Climate Action in Australia
Here in Adelaide, South Australia, a great group of RCers are working within Extinction Rebellion and having a good impact. I have been training marshals. It’s an excellent way to teach people about listening pairs. I am clear about marshals always having a buddy. Many are much in the habit of “independence,” but many others are developing the buddy habit.
Once when I was a police liaison, a road blockade was very loud and tense and the police commander was threatening to bring in the horses. I put both my hands in the air and waggled my fingers and told everyone to do the same. Many did, and the crowd of about two hundred and fifty people went silent. Everyone got calmer, including the police commander. He did not call the horses forward. I was shaking a bit inside but feeling very connected to my own buddy and many others whom I trust.
The police keep telling us how well organized we are, and many of them say they agree with us about the climate emergency. During the week of action here, called Spring Rebellion, the media were full of discussion about civil disobedience.
I’ve started a small “activist support group.” We are all women, because I want our voices to be strong in whatever activism we are doing. Mostly I am teaching people to swap time [exchange listening], but I’m also introducing RC thinking about oppression and being allies. It’s not an RC class, but I acknowledge RC and Sustaining All Life. It is going well, and the trust is deeper every time we meet.
This is a scary and exciting time to be alive! As a white middle-class woman in a wealthy country, I think what I am doing is the right thing.
Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
Reprinted from the RC e-mail discussion list for leaders of women
(Present Time 198, January 2020)