Oh dear, they didn't like how 'controversial' he was, he cost them members and was the cause of disagreement in online comment sections. A 'divisive' figure, g-d help him... because every successful activist leader in the past won their victories by being nice and saying All the Right Things to please everybody, right? What a f*ing joke, XR would be nowhere without him & others like him stirring the pot. NGO careerists & PC thought police will kill this movement if they haven't already. It has taken them nearly a year to arrive at this verdict from their 'restorative process':
Interesting that Radiohead pulled out their funds over the holocaust comments too. Shows the depth of their commitment & their priorities, especially after they ignored BDS requests and played in Tel Aviv.
Following a review of the impact of Roger Hallam’s actions and statements on the growth, morale, and media coverage of our global movement, Extinction Rebellion Global Support is issuing this clarifying statement.
Roger Hallam was one of the key founders of XR when it started in the UK. He no longer holds any formal role in XR UK.
Roger Hallam has never been a member of, or held any position in, Global Support.
**Additionally, he will neither hold any role within Global Support nor be involved in _any_ capacity with its future campaigns and strategy.**
Roger Hallam has carried out initiatives in various parts of the world that, regardless of his intentions, have led to significant damage to our movement. For example: - In November 2019, after comments Roger Hallam made on the Holocaust, the Global Support Tech team witnessed mass account deactivations across its global services. The German team cited a particularly heavy fall in their membership base. This was the first time Global Support Tech had seen negative growth since our global communications platforms were deployed, with thousands of rebels leaving our platforms. - Radiohead, a major donor in 2019, indicated they would no longer donate to XR, citing Roger Hallam’s comments. XR Switzerland and XR Germany both reported that other local environmental groups sought to distance themselves from XR after the comments, with local Fridays For Future groups seeking distance from XR at German protests and indicating that the Extinction Symbol was not welcome at actions. - On more than one occasion in 2020, Roger Hallam “jokingly” suggested that leaders responsible for the climate and ecological emergency should be shot. Joke or not, these statements damaged our otherwise strong commitment to non-violence in the public eye, and increased concerns about XR being classified as a terrorist organization. - Roger Hallam helped set up “XR America”, which both complicated existing conflicts among rebels in the United States and created new ones. As a result, the Latin American XR movement dissociated itself from Global Support and has worked as a network of independent regional groups - Global Support’s Media and Messaging team maintains a Reactive team that monitors feedback and responds to messages on the global Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram pages. Reactive has often reported negative feedback and unproductive controversy in response to posts mentioning Roger Hallam.
Our highest priority at Global Support is to encourage the strong, efficient, and regenerative global growth of the XR movement. It is clear that Roger Hallam has become a highly divisive figure both in the global movement and within Global Support. While we recognise his groundbreaking early actions and extraordinary work in co-founding XR, we can no longer allow the controversy around his later statements and activism continue to damage our work. **We are issuing this statement in order to state our position clearly and transparently, and as a measure towards reconciliation.**Tell your story; Ask a question; Interpret generously http://storybythethroat.wordpress.com/tell-ask-listen/
A social ratchet effect within a community. A process of moral outbidding, unchecked, which corrodes the group from within, rewarding those who put themselves at the extremes, and punishing nuance relentlessly.
Posted by Keith-264 on November 20, 2020, 11:42 pm, in reply to "Purity spiral"
Nothing to do with corruption then?Clio the cat, ? July 1997 - 1 May 2016 Kira the cat, ? ? 2010 - 3 August 2018
Re: Purity spiral
Posted by psingh on November 20, 2020, 11:54 pm, in reply to "Re: Purity spiral"
At the risk of sounding like Keith 🤣 I predict that in 10 years time XR will be one of the most reactionary organisations around.
Re: Purity spiral
Posted by Ian M on November 21, 2020, 10:11 am, in reply to "Re: Purity spiral"
It reminds me of Assange & Corbyn, though to a lesser degree and coming exclusively from the left (ie: the woke/cultural left) rather than instigated by the right and aided by useful idiots from the PC brigade. The cat gets the mouse in its claws so now it's totally at its mercy & under its control, to toy with for a while then devour. Run the victim through a faceless, unaccountable institution to dilute the individual responsibility. Cowards get to feel powerful by deciding how to destroy somebody with higher status than themselves. Anybody with a spark of individuality and creativity gets ritually crushed and made to obey a central committee which gets to decide everything that will be said and how it will be said...
Burning Pink @BespokePanic · Roger Hallam Statement to XR Global Support.
I welcome the statement from Global Support. Always good to have things in the open as is the XR tradition.
Here are a few points.
1. Global support does not have the right to permanently ban me from a role in Global Support (at least not permanently).
Firstly “GS” may not do this as a new proposal can change that position.
Secondly this is not a legitimized action as XR as an international organism does not have a formal constitution. I have tried on several occasions to get a proper constitution sorted out for international XR,
but the culture of some people prefer power to remain unstructured and unaccountable rather than formal and open. The default is we remain just a social movement and people can initiate their own things but can’t claim to speak for others.
If Global Support feels it is speaking on behalf of the Movement as a whole, this is blatant misrepresentation. Like any XR Group, GS are only legitimized through their own self creation and are not a ‘force of power’ representing the international movement by any means.
The people making this statement are at the end of the day are just speaking for themselves. How did they get on this group – who knows?
If the GS Global Media and Messaging team feel I am influencing their social media stats I’m very open to reviewing this data and looking at how you extrapolated your conclusions.
2. The comments on the holocaust were published by a corporate owned German newspaper. I was speaking on my own behalf (about my book) not on behalf of XR. The comments were taken out of context. The full interview makes clear my absolute horror of all genocides.
I apologised for the effect the comments had. I have a deep love for the Jewish tradition – and its prophetic emphasis of speaking truth to power and acting against harm. This tradition is at the heart of my truth telling.
And for the record I have had intention of creating headlines about my comments. The fact is that my memo to XR suggesting truth telling should be used to create social change was written after the interview not before.
3. On “regardless of his intentions”, I would say, morally speaking, intentions are everything. XR was set up to tell the truth, not to tell the truth dependent upon how the corporate media will manipulate what you have to say to make money.
The latter approach is the pathway to hell in the present context.
4. I never said that people should be shot “jokingly”- where did that come from?
I did an interview about the morality of denying the climate catastrophe and, speaking as a political scientist, made the perfectly reasonable observation that those who promote the putting of carbon into the air at this stage in history are likely to find themselves in court –
or worse. As I made abundantly clear I would not, myself, want to see violence happen to them.
As everyone who knows me is fully aware, I am 100% committed to nonviolence and have been since I was a teenager in the peace movement in the 1980s.
It’s one of the oldest tricks in the book for the press to take a statement from someone saying something will happen and twist it into them saying they want it to happen. For full transparency you are welcome to contact me to get a copy of the full interview.
Whoever is spreading this plain lie about me from Global Support could have just picked up the phone and done a bit of fact checking before making public statements (you have my number).
5. I am in service to XR groups around the world.
I never ask for a formal position and so have no formal power. I make suggestions and input based on my research and experience. I was asked to do this in America and Australia, and am helping with mobilisation design in other countries. This is a movement.
People can set up groups and ask people to help them. That’s the way it is.
6. I always thought Radiohead were a rubbish band.
7. Given “Global XR Support” wishes to communicate “clearly and transparently” I publicly ask all the people who were party to this letter publish their names and explain the selection process through which they got to sit on XR Global support in their respective roles.
After all, if you want to criticise someone in public, it’s only right to say who you are.
8. And again in a spirit of openness and reconciliation I formally and publicly ask two nominated GS representatives to join me in a recorded YouTube discussion so we can discuss the contents of their statement and how to build a “strong, efficient and regenerative” movement.
Should be good.
9. I have tried to write the above statement in as truthful way as possible. It does however, I confess contain one lie. I actually think Radiohead are bloody fantastic.
Posted by Focus on November 22, 2020, 7:16 am, in reply to "Hallam responds"
.
Re: Hallam responds
Posted by Keith-264 on November 22, 2020, 6:17 pm, in reply to "Hallam responds"
"I apologised for the effect the comments had. I have a deep love for the Jewish tradition – and its prophetic emphasis of speaking truth to power and acting against harm. This tradition is at the heart of my truth telling."
Pathetic; if this is true, Jews don't have anything to complain about. Zionists would complain but that's because they are antisemite scum.Clio the cat, ? July 1997 - 1 May 2016 Kira the cat, ? ? 2010 - 3 August 2018
on November 20, 2020, 6:32 pm