Teamwork and RC at a Women’s Climate Action
Since January 2019 I have been part of XR (Extinction Rebellion) in Denmark. I have participated in actions and trainings and made some speeches. In April I was asked to be part of an action group of women who were mostly nineteen to thirty-three years old. I recruited a fifty-year-old woman, and we were the two not-young women. The proposed action was a hopefully spectacular banner drop from the tower at our Parliament.
We did the drop on the first day the Parliament was debating about finances for the coming year. It was good timing for a protest, as the government had not, as promised during the elections, made climate key in their allocation of money.
Our group was intentionally all women, to show that (1) women are at the forefront as climate activists (women of all ages, with young women being most visible); (2) women are disproportionately the victims of climate change, including as climate refugees; and (3) women are often not seen as physically strong and powerful—a sexist assumption we wanted to contradict.
There were twenty of us, and we each had different roles: “rope women,” with the banner; police contact; media contact; communicators between the top and bottom of the tower; and peacekeepers. I was a peacekeeper.
The banner was made of white cloth, in reference to women’s fight for the right to vote, and had “Listen to the climate researchers. Protect life. Extinction Rebellion,” written on it in purple and green. It was twenty-five meters long and ten meters wide. We prepared meticulously for each step of the action, focusing on the banner drop—how to throw ropes from the tower, attach them to the banner on the ground, and pull up the banner—and all the security issues connected with the action.
INTRODUCING LISTENING AND DISCHARGE
I finally got thirty minutes to do “something social” in our group. I started with a physical game. Then I talked about how we wanted and needed to think and act clearly during our action and how thinking can get blurry under the pressure we experience as activists. I then talked about our need to “let out steam,” with loving attention from someone else, so we can clear our mind and connect well, so we can act as a unified body. I said that this was a contradiction to all the separations society imposes on us.
I explained the “rules” for a mini-session: equal time (five minutes) for each person; the one paying attention not commenting, giving advice, or sharing her own feelings or experiences; complete confidentiality; and paying warm, relaxed attention. Then I asked the women under twenty-five to pick their partners first. They asked why, and I said it was because young women are often chosen last. They liked that. After the mini-session (which they did in a disciplined way—they all followed my guidelines), I asked them to tell their partners what they particularly appreciated about them and their contribution to our project and action.
Afterward they said things like, “It was overwhelming to be listened to without interruption and as the listener to not have to speak—to trust the mind of another person to find her own thoughts and mind,” “I realized that comments from me would’ve turned my partner’s attention in a direction different from the one she chose herself,” “I discovered a chain of connected situations and feelings that I hadn’t realized were there.” Someone had worried that it would be a waste of time—“How can we get through our tight schedule?”—but afterward was happy that we had done it and said that it had created an atmosphere of energy, connection, trust, safety, and confidence that we all needed!
THE DROP
Then came the day of the drop. The weather was finally okay, and we decided “now is the time.” We met a few hours beforehand for final preparations. I wanted to remind everyone about listening and discharge, but when I mentioned it to two of the women, they were hesitant. My heart sank, but then another woman asked if I would lead an exercise similar to the one we had done on Sunday. She said we could invite those who wanted to do it, and the others could do something else in another room. So while we were gathering, eight of us took turns sharing the unique contributions that each of us, as a woman activist, was bringing to the action.
In our lunch break I introduced a conversation about our role as women, and it became like a women’s support group. The women shared how they experience sexism; how the discourse about sexism in Denmark seems to have vanished, due to the illusion that everything is okay; how they loved to prove that they were well organized, strong, perfectly focused, and one-for-all and all-for-one; and how it was such a relief to be all women in this action.
We managed to have the banner up for almost thirty minutes before we were forced to take it down. Two of us negotiated with the guards, police, and tourists in the tower and explained why we were doing the banner drop—that we wanted to aim attention at the climate crisis—and why it would be very dangerous if the guards and police did what they were threatening to do—cut the ropes. The tourists loved what we did!
The police asked for our names and social security numbers, and we will probably get a fine. We had hoped to be arrested but were not. We suspect that there’s a policy to give as little attention as possible to actions like this, especially since there was no violence on our part—no destruction, only civil disobedience—and all the women looked “undramatic” (without a lot of tattoos or piercings, or black clothes or hoods). We also did not attract much media coverage, maybe for the same reasons.
At our follow-up meeting we talked about our learnings and gains. I promised to invite everyone to a meeting at which we could go more deeply into the (RC) practices and ideas I had introduced, and they all liked that a lot.
A GOOD CONCLUSION
To be part of this action I had to contradict all sorts of chronic distresses—of feeling too old, too large and un-fit, not really wanted, and too different and marginal because I didn’t want to go out for a beer. Then I was asked to please join the others at a vegan pizza place, “and beer is not mandatory.” Several of the women even chose non-alcoholic beverages, saying, “I think I will try what you chose.” We had a wonderful time. I got tons of un-asked-for appreciations. I was told how valuable my presence had been for the whole group, how I’d managed to have each woman feel part of the group and important, how I’d expanded the concept of being an activist, and more.
I remembered something I had heard Tim Jackins say (these aren’t his exact words): “Whenever we back away from a challenge, we give our early defeats and other old distresses more power over us than the power we have in the actual situation.”
I felt like dying at every bold step I took, but I am more alive now than before. Good conclusion!
Copenhagen, Denmark
Reprinted from the RC e-mail discussion list for leaders in the care of the environment
(Present Time 198, January 2020)