I always find it interesting that when it comes to the most important question of our time – how to create a revolutionary force to stop the carbon regime – a hotchpotch of liberal professionals (scientists, lawyers, art curators, etc) seem happy to use their social privilege to appear in the mainstream media to give their two pennies’ worth on “what needs to be done” (After 38 attacks on art, climate protesters have fallen into big oil’s trap – it’s time to change tack, 6 February).
As a mobilisation specialist, I would not dream of writing articles critical of Giovanni Aloi’s work in the world of art. What would I know? The classic error is to think within your own cultural silo. When claiming that an act of disruption “felt … pathetic”, the question is: who is doing the “feeling”? Well, people like Aloi, presumably, who have a self-serving agenda. Why does he assume that resisters want to be “effective” in getting small gains from the most genocidal governments in history? The idea that you are speaking to future generations – or even to the cosmos – are orientations that never get considered.
Roger Hallam
Co-founder of Extinction Rebellion and Just Stop Oil
