💌 Out of Prison. Back to Organising
I’m free, organising again, and asking for support to build serious structures at speed. This is what I’m working on, and why it matters now.
Hi,
Over the past months, I have remained fully committed to continuing the work I was arrested and imprisoned for — the creation of a global nonviolent revolutionary movement opposing the greatest crime in human history.
In July of last year, I received a five-year sentence for making a 20-minute Zoom speech calling for civil disobedience. I was not at all involved in the actions or the planning. I was there to explain — as I have done hundreds of times before — why we must peacefully step up and stop the decimation of the lives and livelihoods of billions of people by the continued emission of carbon.
My sentence was the highest since the Second World War for peaceful civil disobedience, and the reason is obvious. Stopping the burning of fossil fuels at the speed needed involves challenging the most powerful political and corporate organisations in the UK and internationally.
I have been the UK’s most successful campaigner since my work for Extinction Rebellion in 2018–19 and then went on to found the largest climate civil disobedience organisations in the Western world. At the time of my imprisonment, I was doing vital international networking work to raise money and bring people together to create a global resistance movement to the terror that is being imposed upon us.
The world is going to go over 2°C in the next decade. Let’s be in no doubt about what will happen: the appalling suffering and injustice will be beyond imagination.
At the same time, precisely because of the dire situation, there is enormous potential to build a global revolutionary movement powered by and serving the people — an alternative to fascism waiting in the wings.
This is the most crucial moment in history, and it requires money to build solid organisations. I am writing now that I am free to ask for your support in raising £50,000.
I am running this fundraiser to support vital work now that I am free and organising again. I will take none of your money for myself. My team will use it for the costs involved in continuing my work — building a campaign team and the platforms for those ideas to spread — and supporting the dozens of activists still facing repression and imprisonment.
This is not the time to pretend this money is just for another campaign. Those days have gone. If you have the money, think of what you could give and then double it again. Because it isn’t going to be worth much in a decade, is it? Give £1,000. Give £10,000. If you don't have much, give whatever you can — it’s greatly appreciated and needed.
I am no longer in prison, but I remain fully committed to spending all my time supporting the movements in any way possible. I am organising, writing, recording, and communicating with people worldwide. This is my life. Thank you for your support, and please share this with five friends.
Yours,
Roger Hallam
John Lubbock