#Tamsin Omond

[yourdailyqueer]

Tamsin Omond

Gender: Transgender non binary (they/them)

Sexuality: Queer

DOB: 19 November 1984  

Ethnicity: White - English

Occupation: Activist, writer, journalist

[fierytakeferdinand]

UK’s Political Landscape is not unlike a zombie apocalypse story.

What it says on the tin.

Let’s do a brief recap:

Tories have shit the bed, like all conservatives before them and how all of them after, they have stolen from the people and given to their corporate donors/handlers, protected their landlord/theft businesses and

Environmentalists are the only ones who seem to be doing anything but they’re basically single-issue grass simps so it’s hard to get excited about anything they do and most people still shit on them relentlessly massively missing the entire point of all the paint throwing and parliament occupying. Although at least they’re doing something so even if we disagree they have my undying respect.

GreenAndPleasant types are in a superposition of being stalin-apologist anti-Ukraine red-fascist tankie morons while also simultaneously rushing to defense of fucking landlords as long as there’s a sob story. I would say something witty here but the word “Gallery of Morons” is all I can think of so let’s leave it at that.

DemSocs/SuccDems don’t exist here, Labour party liberals are sizeable and had a chance to become a real opposition under Corbyn, but post-massacre by the media, the liberal leadership of Keir still feels like it’ll lose simply because of a boomer monolith voting tories despite the country being now the poorest in Western Europe thanks to Tories, but what can you or I do against them, they are somehow a completely different species, a horror truly beyond my understanding on every level, the kind of “people” who complain about Starbucks baristas not smiling(?) and being “gormless”(??) on Google Maps(???).

Pictured: Anti-Trans hate group. One foot in the grave, the other in other people’s business where it doesn’t belong. Probably the same kind of people who leave the kinds of reviews I posted above.

The Greens basically don’t do anything of note and lost their one exciting candidate for leadership (or rather a duo — Amelia Womack and Tamsin Omond), but at least not to the openly TERF candidate — Shahrar Ali. I’ll drink to that, he can die in a fire, but the fact he was anywhere near a progressive party is already incredibly concerning.

Anarchists are non-existent. LAF pretty much already existed only on Facebook with occasional events and meetups but haven’t done anything since August and their posts get no interactions other than a few random boomers talking about the biker gang sons of anarchy (fucking lol) or making nonsensical comments appended by obligatory elipses, so I doubt they got all that much attendance.

Most users on /r/unitedkingdom are either fence-sitters or pro-labour but they don’t matter compared to the tory monolith that made this country poorer than Poland. And these are the fucking internet using young progressives railing against the system??? What the fuck. Even those who support socialism seem to have this “oh it’ll happen eventually” attitude and just sit on their hands.

In a country known as TERF Island, most trans rights activists are sitting writing essays (and yes I realize the irony), and arranging piss bottles outside headquarters instead of breaking windows with them.

Why is it like this?

Well, because I think we’re past the saving-the-world stage and into the all-we-can-do-is-critique-it stage.

This feels like cyberpunk genuinely. Or a Zombie Apocalypse story. The two are alike in that they share a similar distinction of being set in a static, usually unmoving world, portrayed as a sort of endpoint of history and societal evolution rather than as an age of turmoil and transformation.

This is what separates cyberpunk fiction (and I’m using just a general average of cyberpunk worlds, of course there are outliers) — from other political fiction.

Star Trek is kind of anti-establishment in some ways because it’s effectively a different establishment critiquing our time, in episodes such as The Drumhead, witch hunts and well, “drumhead trials” are critiqued through a story taking place in a society that’s not invulnerable to it’s occasional reappearance, but has learned to spot it, and has learned to fight it. It critiques our society, which has not yet done so. The positive ending is a foregone conclusion because the portrayal is ultimately a utopia, but it’s moral lessons come from defeating challenges.

Cyberpunk fiction’s moral lessons then come from the exact opposite, the world is a dystopia, the bad conclusion to the story is a foregone one, but seeing it transpire allows us to critique it.

Similarly, zombie apocalypse stories allow us to examine human morality in close critique under extreme pressure, it does not provide solutions to complex moral dilemmas nearly as often as simply letting them play out.

The zombie apocalypse is often beyond comprehension, beyond resistance, it is simply an unstoppable force of nature, a world of “is” and that’s that, and all one can do is survive, a constant, like death.

Sure there’s some exceptions, like The Last Of Us or Children of Men (which isn’t a zombie story but basically is), but those stories rarely end with the apocalypse being un-done or fixed or the state of the world made better because that’s just a plot device more than not, something to get characters moving from situation to situation.

In Cyberpunk, similarly most characters either don’t resist the world order at all, or do so out of selfish, malformed reasons, being the products of the very world they resist, and even when they do resist the world, and do so for the right reasons, they very rarely succeed making even a dent in the monolithic power structures that govern their world with the power equal to that of the new natural laws of The Walking Dead.

There is dystopian fiction that does provide solutions of sorts, like idk, Total Recall for (not a great) example: is pretty anti-capitalist typical Paul Veerhoven action film that gives solutions, namely, get Arnold Schwarznegger to shoot the bad guy and at the end of the story like this, characters either solve the problems, or make the world better in some way, they make a difference towards a brighter future.

But it’s harder and harder to think we live in the latter type of dystopia than the former. Remember that monolith of boomer voters that feel like a static, unmoving thing seemingly unaffected by the actual reality of the country, behaving in ways incomprehensible to normal human beings? It’s kinda like that. Like zombies, that just keep coming and coming, with no end. All one can do is delay the inevitable end on a personal level.

It’s not about saving the world in those types of stories, it’s about saving yourself, and the world exists as an endpoint of social evolution, and it exists solely to take you from yourself, and when even holding onto that is a struggle, saving the world feels akin to curing death — an incomprehensibly complex task.

Still, at the very least I hope to make a positive difference somehow, do something more than just saving myself, preserving my mind only to comprehend fresh horrors of late stage capitalism.

Even if it’s just to know I tried, even if I don’t believe it will actually do something. Political morons might be endless, and fighting them feels hopeless, but helping someone get a meal, that’s at least one day they won’t starve as much for.

[extinctionrebellionresponse]

HAVE YOU HEARD OF EXTINCTION REBELLION?

- About Us section on the Extinction Rebellion website

WHO THEY ARE

Co-founded by Gail Bradbook, Roger Hallam, and Tamsin Omond in 2018 - XR is a fairly new movement in the global environmental activism scene.

They are dedicated to tackling global warming and the use of fossil fuels that they believe are responsible for the climate collapse that is unfolding in the world around us.

XR accuse the British government of ecocide which has been described by Farhana Yamin as the 'destruction of insects, plants and ecosystems' that the human race paradoxically depend on but are simultaneously decimating. Olivia Laing's novel Crudo offers a similar idea and she exclaims that she 'couldn't help but find it interesting, watching people herself included compulsively foul their nest.'

The XR logo has a very powerful meaning behind the simplistic design. A detailed explanation of the logo is available here: https://www.extinctionsymbol.info/

In short, the circle represents Earth and the hourglass symbol within the circle illustrates the way in which 'time is running out' and the growing possibility of extinction becoming a reality.

Their manifesto is a 15-page document that contains a plethora of their demands and aims such as:

SOCIAL MEDIA PRESENCE

The screenshots below are from their various social media accounts (accurate as of April 1st) where they have a very active presence and growing number of followers.

They post daily on Instagram and share their content with 675,000 people as well as updates to their 389,000 Twitter and 438,000 Facebook followers.

Below are some hashtags widely used on their Instagram posts that are relevant to climate change and designed to attract new followers and increase awareness.

The hashtags above show that XR is but a relatively small part of a much wider and global discussion concerning the saving of Planet Earth.

The screenshot above is a BBC News notification that I received in the midst of researching for this project. The article title denotes that climate emergency is high on the agenda for worldwide discussions more now than ever.

THE NEXT STEPS

- Extinction Rebellion 2022 Facebook Event (April 9th @ 10am)

Since April 9th, XR have been staging a number of mass protests in London that are already grabbing media headlines. For example, a breaking news BBC article has said that this action is deliberately 'highly disruptive' and 'designed to disrupt, engage and recruit new rebels'.

Mass demonstrations and significant shut downs of specific areas of central London can be expected to continue in the coming weeks as XR plan to execute the 'April Rebellion' (predominantly from April 9th-17th).

[that-bookworm-guy]

The Book of Queer Prophets: 24 Writers on Sexuality and Religion - Curated by Ruth Hunt Rating: ★★★★★    Pages: 240   Read: 30th June 2020

Is it possible to believe in God and be gay? How does it feel to be excluded from a religious community because of your sexuality? Why do some people still believe being LGBT is a sin? The book of Queer Prophets contains modern-day epistles from some of our most important thinkers, writers and activists: Jeanette Winterson tackles religious dogma, Amrou Al-Kadhi writes about trying to make it as a Muslim drag queen in London, John Bell writes about his decision to come out later in life, Tamsin Omond remembers getting married in the middle of a protest and Kate Bottley explains her journey to becoming an LGBT ally. Essays from: Jeanette Winterson, Phyll Opoku-Gyimah, Amrou Al-Kadhi, Padraig O Tuama, Garrard Conley, Juno Dawson, Rev. Winnie Varghese, Keith Jarrett, Jay Hulme, Lucy Knight, Tamsin Omond, Erin Clark, Michael Segalov, Jarel Robinson-Brown, John L. Bell, Mpho Tutu van Furth, Karl Rutlidge, Garry Rutter, Rev Rachel Mann, Jack Guiness, Dustin Lance Black, Ric Stott. Afterword: Kate Bottley

This book is beautifully written and honestly makes you think. 

The honest truths and feelings that people have had when questioning part of their identity is heartbreaking and something I feel like many people can relate to. This book doesn’t focus around just Christianity and I’m really glad it gets the view of different people across the LGBT+ community. 

I’m not religious nor do I live in a religious household, none of my family are religious so I will never experience the things the people in this book have, and it really opened my eyes to the issues that they face. I knew that it wasn’t easy for religious LGBT+ people, but this really helped to open my eyes and mind to the experiences. 

I feel like this is a book that people should really read and experience for themself, religious or not. 

| Hardback |

If you like what I do, please consider buying me a coffee to keep me awake :)

[bookre]

Editor Recommended Top LGBTQIA+ Books

Pride Month is here and one way to celebrate is to read more books portraying queer characters or written by queer authors.

Below is the list of Editor Recommended Top LGBTQIA+ Books published by Harper Collins.

1. Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smog less Detroit day of January 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of l974.’ So begins the breathtaking story of Calliope Stephanides and three generations of the Greek-American Stephanides family who travel from a tiny village overlooking Mount Olympus in Asia Minor to Prohibition-era Detroit, witnessing its glory days as the Motor City, and the race riots of 1967, before they move out to the tree-lined streets of suburban Grosse Pointe, Michigan. To understand why Calliope is not like other girls, she has to uncover a guilty family secret and an astonishing genetic history that turns Callie into Cal, one of the most audacious and wondrous narrators in contemporary fiction. Lyrical and thrilling, Middlesex is an exhilarating reinvention of the American epic.

Buy Now!

2. The Book of Queer Prophets by Ruth Hunt

The Book of Queer Prophets contains modern-day epistles from some of our most important thinkers, writers and activists: Jeanette Winterson tackles religious dogma, Amrou Al-Kadhi writes about trying to make it as a Muslim drag queen in London, John Bell writes about his decision to come out later in life, Tamsin Omond remembers getting married in the middle of a protest and Kate Bottley explains her journey to becoming an LGBT ally.

Buy Now!

3. Queer Power by Dom&Ink

Celebrate some of the modern-day trailblazers, champions and icons who have shaped, or are shaping our world, from well-known public figures and allies to others you will wish you had heard of earlier.

Covering topics including coming out, gender, mental health and activism, this book is packed full of empowering quotes, inspiring life lessons and helpful advice that will encourage you to embrace your story and find your power.

Buy Now!

4. Get Out by Aniruddha Mahale

In Get Out, Aniruddha Mahale mines his own romantic (mis)adventures to put together the ultimate guide to dating for gay men in India.

Full of tips, advice and lessons learned – the stylist who taught him how to dress, the teacher who taught him how to behave, the socialite who taught him how to charm – Mahale remembers the good dates and the bad, and offers real, practical advice to men dealing with coming out and going out in India.

Buy Now!

5. The Book of Pride by Mason Funk

The Book of Pride captures the true story of the gay rights movement from the 1960s to the present, through richly detailed, stunning interviews with the leaders, activists, and ordinary people who witnessed the movement and made it happen. These individuals fought battles both personal and political, often without the support of family or friends, frequently under the threat of violence and persecution. By shining a light on these remarkable stories of bravery and determination, The Book of Pride not only honors an important chapter in American history, but also empowers young people today (both LGBTQ and straight) to discover their own courage in order to create positive change.

Buy Now!

[oneman]

“Organisers are people who have noticed what is happening and want to do something about it. We roll up our sleeves and get on with it. Organisers can be all of us.” — Do Earth by Tamsin Omond 📚

[thedimpause]

Finished reading: Do Earth by Tamsin Omond 📚

[adrianspalinky]

Wholeheartedly support Amelia Womack &Tamsin Omond 4 the Green Party leadership campaign Amelia a Stanchion of The modern Green Party, Tamsin a bolt of energy ⚡ powering belief that we can affect change, together they rewrite the political narrative

https://www.womackomond.green/

[no-gods-no-masters-tshirts]

Activist tshirts - https://www.No-Gods-No-Masters.com - “A young woman was restrained, force-fed and injected with cosmetics in a high street shop window as part of a hard-hitting protest against animal testing. Jacqueline Traide was tortured in front of hundreds of horrified shoppers in a bid to raise awareness and end the practise. The 24-year-old endured 10 hours of experiments, which included having her hair shaved and irritants squirted in her eyes, as part of a worldwide campaign by Lush Cosmetics and The Humane Society. The disturbing stunt took place in Lush’s Regent Street store, one of the UK’s busiest shopping streets. Jacqueline appeared genuinely terrified as she was pinned down on a bench and had her mouth stretched open with two metal hooks while a man in a white coat force-fed her until she choked and gagged. The artist was also injected with numerous needles, had her skin braised and lotions and creams smeared across her face. Passers-by were gobsmacked to see Jacqueline, a social sculpture student at Oxford Brookes University, forced to have a section of her head shaved. The gruesome spectacle aimed to highlight the cruelty inflicted on animals during cosmetic laboratory tests and raise awareness that animal testing is still a common practise. The Humane Society International and Lush Cosmetics have joined forces to launch the largest-ever global campaign to end animal testing for cosmetics. The campaign, launched to coincide with World Week for Animals in Laboratories, is being rolled out simultaneously in over 700 Lush Ltd shops across forty-seven countries including the United States, Canada, India, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea and Russia. Lush campaign manager Tamsin Omond said: “The ironic thing is that if it was a beagle in the window and we were doing all these things to it, we’d have the police and RSPCA here in minutes. “But somewhere in the world, this kind of thing is happening to an animal every few seconds on average. “The difference is, it’s normally hidden. We need to remind people it is still going on.” For more information about the campaign, visit www.fightinganimaltesting.com” [FS] greetings we had several complaints regarding this photo whats on that photo is to show what animals have to go through on a daily basis, it is staged, if you have a problem with this I suggest you contact laboratories and "doctors/scientists" performing such tests or complain to the companies doing such research in order to produce Beauty products and other non vital commercial products. that photo session was staged just to show what other living beings go through, no one was harmed with chemicals.. in solidarity [AD]

[gyrlversion]

Thousands of eco-warriors pour into London to bring city to standstill

Environmental protesters will paralyse London‘s roads today by creating human barricades at five landmarks.

Organisers of the Extinction Rebellion group claim up to 30,000 eco-protesters are expected to block major routes from 9am. Scotland Yard warned drivers to expect road closures and widespread disruption in the capital. 

The movement, which is demanding the Government takes urgent action on climate change and wildlife declines, has been backed by actress Dame Emma Thompson and former archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams. 

Climate protest group Extinction Rebellion set up camp in London’s Hyde Park yesterday before today’s plans for disruption

The campaigners, who include the granddaughter of a baronet, are demanding the introduction of a legally binding policy to reduce carbon emission to net zero by 2025. 

They say they will continue to block key roads in London for weeks and ‘escalate civil disobedience’ if their demands are not met. 

Humans have declared war on nature, says ex-archbishop of Canterbury

Humans have declared war on nature and put progress before the planet, the former archbishop of Canterbury said on the eve of environmental protests aimed at bringing London to a standstill.

Dr Rowan Williams said the world is in a crisis which could be called ‘being at war with ourselves’.

He spoke at a meditation event outside St Paul’s Cathedral in the capital attended by activists preparing to take part in mass demonstrations organised by the Extinction Rebellion group.

Sitting on the ground amid protesters who held flags and banners, he said: ‘We have declared war on our nature when we declare war on the natural world.

‘We are at war with ourselves when we are at war with our neighbour, whether that neighbour is human or non-human.

‘We are here tonight to declare that we do not wish to be at war. We wish to make peace with ourselves by making peace with our neighbour earth and with our God.’

Praying at the all-faith gathering, he added: ‘We confess that we have polluted our own atmosphere, causing global warming and climate change that have increased poverty in many parts of our planet.

‘We have contributed to crises and been more concerned with getting gold than keeping our planet green. We have loved progress more than the planet. We are sorry.’

Extinction Rebellion, which describes itself as a non-violent direct action and civil disobedience group, said the protests at major central London locations including Parliament Square and Oxford Circus from Monday ‘will be bringing London to a standstill for up to two weeks’.

The first stage of their global ‘Rebellion Week’ will see human barricades at Marble Arch, Oxford Circus, Waterloo Bridge, Parliament Square and Piccadilly Circus.

Their goal is to shut down vital roads and transport links, causing misery for commuters and keeping over-stretched police officers busy for hours. 

The so-called festival of action will see food stalls set up and talks given in the middle of the road throughout the day. Some protesters even plan to super-glue their hands to objects in the road and each other. 

One of those expected on the streets is Tamsin Omond, the granddaughter of Dorset baronet Sir Thomas Lees. The 35-year-old went to Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge. 

The most prominent figure in Extinction Rebellion is Left-wing academic Roger Hallam, whose stated ambition for the group is to ‘bring down all the regimes in the world and replace them’, starting with Britain.

Last November, Extinction Rebellion blocked bridges across London to bring chaos to the capital. 

In February, they took part in a nationwide school strike and on April 1, during one of the Brexit debates, a group of their protesters stripped off in the House of Commons. 

Speaking at a meditation on the eve of the protests Dr Williams said humans had declared war on nature.

He said: ‘We are here tonight to declare that we do not wish to be at war. We wish to make peace with ourselves by making peace with our neighbour Earth and with our God.’

Thompson has previously said of the demonstrations: ‘It is time to stand up and save our home.’

The Met Police said it was aware of the protests. 

Officers said their operational response to camping ‘would be dependent on what if any other issues might be ongoing at the time’. 

On April 1, during one of the Brexit debates, a group of Extinction Rebellion protesters stripped off in the House of Commons 

Extinction Rebellion protesters sit after pouring fake blood onto the ground in London outside Downing Street on March 9

Scotland Yard said they have ‘appropriate policing plans’ in place for the demonstrations and that officers will be used from across the force ‘to support the public order operation during the coming weeks’.

Protests across Europe 

Today will see people in at least 80 cities in more than 33 countries hold similar climate demonstrations.

The first protest of the day was held at Schuman Square in Brussels this morning as protesters formed a human ‘XR’ logo – the same as that of Extinction Rebellion.

The Extinction Rebellion ‘Rebellion Week’ begins at Schuman Square in Brussels today as protesters form a human ‘XR’ logo

Police advised people travelling around London in the coming days to allow extra time for their journey in the event of road closures and general disruption.

A spokesman for the organisers said: ‘The International Rebellion begins and Extinction Rebellion will be bringing London to a standstill for up to two weeks.

‘They will be blocking five of the city’s busiest and most iconic locations in a non-violent, peaceful act of rebellion where they invite people to join them for several days of creative, artist-led resistance.’

Demonstrators arrived at London’s Hyde Park yesterday, some having journeyed to the city on foot in recent weeks from various parts of the UK for what is described as an ‘International Rebellion’. 

While organisers encouraged people to set up camp in Hyde Park overnight into this morning, they were warned they could be breaking the law by doing so is an offence under Royal Parks legislation.

A spokesman for The Royal Parks said Extinction Rebellion had not asked for permission to begin the protest in the park and that camping is not allowed.

DOMINIC LAWSON: Deluded middle-class climate warriors can’t see the real danger of their bright idea 

 Claire Perry said her encounter with this (until now) obscure group had been ‘good and productive’

Getting to see a government minister isn’t easy. I’d challenge any reader to see how long it takes to persuade the civil servants manning the bureaucratic barricades to let you bend a minister’s ear about whatever concerns you.

Yet somehow they found a space in the diary for a group called Extinction Rebellion (XR) to lobby the Minister of State for Energy, Claire Perry.

Ms Perry told the Mail on Sunday that her encounter with this (until now) obscure group had been ‘good and productive’.

Really? Extinction Rebellion is this week launching mass protests designed to shut down or obstruct transport links, causing (more) misery to commuters and business. If that’s the result of ‘productive’ talks, I wonder what would happen if they had gone badly.

But making Britain hell for business (and anyone who drives a car) is what Extinction Rebellion stands for. As the Energy Minister must know, its mission is to ‘save the planet’ by eliminating Britain’s CO2 emissions entirely by 2025.

Brutish

Or in other words, to reduce us to a state of mere subsistence, last seen in the pre-industrial age when life was (for the great majority) nasty, brutish and short.

As if to emphasise the primitiveness to which they wish us to return, this is the group which on April Fool’s Day performed a naked protest in the public gallery of the House of Commons.

Actually, this is the only way people with such views could take part (so to speak) in parliamentary debate. Because any party which tried to get MPs elected on a policy of mass immiseration would not win a single seat. There might be some thousands of middle-class students and drop-outs sufficiently aesthetically offended by mass consumerism to vote for such a manifesto, but that would be it.

This is the group which on April Fool’s Day performed a naked protest in the public gallery of the House of Commons

Unsurprisingly, the leaders of this movement tend to come from well-to-do homes, which have never experienced scarcity or privation. 

The figures behind the demonstrations planned for this week include Tamsin Omond, granddaughter of the Dorset baronet Sir Thomas Lees

The figures behind the demonstrations planned for this week include Tamsin Omond, granddaughter of the Dorset baronet Sir Thomas Lees; Stuart Basden (who said his week in prison after an earlier action was ‘a bit like boarding school’); and George Barda, son of the distinguished stage and music photographer Clive Barda OBE FRSA and a 43-year-old postgraduate student at King’s College London.

I am distantly related to one of the inspirations for this movement, the environmentalist author and journalist George Monbiot (we are both scions of the family which created the J Lyons catering and food manufacturing empire). Monbiot is anything but a hypocrite. He leads the life he preaches to others: he doesn’t own a car, never flies and, so far as I know, survives on a purely plant-based diet.

Last week, Monbiot appeared on Frankie Boyle’s television show, New World Order, and was cheered by the youthful audience when he demanded action to end economic growth, adding that this meant ‘we’ve got to go straight to the heart of capitalism and overthrow it’.

Monbiot has been consistent in this: in 2007 he wrote an article for the Guardian welcoming the prospect of a recession, even though, as he acknowledged, ‘it would cause some people to lose their jobs and homes’. (He got his wish: it turned out not to be popular).

But if it’s the planet you want to save, and you believe its very existence is threatened by excessive emissions of CO2, then what happens in this country is almost beside the point. The UK contributes little more than one per cent of global CO2 emissions. Even if the inhabitants of these islands were reduced by an environmentalist version of the Cambodian dictator Pol Pot to a state of pre-industrial and self-sufficient subsistence farming — no wicked imports of food via boat or plane — it would have a minuscule effect on the planet’s future.

In fact, the UK — chiefly through the steady closure of the domestic coal industry — has been in the vanguard of reducing CO2 emissions: in 2018, our emissions were at their lowest levels in 120 years.

Activists from Extinction Rebellion block off a road at Parliament Square, London, during a protest in October last year

The group yesterday set up camp in London’s Hyde park ahead of plans to cause widespread disruption across London later

It’s not British politicians that groups such as Extinction Rebellion should be haranguing and demonstrating against, but those in the People’s Republic of China. That is the nation responsible for 60 per cent of the growth in global CO2 emissions over the past decade.

And China is currently building almost 260 gigawatts of new coal-fired power generating capacity — in itself almost the size of the entire U.S. coal-fired capacity.

The trouble is the Chinese state would treat rather robustly any Extinction Rebellion activists who attempted to demonstrate on its busiest streets, or to mount a naked protest in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. I don’t recommend they try that.

Plunder

Nor should we be so critical of the Chinese. They, as we in the West did before them, are using cheap energy wrenched from the Earth’s resources to escape from lives of almost unimaginable poverty. And it was economic growth which ultimately created the circumstances in which peace rather than conflict became the normal state of human affairs: nations could prosper and enrich themselves through trade rather than the plunder of neighbours in a zero-sum world.

If the likes of Extinction Rebellion were to get their way, it is something like that bleak past which would be revisited upon us. And the political forces emerging from that would be truly terrifying.

If she is still in the habit of seeking their opinions, Claire Perry might point that out to the delusional middle-class climate warriors.

Who’s ready to get arrested? Undercover with the eco-activist group Extinction Rebellion who plan to bring London to a halt on Monday – and are as ruthlessly professional as they are deluded

By HOLLY BANCROFT FOR THE MAIL ON SUNDAY 

Cigarette break: XR training volunteer Clare Farrell

I’m sitting in a cavernous community hall in East London with a group of eco-activists huddled in thick jackets against the cold.

We’re being drilled for our arrest – like soldiers being trained for capture and interrogation by the enemy.

Our tutor is a sixtysomething woman with fuzzy white hair who knows all about civil disobedience and its legal consequences.

She explains passionately that we must not speak to the police, other than to give our name and date of birth.

We must not get drunk before the ‘action’ in just a few days’ time.

And we should consider wearing adult nappies – in case we’re locked up for hours in a police van with no access to a lavatory. Or if we decide to chain ourselves to railings, barriers or whatever else to cause maximum disruption.

Welcome to Extinction Rebellion (XR), the revolutionary protest group hell-bent on eliminating fossil fuels from Britain.

To achieve this, they are planning an onslaught of civil disobedience on a scale rarely seen in this country. And I’m here undercover as a new recruit, or ‘rebel’ as they call it.

My induction took place late last month in an anonymous office block near Euston station. I’m told XR was given the space for free by a well-placed sympathiser.

A lift takes me to the fourth floor – an open-plan space with a smattering of desks and some 40 new recruits, an even mix of male and female, all casually dressed.

A handmade poster by the lifts is daubed ‘Eco not Ego’. A large sign warns us to avoid ‘suppression juice’ – that’s alcohol – so we can ‘rebel with a clear body and mind’. Brightly coloured banners hang from the ceiling – ‘No Brexit in a dead planet’, says one – while a giant papier-mâché skeleton of some big beast lies, under construction, in the corner.

This introductory meeting is led by a bearded XR activist called Greg, who lives in a squat in West London with other members of the group. His first move is to lead us in an awkward ‘ice breaker’. Sitting in rows on school chairs, we’re instructed to stick both arms in the air and waggle from side to side, chanting ‘woo-hoo’.

Then comes a minute’s silence for ‘the dying planet’. Struggling not to laugh, I bowed my head with the others, eyes down.

‘Devote some of your brain to imagining the kind of world you want to create,’ says Greg. ‘To get through this struggle together, we need to hold tight to our dream.’

We’re asked to think of one word to describe the world we want – and shouts of ‘harmony’, ‘sharing’ and ‘green’ come from around the room. ‘Courageous’, mutters a boy in a long beige trench coat sitting next to me. 

Questions follow. The volunteers are keen, but concerned. 

A charity worker with short blonde hair says she is worried about XR’s policy of deliberately getting arrested.

Not that she’s against breaking the law – just that it might deter volunteers who cannot take the risk of getting into trouble.

Eating her dinner from a Tupperware box, another young woman raises concerns about XR’s links to Labour’s hard-Left Momentum faction. George agrees XR and Momentum have a good relationship.

Preparing for action: A photo of an XR meeting taken by our undercover reporter. There is no suggestion those pictured are all intending to break the law

Then we are told to get in a long line, arranged in order of willingness to get arrested. It is time to hone our tactics and strategy for the forthcoming ‘rebellion week’ – which starts tomorrow.

‘Move around the room according to what you feel,’ says Naomi, one of the lead activists.

‘The question is this: how arrestable are you in XR?’

A handful immediately place themselves at one end of the room, the extreme that signifies: ‘Yes, I really wish to be arrested right now.’ A few walk to the opposite side, meaning: ‘Absolutely not.’

I’m with the majority shuffling around in the middle amid embarrassed laughter. This position says: ‘Maybe, let’s think about it.’

They ask us how far we’ll go. Will we commit a litany of protest crimes – smashing windows, defacing buildings? Will we glue ourselves to doors or block roads using ‘swarming’ – sitting down for a few minutes at a time to stop traffic?

‘I’m comfortable with spray paint that permanently damages but not breaking windows,’ states a woman in her 30s from a refugee charity.

‘I’m somewhere between the permanent spray paint and the chalk spray paint,’ says a man studying for a PhD in environmental activism. ‘They can’t charge you with criminal damage if you use chalk paint.’

‘Training session’: XR potential recruits Greg, left, and George

After an hour or so, we’re all split up into what they call ‘affinity’ groups based on how radical they judge us to be. They don’t seem to think I’m very revolutionary.

Roles are assigned for the forthcoming ‘action’. Our group has a ‘wellbeing co-ordinator’, a ‘legal observer’ and a ‘media organiser’.

Middle-class zealots who’ll make Monday a misery for millions 

The most prominent – and radical – of the XR leaders is failed organic farmer and PhD student Roger Hallam

Failed farmer wants a world revolution 

The most prominent – and radical – of the XR leaders is failed organic farmer and PhD student Roger Hallam.

After years in a succession of Left-wing groups, the 52-year-old says the ‘name of the game’ for XR is to ‘bring down all the regimes in the world and replace them’. Hallam (above) says paralysing traffic will eventually cause food shortages and trigger uprisings.

In a recent interview, he said XR protesters should be ready to cause disruption through personal ‘sacrifice’. If necessary, they ‘should be willing to die’.

XR co-founder Stuart Basden, 36, a middle-class writer from Bristol

Co-founder says jail’s like boarding school 

XR co-founder Stuart Basden, 36, a middle-class writer from Bristol (above), has goals that go way beyond a desire to curb global warming.

Indeed, he has claimed: ‘XR isn’t about the climate. You see, the climate’s breakdown is a symptom of a toxic system that has infected the ways we relate to each other as humans and to all life.’

Basden has urged XR followers to embrace going to prison – where he spent a week after defacing London’s City Hall with spray paint last year – saying it is ‘a bit like boarding school’

Tasmin Osmond, 35, is a veteran of ‘direct actions’

Veteran campaigner from baronet family 

Tasmin Osmond, 35, is a veteran of ‘direct actions’ which had little to do with climate change, such as Occupy London, the poverty protest which set up a camp outside St Paul’s cathedral in 2011.

The granddaughter of Dorset baronet Sir Thomas Lees, Omond (above) went to Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge, where she read English.

She was thrown out of anti-aviation group Plane Stupid after saying the green movement ‘brand’ was ‘unwashed, unshaven and up a tree’, and this ‘doesn’t represent me’.

George Barda, 43, believes the ‘Criminal UK Government’ is to blame for climate change

Student who’s on Putin’s TV channel 

George Barda, 43, believes the ‘Criminal UK Government’ is to blame for climate change.

A post-graduate student at prestigious King’s College in London, the son of classical music and stage photographer Clive Barda still finds time to be a dedicated revolutionary and camped outside St Paul’s cathedral in the Occupy London campaign.

Today, Barda (above) is a director of XR parent company Compassionate Revolution and regularly appears on Russia Today, Russia’s controversial British TV channel.

How far would we go for the movement? A Scottish actress in her 20s tells us she’s planning to recruit her mother. ‘I think I’d be OK with being arrested,’ she adds. ‘It’s just that I’m so in and out of the country, I work between here and Paris. I don’t know if I would be able to make my court date, so I don’t know if it would work out.’

Another young woman, a university student, says she’ll bring her harp along to keep us entertained during ‘rebellion week’. Before the meeting breaks up, the organisers call for mature women willing to be trained as ‘de-escalators’.

These are the people asked to calm down frustrated members of the public, particularly drivers, trapped in the traffic jams we’re going to cause.

Then the evening comes to a conclusion with repeated chants of ‘Extinction… Rebellion’ from the hardened activists, who then treat us to an impromptu and utterly excruciating dance.

A beat box starts blaring, one long-haired man sways expansively, arms waving out of time, the others jig about. I leave, armed with XR stickers and posters to plaster on the streets.

The group gives me constant updates through the WhatsApp messaging system, and a few days later I’m back in the office block for another training session. This time, it’s altogether more alarming.

An activist in her 20s called Jess lays out XR’s terrifying vision of the future: ‘We want to build a structure, a community and test prototypes for the coming structural collapse of the regimes of Western democracies. And we see this as inevitable – this has to happen.’

Now, we’re drawn further into the plans for illegal protest, and made to take part in role-play scenarios of activists clashing with the police.

The golden rule is to stay silent when confronted by police – unless we quote from a self-righteous prepared statement outlining our supposed right to break the law as a ‘conscientious protector’ of Planet Earth.

And we must never, ever identify any of the XR organisers in case they are charged with inciting illegal activities.

Activists who plan to ‘lock on’ by super-gluing themselves to public property are warned to expect a long wait, as few police officers are trained to dissolve the glue.

The hope is to cause the maximum amount of chaos. They might even have activists locked on at five separate protest points in London. If we are seized by the police, we must make our bodies go floppy, to tie up more officers as they attempt to carry us away.

I endure a further marathon training session at a climbing centre in North London.

We’re being addressed by the white-haired lady, who I now know is press officer Jayne Forbes. Stating her own readiness for martyrdom and jail, she tells us that: ‘I’m an older person with no responsibilities.

‘I’m prepared to go to prison and I think we are privileged in this country to have prisons that are relatively acceptable.

‘If I was living in Brazil or something, I could get killed as an activist. Our prisons are not bad compared to many in the world.’

She tells us never to agree to a caution because that would be ‘an admission of guilt’.

We must never accept the help of a duty solicitor because they would be ‘pally with the police’. I’m learning a great deal.

We’re advised only to bring an old-fashioned ‘burner’ mobile phone to the protest in case the police want to seize the device as evidence.

I’m told a paperback will help me while away the long hours in a police cell – and that I can ask for up to three blankets from the custody officers.

I now have a list of ‘friendly’ solicitors on a small sheet of paper reminding me of my legal rights. Can we get vegan food in prison? XR thinks the answer is ‘yes’.

By the time I say my goodbyes, I’m truly worried. If this week goes according to plan for Extinction Rebellion, I know that many of its members will be only too delighted to learn first-hand about the inside of our police cells and our prisons – believing they have come one step closer to making their dangerous plan a reality.

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[upsettingandunfortunateclasshate]

How many of em are posh. It's hard to find out cos they're such nobodies. There's at least one horrendous example though, Tamsin Omond. Westminster school and cambridge. The grandchild of a baronet. Born in to power & conditioned to rule, only this one wears green colours. Great stuff.

Of course one of the green parties leader candidate is a noticeable transphobe fuck the geeens

[oneman]

“The way nature brings peace to my busy mind feels like one of the most abandoned parts of who I am. Slowly I am rekindling it. I walk in the woods and I feel at ease. It becomes easy to hear the world whisper, ‘This is everything that is happening right now.‘“

— Do Earth by Tamsin Omond 📚

[teampawsify]

This Amazing Woman Is Raising Awareness To Stop Animal Testing In A Painful Way

This Amazing Woman Is Raising Awareness To Stop Animal Testing In A Painful Way

Visit - https://www.pawsify.com/pet-news/woman-goes-through-same-animal-tests/

We all have different ways of showing our emotions and venting stress especially when it comes to the topic about testing on animals. Now, a lot of people may only choose products that are vegan and not tested on animals but for one lady she took things a little further than most people ever would. 

In 2012, Jacqueline Traide agreed to be “tested” or rather tortured in the window of a Lush shop on the busy streets of London. Lush makes cosmetic products that are 100% vegetarian, handmade, against animals testing and they also support ethical buying.

The demonstration was designed to shock people into what actually happens in those animal testing labs and she wanted to make people think twice about where they buy their cosmetics from.

  source

Jacqueline put her heart and soul into the demonstration and agreed to be experimented on even if it hurt, even if she cried and even if she begged them to stop because the pain was so excruciating. She didn’t want them to stop.

A skin coloured suit dehumanised Jacqueline and devices that were actually used in laboratories were used in the demonstration. This went on for a whopping 10 hours, poor Jacqueline must have been so mentally, physically and emotionally drained by the end of it.

A device was fitted to her mouth that allowed the guy in the white suit to force feed her until she choked and gagged, she was injected with cosmetics and she had a portion of her hair shaved off.

Passers by were shocked, horrified and upset by the demonstration but that was the point, to shock people into the reality of what is going on to thousands of animals everyday.

Tamsin Omond, the Lush compaign manager stated

“The ironic thing is that if it was a beagle in the window and we were doing all these things to it, we’d have the police and RSPCA here in minutes But somewhere in the world, this kind of thing is happening to an animal every few seconds on average.

The difference is, it’s normally hidden. We need to remind people it is still going on.”

[dartmouthparktalks]

Resistance is Fertile

Activism is in the air – and in particular the powerful force of female activism.

Through the Women’s March and demonstrations worldwide, we've come together to express our strength of feeling through anger, humour, solidarity, protest. But where do we go from here?

In this Dartmouth Park Talk chaired by social-justice activist Emily Kenway, we’ll hear from Leah Jewett (co-leader of the Camden branch of the Women’s Equality Party), anti-FGM campaigner Nimco Ali (co-founder of Daughters of Eve) and eco warrior Tamsin Omond (co-founder of Climate Rush).

These three very different activists will talk tactics versus party politics, get to grips with the problems with the kind of elitist white feminism Hillary Clinton arguably represents, and recount what galvanised them into action to fight for change.

[jesskohl]