Wikipedia

Roger Hallam (activist)

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Julian Roger Hallam (born 4 May 1966)[1] is a British environmental activist, a co-founder of Extinction Rebellion,[2][3] cooperative federation organisation Radical Routes,[4] the political party Burning Pink,[5] and Just Stop Oil.[6]

Hallam in 2020

Biography edit

Hallam was raised by a Methodist family.[7] He was previously an organic farmer on a 10-acre (4-hectare) smallholding near Llandeilo in South Wales; he attributes the destruction of his business to a series of extreme weather events.[8][9]

Between at least 2017 and early 2019 he was studying for a PhD at King's College London,[10] researching how to achieve social change through civil disobedience and radical movements.[11]

In January 2017, in an action to urge King's College London to divest from fossil fuels, Hallam and another person, David Durant, using water-soluble chalk-based spray paint,[9] painted "Divest from oil and gas", "Now!" and "Out of time" on the university's Strand campus entrance.[12][10] and were fined £500.[13] In February they again spray painted the university's Great Hall causing a claimed £7,000 worth of damage and were arrested.[12]

In May 2019, after a three-day trial at Southwark Crown Court for criminal damage, they were cleared by a jury of all charges, having argued in their defence that their actions were a proportionate response to the climate crisis, with Hallam arguing his actions were lawful under an exemption in the Criminal Damage Act that permits damage if it protects another's property.[10][14] In March 2017, Hallam went on hunger strike to demand the university divest from fossil fuels—the institution had millions of pounds invested in fossil fuels but no investment in renewable energy.[13] Five weeks after the first protest, the university removed £14m worth of investments from fossil fuel companies and pledged to become carbon neutral by 2025.[9][15]

Later in 2017, Hallam was a leading member of activist group Stop Killing Londoners,[16] an anti-pollution campaign[17] of mass civil disobedience that they hoped would result in the arrest and imprisonment of activists.[18] Hallam with Stuart Basden and two others were prosecuted and some pledged to go on hunger strike if imprisoned.[19]

Hallam is a co-founder of environmental pressure group Extinction Rebellion, with Gail Bradbrook and Simon Bramwell.[2][11][20][21] He stood unsuccessfully in the 2019 European Parliament election in the London constituency as an independent, winning 924 of the 2,241,681 votes cast (0.04%).[22]

Hallam was interviewed by Stephen Sackur on BBC HARDtalk on 15 August 2019.[23]

Hallam and four other activists were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to cause a public nuisance on 12 September 2019, the day before a planned action to pilot drones in the exclusion zone around Heathrow Airport in order to disrupt flights.[24] Three days later, in an action organised by Heathrow Pause, Hallam was arrested in the vicinity of Heathrow Airport apparently in breach of bail conditions from the previous arrest requiring him to not to be within 5 miles (8 kilometres) of any airport or possess drone equipment.[25] He was remanded in custody until 14 October.[26]

In an interview with Die Zeit on 20 November 2019, Hallam said genocides are "like a regular event" in history and called the Holocaust "just another fuckery in human history".[27][28] This comment was made in the context of a broader discussion on genocides throughout human history, where Hallam compared the Nazi Holocaust to the Congo genocide; as he stated the "fact of the matter is, millions of people have been killed in vicious circumstances on a regular basis throughout history" adding that the Belgians "went to the Congo in the late 19th century and decimated it."[29] Hallam's controversial comparison has drawn support from African activists the Stop the Maangamizi: We Charge Genocide/Ecocide! Campaign, who, while critical of the tone of his language, have lauded his honesty and willingness to highlight crimes committed by colonial powers in Africa.[30]

In a self-published pamphlet written in prison, Hallam wrote that the climate crisis would lead to mass rape, and featured a story in which the reader's female family members are gang raped and the reader forced to watch. The pamphlet was condemned by Farah Nazeer, CEO of Women's Aid.[31] When Der Spiegel replied to Hallam that "You can't blame the climate change for the rape of women during war", Hallam's response was "No, climate change is just the tubes that the gas comes down in the gas chamber. It's just a mechanism through which one generation kills the next generation".[32]

In September 2023, Hallam was ranked thirty-fourth on the New Statesman's Left Power List of influential left-wing figures in the UK.[33]

Hallam was arrested in a dawn raid at his home on 18 October 2023.[6]

Publications edit

Publications by Hallam edit

  • Common Sense for the 21st Century: Only Nonviolent Rebellion Can Now Stop Climate Breakdown and Social Collapse. Self-published, 2019. ISBN 978-1527246744.[n 1][34]

Publications with contributions by Hallam edit

  • Roger Hallam (2019). "Chapter 14: The civil resistance model". In Extinction Rebellion (ed.). This Is Not a Drill: An Extinction Rebellion Handbook. Penguin Books. pp. 99–105. ISBN 9780141991443.

See also edit

Notes edit

  1. ^ An early draft of the book is available here Archived 28 May 2021 at the Wayback Machine within Hallam's site.

References edit

  1. ^ "Roger HALLAM – Personal Appointments (free information from Companies House)". beta.companieshouse.gov.uk. Retrieved 25 March 2019.
  2. ^ a b Leake, Jonathan (25 November 2018). "Meet Dr Demo, the activist behind the road-block radicals". The Sunday Times. ISSN 0956-1382. Retrieved 30 June 2019.
  3. ^ Knight, Sam (21 July 2019). "Does Extinction Rebellion Have the Solution to the Climate Crisis?". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved 22 September 2019.
  4. ^ Albery, Nicholas (1992). The Book of Visions: An Encyclopaedia of Social Innovations. Virgin. ISBN 9780863696015. Retrieved 25 March 2019.
  5. ^ Taylor, Diane (25 June 2020). "Extinction Rebellion activists launch UK Beyond Politics party by stealing food". the Guardian. Retrieved 27 August 2020.
  6. ^ a b Gayle, Damien (18 October 2023). "Greta Thunberg charged with public order offence after London oil protest". The Guardian. London, United Kingdom. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 18 October 2023.
  7. ^ "An interview with Roger Hallam — on radical politics, youth mobilization, Extinction Rebellion, and much more – mέta". metacpc.org. 1 October 2021.
  8. ^ Lewis, Anna (25 September 2019). "The Welsh farmer who became the mastermind of Extinction Rebellion". WalesOnline. Retrieved 28 September 2019.
  9. ^ a b c "Extinction Rebellion founder cleared of vandalism by jury after arguing climate change justification". The Independent. 10 May 2019. Retrieved 30 June 2019.
  10. ^ a b c Laville, Sandra; agencies (9 May 2019). "Extinction Rebellion founder cleared over King's College protest". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 30 June 2019.
  11. ^ a b Nye, Catrin (10 April 2019). "The climate protesters who want to get arrested". BBC. Retrieved 30 June 2019.
  12. ^ a b Humphries, Will (8 May 2019). "Eco protesters 'caused £7,000 damage to walls at King's College London'". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 30 June 2019.
  13. ^ a b "A university student is on hunger strike to force action on climate change – and it's working". The Independent. 5 March 2017. Retrieved 30 June 2019.
  14. ^ Buus, Kristian (7 October 2019). "Extinction Rebellion: the arrestables – a photo essay". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 17 October 2019.
  15. ^ Humphries, Will (10 May 2019). "Jury clears spray-paint activists from Extinction Rebellion". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 30 June 2019.
  16. ^ Taylor, Matthew (27 December 2017). "'We don't have time to wait and see': air pollution protesters resort to direct action". The Guardian. Retrieved 27 August 2019.
  17. ^ "Anti-Pollution Activists Shut Down Busy London Road During Rush Hour". HuffPost UK. 1 November 2017. Retrieved 27 August 2019.
  18. ^ Whipple, Tom (1 January 2018). "Clean-air activists hope to be jailed for protests". The Times. Retrieved 27 August 2019.
  19. ^ Carrington, Damian; Taylor, Matthew (7 November 2017). "UK government sued for third time over deadly air pollution". The Guardian.
  20. ^ Taylor, Matthew (26 October 2018). "'We have a duty to act': hundreds ready to go to jail over climate crisis". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 30 June 2019.
  21. ^ Goddard, Emily; Clifton, Jamie; Sturrock, Alex (20 February 2019). "Extinction Rebellion Is Telling the Terrifying Truth About Climate Change". Vice. Retrieved 1 July 2019.
  22. ^ "European Election 2019: UK results in maps and charts | BBC News". bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 1 July 2019.
  23. ^ Sackur, Stephen (15 August 2019). BBC Hardtalk: interview with Roger Hallam — Co-founder, Extinction Rebellion. London, United Kingdom: BBC. Retrieved 8 September 2019. Video 24:37. (Available on YouTube).
  24. ^ Gayle, Damien (12 September 2019). "Heathrow third runway activists arrested before drone protest". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 12 September 2019.
  25. ^ "Extinction Rebellion co-founder arrested at Heathrow protest". The Guardian. PA Media. 14 September 2019. Retrieved 16 September 2019.
  26. ^ Sharman, Jon (16 September 2019). "Extinction Rebellion co-founder charged over Heathrow drone plot – 'Airport expansion constitutes a crime against humanity,' says Roger Hallam". The Independent. Retrieved 17 September 2019.
  27. ^ Scheib, Katrin (20 November 2019). "Extinction Rebellion: Roger Hallam calls Holocaust "just another fuckery in human history"". Die Zeit.
  28. ^ Connolly, Kate; Taylor, Matthew (20 November 2019). "Extinction Rebellion founder's Holocaust remarks spark fury". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 21 November 2019.
  29. ^ "Extinction Rebellion: Roger Hallam calls Holocaust "just another fuckery in human history"". www.zeit.de. 20 November 2019. Retrieved 13 August 2020.
  30. ^ "SMWeCGEC & GAPP Statement on Roger Hallam's Shoah Comments & Their Relevance to the Maangamizi". stopthemaangamizi.com. 26 November 2019.
  31. ^ Boycott-Owen, Mason (3 November 2021). "Extinction Rebellion founder's repugnant rant: 'Climate crisis will lead to gang rape'". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 7 November 2021.
  32. ^ Backes, Laura; Thelen, Raphael (22 November 2019). "'We Are Engaged in the Murder of the World's Children'". Der Spiegel. Retrieved 7 November 2021.
  33. ^ Statesman, New (17 May 2023). "The New Statesman's left power list". New Statesman. Retrieved 13 December 2023.
  34. ^ "Extinction Rebellion co-founder to self-publish climate manifesto". www.thebookseller.com. Retrieved 21 November 2019.

External links edit

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