Dawn Ray’d: The climate crisis needs direct action

One of the topics that comes up a lot on our new record, Behold Sedition Plainsong, is the crisis in ecology and the climate chaos. For us as anarchists, we relate that to the wider crisis of capitalism. And when capitalism falls into crisis that affects all of us – whether it’s humans, non-human animals, or the wider ecology of flora and fauna.

This is one of the most pressing issues of our time. We believe that the way to deal with that isn’t to ignore it, and it’s not to ask for governments to change their policies. The only way that we’re going to solve the climate chaos is the same way we are going to solve our other problems: by organising and acting ourselves to disrupt the mechanisms of capital that perpetuate the climate catastrophe that we see.

I don’t think we can ever trust or ask a government or people in power to solve this crisis for us, because they have neither the ability nor the interest in doing so. Our interests – which are human liberation, animal liberation and earth liberation – are diametrically opposed to the interests of power and capital, who want to consolidate their power at the price of our liberty. Looking at a group like Extinction Rebellion, it’s inspiring to see so many people getting involved and taking direct action to try and solve a problem that they see – particularly some of the more disruptive and theatrical and passionate and emotional responses to the climate chaos that we see.

There are some amazing groups who maybe align more closely with what Dawn Ray’d stand for, particularly the Green Anti-Capitalist Front. It’s amazing when people are getting so impassioned about climate chaos and the crisis in ecology. It’s important that we recognise the intersection between ecology and global warming and capitalism, and the other struggles, whether they be class struggles, or struggles for liberation for indigenous groups. Whether it be the Zapatistas, the Rojava revolution, these revolutions have ecology movements at their front and centre, as well as movements to disrupt patriarchal societies, to disrupt power and disrupt hierarchy. If we have a single issue, we have to recognise where that single issue intersects.