This post is a continuation of Hey Teachers, Leave Those Kids Alone

Part One is here

As the school strikes for climate began in August 2018, I was informed by Facebook Events that Extinction Rebellion (XR) were holding a meeting just around the corner from me. I was intrigued, but reluctant to go, because I thought there would be only a half a dozen people attending and some of the people “interested” but not-confirmed attendees were people I knew from the trade union movement. With a small attendance I would be unable to take a back seat and just listen. My curiosity eventually got the better of me, but when I arrived it was to find a packed-out venue. I recognised a few faces, most notably local councillors, and some neighbours.

The attendees, many of them concerned pensioners, were given a presentation which started to describe the future if climate change was not halted. Every emotional button was pressed and as the fact-lite performance continued, I began to get the feeling of nervousness that you get at a funeral. All around me were serious, concerned faces. When the presenter got to the lurid PowerPoint slide which predicted the rise of fascism if their programme was not implemented, I laughed out loud. It was not a full belly laugh, nor a confident laugh of derision. It was the nervous, involuntary, girly giggle that I’ve heard is not unknown at funerals.

This caused somewhat of a stir and so I felt compelled to recover my composure and challenge the speaker, something that I had not intended. The person doing the presenting was not very much of an opponent and couldn’t back up any of his assertions. So, I pressed on. After a couple of interjections from a more authoritative XR voice at the back, trying to get the presentation back on track, the speaker said that he was not well-versed in the facts underlying the presentation, but had been taught it by someone “higher up” and he mumbled a name.

After the meeting, a couple of more articulate XR types engaged me. This was not the usual affable conversation that I have had at the scores of debates that I have been to, and there was a definite attempt to prevent me from talking to those milling around outside. I’ve not been to a cult meeting, but I can imagine that these are the tactics employed.

These are the words of Roger Hallam. Roger Hallam is leader of Extinction Rebellion and the not public face of Just Stop Oil.

‘So, what will happen is episodes where someone, a gang of young men, come into your house, they take your girlfriend, they take your mother, they put her on to the table, and they gang rape her, in front of you, and then after that they take a hot stick, and they poke out your eyes and they blind you. That’s the reality of the annihilation project that you face.’


This quote from Roger is so unbelievable it has to be evidenced by the actual footage. It is documented in a tweet by Tom Slater of the magazine Spiked Online. It falls short of what I was witness to, but not by much.

For those with strong stomachs, time on their hands and those who are concerned about context, the full video can be seen here

Advice to Young People as they face Annihilation, Roger Hallam, 2021

Hallam has also repeatedly said that six billion people (that is, the vast majority of the world’s current population) will die this century due to climate change and the barbarism it will supposedly usher in – a claim he has so far been unable to back up when challenged.

So, is Roger an outlier? Or is this the message that XR and now Just Stop Oil (JSO) are routinely disseminating to children? Let’s look at what another Extinction Rebellion organiser tells them.

This is the video of Rupert Reed at the Schools Climate Conference held at University College London on the 3rd of July 2019 organised by the Green Schools Project and reviewed and promoted in the Guardian. This talk was organised as the school strikes began.

Rupert Read: How I talk with children about climate breakdown, 13 August 2019

Ruperts says,

“You will not have normal lives like your parents have.”

“This is about whether you have a future”

“People sometimes ask you what are you going to be when you grow up. But we’ve reached the point in human history where the question also has to be asked, ‘What are you going to do IF you grow up?’ ”

“I’m really, really, sorry to have to say this to you, and it doesn’t feel good, but this is the truth, and I think it is too late for anything but the truth. And I take inspiration from a young person who I am privileged to know, […] Greta Thunberg. And what she has said to the leaders of the world is, ‘I don’t want you to be calm. I want you to panic.’”

“Do you remember what happened last summer […] our crops started to die. And if this had continued […] sooner or later you reach the point where there just isn’t enough food.”

“The other new thing that has happened is that some adults who have stepped up to the plate started to really do enough. You may have heard of what happened here in April. It’s called Extinction Rebellion. And I was one of the rebels. I was one of these people who blocked roads in London. Who sat on Waterloo Bridge for two weeks and sat in Parliament Square and said, “We are doing this, we are breaking the law, because unless everything changes, and really fast, there isn’t going to be a future. We are on the path to the collapse of our civilisation, to their not being enough food on the table, to not having a future.”

In my next blog post I will be continuing my essay on propagandising of children in Hey Teachers, Leave Those Kids Alone – Part Three where I ask, “What are children being taught in school?”