Tips on - Road Blocks | Roger Hallam | Extinction Rebellion
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- Опубліковано 5 лис 2018
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It’s appalling that I’ve never heard of these roadblocks or this pollution campaign. Hopefully we will get big enough so they can’t ignore us
The reason you have never heard of these roadblocks is because this has not been done. Watch his body language in the first minute, as he introduces himself. He touches his nose several times. Each time he does. He lied. Simple stuff but useful to observe here and anywhere.
Rock and Fucking Roll!!
Danny
Great ;) I think there is a piece og the puzzle missing, namely clarifying the objektive... In my view its imperative to persuade and not antagonize the drivers
... In my view the drivers are and annimpotant objektive , handing out info material to All the cars , apologizing for the delay, making the delay temporary, and announcing to the drivers how Long the delay will be...
Spelling and grammar check-Use It.
I have a question: What happens if emergency vehicles are trying to get through, like an ambulance, and the roads are gridlocked because of the road block? This kind of makes me nervous
We let them through. Also, so far the police have been alerted beforehand if there is a chance hospitals could be disrupted; this allows the emergency services to make plans so that ambulances aren't delayed. There haven't been problems so far.
What about blocking off motorways? This would only require a small number of coordinated people in their cars to take control of all lanes and safely slow down to a stop.
I'm just proposing the idea for discussion rather than seriously proposing it at the moment. The economic costs and disruption would be enormous - if it was well-coordinated so that multiple motorways were affected, then even more so. These seem prima facie like good characteristics for a tactic of civil disobedience to possess.
What are the cons of this tactic? I'd be interested in the input of those more knowledgeable about things that might be relevant to this proposal, but I can't myself see an obvious devastating counterargument against it. I would imagine that its strength is also partly its weakness - the immense disruptiveness of cutting off the country's arterial roads would affect and piss off a very large number of people and get a large amount of publicity. Without a clear understanding of the motives and reasons behind serious direct action, that publicity would largely be negative and this might elicit a negative public reaction; it seems to me that this might make the courts more severe in their punishments of the activists, although this might in the end be a good thing. Effective civil disobedience is often costly to those engaging in it and the willingness of decent people to endure personal costs and persecution is often itself a factor in winning the sympathy required for it to be effective.
Would there be a way of giving advanced warning to the emergency services to minimise disruption to them? (Say, if those who would be involved were not identified in advance - indeed, if their identity were to be sedulously concealed somehow - so that they could not be preemptively arrested?) Would advanced warning even significantly minimise such disruption? And how damaging would that disruption be to the emergency services? And what about to the public in general of jamming up major roads for a reasonable period of time, e.g. food transportation, medical supplies, etc. What have been the results in the past of other major road blockages? Have comparable tactics been attempted in the past and how did they fare? How much would any disruption affect public perception of the protest or even invalidate it as a means of non-violent protest? How long would the disruption last before the police simply removed those protesting? These are just some questions that would have to be considered and I don't feel that I know the answers - I don't even know if these are the best questions to ask. I think they're worth asking though.
To my mind the strongest objection would be the fact that it is a tactic that would necessarily involve quite a small group of people causing a lot of disruption which is inherently liable to be negatively percieved and portrayed in the press (although this is *always* a risk of civil disobedience). It seems like a tactic that we should perhaps wait until there is more momentum behind a campaign of civil disobedience before considering. I think that concern could be partly mitigated through wider participation in the protest (e.g. a large group of full cars in single file in each lane collectively creating a block). If it could be replicated repeatedly as a protest without loosing momentum due to the backlash, I think it could be extremely powerful. I also suspect that smaller scale civil disobedience has its own deficiencies - it can get trapped in a cycle of not wanting to do anything bigger and ambitious for fear of a lack of support, but not being able to recieve the attention required for such support because of its fear of doing anything really big.
I'd like to hear other people's thoughts. I recall from Chenoweth and Stephan's brilliant book on civil resistance that part of the cause of the sucess of non-violent civil resistance is that it allows a diversity of tactics, participation and innovation in tactics. Being open to different tactics I think is essential.
Anyway, I'm glad ER exists and is promoting practical, non-violent, mass civil disobedience. We really need to take things to the next level if we are to have any chance of mitigating the immense damage we have already locked into the atmosphere and ecosystem.
How big should the groups be?
Great
I found some of the Extinction Rebellion training videos on You Tube.
Here is the comment I left on this one:
(Once again, I just cannot believe I have to say this stuff!)
"Sitting down in roads is illegal. You are encouraging people to break the law and risk arrest. Being arrested leads to charges of obstructing the highway and obstructing the police.
This would not be the case if you would be moving, however slowly.
If people sit down, as you suggest, they will be arrested and have a criminal record which will limit their employment possibilities and could even lead to loss of home, kids, partners and future prospects.
Stop the City tried it in the 80s - the ringleaders were rounded up and chemically coshed on remand in prison or they were sectioned and chemically coshed during an indeterminable incarceration.
You are young. You maybe don't have activist experience and so your methods may strike you as novel or new. THEY ARE NOT. They have been tried repeatedly. Anti frackers are blocking roads every day at sites around Britain. Did you consult with them about your ideas?
Obviously not.
They would have told you the truth. If you sit or lay down in a road you are immediately arrested for obstruction. Even if you do move extremely slowly you are utilising your right to peacefully protest but then the police will give you a five step process.
This entails being asked to step off the road and onto the pedestrian pathway.
If you do not do as you are asked on the 5th time of asking you will be arrested.
I hope everyone who is thinking of joining your campaign reads this.
Us old activists know a thing or two.
You newbies have a lot to learn."
Extinction Rebellion does things a bit differently than activists in the '80s. They tell police when they're going to be protesting. It's not like the olden days when police didn't know anything about the protests. Also, Roger made it perfectly clear that he's not encouraging people to break the law. Finally, your UA-cam account shows that you're a fan of climate denier videos. It might be an idea for you to remove those, otherwise people might think you're full of shit.