About Us Our Demands Our Principles Indigenous Rights
Our Principles
1: WE HAVE A SHARED VISION OF CHANGE
Creating a world that is fit for generations to come.
2: WE SET OUR MISSION ON WHAT IS NECESSARY
Mobilising 3.5% of the population to achieve system change – using ideas such as “Momentum-driven organising” to achieve this.
3: WE NEED A REGENERATIVE CULTURE
Creating a culture which is healthy, resilient and adaptable.
4: WE OPENLY CHALLENGE OURSELVES AND THIS TOXIC SYSTEM
Leaving our comfort zones to take action for change.
5: WE VALUE REFLECTING AND LEARNING
Following a cycle of action, reflection, learning, and planning for more action. Learning from other movements and contexts as well as our own experiences.
6: WE WELCOME EVERYONE AND EVERY PART OF EVERYONE
Working actively to create safer and more accessible spaces.
7: WE ACTIVELY MITIGATE FOR POWER
Breaking down hierarchies of power for more equitable participation.
8: WE AVOID BLAMING AND SHAMING
We live in a toxic system, but no one individual is to blame.
9: WE ARE A NON-VIOLENT NETWORK
Using non-violent strategy and tactics as the most effective way to bring about change.
10: WE ARE BASED ON AUTONOMY AND DECENTRALISATION
We collectively create the structures we need to challenge power. Anyone who follows these core principles and values can take action in the name of Extinction Rebellion.
NOTES
We have deliberately spoken here of principles only and not of principles and values as in the original text. The founding values of Extinction Rebellion are expressed in the Statutes of our association and are mainly: Compassion, Respect of Beings Human, Respect for the Earth and the Living, Authenticity, Inclusiveness, Mutual Respect, Equity, Determination, Autonomy, and Decentralization We believe that these values are also representative of the original XR UK movement.
Additional information on Principle 2:
The notion of ‘3.5% of the population’ is explained in Erica Chenoweth’s TEDx: The success of nonviolent civil resistance Erica Chenoweth, Ph.D., is Professor of Public Policy at Harward Kennedy School and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies in the USA, who did not believe in the success of nonviolent actions, and then honestly studied more than 100 cases of violent and non-violent campaigns from 1900 to 2006. And she He was amazed by the results of his study, which proved to be the opposite of his beliefs: Not only were the non-violent campaigns twice as successful as the violent campaigns, but the more we progressed in time and more nonviolent campaigns are effective, she found that moving 3.5 percent of a state’s population to a successful nonviolent revolution was enough, and often it was much less than that.
The expression of the original English text ‘Momentum-driven organization’ is borrowed from the book of Paul Engler and Mark Engler, This is an Uprising (New York: Nation Books, 2016), which is one of the references important for the founders of Extinction Rebellion.
The notion of ‘swarms’ mentioned in the French translation refers to the book Swarmwise - The Tactical Manual to Changing the World which is one of the inspiring books XR. Not to mention the many mentions to the swarming technique used by the members of XR UK in their actions.
