Following a review of the impact of Roger Hallam’s actions and statements on the growth, morale, and media coverage of our global movement, Extinction Rebellion Global Support is issuing this clarifying statement.
Roger Hallam was one of the key founders of XR when it started in the UK. He no longer holds any formal role in XR UK.
Roger Hallam has never been a member of, or held any position in, Global Support. Additionally, he will not hold any role within Global Support nor be involved in any capacity with its future campaigns and strategy.
Roger Hallam has exhibited behavior that, regardless of his intentions, has led to significant damage to our movement. For example:
- In November 2019, after comments Roger Hallam made on the Holocaust, the Global Support Tech team witnessed mass account deactivations across its global services. The German team cited a particularly heavy fall in their membership base. This was the first time Global Support Tech had seen negative growth since our global communications platforms were deployed, with thousands of rebels leaving our platforms.
- Radiohead, a major donor in 2019, indicated they would no longer donate to XR, citing Roger Hallam’s comments.
- XR Switzerland and XR Germany both reported that other local environmental groups sought to distance themselves from XR after the comments, with local Fridays For Future groups seeking distance from XR at German protests and indicating that the Extinction Symbol was not welcome at actions.
- On more than one occasion in 2020, Roger Hallam “jokingly” suggested that leaders responsible for the climate and ecological emergency should be shot. Joke or not, these statements damaged our otherwise strong commitment to non-violence in the public eye and increased concerns about XR being classified as a terrorist organization.
- Roger Hallam helped set up “XR America”, which both complicated existing conflicts among rebels in the United States and created new ones. As a result, the Latin American XR movement dissociated itself from Global Support and has worked as a network of independent regional groups
- Global Support’s Media and Messaging team maintains a Reactive team that monitors feedback and responds to messages on the global Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram pages. Reactive has often reported negative feedback and unproductive controversy in response to posts mentioning Roger Hallam.
Our highest priority at Global Support is to encourage the strong, efficient, and regenerative global growth of the XR movement. It is clear that Roger Hallam has become a highly divisive figure both in the global movement and within Global Support. While we recognize his groundbreaking early actions and extraordinary work in co-founding XR, we can no longer allow the controversy around his later statements and activism continue to damage our work.
We are issuing this statement in order to state our position clearly and transparently, and as a measure towards reconciliation.