Dear Friend,
This is the first in a three part email series, detailing new ways of working for XR Exeter, and a new strategy to take us forwards. But to start with, we must understand where we’ve gone wrong. Reflecting and learning is a key principle of XR, but for too long we’ve been failing to do so, and have instead defaulted to what we already know.
XR Exeter needs to be more strategic if it is to ever achieve meaningful change. We’ve allowed ourselves to be pushed and pulled by national campaigns. Actions which were very successful in the early years have had diminishing returns. We’ve wasted enormous energy going to London to repeatedly bang our heads against the heavily policed, stone edifice of Westminster, coming home feeling disillusioned.
And while at home, we’ve been too insular, settled into our comfort zones of taking small actions with people we already know, and holding rigidly structured meetings, with agendas and actions points, that are barely tolerable even if you are a regular attendee.
This is not how it was supposed to be.
We have made many good friends along the way, and building community is a good in itself, but if that community isn’t significantly growing, it is no measure of success. We are facing multiple accelerating crises. If we are not doubling our number of active rebels each year, we are falling behind. If we are not targeting our efforts on actions that can make real systemic change, then what are we here for?
Many local rebels have lost faith, and it’s not hard to see why.
Right across our country, too many people no longer believe in people power. For decades, the establishment has repeatedly stamped out rebellious spirit. From the crushing of unions under Thatcher, to a million-person peaceful protest being ignored under Blair, and harsh anti-protest laws in response to a new wave of activism.
At the same time they’ve been pushing a culture of individualist consumerism that leaves people feeling isolated and tells them the only power they can have is through their wallets, all while wealth inequality rises, robbing people of that power too.
But it is still possible for people to come together and change things, and we need to show them how. We cannot do this nationally, but we can lead the way locally. We need to focus on community building and strategic civil disobedience actions that can make a real and lasting difference to people’s lives here in Exeter, to show people that it’s worth joining in.
Plans to do this have been drawn up. Keep following for more information over the next few days. In the meantime you can help us by donating to our crowd funder.
