Our Demands

Extinction Rebellion Chicago (XRC) is a growing group of activists formed in 2019 to demand, through creative and non-violent direct action, that the government act now to stop climate catastrophe.

We are proud to have an expanding membership base, bringing people together from Chicago and beyond toward this urgent goal. Our mission depends on friendship and mutual support between members of diverse age, race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, ability, and class. We actively seek to decentralize our processes and form alliances with environmental and social justice organizations to highlight the connections between our various struggles for a sustainable and just future. We thus seek to build an accountable, resilient culture within which trust is cultivated and protected. We affirm that undoing oppressive systems requires listening to, learning from, and advocating alongside historically silenced and marginalized voices.

See all four XR US demands, in detail, below as well as our principles & values:

01

TELL THE TRUTH…

1. That the Government must tell the truth about the climate and wider ecological emergency, it must reverse all policies not in alignment with that position and must work alongside the media to communicate the urgency for change including what individuals, communities and businesses need to do.

02

ACT NOW

2. Government must act now to halt biodiversity loss and reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2025 and take further action to remove the excess of atmospheric greenhouse gases. It must cooperate internationally so that the global economy runs on no more than half a planet’s worth of resources per year.

03

BEYOND POLITICS

3. We do not trust our Government to make the bold, swift and long-term changes necessary to achieve these changes and we do not intend to hand further power to our politicians. Instead we demand a People’s Assembly to oversee the changes, as we rise from the wreckage, creating a democracy fit for purpose.

04

JUST TRANSITION

4. We demand a just transition that prioritizes the most vulnerable people and indigenous sovereignty; establishes reparations and remediation led by and for Black people, Indigenous people, people of color and poor communities for years of environmental injustice, establishes legal rights for ecosystems to thrive and regenerate in perpetuity, and repairs the effects of ongoing ecocide to prevent extinction of human and all species, in order to maintain a livable, just planet for all.

XR Chicago statement regarding XR US and the fourth demand:

For the reasons listed above, XR Chicago stands by the vision of justice embodied in our fourth demand, which distinguishes XR US from XR in the UK. Our fourth demand reflects our understanding that climate advocacy cannot succeed without prioritizing the needs of frontline and indigenous communities and people of color, who too often are denied environmental justice because of poverty, neocolonialism, and institutional racism. These communities have fought the longest and with the most radical engagement in the history of the climate movement in the U.S. They have tended to have the least political power while having the most at stake. The changes we need for radical CO2 emissions reductions and the transition toward a carbon-neutral world will not be possible if we do not work in cooperation with our neighbors in these communities. In light of this we are honored to learn from, and stand alongside, the movements that have long been fighting for a better future for us all: particularly environmental justice, racial justice, labor rights, and immigration justice organizations.

We proudly stand for the fourth demand of Extinction Rebellion US: “a just transition that prioritizes the most vulnerable people and establishes indigenous sovereignty; establishes reparations and remediation led by and for Black people, Indigenous people, people of color and poor communities for years of environmental injustice, establishes legal rights for ecosystems to thrive and regenerate in perpetuity, and repairs the effects of ongoing ecocide to prevent extinction of humanity and all species, in order to maintain a livable, just planet for all.”

Solidarity, Love, Rage, and Rebellion for Life!