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- [woman] Okay, and yeah. - [interviewer] Are we rolling?
Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX
- [woman] Yeah. - [interviewer] Now?
[interviewer laughing]
So, first question.
If you could go back in time,
would you join Extinction Rebellion again?
[sighs]
I think it's hard to know whether I would do it again,
'cause I still am not fully aware yet of how it's affected me.
I think the biggest questions XR should have been asking itself was,
okay, so what if this works out, what if we do it?
What if we get a platform and a voice? How are we going to be different?
- [man 1 chanting] Extinction! - [crowd chanting] Rebellion!
[man 2] The government's bill says that those who cause annoyance
could be jailed for up to ten years.
[police officer] Police!
[woman 1] The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill 2021
is the first major change...
[man 3] Madame Deputy Speaker, I have long complained
about the endless demonstrations which take place on Parliament Square...
[woman 2] The bill should send chills down the spines
of anyone who believes in democracy.
[police officers shouting] Police!
[woman 3] This bill is a disgrace.
It is dangerous, undemocratic and disproportionate.
[woman 4] Madam Deputy Speaker, the punishment must fit the crime.
[man 4] Co-founder of Extinction Rebellion, Gail Bradbrook,
was arrested earlier this morning
on suspicion of conspiracy to commit criminal damage.
[crowd chanting] Kill the bill! Kill the bill! Kill the bill!
[man on radio] This legislation marks
an undermining of human rights and civil liberties.
It represents a slide towards authoritarianism.
[Gail] They arrested me about 5:30 in the morning when I was fast asleep,
took me off in handcuffs.
It was four police officers from the Met.
Turned out they'd stayed the night before in a hotel.
[chuckles] Weird thought.
I've always been really interested in how things change, from a young age,
so I did join the Green Party as a young woman,
which was unusual, 'cause I lived in a coal mining community
and my dad was a miner.
This year, Britain has had the worst wheat harvest in 40 years.
I used to say to people,
"Here's all the evidence why life on earth is dying."
And they go, "Yes, we know."
"And here's how things change. It's civil disobedience.
You've heard of them, haven't you?
Gandhi, Martin Luther King, suffragette?" "Yes."
"Why don't you do it?"
Like, you know... You may as well have just asked them
to get naked and take a shit in the corner or something.
They're like, "Are you serious? What, me, get arrested?"
[crowd cheering and whistling]
The last few years have been like getting strapped into a funfair ride.
It's mental, and I haven't got off the ride yet.
[paint can spraying]
[reporter 1] Scientists have issued their starkest warning yet
about the danger of climate change
in a dramatic report...
[reporter 2] Today's report has been described as
a global wake-up call for the planet.
[Roger Hallam] I'm a farmer, been a farmer for 20 years.
Farmers are committing suicide around the world.
And I know why. Because they're fucked.
[Gail] In terms of trying to start a social movement,
it was a really significant moment when I met Roger Hallam.
[interviewer] Could you just do another sync clap?
Okay. [laughter]
That was a high-class clap.
[interviewer] I'm just gonna start with beginnings of XR.
Well, it all originated with me.
That's the main thing you need to establish.
That's a joke.
[laughing]
If you think this system is toxic,
and we're all in it, we're all complicit, we're all doing stuff,
then step outside of it by breaking the law.
The best way to bring about economic disruption is to close down the city.
Well, I'm a non-violence nerd, right?
If you're going to effectively challenge state power,
you go to the capital and you stay there, right?
You don't go for a day. No one gives a damn about you going for a day.
And what that does is it builds up pressure on the regime to respond.
Roger Harrabin, BBC News. I just wonder if you're not setting yourself up to fail
by setting demands that are so extreme?
[Roger] We're not playing around any more. We're in absolute crisis.
It's a complete mess.
We felt it was really important to have three clear demands.
Tell the truth. We are in this climate and ecological emergency.
The second one was that we go to net zero carbon emissions by 2025.
And then the third one was, well, how are you gonna go about
such a rapid decarbonisation?
We want a citizens' assembly, selected like a jury, to decide that,
and what they come up with should be legally binding.
Can I be a bit tricky and say
please don't mention "climate change" in your movie?
'Cause, you know, that's just the corporate framing.
This is not intellectually complicated, right?
You know, what we're entering into is the most fucked,
bollocksy situation imaginable.
- Cut there. [huffs] - [interviewer] Perfect.
[Roger exhales]
We used to do, like, 18 acres of vegetables 15 years ago.
And now I don't grow outside at all because the weather's so unpredictable.
And you can't grow food when the weather's unpredictable,
'cause you don't really know what to grow.
[clears throat]
On June 2nd it started raining and it didn't stop for seven weeks,
and I didn't manage to grow a single vegetable,
and I had about three quarters of a million plants waiting to go in.
And I employed about 25 people.
They've all lost their jobs.
And then we had the coldest winter ever.
It's only a matter of time, 10, 20, 30 years,
until this is happening every other year,
and then it's gonna be happening everywhere,
and then there's going to be no food.
[Sam] I read a couple of books that had been on my bedside table
and I'd been putting off reading for a long time,
and suddenly I felt just very open to the magnitude of the crisis.
It didn't make sense to sign a petition or to join an NGO
or to go on a march from A to B.
Er, and eventually I found this tiny little group online
called Extinction Rebellion.
And I think at the time they had fewer Twitter followers than my mum,
and I reached out to them and said,
"Look, erm, if you guys were ever coming to London,
you can have my living room as a meeting space."
[Gail] We have asked our government to meet us and address our demands.
They have ignored us.
Let us emphasise, we are rebelling for life.
[crowd cheering and whooping]
[Sam] I really vividly remember walking up from the underground tube station
and seeing a thousand people in the square,
and it was the first time that I thought, "We've captured a moment here."
- [man] Extinction! - [crowd] Rebellion!
That this genuinely had the possibility
to turn into something bigger than it was.
[reporter] They are the new protest group asking people to break the law.
Extinction Rebellion is fighting climate change and has been making headlines.
[crowd shouting] Climate justice! Now!
We are a non-violent movement, and we're committed
- to non-violent civil disobedience. - [crowd cheering]
- [woman] Our air is so toxic... - [crowd] Our air is so toxic...
[woman] ...that the United Kingdom is breaking the law.
[crowd] ...that the United Kingdom is breaking the law.
[woman] Can everyone just take a deep breath?
[man] Non-violence, remember!
[woman] Stop, stand still, take a breath.
Stand back!
[woman] You don't need to resist arrest.
Stand back!
[woman] If you don't want to be arrested, stand back.
If you're happy to be arrested, go easily.
We're a non-violent movement.
How far you should push it depends on how right you are.
[chuckles]
[police officer] Stand back!
- [woman speaking indistinctly] - [police officer] Stand back!
Things need to change and they need to change fast,
because the climate is not gonna wait.
You know, if you destroy it, it's gone.
[crowd cheering] Climate justice!
[Sam] The movement was building steam.
And then we met Farhana.
- [interviewer] Sirens. - [Farhana] Ah.
- This is London. - [interviewer] Yeah.
There'll be loads of those.
[Sam] You name it, Farhana has done it.
What about my hair? Is it sticking out?
[Sam] She has worked at the UN for several decades.
She was instrumental in negotiating the Paris Climate Agreement.
She's one of the world's most respected climate lawyers and diplomats.
And basically from that day onwards,
I kind of followed her around and forced her to be my mate. [laughing]
[Farhana] I was born in Pakistan
and I moved here when I was eight and a half,
only speaking three words of English,
red, blue and thank you.
[chuckles] I think my parents just thought,
"England is wonderful, lots of education."
And they hadn't really thought about
you know, the difficult things that we would confront as children.
People called wogs and Pakis. I was called a Paki all the time.
This was just after, you know, Enoch Powell, "Rivers of Blood",
National Front.
[crowd chanting] Keep Britain white! Keep Britain white!
I think it shaped me to being someone who's a fighter,
like I'm fighting to prove my worth
and to, you know, demand my share of
voice and presence and...
I like the idea of being a lawyer
and representing people and fighting for justice.
[Sam] A couple of weeks after meeting Farhana,
she managed to smuggle us into the UN conference on climate change.
So we went all the way to Poland, on a train, er,
and she did a lot more of the official UN negotiating stuff,
and we were there to protest and to meet other activists
and to build the movement.
What we need is the political will to move forwards.
[Farhana] I'd come into the UN system thinking it's a fair fight.
We've got science and we've got law and we've got the economic analysis.
But you had intensive lobbying from the fossil fuel industries,
from the financial industries that support them,
and it wasn't a fair fight.
[man] Now it's time to tell ourselves some hard truths.
This conference is going to cost us.
Every year we are spending more than 60, 70 million dollars.
And we are achieving nothing.
[Sam] Spending time with Farhana, you realise she has seen these conferences
come and go and come and go, and nothing ever really change.
So I've said other countries can come,
but they have to be absolutely firmly on the talking points.
I'm really conflicted about being here. It's a very draining, exhausting process
that takes thousands of people's energy and time
just to move a millimetre forward. [chuckles]
[Sam] This process isn't working, and people on the outside can see that,
but so can people on the inside.
And every single year she's seen deals being made
and then governments promise things
and then not deliver on them.
And you have to decide, what's worth doing now?
Do you do another conference,
or do you try and put pressure on your government?
Hi. My name's Farhana Yamin. I've been in these negotiations since 1991.
I've been to 22 of the last 24 COPs.
Erm, and I'm very frustrated with how things are going,
so I've joined the rebellion, er, for good reasons,
because I think all the amazing things that we've done internationally
are in need of, frankly, a bit of emergency help.
You know, there are, er...
From that point onwards, we knew that she was part of the team.
[indistinct chattering]
My name's Farhana Yamin.
I've joined XR.
I feel a bit of a newbie, but there's so many thousands of us,
I feel like I'm an important part
of the newbie induction and learning process.
[Roger] I was thinking she was great, 'cause she was a really headstrong woman
who had really dedicated her life to getting stuff done.
[crowd cheering and whooping]
I'm going to introduce the strategy process and documents.
That document is the main document that we're now using
to elicit feedback from XR
and other people who want to join the movement.
So here's the plan. The main show is on the 15th of April.
Take that month off work.
[people laughing]
So the first thing is people have to break the law.
If you don't like doing that or don't feel you can, that's cool,
but that's what the plan is.
Okay. The next critical element is you have to focus your resources.
So the place to go is the capital city.
We need to get enough people down to create a dilemma for the authorities.
And it goes a little bit like this. They can let you stay on the streets,
in which case there's big economic problems,
or they can arrest you.
Neither of those are what they want,
so the third option is they negotiate.
And then the French will come and finish the job.
[people laughing]
[people clapping and whooping]
If you're listening to me now
and trying to make a sort of calculation on whether this is gonna work or not,
it definitely isn't gonna work, right?
How it works is people go, "I'm gonna do it anyway." Okay?
[all cheering]
His main role was to help convince people to break the law,
erm, that it was time, that all the other techniques had sort of failed.
And that was fertile ground for me,
'cause I sort of have to say I agree with him.
I definitely thought, yeah, he's charming and committed and really smart.
- [Roger] Yeah, well done. - [Farhana] Well done you.
[Roger] Yeah, it's good, isn't it?
[Roger laughs]
You know, he's got a lot of integrity and charisma, yeah,
but not a lot of detail, yeah. [chuckles]
[Roger] Shall I do a little summary?
[clears throat]
So most of the strategies of the past
sort of don't actually concentrate their resources.
So the logic of it is to choose the particular point
where you're gonna go for it, and it's a bit like sort of a high jump,
and you get up to here, and if you fail, then it goes back down again, right?
But when it wins, you basically get to that tipping point.
Once you get to that tipping point, then you go up here, right?
What we need to understand is the absolute priority
of throwing everything we've got and the kitchen sink at that point.
Do you see what I mean?
So that is gonna be the discussion that happens in the timeline piece,
do we throw everything into April, is April the right date, etc?
[Roger] Er...
I am Farhana. Erm...
I'm wondering why I don't bring all of me
and all that I actually think to some of these meetings,
including the documents I write.
So I wondered why no one had put the word "justice" into the soup.
[people] Hmm.
I wonder why when I know everything in my intellect and my heart
says revolutions take a lifetime,
if not longer,
I'm sitting with a bunch of people who want to focus it on April.
[Gail] That's Roger's thing, it's all out for April.
We're gonna go into London,
we're gonna put this agenda on the map, and we're not leaving, uh...
We're gonna only leave by being arrested.
And then other people in the room are saying
we've got to build resilience, we've got to build capacity,
this is a long struggle, a long fight. They're both true.
[Savannah] I guess for me, joining XR was a feeling for the first time
like anything was possible.
And it felt like a very obvious thing to do.
Because of my upbringing, because of my parents being who they are,
I was always aware of climate change.
But when I was in university,
there was nowhere you could go to talk about that.
And being surrounded by so many people who were so disengaged with the world,
that's kind of where the decision to leave uni came from.
[woman on radio] Leading climate scientists say
that urgent and unprecedented changes are needed now.
So I ended up making the decision to join because that's what my family was doing
and that's what the aware people in my life were doing.
[people chatter indistinctly]
[man] The point of this is to give people practice
of dealing with the kind of scenarios they're gonna come up against.
So I really need you to try and feel that anger.
[Savannah] Then I decided to go to this non-violent direct action training,
and it essentially goes through the kind of tactics around non-violence
from a physical point of view,
of this is how you lock arms, this is how you flop.
So, witnessing an arrest.
Greg is being arrested,
and this gentleman here is a police officer arresting him.
What kind of information would we like to gather?
- [woman] Where he's going. - Does the police officer have to tell you?
No. He might just not know.
Which is why you'd note down the ID number of the police van.
[man] This is a process moving very rapidly.
Lots of eyes will be watching us.
And this is world changing.
Two fingers up is a direct point.
A "C" is for clarification.
If I do this, a circle, this means round off your point.
So, can I just say, it hasn't been clear who to signal to.
[man] I'm going to pause you there.
I didn't hear anything you just said because you didn't raise your hand.
I'm going to say another hand signal.
- Oh, you've got a hand up. - I've got two hands.
'Cause I feel we should balance this out with a degree of informality,
given it's six of us
- who are mainly talking. - Wait.
[Farhana] And I don't wanna be told I'm a UN person or this or that,
because nobody in the UN does that degree of procedure.
I'm quite up for this, like, being a little bit informal.
I feel I've come so far as a result of this XR energy that I felt,
and this determination, Roger, which you inspired,
that I'm so far out of my comfort zone in how we strategize,
and how we do it, and what I've learned in my own soul,
that I may sit this one out in April and see how it goes,
'cause I'm not sure I'm kind of there.
Can we just come straight to Roger?
In my mind, we don't have to decide everything now, okay?
We'll see how it goes.
If it's just 300 of us, it'll be a 300 show.
Do you see what I mean?
So what we could do is plan for different scenarios.
[man] My take on this is it will never feel ready,
it will never seem possible, but it's still worth going for.
[Farhana] It was an absolute leap of faith.
I did feel quite nervous but decided we're just gonna have to go with it,
and, frankly, there was a part of me thinking,
"This is all gonna be over in three days. Stop worrying about it."
[Gail] I don't think I had any real idea of what was gonna happen in April.
Eva gave me some instructions
to do with forwarding calls or something to you,
but I didn't quite understand them, and she's now gone.
Treat me like you would a ten-year-old.
[grunting]
[Savannah] For me, a lot of it felt like a game,
and because you don't know what's gonna happen,
you don't know how the police are gonna react,
you don't know really who's gonna turn up.
[man] Does this one have an earth?
[Roger] On the morning of the first day of the April rebellion,
I was shitting myself.
["Can't Do Without You" playing]
♪ Can't do without, can't do without ♪
♪ I can't do without you ♪
♪ I can't do without you... ♪
[crowd cheering]
[crowd whooping]
Whoo-hoo!
♪ Can't do without, can't do without ♪
♪ Can't do without, can't do without... ♪
[reporter] Protesters wanting the government to take
urgent action on climate change have descended on the capital.
They have painted their messages on the streets and blocked key roads,
saying they'll stay as long as it takes for the government to listen.
It took me until about three o'clock in the afternoon to sort of calm down.
[laughing]
[crowd cheering]
[electronic music playing]
[crowd whooping and whistling]
I'll let you have a minute to think about it, but I'm not...
I'm going to watch you,
'cause if you choose not to comply, I said you will be arrested.
We love you!
I was feeling a bit pessimistic. [laughs]
'Cause, you know, I just wanna change the whole world in a week
and then I can just go back to the day job.
And so it was a bit like, no, this isn't gonna quite work.
But then in the last 24 hours,
the police don't seem to be able to clear the sites,
and I'm starting to think, er, maybe it's gonna grow.
[man speaking indistinctly over speaker]
[crowd cheering]
[woman] Your hair looks beautiful, Roger.
- [man 1] Yes, Roger! - Hello, hello.
- [woman] So... - [man 2] Is that Roger Hallam?
[Roger] Yeah, yeah, I'm Roger Hallam.
[crowd cheering]
We were a little bit worried it was all gonna sort of fizzle out a bit.
[laughing]
- But it's totally amazing... - [girl] We're staying!
- ...that you're still here. So, it's, erm... - [girl] We're staying!
[crowd cheering]
[Roger] If things are fucked, you have to cause a fuss.
[crowd cheering]
[man] There's a pink yacht at Oxford Circus.
Have I woken up in some strange dimension here?
Superglue on skin, right?
Okay, yeah, no, you google.
- I will google. - [Farhana] You google it.
[man] Trying to pull apart skin
that has been superglued can cause it to tear.
This type of glue can also cause burns.
If you get superglue on your skin, it shouldn't cause any lasting damage.
The glue will dissolve on its own within a few days.
I think the thing is not to get it in your eyes.
- [man chanting] Extinction! - [crowd chanting] Rebellion!
Half an hour late for a meeting already.
I've got every sympathy we've got to do something,
but this is not the way to do it. It's mad.
I think you can always take the negative view of life,
and, erm, they're all very peaceful people,
everyone's in a good place.
It slows everything down, which is good in some ways.
If you slow the world down, they take notice, don't they?
[reporter] Some people have accused you of targeting London commuters.
Are you targeting the right people with this action?
Yes, because the only way we can get the message to the government
is to hit their priority.
Government priority, above all else, is the economy.
So we have to cause economic disruption
to the level where we get the government to meet with us and meet our demands.
[all] Climate justice!
- [man] When do we want it? - [all] Now!
- [man] What do we want? - [all] Climate justice!
- [man] Extinction! - Rebellion!
- [man] Extinction! - [crowd] Rebellion!
[man speaking indistinctly]
[officer 1] Move back!
Do you wish to walk now?
[officer 2] Do you wanna walk?
[officer 3 speaking indistinctly]
- [man] Extinction! - [crowd] Rebellion!
[Farah] Hello? Can you hear me?
Are you at Shell, or are you...
Okay, okay. All right, I'll probably come over in 10, 15 minutes as well.
Then we can just take it from there.
[man] We are Extinction Rebellion,
and we are doing this on behalf of Stop the Ecocide.
We must hold companies like Shell accountable for their action.
[man on PA] Shell is the world's most carbon-intensive oil company.
[crowd cheering]
[man] Well done.
Shell are dirty, thieving, morally bankrupt!
- [sirens wailing] - [horn honking]
[people chanting]
[indistinct chatter on radio]
- [man] How are you doing, mate? - [officer] Not too bad. How are you?
To be honest, I don't wanna be here. I'm doing this for my niece and nephew,
and for all life on the planet.
- Actually making people aware. - Did you break that as well?
Yes, I did.
You could climb up the scaffolding and then up the ladder and replace them.
I don't know how you are with heights. It is quite high up there.
Or you could glue yourself into the middle window.
[Farhana] That's what I like.
So what about my phone?
I need to know what to do with my phone.
[people cheering]
[man] The long and short of it is, we're more afraid of climate change
than we are of arrest or imprisonment.
[man over PA] Shell, Exxon, IBM, Total and Pfizer have,
by their industry association,
the largest negative impact on climate policy.
We need an emergency reaction to climate change!
[officer] No, no, no, no. Come here, come here.
[Farhana] I'm glued to the floor! I'm glued to the floor. Do not remove.
I'm superglued. Do not remove.
Every year Shell spend millions delaying legislation,
spend millions confusing people.
They do a great job of whitewashing what's going on.
And I have spent 25 years negotiating international legal rules
that they've done their best to thwart.
That's why I'm here.
[man] Thank you!
[crowd cheering and clapping]
[mouthing]
[boy] I think it's great, because it proves
that she cares about what's happening today
and the fact that she's willing to do anything to make people listen
- and care about what's going on. - [man] Thank you.
[crowd cheering and clapping]
[Farhana] There was quite a few people cheering and clapping, and I felt,
"Why didn't I do this a long time ago?"
[officer] No, no, no, no. Come here.
[people cheering]
[upbeat music playing]
Hello.
- [boy] Ohh... - [Farhana] Hi, sweetie. Thank you.
[girl] I've gotten so many messages about you.
[Farhana] Hello?
All the children are here. That's so exciting.
I turn on my phone... [grunting] Your mum. Oh, my God, your whole family.
Oh, my... everyone... You know, you're everywhere.
[Farhana] And now I'm doing Channel 4 News and Newsnight.
We've totally broken the police system in London right now.
- [girl] Are you gonna get-- - Oh, I'd better go.
- [girl] Mum? - Just hold on a second.
'Cause I have to go to Channel 4 now, but I thought I was going in a little while.
[crowd cheering]
This is where I've been here for several days now,
with my feet firmly planted on the ground, through this boat,
being held by beautiful barnacles down here.
[crowd whooping]
So keep breathing. Remember that we are non-violent, we are peaceful.
[crowd cheering and clapping]
[man on radio] Major parts of Central London remain blocked
by environmental group Extinction Rebellion
who want the government to act on climate change...
Five hundred arrests!
[laughs]
[woman] How many--
I'm not supposed to look like I'm pleased, 'cause I get into trouble,
but just from an analytical point of view,
500 arrests in a week is, erm, pretty significant
in British political history, isn't it?
It's getting up towards suffragette-ville.
Get up to 1000 and we're into Martin Luther King territory.
- - - Climate change is a serious... - [Farhana] That's Rafi!
[girl] Rafi! Call Rafi down.
[reporter] Well, with me now is Farhana Yamin, a climate change lawyer.
Let's just have a look at what you did yesterday.
You went from respected lawyer to direct action protestor.
[Farhana] Well, I hope I'll still be a respected lawyer.
Many respected lawyers in the past,
you know, Gandhi, Nelson Mandela and others,
have broken the law at certain periods in history.
It's become necessary to say that the political system is stuck
and that something needs to happen.
[crowd cheering]
[woman on PA] Hello, beautiful rebels.
[upbeat music playing]
[female reporter] More than1000 protestors were arrested
after bringing parts of the capital to a standstill.
[crowd cheering]
Hi.
It's an honour for me to be here with you today.
Erm, together we are making a difference.
Humanity is at a crossroads.
We have chosen which path we want to take.
[crowd cheering and whooping]
We're entering into serious discussions on Newsnight, on BBC, on Channel 4.
So we've opened up this space
for conversation around that change that is necessary...
Wow, I mean, April was
a sort of other-worldly experience.
Every day I'd look at the Evening Standard.
"How many pages are we in today? Oh, no."
And it would just sort of increase. It was such a surprise.
We were just looking at each other going, "Oh, my God! [laughs] How? We did it."
In us we have a fire. We have a fire that is burning,
and we can rise up and we can use that.
[crowd cheering]
[Sam] It was really one of those moments where things just open up,
and things that weren't possible previously become possible.
We knew that we were only ever gonna get one meeting with the government,
and so it was incredibly important that we get it right.
So we crowd-sourced ideas,
and what came back from the rest of the movement was
we want you to go hard on our first demand,
which is that the government should declare a state of climate emergency.
[Farhana] Oh, I'm very excited,
but really sort of tired as well,
so I'm just eating my comfort food,
which is, you know, aloo chaat and samosas,
washed down with a Diet Coke.
That's what Pakistanis do. That's our, like, shepherd's pie.
[laughter]
[Roger] I don't give a damn about politicians.
Trust doesn't come into it.
It's about getting the job done, and that's what I'm here to do.
I'm not here to shake hands with Michael Gove.
Fuck that.
[laughs]
[indistinct chattering]
[Sam] I mean, nobody likes Michael Gove.
He is an embodiment of everything that we're fighting against,
which was all the more important why we're in the room with him,
why we're taking the message directly to the government.
Erm, what we wanted to do in this meeting was listen as much as possible.
I suspect through this process
there will be some areas where we will disagree.
I'm not a great fan of direct action, though I understand why people embrace it.
I'm just gonna light touch and say this little bit.
- From your side we hear confusion. - Mm-hmm.
"Are we in a crisis? Are we not in a crisis?
Is it an emergency? Is it not an emergency? What does that mean?"
Why are you resisting what is obviously a fact?
One of the impressive things about your movement
is the way in which it has grown so quickly, animated by the need to act.
One of the things that I'm doing, along with other colleagues,
is working out what the correct response is,
so I can't make that commitment today...
[Sam] What Farhana brought was somebody that's already been in that position
and could just cut through the bullshit.
When you say "I personally",
you mean "I as minister" can understand the crisis?
What would it take for you to join, accepting there is a crisis?
In a way, dealing with the challenge of climate change,
the intimate relationships between public health and the environment...
[Sam] During the meeting, Michael Gove had been very polite and obsequious.
Afterwards we came out and slated him,
because it was important to us to keep the pressure on.
[woman] This meeting's been slightly disappointing, well, very disappointing.
He hasn't accepted any of our demands.
The fact that Michael Gove cannot even commit
to declaring a climate and ecological emergency at the moment
is not only a political failure,
we believe that's a moral failure on the behalf of our politicians.
This is an emergency.
We had a lot of past tenses in the meeting and a lot of future tenses
but not very much action that was gonna be taken now.
[Sam] Twenty-four hours later, the government changed their position.
It was a rare moment where we were quite clever. [laughs]
[man] And I'm pleased to say it's been agreed by Parliament...
[crowd cheering]
...that is we have now declared a climate emergency.
[whooping]
- It works. Yeah. - What works?
Rebelling works.
- [Farhana] Extinction! - [crowd] Rebellion!
- - - Extinction! - [crowd] Rebellion!
Thank you. This is one of the youth strikers, Rafi, who's 11.
[crowd cheering]
And they're here with me because this issue involves families.
We are a family here. You can feel that.
Look around you.
The person behind you, next to you, has got your back,
we've got yours, you've got ours.
That is the birth of a movement of movements.
That's what today is for me.
[woman] One more time for Farhana!
[crowd cheering]
By the end of the rebellion, it's not climate change anymore,
it's far gone from global warming, it is a climate emergency.
Everywhere people were just talking about it.
[female reporter] The UK becomes the first country
to declare a climate emergency.
[male reporter] The measure comes after increasing pressure
from the vocal activist group Extinction Rebellion.
Extinction Rebellion's place is to galvanise and catalyse others to act.
National press, public opinion, you know,
it seems like every time you switch on the TV,
I feel like it's constantly saturated. [chuckles]
I just wanna, you know, go back to watching EastEnders or something,
without hearing about climate change.
Let's not leave it to me and you.
Let's have an emergency energy efficiency act, with money attached.
When there's a true emergency, the Treasury finds the money.
[cheering and whooping]
[female reporter] Just a couple of months
after Extinction Rebellion blocked Central London,
the government has committed the UK to net zero by 2050.
There's no question that the group has propelled climate
up the political agenda.
April changed the landscape of activism
and put climate back on the global agenda,
not just here in the UK, but then all over the world.
[man 1] And a resolution declaring
a climate emergency in the city of New York...
[woman 1] Paris has declared a climate emergency.
[speaking Japanese]
[man 2] Japan's lawmakers have declared a climate emergency.
[woman 2] The vote is closed and the resolution is adopted.
[cheering and clapping]
[huffs]
I never imagined that that many countries and cities
would do it so quickly.
Boom, boom, boom, one after another,
and that's politicians listening to activists.
[Roger] It's important to understand, they start talking about it
because it's disruptive, right?
We're not making a statement, sending emails or having conferences.
There's 1000 people getting banged up in London because they're over it.
[engine starts]
And that's what made XR the number one influencer in the world in 2019.
Disruption. That's the key thing.
[female reporter] One thing is clear, they've highlighted
the issue of climate change in a way not seen for many years.
[Roger] Now, I'd just profoundly love
to give you a general report, right, on Extinction Rebellion
and we could all have a nice session where we all go, "Isn't it great?"
But we're in an emergency, and if we're in an emergency,
I would suggest it means that we have to focus on what's most effective,
which is going to prison.
[indistinct chattering]
My view is, if you're not in prison, you're not in resistance.
- Ready? - Ready.
[Roger] There's nothing complicated about high sacrifice, right?
Action speaks louder than words.
[engine starts]
So you keep going.
Until you're banged up. Or dead. That's what civil resistance means.
Climbing up on a five-metre-tall ladder. I'm scared of heights.
- [laughs] - It's gonna be fine.
[man singing] ♪ People got the power! ♪
♪ Tell me, can you hear us? Tell me, can you hear us? ♪
-♪ Power to the people! ♪ - ♪ Power to the people! ♪
We demand that you make this platform one which tells the truth.
[all] We demand that you make this platform one which tells the truth.
Yours faithfully, Extinction Rebellion Youth.
[all] Extinction Rebellion Youth.
[crowd cheering]
[Savannah] I guess for me there was an aspect of that action being like a, er...
I just wanna kind of fit in for once, within XR,
and do something that everybody knows to cheer.
[crowd cheering]
Because that's what we're supposed to do.
And with XR, our strategy is dictated by someone who doesn't ever rest
and doesn't ever really reflect.
My dad.
[Sam] After April, we got a huge influx of people.
I remember wanting to talk about what happens to Extinction Rebellion next,
like, how do you respond and collaborate with other movements?
But Roger has a very particular way of seeing the world,
and anything that doesn't fit into that vision
is kind of irrelevant to him.
What Roger cares about is arrests.
[interviewer] So, just clap.
Were you hesitant about getting involved with XR?
[laughs] Yes. Wow.
[crowd cheering]
XR had galvanised so much attention, and so many people were like,
"Oh, my God, I'm so interested. I wanna get involved."
People were really stuck in this "get arrested, get arrested" mode.
Yes, you are a piece of the puzzle, but you're not everything.
You're not the whole solution.
Maybe it's time that we talk to other groups, reach out to other people
who also care about this and want to change things.
The Niger Delta people are dying of pollution caused by Shell,
and we are fighting this thing for 30 years now.
We can't begin to say Black lives matter until Black lives
in the Niger Delta matter, until the Black lives in Somalia matter.
We're here to learn from young African voices
who have been actively involved in their communities.
Amy is based in Cape Town in South Africa.
Climate justice brings so many people together...
[Alejandra] We cannot talk about the climate crisis
without talking about justice.
Typical white Western environmentalism,
they only usually think about emissions,
that the only issue is climate change.
Why are we wasting any time talking about racism or colonialism?
If you think about making the green transition, right,
to renewable energies,
where do you think the minerals for the electric car batteries come from?
Where do you think that lithium comes from?
Where do you think all the metals for turbines come from?
All of that is still heavily reliant on extractivism.
We're displacing whole communities.
There's kids in mines as young as five getting cobalt
so that we can have that solar panel.
That's the world that we live in right now,
and I don't want to simply have the same world but eco.
That's where justice is key.
[Sam] The whole world is out of kilter.
We have constructed a global political and economic system
which relies on infinite growth on a finite planet.
And that's not sustainable, right?
That's not extremist to say that.
It's not extremist to say look at how inefficient it is
to have gross inequality in the world,
to have the one percent owning so much wealth,
so many resources, so much land.
- [man] What do we want? - [crowd] Climate justice!
- [man] When do we want it? - [crowd] Now!
[Sam] There were many of us in XR at the time saying,
Okay, brilliant, we've raised the alarm.
We need to start spelling out a political analysis.
We need a demand on climate and ecological justice
which shows that this is a full systems issue.
That conversation was completely derailed
about whether we were gonna fly drones over Heathrow or not.
[female reporter] Environmental activists are planning to fly drones
in Heathrow Airport's exclusion zone in an attempt to shut it down.
Today the airport warned that anyone operating a drone in the exclusion zone
will be subject to the full force of the law.
[Roger] Heathrow has this ridiculous law that you can't fly a drone at head height
five miles from the runway.
Perfect. Let's go and poke that point.
[man] It's all about building pressure and we know from the research,
the longer we leave it, the pressure starts to drop
so it's important to keep some pressure building.
From the feedback that we got on Friday, it didn't seem like
there was very much support behind this action.
Maybe just have a go-round. People can say if they individually want to be involved,
and if not, then, you know, who in their group
might wish to be involved in it.
I find the proposition to go round the room
asking whether we wanna work on this going forward a little bit patronising,
'cause a lot of us have been forced to work on it.
The really concerning thing, to my mind, is the decision process,
and this is not the first time where we're giving our membership base
a feeling of being frozen out and being told what to do.
I'm a bit worried it's gonna go round in circles.
If people want to join it or not is entirely up to them.
[huffs]
We had thousands of people from the movement going,
"No, actually, Extinction Rebellion isn't for me."
And then on the other side you had Roger going, "But we have to do this."
I'm not a naturally aggressive, bolshie sort of guy.
I'm a "let's all work together" guy.
But if we're looking at mass death, then there's no alternative, right?
And obviously that's my role in the movement,
is to be unpopular and say to people,
"You're not cutting the mustard, guys, unless you up the game."
[Gail] Roger, he's always into the next thing.
He's like a boy with a new toy.
And that's initiator energy, and it's got its value, absolutely,
and sometimes people need things to slow down.
It wasn't even about Heathrow itself.
It was about the way in which we were doing things.
[female reporter] The Met Police have said it will do everything in its power
to prevent climate campaigners using drones
to disrupt flights at Heathrow Airport next month.
So it's like one of those showdown moments,
where is it just a small, tiny number of people within XR
who get to have their way,
despite the misgivings and stated opposition of so many others,
or is it a movement that is in fact,
you know, erm, listening to its own members?
I just feel Roger and a handful of other men in his circle
think they know best.
You just get worn down. I'm a bit worn down.
So many people were totally burnt out from it all.
And Roger I don't think believes in burnout.
This term "burnout" is thrown about around activism
in a way which has no bearing on what it actually is.
And I was one of those people that was like, burnout's this thing,
burnout's when you can't really think any more,
you've gotta go home and lie down for a bit.
Burnout's when you turn off your phone for a week or something.
And then it hit me.
[fire crackling]
I was exhausted.
I had an overload of emotion.
And I just couldn't stop crying.
Feeling like the work that I was doing wasn't doing anything,
and so that meant that I wasn't worth anything.
And my mum was incredible.
She's always said, "You need to feel what you're feeling, and I'm here."
And it saved me being at home in nature.
'Cause nature went at the speed at which I was going at.
I find it really hard to talk to Dad
about anything other than the kind of practical elements of anything.
I was ill for a month.
We didn't have the type of relationship where I could tell him that.
[chuckles]
Erm...
And he didn't ask.
[door closes]
[woman] XR Youth have met this weekend
and they have something that we would love to hear, actually.
Er, we've written something which I'm gonna read to you.
And I'd like it, Dad, if you could look at me as well. Thank you.
I wanted to create a feeling of respect and of vulnerability,
of kindness and empathy,
an ability to just go, "Let's just stop and listen."
That's what I wanted. I wanted that to happen.
"Extinction Rebellion says its actions are done for the children.
We are those children. You are doing this in our name.
And yet we are here today to say that you're failing.
No longer can we let you use our name
while denying us agency and voice within this organisation.
If we want to change anything, if we want to do anything radically different,
we have to start putting different voices at the centre.
So although we support the idea of an action aimed at Heathrow,
we cannot support the current proposal.
If this action is announced and supported in any way
under the banner of Extinction Rebellion,
we will begin the process of walking our own path."
I just want you to know that I don't know what to do.
I don't know what... I don't know what to do, so...
Like, I agree.
Sometimes I felt I probably look really two-faced,
because I can listen to this person and really see their perspective,
and this other person and really see their perspective.
A part of that comes from a compassionate and kind place,
but there's another place of the pleaser,
just wanting to keep everybody happy.
[Roger] Erm...
Obviously you might feel betrayed or annoyed,
but I would hope that you will understand
that if people don't do what you want, it's not because of an act of power,
it's because basically we're only on this planet for a certain amount of time
and I think if you ever want to split off from XR,
then that's a path which may be the right path
or it might be the wrong path,
but you may not know until you do it.
[Savannah] Fuck you! Fuck you!
[door opens]
[door slams]
Well, I think in retrospect,
I should have just listened and reflected where they were at.
I felt like I had an obligation to do the work I was doing
and it was really time critical.
So that was, you know, it wasn't a good day.
I think that within our system, we have been unconsciously recreating
the hallmarks of power and privilege,
and Heathrow is one of those stories
that demonstrates the tussle
between power and privilege and everybody else.
I guess society was playing out in that room big time. [chuckles]
Erm, from the micro version of mine and Dad's relationship
to the kind of macro power dynamics and all of that kind of stuff.
Why that impacted me so much was because I was sat there crying,
and my dad said to me, "I don't want to deal with this."
And I've been seeing that message
over and over and over again for months, for a lot of my life.
[male reporter] Members of new activist group Heathrow Pause,
are attempting to fly drones within the airport's exclusion zone.
I've got myself a quality drone.
It's not that big, as you can see, but apparently it's a quality one and...
[officer] I'm Sergeant Aitkin.
You're under arrest for attempting to cause a public nuisance.
You don't have to say anything.
If you fail to mention when questioned something you later rely on in court
and anything you do say may be given in evidence.
[Roger] You get to the point where not doing action is what's stressful.
And it might be a bit rubbish.
[laughs]
But it's a hit-and-miss process.
[officer] One person in. Help him sit down.
[Roger] And I find myself driven to do things that people don't agree with,
and so I have a lot of internal conflict because of my need to be loved.
But also I know that if I don't do what I need to do, then I get depressed.
This is also dirty.
- [Isaac] Safi. - [boy] Yeah?
[Isaac] It's happening now.
- [Farhana] Hello, Isaac. - [Isaac] Hello.
- [Farhana] How are you? - Very good. How are you?
- [Farhana] Hey, Safi. - Hello.
I can see you guys. Yeah. Oh, look. One, two, three, four.
Oh, me.
[laugher]
- - - I'm six! - I didn't know you were in America.
[laughter]
[Farhana] I think I work too hard,
and I've learned that this sense of urgency makes me like a workaholic.
Every year has been urgent.
The science has been urgent from the early '90s.
I'm so excited about coming home.
[boy] When is that? When are you coming home?
[Farhana] I feel I've missed out on large parts of my kids' upbringings.
They supported me to the hilt, really.
I guess I'm not as fun a person as I would like.
'Cause I'm still quite, you know, in my head
and still worrying about... about the world and what to do about it
instead of "Let's go and build a LEGO set". [chuckles]
They asked me to be one of the three speakers for the UN General Assembly
to request an advisory opinion.
I thought we'd fix this problem. I thought we'd be in a better world.
[interviewer] How you doing, Sam?
Er, a little bit confused, a little bit unsettled. Erm...
So I was banned by the police
from the Labour Party Conference this year,
er, and managed to get that overturned in the High Court.
But I did a little bit of digging,
submitted a Freedom of Information request,
erm, and it's just come back with some slightly strange things.
[whirring]
Okay, here we go.
Er, so this is the reason I've been banned from the Labour Party Conference.
As you can see, heavily redacted on the first page.
It's always a good sign, isn't it?
And then this is the official reason that they're giving, right? So...
"I believe that Sam Knights' presence would present a risk
to the safety and the security of the Labour Party Conference."
So what they're basically saying here is that
they've had to consider me a national security risk.
And if that's what they're saying there, I don't know what they're saying there.
[interviewer] How could you be a threat to national security?
I don't know. I don't know. Because I'm involved in climate activism?
Erm...
But, you know, I wasn't even there to... to protest.
I was there to engage in debate.
I was an elected delegate to the conference,
fighting for a Green New Deal,
trying to get the party to support climate legislation. Erm...
I think we're gonna keep on seeing this, right?
We're gonna see a concerted effort by the state, by power and capital,
to delegitimise peaceful protest.
And obviously we've got to keep on fighting back,
'cause the climate crisis isn't going anywhere.
[rock music playing]
[crowd cheering]
[female reporter] Extinction Rebellion back again
six months after they brought Central London to a standstill.
The group says it wants to do it on a bigger scale than last time.
[woman screams]
[female reporter] Climate change protestors have sprayed fake blood
across the steps of the Treasury building in Central London,
although the stunt didn't appear to go quite to plan.
Gail, what are the immediate demands of the Extinction Rebellion movement?
We have three demands.
The first one is for government and other institutions to tell the truth.
That's not just some lip service by declaring emergencies
and then carrying on with business as usual.
We have fracking happening in this country,
we're opening up new coal mines,
and what we need is for governments to act like it's an emergency.
[man over PA] We are together, and this is what we need in a time of emergency.
Come together in peaceful non-violent civil disobedience.
[Alejandra] I had just joined XR Youth that summer.
And we wanted to create a different space
that was non-arrestable, so we did it in a park.
It was more of a dialogue space.
[Farhana] Hello!
These are all the people who are...
This is Savannah, Alejandra who is from the...
Well, you can describe it better, actually.
The way I see this space, it's about centring climate justice
at the heart of the environmental movement.
[crowd cheering]
[Savannah] So tomorrow will be my year anniversary of being with XR.
[crowd whooping]
I was at uni trying to live my normal life,
trying to get on with things,
but there was this niggling worry that something big was happening,
and this fire that we talked about, I felt it.
[crowd cheering]
The Blue Brigade takes Plaza Mayor in Spain. [laughs]
New York -"You can't comb over climate change".
[laughs]
Extinction symbol on a beach. So beautiful.
[chuckles] Red Brigade under water. Wow.
Oh, that's amazing.
Just so many beautiful things, so much creation.
It just makes me feel like it's just so much part of a greater whole,
like this rebellion's really connecting a global movement.
[helicopter rotors whirring]
[indistinct chattering over radio]
- Fuck. - [woman] What's going on, Archer?
They might be coming to seize either the building or the vehicles,
we're not sure.
[man] Out the way, guys. Let them in. Move, move, move. Thank you, guys.
I think the police are about to search the building,
so we're trying to get everything in so we can close it up.
[imperceptible]
I don't know if you're aware you're blocking the road.
So we need to get vans in here to move stuff.
That's our plan, basically.
Er... Have you got a plan?
If I did, I wouldn't be telling you, would I?
[laughs]
[man 1] Good luck, guys.
You have a duty to arrest the offenders.
- The oil companies are killing people. - [knocking at door]
Knock on the door nicely.
[man 2] So I'm legal advisor to XR.
I just need to know what powers you're using, please.
I'll have a discussion with you in a minute.
We're just gonna make entrance into the building first, okay?
You don't think it'd be a better idea just to check?
No, I don't need to. I've already checked.
- 'Cause we've got fundamental rights. - That's fine, yeah, yeah.
[man 2] So we'd just like to know which power is being used?
You've been told. I told this gentleman here already. Section 32.
[man 2] Grounds to believe there's a danger presented to somebody?
It doesn't matter about that part. That's not in Section 32.
- It is in Section 32. - No, it isn't.
We've had the conversation.
We're gonna do it and we'll talk about it afterwards.
- [woman] Extinction! - [crowd] Rebellion!
[indistinct shouting]
He's saying he didn't hear us banging on the door.
Let's just cop his details for the moment.
Will do.
Things are not good here, Robin. We just got out of the building
as it was being raided by the Territory Support people.
I don't know what's gonna happen, to be honest.
[helicopter whirring]
- Section 14's been enforced. - You've been given your notice.
[Alejandra] We had permission from the council to be in the park,
but the police still were like,
"You can't be here, you have to get out, or we're gonna start arresting you."
[indistinct conversation]
And I think they showed more of their true colours than they did in April.
[officer 1] What's your intention? Where are you going now?
You're being detained because I suspect you might be in possession
of items connected to commit criminal damage.
- [woman] Gingerbread, scarf, a waterproof. - [officer 2] Thank you very much.
[woman] Flask of tea.
- Has everyone got bust cards? - No, we don't, no.
List of your basic legal rights. Protest solicitors on the back.
- [girl] Thank you so much. - No worries. Good luck, everyone.
[siren wailing in distance]
Section 14 of the Public Order Act, "Any assembly linked to
the Extinction Rebellion autumn uprising must now cease their protests.
Anyone who fails to comply with the conditions
is liable for arrest and prosecution.
Tomorrow morning at 10am, lawyers for XR
will submit an application for judicial review to the high court
for an urgent hearing later in the day.
The ban is a disproportionate and unprecedented curtailment
of the right to free speech and free assembly."
The reason that the police are doing this feels very political.
They're under enormous political pressure from the government to make us go away.
Start clearing this road now, please.
Section 14's in place. No protests allowed.
[man] It's basically the move towards criminalising that movement.
It's the whole of London. London-wide.
No Extinction... No Extinction Rebellion protests whatsoever.
[Sophie] The whole of London was just out of bounds for Extinction Rebellion.
Literally just two people standing chatting in a street
with an XR sticker on could be arrested.
[female reporter] London just became the first city to ban protests
linked to environmentalist group Extinction Rebellion.
- [man over PA] Extinction! - [crowd] Rebellion!
Once again, XR has proved it can mobilise
huge numbers of people to take action
in such a way that it can no longer be ignored
either by the government or by public opinion.
Oh, shit. Look at all the police.
[woman shouting] Move back! Move back! Move back!
- [man 1] Please, please, officers. - Move back! Move back!
[man 1] You don't need to do that, come on. Please be peaceful.
Move back!
[Savannah] The energy was just different. Tents were being dragged.
[indistinct shouting]
[man 2 shouting] There's a guy with a baby!
[Savannah] Cherry pickers were just going straight through crowds.
There was no bewilderment any more.
[man 3] Please, officers, please be peaceful.
The protestors are not being violent,
but yet the police are trying to provoke the protestors into violence. Why?
[indistinct shouting]
Move away then! Move away!
The main thing for XR now is to keep its nerve
and maintain the radical edge that it has.
Like I said last week,
person X was a bit pissed off with how you were in that meeting,
and then I just, you know...
Your focus is laser-like on getting stuff done and forwards
and your own perspective on what the best thing to do is,
and sometimes it's like you don't see the other things that are going off
'cause you're on that laser thing.
It's not gonna stop happening, 'cause it's who you are,
- but I'm just telling you, back off. - [Roger] Yeah, yeah.
The fundamental point is fuck all's gonna happen
until there's mass disruption, period, right?
That's it, you know. Sorry, it hasn't worked yet. Don't stop.
[man 1] Right, guys, we're here at Canning Town Station.
We have no choice but to act, and act with emergency action.
- This is peaceful protest. - [indistinct shouting]
[man 2] Gluing themselves to an electric train
on an electric platform, right?
Electricity.
Look at that train over there.
People are stuck on there, can't get off.
[people clamouring]
[man 3] Don't protest there, you fucking dickhead!
Do it on the right fucking train.
[people clamouring]
We've got to recognise that there are many voices
and that people are gonna be angry at this.
[man] Obviously we worry and we listen.
This was an independent group,
and we are organised so that individuals can make their own action
in line with their own conscience.
This was not planned by some central committee.
- [people clamouring] - Don't touch me.
[Sam] There is a kind of blind fanaticism around disruption,
and that was a huge problem.
How do we hold Roger? And if we're not gonna hold him,
if we don't think we can, how do we ask him to leave?
The proposal is just to take Roger out of the role.
In his tunnel vision and his panic about the climate and all that,
he's unable to take an overview
at how his interactions cause a negative effect.
Asking Roger to step down from this strategy lead role
feels slightly punitive.
We should be criticising the behaviour, not the person, if that's possible.
I guess type into the chat either, like...
Erm, "remove" or "don't remove?"
And we'll all hit enter at the same time.
Fairly conclusive. Er...
Roger's gonna join, and I just need to send him the link.
[man] Roger, can you hear us?
- [Roger] Yeah, yeah. - Welcome.
I think it's best to just say, obviously we have a difference of opinion,
and you made a democratic vote, and that's fine, erm,
and we'll leave it at that.
[Gail] What Roger does, what I say,
has a much bigger impact than other people.
There had been attempts, you know,
to bring together teams to look at these issues,
and they almost always immediately fell apart,
because these issues are so charged for people.
[buzzing]
- [Savannah] Hey, Dad. - Hello. Come in.
[Savannah] It smells like you already.
[Roger chuckles]
- [Roger] Do you want a biscuit? - Hmm...
[sighs]
- How's your tag? - [Roger] Let's show the world my tag.
[Savannah] It's very fashionable.
I've got to be in bed, as it were, by 10:30 every evening.
- [snorts] - [both laughing]
It's all good.
Yeah. I wish that we could work together on stuff.
But I just don't think that anything particularly different
is gonna come from people who are stressed and in survival state
and continuously doing and doing and doing.
I got caught up in that because I think that was rife in XR.
It was making me ill.
Well, I think... I think, erm...
I think you just have to live your own truth, you know.
But what if your own truth is hurting other people around you?
Because the relationships outside of your work life are failing.
Well, then, I have to adapt it and take that on board.
I'm not trying to be the best person in the world anymore.
You know, I accept my fundamental fallenness,
my fundamental fuckedness, right?
I'm not trying to be a saint. You see what I mean?
And if at the end of it, you know,
I've got six out of ten on the personal relationship front,
then so be it. [laughs]
You know, because I can't live with that amount of stress.
At the end of the day, I have to do what I have to do,
and I'll live with the consequences of it, you know?
[Savannah] I really love him, and I think he's incredible.
My work now with him is about trying to find a balance where I love him
but not at the expense of my own love of myself.
The way that my mum does things really inspires me,
because she has never forgotten that she is of earth.
- What is that? - This is mibuna.
And how she slots into the web that she exists in.
- Has it got a smell? - Yeah, that's what I smelt.
What is it?
[Savannah] We need fully aware, compassionate, loving people.
[woman] I'm gonna plant the spring greens in here.
- Next year or straight afterwards? - Well, I've got them in the greenhouse.
[Savannah] More than ever, it's absolutely essential
that we have each other's backs,
because there are really powerful people pushing back, hard.
And we've got to be there for each other.
[woman] Madam Deputy Speaker,
the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill
will give the police the power to take a more proactive approach
in tackling dangerous and disruptive protests.
Madam Deputy Speaker, the government has prioritised giving the police
the power to prohibit the fundamental freedoms of protest
that the British public hold dear.
The government's bill targets protesters causing too much noise
and says that those who cause annoyance could be jailed for up to ten years.
When we don't get help from the justice system...
[woman] This bill is a disgrace.
It is dangerous, undemocratic and disproportionate.
If I can't talk and if people can't hear me,
there's no point in us coming out here.
So that's a technicality, right?
- [woman] This is oppression! - [all] This is oppression!
- This affects you too. - [officer] I know that.
- But I'm informing you of the law. - You don't need to enforce this.
I think it's a bill that isn't aiming at reducing crime or making people safe,
it's doing the opposite.
I think it's expanding police powers.
It's politicised protest, which is a fundamental part of democracy.
It's really a silencing bill.
This government want to now ban
even the smallest, most safe forms of protest.
[woman on PA] Ten years in prison for defacing a statue?
You know, please, get your priorities right.
[people chanting] Kill the bill! Kill the bill!
[Gail] One of the clearest signs that Extinction Rebellion
and other social movements are effective
is that the government is trying to make protest
this ineffective, semi-pointless exercise
in pretending that we've actually got a democracy when we haven't.
[interviewer] What have you learned through your XR experience?
[chuckles]
I'm so much better now. [laughs]
I was lost and now I'm found. [laughs]
Er... What was the question again?
I learnt a lot from Extinction Rebellion.
The political journey that so many of us have gone on has been huge.
When we talk about climate justice, it's not simply a slogan,
it actually means something.
[Sam] Grappling with the scale of the crisis
opens you up to the horror of what power is doing to the powerless.
[Savannah] I think XR was important because it pushed people.
And those people who were pushed towards showing up,
those people who were pushed towards passion,
had such an effect on this country.
[Gail] The last few years have been emotional on so many levels.
Such immense joy at times.
And then it's been horrendous.
The grief of these times is always coming in.
The system relies on us feeling powerless.
Who's feeling powerless today?
When we come together, we're not powerless.
[Farhana] There's something really joyous
about bringing together different people from different walks of life.
And I think it allowed people to connect to their own emotional selves.
[Roger] I think I've learnt how enormously tragic it is to be human.
Because humans are enormous,
find it enormously difficult to get their act together.
[Sophie] It's really easy to become apathetic.
To step out of that apathy is incredibly liberating.
We rebuild community. We rebuild family.
We rebuild our relationships with each other, with nature.
[Alejandra] Realising the potential that a movement like XR has,
despite its many imperfections,
there's many things about it that are really, really powerful.
We are in rebellion. Just that is hella powerful.
[Farhana] There are protests going on all over the world
where people who are defending nature
are being harassed, arrested, in many cases murdered.
And that's why we need in this country
for all of us to rise up and use our power, use our voice, use our vote.
[interviewer] How do you feel about the question, "Is it too late?"
Yeah, I think the reason why that question, "Is it too late?", annoys me is
is it too late for whom, and for what?
You know, so I feel like it's very important
for people to ask a better question, frankly, which is,
"What can I do, and what needs to be done?"
["Rise" playing]
♪ Could be wrong ♪
♪ I could be right ♪
♪ Could be wrong ♪
♪ I could be wrong, I could be right ♪
♪ I could be black, I could be white ♪
♪ I could be right, I could be wrong ♪
♪ I could be white I could be black ♪
♪ Your time has come your second skin ♪
♪ The cost so high the gain so low ♪
♪ Walk through the valley ♪
♪ The written word is a lie ♪
♪ May the road rise with you ♪
♪ Could be wrong ♪
♪ I could be right ♪
♪ Could be wrong ♪
♪ I could be right ♪
♪ I could be wrong, I could be right ♪
♪ I could be black, I could be white ♪
♪ I could be right, I could be wrong ♪
♪ I could be black, I could be white ♪
♪ They put a hot wire to my head ♪
♪ 'Cause of the things I did and said ♪
♪ They made these feelings go away ♪
♪ A model citizen in every way ♪
♪ May the road rise with you ♪