I can clap really loud because of the Labour Party! I know this sounds strange, but it’s true. In February 2014, I was sat in Bradford Rugby League stadium as a delegate at a tense and combative Labour Students conference. I was impressed by my neighbouring delegates booming, sonorous claps, so I watched his hands. He had his hands slightly cupped and would cross his palms diagonally to produce a loud, deep noise (Try it, it works!). I copied enthusiastically: clapping the motions, the speeches, and people I supported – I voted with noise. Soon I was so enamoured with my new clap, that I was thinking more about when to clap than what was being said. Activism can be loud, and aspects of it should be – you want your voice to be heard. However, good, effective activism can’t just be loud. It must also be sensitive, thoughtful, and allow for nuance. This is why listening is so important to activism. This is why listening can, in fact, be activism.
There are two experiences I have had with social movements that have given me this insight. The first is the politics of identity: when discussing issues one cannot necessarily experience, we must listen to the diverse experiences of others. Equally, when an issue is technical, such as the environment or Brexit, we must be informed. This takes time, patience, and, of course, a degree of listening.
Black Lives Matter has changed how many people see identity, especially how people feel about their own. But, it has also helped develop a deeper understanding of how others feel about race. It can be a heady social moment when it feels like a movement is changing things for the better: it feels like history is being written. Who does not want to be part of positive history being written? But it is important to listen to the people whose history it is. Media coverage of Black Lives Matter focuses on protesters lining up against police forces around the world to demand justice for George Floyd. But this is a symptom of a wider problem: structural racism in society. As people pour out into the streets, they should remember to listen as they shout – protesting is far more effective if it is not being done from a position of ignorance. We need to truly listen to what is meant by structural racism, especially if, like me, you do not have lived experience of it. After charging the police or banging your drum in the street, you may feel you have done your bit for BLM. But listening is at least as important in achieving the long-lasting change needed in our society. If we can hear that the problem is within us as members of society, then changing ourselves is a form of activism that makes progress inevitable.
Not only does listening help us change ourselves, but this time of self- and societal- reflection helps us access those who may be struggling to listen. No movement can, or should, speak with one voice and everyone’s learning process will be different. If we can demonstrate, individually and collectively, that we have listened, then the message we communicate will be more compelling.
From Portland, where protesters’ civil liberties are being trampled on, to the sofa next to me, where my mum is reading Me and White Supremacy – Black Lives Matter activism is very much happening. However, activism related to identity is not the only type of activism that requires listening. Extinction Rebellion’s successes and failures over the past two years have demonstrated this.
At its best, Extinction Rebellion (‘XR’) offers a concise set of demands relating to the climate crisis and biodiversity loss, and it captivates the media, generating a large audience. However, it is a diverse movement with no centralised power structure, and activists are not required to get approval for direct action they plan. This means that some of XR’s activism is intelligent, sensitive, and coherent. For example, in November 2018, roaming roadblocks were designed to stop traffic in order to start a conversation with the public about the climate crisis. However, other actions have been so controversial that they have threatened the entire movement.
I want you to cast your mind back to the early morning on the 17th October 2019; the sun was just rising as a small group of activists with XR branding climbed onto the roof of a tube at Canning Town Underground Station, in a traditionally working-class area. This action immediately dominated the narrative of the protests, just as the movement had begun to develop goodwill after a London-wide ban. The protest could have turned out very differently if the eight activists involved in the Canning Town incident had listened to other people in the movement. The previous day, 3,700 extinction rebellion activists voted in an online poll with 72% saying they were opposed to the action, ‘no matter how it is done’. If they had listened to the criticism that XR was a group of middle-class white people causing disruption to less privileged people, then maybe the group would have avoided targeting a working-class area. It was a tragic testament to how dangerous activism can be to the social movement it sits within if listening is not involved.
Extinction Rebellion has enshrined as one of its core principles, ‘We openly challenge ourselves and this toxic system’. This recognises that we are part of the system that we are challenging – so, at times, we must challenge ourselves. This is like the concept of white fragility, coined by sociologist Robin DiAngelo. She suggests that people see racism as individual rather than systematic, causing them to react defensively when they feel their racial worldview is challenged. Whether efforts focus on race, the environment, gender, or Labour rights – to be an activist is to make noise, but it is also to listen, to learn. If activism were just about disruption, then no one would have had time to hear the words of Martin Luther King Jr. or Greta Thunberg. It is time to see listening as activism.
