnected with campaigns that look at access to food, medicines, freedom of movement and disproportionate incarceration – which will all be heightened by climate chaos.



When protesters act without input from labour unions, the impact is felt by local communities – not the state, as Extinction Rebellion claims. They must work with the goals and needs of working class movements in mind, weaving in tactics, strategies and current issues they know are working.

From the get-go, they were asked by environmental justice campaigners in London to consult with communities about how to not alienate people, and how to lift up the UK’s existing environmental justice movements.

But they don’t engage. Instead, they glamourise going to prison and ignore the calls from within the group to design inclusive actions – Extinction Rebellion’s own core voted against protesting on public transport. It is not taking heed of the call to look at its class and privilege blindspots.

We must ask if Extinction Rebellion are the right people to be holding millions of pounds and deciding the next moves to tackle social justice and the climate chaos we are facing. More than this, those of us who include race and class in our climate justice work must choose if we want to try and diversify an organisation that doesn’t hold diversity at its core.

The blind-sighted fixation on escalating direct action, without hearing how that factors into physical limitations, safety needs and ideas from other members of the group are leading those who are genuinely ready to tackle the climate crisis down a politically narrow path.

Personally, I don’t think we have time to fix Extinction Rebellion and frankly it’s not what we need. Extinction Rebellion has become a brand, not a sacred organisation that has a monopoly on climate justice.


Those within it who want to build a coherent climate justice movement need take a step back from the fear and panic Extinction Rebellion uses to mobilise people to be able to make decisions about how we take our climate movements forward.

That’s what will bring the state to its knees – not random occupation of trains.

MORE: You might hate Extinction Rebellion’s methods but they’re changing the world

MORE: Most Extinction Rebellion activists did not want to disrupt the Tube

MORE: What is Extinction Rebellion and what are they trying to achieve?