We are delighted to announce that Extinction Rebellion have agreed to become one of our trusted contributors and write a regular column for Godalming Nub News.

Matthew Phelps is the communications co-ordinator for XR in Godalming. He has written this first contribution for us: other members of the Godalming group will write for us in future.

Following on from the recent Extinction Rebellion actions in London and other areas of the UK - in

particular the 'Free The Truth' protest on 5th September, in which a hundred brave rebels blockaded

the entrance to a newspaper printing works in Broxbourne - there has been some suggestion in our

supposed 'free press' that the governmen t are looking to reclassify XR as an organised crime group. Luckily, we're not the only ones who think this is nonsense; it would appear the police agree, but the

very suggestion is not only laughable, it's downright dangerous.

Of course, XR intentionally sets out to cause disruption at times; that is the whole point. We are using non-violent direct action to highlight the government's failure to properly address the climate and ecological crisis. In truth, A to B marches and other traditional protests in permissive locations have seldom achieved a great deal. History tells us it is civil disobedience which has invariably led to progress. Think of the suffragettes, hunger strikers or the civil rights movement.

We aren't talking about hardened gangsters here, what unites all civil disobedience movements is that they are formed by ordinary, concerned people.

Since I joined XR I have met rebellious people from all walks of life: doctors, farmers, teachers, councillors, scientists.… what unites us, and drives us, is a stark recognition of the catastrophic and self-destructive path the human race is heading down.

To criminalise us would be to criminalise the parent concerned for their child's future, the doctor concerned about the future wellbeing of their patients, the farmer concerned about their ability to produce crops in a changing climate.

The fact is, in a few short decades, climate and ecological breakdown will radically affect every single aspect of our lives, and if that isn't worth taking to the streets for, I don't know what is.