As 2020 draws to a close, we want to offer a heartfelt thank you to all of our rebels. This year was not an easy one, and yet — despite the hardships — our community has shown tremendous resilience and drive, pushing each other to do the work we need to do while also acting as an organism of support, stability, and compassion as we moved through the twists and turns (okay, mostly twists) of this difficult year.

With so many personal stressors, it might have been tempting for our rebels to tune it all out and just focus on getting through each day. But instead, our community showed that we understand that the crises we faced this year — crises of health, security, racism — are symptoms of a broken system, one that is endangering our chance at a livable future. We came together to say: enough is enough. To solve these crises that have been plaguing our society for years — made more visible by the events of 2020 — we need to dismantle the centuries of white supremacy, patriarchy, and colonialism that our world is built on. We need to stop treating the earth as a commodity and Black, Brown, and Indigenous lives as disposable. We need to build a global movement of everyday people from all walks of life who will come together to build a future — one rooted in community, compassion, and justice for all.

This was our 2020 cry. We screamed it in the street. We bellowed it from behind masks. We exclaimed it on our social media platforms. And we hollered it silently, from our hearts, using it to drive us to action. If we’ve shown one thing this year, it’s that together, we are powerful. Let’s look at some of the ways we’ve used our power this year, in our quest to disrupt the status quo and build a better world.

2020 Highlights

Actions Against the North Brooklyn Pipeline

2020 began with a push to block the construction of a 30-inch-wide, 6.8-mile-long fracked gas transmission pipeline that would stretch from Brownsville to Greenpoint, a project that directly conflicts with the Mayor’s promise to ban new fossil fuel infrastructure and which also poses huge health and environmental risks to the predominantly BIPOC communities in the area. Multiple rebels were arrested in February while participating in non-violent direct action to shut down this project, an initiative headed by a coalition of North Brooklyn communities and environmental groups. Thanks to months of continued pressure from the coalition, Mayor de Blasio recently called for a withdrawal of the project.

April Fools Tech Action

Google has always presented itself as being on the right side of the climate emergency, but this messaging doesn’t square with their funding of lobbyists and think tanks that are working to obstruct climate action and deny the climate crisis. In early 2020, amidst a groundswell of workplace activism at the tech giants, a group of tech workers decided to put their talents to use to address the greenwashing in their industry. Extinction Rebellion’s tech action group joined this effort by creating a website that effectively put Google on blast for its hypocrisy. The website spread the message that Google had stopped funding climate deniers, illustrating the gap between Google’s carefully crafted image and reality. Thousands of people on social media amplified the message for April Fools day and collectively asked the question: “Why doesn’t Google do this for real?”

Earth Week

Since April 22nd, 2020 marked fifty years since the first Earth Day in 1970 - a historic day of action that helped kickstart the mainstream American environmental movement - we had hoped to celebrate this anniversary with big, vibrant demonstrations and loud demands for action. While COVID threw a wrench in these plans, we were able to quickly pivot to an online rally and celebration - joining a coalition of New York activist groups for a week of educational livestreams, digital strikes, and calls on social media for a 24-hour shut down of Times Square.

NY City Council Declaration of Climate Emergency “Birthday” Celebration & Solidarity Action

June 26th, 2020 marked one year since City Council passed Resolution #864, declaring a climate emergency and acknowledging the need for accelerated action to tackle the climate crisis. After a year of inaction, rebels gathered at City Hall for a climate emergency declaration birthday party - in full XR fashion. With cake, love, and rage, we condemned the Mayor and City Council for their inaction and reminded them of the ticking clock their own declaration acknowledged. Rebels also sent plenty of direct birthday messages to the Council and Mayor via email and social media.

Our birthday celebration overlapped with the occupation of City Hall led by Vocal-NY. In coordination with Vocal-NY leaders, we were able to march over to the occupation to stand in active solidarity with the occupiers, adding our voices to their calls and sharing Resolution 864’s demand for a just transition that recognizes the extent to which Black, brown, and indigenous lives have historically and will continue to bear the brunt of the climate crisis if action is not taken, and mandates that frontline communities must benefit first from the transition to a renewable energy economy.

Power Together Campaign Launch

In July, we launched our Power Together campaign, a guiding document that helped set the stage for our action-packed September Rebellion and which continues to guide our strategy as we move into 2021. True to its name, the campaign focuses on building power together - through coalitions and deliberative democracy. A huge part of this campaign is continuing to pressure City Council to enact a Citizens’ Assembly in New York, returning community control to the people.

Citizens’ Assembly Handbook Launch

We were excited to participate in the Political Activist Summit where we joined local activists and organizations in sharing ideas, goals, and future actions in order to determine and demand real mechanisms of change. It was also the perfect event for our Citizens’ Assembly group to launch our Citizens’ Assembly Handbook! During the event, they were able to distribute copies of the handbook and discuss the case for a citywide Citizens’ Assembly on climate and ecological justice with many of our City Council members and 2021 candidates.

September Rebellion

Joining rebels all over the world, XR NYC participated in a month-long rebellion to Tell the Truth about the climate emergency. There were too many incredible moments to highlight them all, but here are a few:

Inaugural Action & Columbus Circle Banner Stunt

After a heartfelt opening ceremony honoring our grief for the world and recommitting to taking action, rebels surprised police and drivers by joyfully marching into the street at Columbus Circle, stopping traffic and parading the full loop around the circle. With police distracted, two climbers were able to hang a large “Climate Justice Now” banner over the top of the iconic steel globe.

Wildfire March

When news of the California wildfires landed on the front page, our hearts went out to those on the West Coast. We pivoted last minute, changing an entire action plan, and mobilizing a large group of protestors to march through Manhattan. Dressed in red, orange and yellow, and waving colored fabric, we were a vibrant group, parading with a banner that read “OUR HOUSE IS ON FIRE.” XR NYC rebels were joined by activists from Sunrise, Rise and Resist, 350 NYC and others - all of us raising the alarm about climate breakdown and catching the attention of many Sunday brunchers!

Climate Justice Through Racial Justice Rally & March

XR NYC was thrilled to work with a coalition of environmental and racial justice groups across the city to organize this march. Inspiring speakers from many different organizations spoke from the heart about the need to fight for racial justice, and how climate justice is one and the same. The crowd resonated with the message, and the energy was palpable as we marched to Times Square.

Jurassic Farce

Our creative and intrepid Cit Ass Theater group held three performances of their play of the epoch: “Jurassic Farce!”, a short, absurd, funny, disruptive, musical in which dinosaurs demonstrate how everyday people can mitigate CLIMATE AND ECOLOGICAL DISASTER! In addition to the scheduled performances -including a traffic-stopping finale in Times Square - the troupe was able to convince the manager of Pier 17 to allow them to perform before the screening of Jurassic Park at their Seaport Cinema series for a captive audience. Bravo!

“We Want a Future” City Hall Action

In the culminating action of the September Rebellion, six rebels locked themselves to the east and west gates of City Hall, effectively shutting it down, so that no cars could get in or out. A group of rebels formed a protective semi-circle in front of the east gate, surrounding a young girl holding a model of the planet in her arms. The message was clear: we must act now for our children to have a safe future. Rebels sang and cried, displaying strength even as more and more police showed up and it began to rain. The police cut through the locks chaining the rebels to the fence and arrested all six. On social media, we amplified the message of the action by creating a social media storm, tweeting the hashtag #WeWantAFuture, and tagging our local politicians, so they know we’re out here, and that we won’t stop organizing until we get a Citizens’ Assembly.

Read our more in-depth rebellion recap here.

Saving Citywide Composting

Since August, rebels have been involved in the fight to save citywide composting following the cancellation of the brown bin program by the Mayor’s office. After the city completely defunded composting in April, pressure from the community led to a small portion of the budget being reinstated. However, residential compost pick-up as well as many compost collection sites remain discontinued, which has severe environmental and economic costs. Extinction Rebellion’s Save Our Compost campaign has involved non-violent direct action, DIY guerrilla composting workshops, and support for the establishment of a community composting site at an abandoned lot on 45th street in Sunnyside, Queens. As the situation continues to change, check out #SaveOurCompost on Instagram and Twitter for the latest information.

Affinity Group Restructure

We’re ending 2020 with the launch of a new organizing model to better empower rebels to plan and execute their own actions, events, and social activities. Called Affinity Groups, this structure aims to bring together small groups of people with different skill sets and strengths who learn together, build together, and take action autonomously in the name of Extinction Rebellion. More on this to come in 2021!

As we look ahead to 2021, please consider making a donation if you can. To preserve life on Earth our rebellion must be bigger and bolder next year – and we urgently need your support to make it happen. Extinction Rebellion is a 100% volunteer grassroots organization. We are all crew and we can’t do it without you!

2020 Year in Review