Like the Sea Level, We Rise: The strategies of climate change civil resistance

​“Tell the truth and act as if the truth is real” – so goes the slogan of Extinction Rebellion (XR), a new international movement started in London in October 2018.  The statement points to a discrepancy between the dire state of our environment and the lack of a real sense of emergency.

While the majority of Australians’ understanding of the urgent need for action against climate change is reflected in their various every-day behaviours, there is still a lack of engagement in collective action for the environment. Despite the rise in individuals’ environmentally friendly behaviours, emissions continue to rise year after year.  With 82% of all government subsidy still concentrated in ‘Clean Coal’, it’s clear that public policy still doesn't go far enough.  While it might be more appealing to focus on improving our every-day behaviour as individuals, some argue that the pervasive messaging to get us to live our ‘best green life’ is actually a distraction designed to keep us content and away from collective action.   However, there is a recent collective awakening about the need for systemic change over just changes in individual behaviour.
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These desperate times see the rise of more desperate measures of collective action such as non-violent civil resistance. Its practices and successes can be traced back to the Suffragettes, the American Civil Rights Movement, and LGBTQ movements. The specifics and strategies of civil resistance movements vary depending on their purpose and contextual factors. 

Martin Luther King Jr in the march on Washington for civil rights in 1963 (Image from Unsplash: History in HD, Free to use)

In this post, we’ll focus on civil resistance in the context of climate change action. The key principles remain similar across the movements:
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• Non-violent.  This is rule number one. Non-violent campaigns are two times more likely to succeed, and they are more able to attract participants, as peaceful activities are more inclusive towards the young, the old, and the vulnerable.  Also, while the repression of peaceful protestors often elicits sympathy from the public and attracts a higher level of support from the local and global community, violent protests may legitimize the escalation of the authorities’ repression, resulting in higher costs to protestors and reduced support for the cause.  

 

• Mass participation.  When a movement mobilizes a large number of people from diverse ethnic, religious, class and political backgrounds, the movement has increased leverage. Strategically, a high number of protestors will be more effective at overwhelming the capacity of police and the courts to hold activists for long periods. This discourages officers from pursuing charges, thus limiting the punitive power of the state. Cross-group participation decreases the authority’s ability to isolate and repress specific groups. Further, participation of people from different walks of life that dis-confirm stereotypes of environmental activists also improves media optics and makes the movement more resistant to stigmatization. In the event of repression, a more diverse group evokes more sympathy and outrage from observers.   The key challenge of activists is to build bystanders’ solidarity.  Demonstrating the identities and values that activists hold in common with audiences is a critical step on the road to success.

 

Protest against climate change (Image from Unsplash: Mika Baumeister, Free to use)

• Relevant audiences. Disruption is more effective in capital cities, as these are typically where national and international media are based. Just as labor strikes are effective against companies, closing down capital cities may be effective against governments.  The inconvenience and disruption to the local populace and businesses is unavoidable. This can be harmful to the movement, so it’s important to inform the public about the urgency of the situation and the rationale behind the disruption.  Prolonged disruption should be prewarned so emergency services can be rerouted.  

 

• Law-breaking. Economic cost to the public, the government, and the elites is crucial for forcing attention and response. The intensity of government’s responses vary widely between countries and so do the physical, emotional and economic costs to activists. Willingness to incur personal costs (e.g., arrest) from engaging in illegal activities shows the public and the authorities that you’re serious. But there are risks too.  If the audience isn’t sympathetic and the movement is small, law-breaking risks discrediting your message.  Law-breaking dramatically highlights a difference of values instead of shared values and identity, and that may be alienating to the public and more moderate activists. 

 

• Continuous. To exponentially increase the economic cost inflicted on the government, and communicate the commitment of the movement, disruption has to be sustained until the powers that be are forced to the negotiation table, and the goal is more or less achieved. Disruptive movements run the risk of petering out in the face of stalemates and state repression.  Understanding the need for longevity, movements may benefit from placing great importance on constant recruiting, and on the upkeep of their members’ mental and physical well-being.  

Hong Kong protests (Image from Unsplash: Joseph Chan, Free to use)

Given the disruptive nature of civil resistance, public opinions can be quite divided.  But if the sizes of the recent School Climate Strikes are anything to go by, the public’s appetite for drastic changes is growing rapidly, and this may come with corresponding greater support, or at least acceptance, of civil disobedience for climate change action.  Environmental movements have to work to ensure that the political capital from mass mobilization for action isn’t wasted, as policy makers attempt to turn the conversation away from addressing climate change towards the law-breaking. Allies, policy makers, and the public have to be continually reminded that the story is about the science, the urgency of change, and the mass support for that change.  Meanwhile, it’s up to the civil disobedience movements to galvanize support by informing the public about the movement’s rationale and considerations, and being inclusive of allies with varying political persuasions and beliefs. Regardless of whether you support civil disobedience or prefer more moderate activism, if there is a time to want more from our political system, the time is now.

   -   Hannibal Thai