'Step into our collective power'

“Darker yet may be the night. Harder yet may be the fight. But stand up for that which is right.” Martin Luther King Junior wrote these words in The Three Dimensions of a Complete Life.

Time and time again I anguish over how we move forwards and dispel despair in these dark times. 

READ: Harsh peaceful protest sentences appealed

The billionaire agents of capitalism are corralling and misinforming people into a blinkered, fearful, self protectionist mindset that breeds inequity, discrimination and division. 

Connections

Giving the perpetrators of worsening climate breakdown free reign and institutionalising injustice more and more blatantly. If we cannot place faith in elected leaders, this offers a pathway. After all, we are not followers.

READ: Prison is criminal

Building the world we want to see from the grassroots upwards, calling out and combating violence and injustice as we find it. The way I see it, our challenges are how to inspire more of us to step into our collective power. 

How to connect us and how to build a thriving, growing community to support essential direct action and build resilience as collapse gets worse and worse. Experiencing societal breakdowns from a cell affords me a certain perspective. 

What I'm sharing is simply my thoughts composted from my time in nonviolent civil resistance with Extinction Rebellion, Insulate Britain and Just Stop Oil, being part of the Whole Truth 5 trial last year and an awareness of the far reaching response to it.

But especially all I have learned from shared stories, deep connections and lived experience as I serve my four year sentence behind the razor wire. 

Illusion

Being an inmate in the brutal and dysfunctional UK prison system, I've had the privilege of witnessing how traumatised people from very different backgrounds and life experiences respond to the challenging environment we share. 

Most of those with capacity to work together as a community and support each other. Being here has strengthened my belief in the beauty and resilience of the human spirit. It is the same true nature of human beings that we glimpse when a crisis hits. 

Communities pulling together in the aftermath of floods, wildfires and storms. Citizens risking their lives to care for each other in an ongoing genocide in Gaza. In certain conditions, political divisions and prejudice can blur and dissolve.

Aware how the right wing media views climate activists, an old friend was concerned I might be bullied in jail. This is not the case. 

I reflected on why. Prisoners are members of society who are under no illusion that our system does not work for the interests of the people. 

Tipping-point

Most have been let down by the state, impoverished, marginalised, discriminated against. They have not grown comfortable in their slot in the capitalist machine and hence they can will clearly see it for what it is. 

How then do we inspire those who do not viscerally feel the wrongs in the system to engage in resisting its harm? The Whole Truth 5 trial and sentencing prompted resistance and outrage for many circles. 

I was energised by a tangible shift in consciousness, many individuals stepping up for the first time to disobediently challenge injustice, groups hitherto divided coming together in solidarity.

We do not need to agree on everything, to stand shoulder to shoulder in times of crisis on issues that really matter, but to unlock this united potential we must listen to each other and recognise common ground. 

Insulate Britain and Just Stop Oil and nonviolent direct action was a wake up call and achieved policy change. We were driven by the urgency to reduce emissions as the pre-tipping-point window was closing. 

Risk

We bound ourselves to short timelines and drove ourselves hard. I feel at my core that now we must invest time in deepening and enriching our community of civil resistance and recognising we are running a marathon, not a sprint, and that the journey is as vital as any destination. 

We do not know when significant shift to change will happen. Yes, we need to hold our vision for a sustainable and just world in our hearts. 

Yes, we need to keep sounding the alarm on the existential threat, but there is potential for so many more of us to connect in working for the essential climate and social justice we need. 

I and fellow political prisoners are regularly inspired by messages of solidarity of activist communities worldwide, for example from the outstandingly brave Students Against EACOP Uganda who oppose at great personal risk the vile East African crude oil pipeline and to act in mutual support with Youth Demand and Just Stop Oil.

Anti-capitalist

This message from the Zapatista indigenous communities in Mexico with their non hierarchical decision making, decentralised organisation and deep community democracy, from whom we can learn so much, connects us.

“Every year the Zapatista struggle recognises those that are following in resistance and rebellion - It encourages us to follow in your footsteps, from different trenches that are the same.”

A widened, enriched and strengthened community can be the foundation of success against a system that is killing us. But we will have to work to build a supportive and anti-capitalist framework for it, modelling the society we want to see. 

A community relevant to a wider social, cultural and racial demographic. A community embracing everyone as unique individuals, valuing their inputs and skills, supporting their needs and vulnerabilities. 

Together

A community equipped with the tools and non violence to help us develop personal resilience, constructive outreach and effective non violent direct action. 

My hope is that we can nurture an environment which can dispel despair and empower increasing numbers of people worldwide into constructive non violence civil resistance and wrap around support for each other. 

The next wave of activism will be a tough and turbulent journey as the future is dark, but this is the future we can positively shape. 

How we live in a world of collapsing ecosystems and fracturing societies is a choice that can never be taken from us. Together we can be a powerful force for change and never cease in standing up for that which is right.

This Author

Louise Lancaster is a member of Just Stop Oil and part of the Lord Walney 16 currently appealing harsh prison sentencing for peaceful climate protests.