I really don't understand where other people are coming from with their fawning affection over the games revolutionary patter. It's all surface, it's hideously shallow and pretty inept.
So why the fuck are we not talking about XR's internal funding requests?
Gail Bradbrook, a chief organiser who takes £335 per day as a consultant requests £3,600, while Stu wants £800 a month coming in at £4800, Stephen Reid who's main project is the “Psychedelic Society” proposes XR covers his living expenses of £2k/month, which would represent a 50% reduction on his usual rates.
All in all if these requests are upheld it comes to something like 20K a month, mostly so a couple of dozen people can live in London and do a couple days a week work on XR long term.
The link at the top there is a single one of various funding request spreadsheets shared as part of their aim to be transparent, We'll remove the link or upload a name censored upon request..tbh this is just more of XR overt ignore of security culture and we would ideally “fix it” but out of respect from your transparency policy we'll leave it be.
Just look at it tho, some of those requests are just so removed from the reality. I have absolutely nothing but respect for those on the list asking for travel expenses or feeding. Fair play, good use of donations but that's sadly a minority.You want to move to London to co-ordinate that's great... get a collective property for you all or take a squat and set up a social centre. There are plenty of squat collectives who would just love to take a building and provide it as an active space.
Look, paid activism is a plague. If you want to set up a corporate charity and turn a wage do it, but political organisations have a responsibility to their donors and to those who put themselves at risk... this document alone (I imagine there are a few similar) spits in the face of your street teams and it says that you are for sale, you are turning a wage and you (unless you are simply amazing individuals) will protect that wage, which means undermining your personal ethic and all to often the well-being of the organisation.
Writing this I notice they have added “being in this sheet doesn't mean folks are getting money” which is weird because the people requesting monies are the ones making the decision right? There is also that curious line “our other financial processes remain the route for potential volunteer living expenses” which is a bit curious... I've no idea.... oh wait, is it anything to do with XR Business?
Like serious what the fuck is XR Business? Heck even the makers of the symbol you appropriated have an issue with it and it fles right in the face of any “anti capitalist” rhetoric you spout, heck what Citizen's Assembly approved this bullshit?
Look at it... The statement on the website has the signatures of parasitic scum from Bodyshop and a former Ceo of Unilever. Paul fucking Polman... Paul Fucking Polam whose drowning in accolades for sustainability and savvy business develop all in the while drowning east Asia in plastic sachets in an attempt to monopolies the poorest markets and oh yeah, Paul Fucking Polman who mad Unilver the biggest buying of palm oil in the world covering some 3% alone.
Fuck, the website is even built and hosted by GoDaddy whose owner is notable for hunting elephants.
It's not just him, several names on that list are serious problems. Green Capitalism is a lie, a marketing campaign to see a more wholesome product. This spits in the face of the solid campaigning the street teams are involved in. All that good work raising awareness and trying to bring about social change. XR Buisness comes from the core group, unapproved, all part of the big campaign plan.
Rather than dive into all the faces and organisations here I'm just going to link this article from Winter Oak that looks more into it specifically... “Rebellion Extinction: a capitalist scam to hijack our resistance” I don't know the writers over at Winter Oak but the issues with this list are made pretty apparent.
Remember when that pensioner apologised to Tommy Robinson because he couldn't send £20 quid this week but when his payment came in?... meanwhile Tommy's on TV with a £2k watch or something?
It's the same thing.
You don't take money to improve your personal lot out of donations.
Last I looked XR Uk are near 300k mark for public donations... how much of this is going towards action? How much of this is going into landlords pockets? How much will be sitting in Compassionate Revolution LTD's / Rising Up's bank account churning profits of the next big misadventure or being set aside for “ethical investment”, remember those words “our other financial process”?
I really don't understand where other people are coming from with their fawning affection over the games revolutionary patter. It's all surface, it's hideously shallow and pretty inept.
There has forever been this disconnect between the more radical and liberal Anarchists which keep us somewhat isolated from each other, even when our political positions more or less mirror each other. Radicals tend to make direct action and opposition with the state and capitalism a core part of their life accepting that the politics […]