Extinction Rebellion at war with itself after infiltration by Marxists

A bitter battle is raging for control of Extinction Rebellion, with claims that the organisation is being infiltrated by far-Left groups who want it to adopt a more overtly militant socialist agenda.

Evidence is emerging that Marxist groups such as the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) and the Young Communist League (YCL) have instructed members to join the ranks of XR with a view to exerting a strong influence on its strategy.

The SWP has encouraged its members to attend Extinction Rebellion protests and blockades in order to recruit members to its own ranks and influence the organisation away from its original aim to tackle environmental threats towards a more Marxist direction.

Matters came to a head last week when members of the YCL, the youth wing of the Communist Party of Britain, were photographed at an Extinction Rebellion protest in Parliament Square holding a banner that read “Socialism not Extinction” alongside a hammer and sickle.

But a decision by Extinction Rebellion to issue a statement rejecting attempts to adopt a more socialist ideology prompted a backlash, with several of its regional branches and the youth wing saying that they wanted a more inclusive attitude towards Left-wing groups.

That has alarmed some of its original members, who fear the influence of the far-Left will alienate many who potentially support its fight against climate change and do not want XR to be tied to any one political viewpoint.

Rupert Read, a long-standing XR activist, said: “Any parasitical organisation that is trying to use XR is worrying, and I’m sure there are groups trying to infiltrate us.”

Alan Story, a member of the Green Party, reported that in April last year several SWP members began attending its meetings in Sheffield. He reproduced an internal SWP memo that urged its members: “Go to your local XR meeting - and get stuck in! XR report that around 30,000 people have joined them in the last few weeks. This means local XR meetings are likely to be big and full of new people.”

The memo urged SWP militants to recruit XR members while at the same time exerting a more socialist influence within the climate change movement, under the slogan “System change not climate change”.

Writing in the London Left Green Blog page Mr Story warned: “While new ideas are definitely required, what XR does NOT need is an outside organisation of experienced and disciplined political operators to enter it with the usual SWP objectives in mind: recruiting new members, manipulation, stirring up disputes and splits, capturing leadership roles and the like.”

XR was originally formed in late 2018 by activists involved in direct action groups including Occupy, Plane Stupid and Reclaim the Power. It advocated “revolution,” and redistribution of wealth, and was regarded by senior police officers as being an extremist anarchist group.

Its tactics, which began with 6,000 protesters blocking London's five main bridges, have been to cause maximum disruption for short periods using non-violent direct action, with targets ranging from Shell’s headquarters, London Fashion Week, the Stock Exchange and even the Docklands Light Railway.

Each target, the group claims, represented organisations that were contributing to the degradation of the environment. Such was its support that a number of celebrities, including Emma Thompson, openly featured in their campaigns.

Actor Benedict Cumberbatch is also one of several stars to have visited the protest sites during previous demonstrations, with others including model Daisy Lowe, comedian Ruby Wax and actors Juliet Stevenson and Mark Rylance.

On Friday night, the group blockaded printing sites that prevented many national newspapers  - including The Telegraph - from being delivered.

Yesterday, Tobias Ellwood, the Conservative MP and former Defence Minister, told Times Radio that XR had "lost sight of how to campaign".

He said: "The Government has done much itself but obviously could do more and we need to work with the people to get that message across so we all can be more aware of the carbon footprint that we create.

"But what they're doing here is to alienate more people. I fear the organisation itself has been hijacked."

A spokesman for XR told The Telegraph: “We fully support the action, which was organised by XR members in the north west and the south east of England. It was nothing to do with far-left infiltration.”