Unresisting resistance

Slipped quickly around my neck, blood charging through my veins, my heart felt as if it was floating –  disconnected to my body. My hand shook vigorously as I clumsily turned the key. Stationary. Yet adrenalin seething through my interior, exterior calm, purposeful and ironically the least resistant I had been within this resistance. 

It often feels like movements for social change have varied viscosity at different times; sometimes leaking quickly and efficiently through the echo chambers of my social media and other times sticky and relentless met with deep inhales and regrettable exhales. But they are always moving somewhere even if others are unaware. A quiet rumbling that may occasionally penetrate your consciousness, grabbing your attention on a billboard and delaying your journey to work, can quickly become the reasoning of the risks you take. When completely in control I chose to be vulnerable. If showing and embodying vulnerability with a group of strong women is a form of rebelling, then something feels off kilter. But it always has been. Previous activists like the Greenham Common women and the Suffragettes became the criminals in a situation when they were resisting and highlighting the criminality of our power structures. An echo and reincarnation of their actions I proudly resisted within my own anti-resistance; locked to the gates of Parliament. 

Did more people speak about four-degree warming? With over 1 million Facebook views and features in over six international newspapers. I would say yes. They probably did. 

Fighting for climate justice isn’t just an environmental issue, it’s a: feminist issue, racial issue, economic issue, food issue, animal issue, indigenous people’s issue, equality issue, medical issue – it’s an everything and everyone issue. Social justice is a collective interest. So why do we have to form a resistance to the ill-informed path our government and society chooses to pave if it would be so beneficial for all?

In my moment of resistance, I fell silent. As children, we are taught that actions speak louder than words but my actions were met by questions of why? It’s a natural response when you feel like you are not listened to, to act and do something that grabs attention. I was purposefully locking on to that attention as I do not feel heard. The leaders of our country do not want to hear us. I went to their feeding ground and made myself known showing that I am not complicit to their choices. As the police vans came onto the walkway to block us from sight this only exemplified their continual cover up of the truth and their downfalls. Pretending climate change doesn’t exist or isn’t already disproportionately effecting the global south won’t make it go away. Parking the vans in front of us does not make us go away. We are not ephemeral. Climate change is not ephemeral. My image will continue to live thanks to those right-wing newspapers that couldn’t miss a chance to photograph a group of topless women. It’s comical really. 

In my most unresisting, poised and still moment I was the most resistant I have ever been. Together let’s continue to ensure a flowing current of information that floods into all the crevices of society. Social justice doesn’t leave anyone behind but it destroys cultural hegemony and it will prevent the drowning of what we call home. Be resistant.