By Freddie Keighley
Labour peer Peter Hain believes that society may remember Extinction Rebellion as heroes who acted to “save us all” at the “tipping point” of the climate crisis.
Speaking at The London Grill Club, where he was ‘grilled’ with the audience’s questions by the founder David Selves, Lord Hain likened Extinction Rebellion’s movement to his own anti-apartheid activism in the 1960s and 1970s: “I identify with them [XR] a lot. I think we are in a climate change emergency and it needs radical action.
“If Labour gets elected I think we will do something radical…we are facing, as we saw with the floods in Yorkshire, almost an armageddon moment.”
XR were criticised for disrupting Transport for London services last month, which Lord Hain described as a mistake: “I don’t agree with everything they do. It was stupid to interrupt the London Underground…a form of green, clean transport. I think their own movement has reacted against the people who did that.”
However, being disliked – or even hated – is something which, in Lord Hain’s opinion, characterised other movements which are now idolised: “I think they’re [XR] in the tradition that goes back through the suffragettes.
“The suffragettes were arrested chaining themselves to parliament’s railings…early trade unionists were also arrested, the Chartists fighting for the vote for working class men were arrested. I think they are in that tradition and they are trying to save us all.”
When asked by David Selves, citing the Bank of England Governor’s actions, about whether XR should now adopt a more constructive rather than disruptive approach, Lord Hain recalled that he was hated for his anti-apartheid activism: “That was said about me when I organised the Stop The Springboks Campaign…I organised the Stop The ’70 Tour Campaign, I found myself leading it at the age of 19 to stop the Springboks playing.
“The Springboks then, in 1969-70, were all white. The rugby supremo of South Africa Danie Craven, a real guru of global rugby, said at the time ‘over my dead body would a black man ever play for the Springboks.
“Now he’s [Siya Kolisi] captain and hoisting the world cup. Half the team is black, on merit…and they hammered England!”
“At that time I was hated because I was interfering with rugby. I make that point because everybody who does these disruptive things to try and change the status quo is hated at the time. But the suffragettes are now exalted as national heroines.”
Lord Hain added, “The Governor of The Bank of England made the very valid point that unless we do something about this and change business practice and change economic strategy, we are going to end up with a world that is thrown upside down by climate change…What they [XR] want is action and I think they should keep going until they get action.
“That action is going to involve all of us changing. If we make a flight, we should pay an extra levy…towards growing more trees, towards flood defences, towards low carbon housing and technology. There is no way out of this without paying more levies.
“If you want to defeat climate change and honour David Attenborough’s message…then you’ve got to be prepared to fund it because the costs of not doing it are going to be immeasurably greater than the costs of the status quo.”
Lord Hain was speaking at an event hosted at Shampers and organised by David Selves’ London Grill Club.
