In 2022 we saw the climate movement take prominence once again, bringing new (and old) ideas on how to protest, struggle and make disruption. As the climate crisis worsens and hastens, and as people are feeling more pressured and threatened by it, so more radical and emboldened are their actions. This year brought the flourishing and spread of different tactics through the diverse ecology that is the climate justice movement, and one year after the publication of Andrea Malm’s “How to blow up a pipeline”, what seemed like a wild and controversial idea to some, is now a cherished idea to others.
In October, museums, and in particular high profile art pieces, became for the first time targets of the climate movement, with the infamous soup throwing of the UK based group “Just Stop Oil”. This controversial action, took the media landscape by storm. Targeting art was not new, with previous examples by the Suffragettes of painting slashings dating back to 1914, but a quick outrage about art destruction, vandalism and “taking things too far” took over the discourse. Not only was the action controversial for the general public, where the general consensus was misguided towards the believe that irreparable damage was done to the painting and that this is much worse than the impeding climate chaos that is to ensue, but it was also criticized inside climate activist circles, with the idea that such controversial ideas would wreck all the good work done over the years. Soon, similar actions would spread to Germany, Italy and the Netherlands. An interesting consequence of the embrace of fresh tactics, and the growth of groups like Just Stop Oil and Insulate Britain in the UK, was the choice of XR-UK to dedicate itself to base-building, also a new tactic for the disruption focused group, seeking to capitalize on the “radical-flank” effect.
Before that, in August, thousands of activists participated in a renovated Ende Gelände action camp in Hamburg, a side step from their traditional mine-invading activities. This year’s focus on gas and colonialism pushed forward some developing narratives in the climate justice movement, but a big political change could be seen in their updated action consensus, which defines what kinds of actions are allowed in their week of actions, with the inclusion of “deliberately taking climate-damaging infrastructure out of operation, even beyond our presence.” and “We will not let ourselves be stopped by structural obstacles” the organization was for the first time embracing sabotage as a necessary part of their actions and as an extension of their wanted disruption. More recently, in the fight against the eviction of Lüetzerath, a small village next to the biggest coal mine in Germany, this change was particularly highlighted. Sabotage is a natural part of political political struggle, with example ranging from, again, the Suffragettes, to the resistance in France or in Italy under fascist occupations, and is also not new to the climate movement, with multiple examples of sabotage of pipelines and their construction sites.
Sabotage has been the tool of choice for the french group Les Soulèvements de la Terre, roughly translating to “rising of the earth”, who have decided to target the agro-industry and its allies by occupying land and directly blocking industries. They organize mass “disarmament” actions targeting machinery in construction and mass agriculture sites, dispelling the image of the saboteur waiting in the dark to strike, by showing that sabotage can be done by large swats of people. Also in France, but this time anonymously, there was a “disarmament” of a LaFarge cement plant in Marseille by hundreds of activists. The activist group Tyre Extinguishers also decided to defend themselves from climate change by doing anonymous actions against SUVs, deflating tires in a diffuse way in cities all around the world, this time in small groups that act independently. Other groups, like Climate Defense, have argued for a network of peaceful sabotage to actively stop harm before it is done. The veil of sanctity around private propriety has been irreversibly broken, like it was broken so many times before by other struggles, allowing for more precise strikes at the broken machinery of fossil capitalism.
As it did in 2019 with the global climate strikes, the youth movement once again pushed the climate justice movement to consider new tactics. In September, a group of students camped in the University of Pennsylvania under the banner of End Fossil Ocuppy! to demand the end of the fossil economy. Their occupation, which lasted a month, was followed by around 50 occupations and solidarity actions in universities and high-schools around the world, in Spain, Germany, Netherlands, Portugal, the UK, Uganda and Italy. Deemed a necessary step after the climate strikes, these occupations call for civil society to do the same and occupy their living and workplaces fighting for a future without fossil fuels.
The climate justice movement is once again raising its voice, yelling about the harm that is being done to the climate and to people, and because their cries are being ignored, the radical flank is becoming more attractive to people who feel they need to take the defense of earth with their own hands. After the slump of 2020-2021, this embrace of new tactics is a breath of fresh air, that gives me good hopes for what is to come in 2023.
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