London activists were brought together for a discussion yesterday at a small theatre in Aldgate, where most concluded that direct action was the best way to raise awareness of climate problems.
The Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination (Lab of ii) held the last of its three C.R.A.S.H Conversations at the Toynbee Theatre – discussions attended by climate activists from around the city where they shared their skills and experience during, what the organisers described as “a time of ecological collapse”.
The event also included short talks from two activists – Leo Murray who was representing Plane Stupid, the organisation against airport expansions, and Emma Davis, an activist who focuses on climate change.
Most agreed that with the urgency of climate change, writing to one’s MPs was not going to solve anything. Davis said that the problems of climate change was making apparent the ways in which parliamentary democracy is failing, because they have yet to do something about the issue. “These failings are not always obvious to those who gain from capitalism and the industrialist society but parliamentary democracy is not working”.
The answer for them was to go out there, make some noise and make a spectacle that would attract the media – what Murray described as the "Trojan horse strategy" – and hope that the media does not misrepresent their message. Murray also said that while action on an individual level, such as being careful of your carbon footprint, was essential, the challenge for activists was to convince people that doing so would actually have an impact bigger than they could imagine.
The C.R.A.S.H Conversations have ended but C.R.A.S.H Culture will take place from June16 to 21 where artists and activist will present what they
think a post-capitalist world might “taste like, feel like, look like” in venues across the city.
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