LINDA DOYLE IS A REBEL FOR LIFE

SUBJECT Linda Doyle

OCCUPATION Citizens’ Assembly Team Coordinator

INTERVIEWER Cameron Elliot

PHOTOGRAPHERS Jamie Lowe and Miriam Hauertmann

LOCATION London, UK

DATE August, 2019

As I write this introduction, Extinction Rebellion (XR) is concluding its global week of action. In cities around the world thousands of ordinary citizens have flooded the streets and engaged in non-violent civil disobedience, resulting in hundreds of arrests. Their demands are simple: that governments tell the truth about anthropogenic climate change, act now to prevent further loss of biodiversity, reduce CO2 emissions to net zero by 2025, and establish citizens’ assemblies to lead the government action.

My interviewee, Linda Doyle, is spearheading the establishment of a citizens’ assembly in the UK, the birthplace of the XR movement. I was delighted to encounter in her someone unafraid to reveal her own contradictions. Playfulness, humour, lightness and hope sat side-by-side with earnest concern, despair and fear about the future of our species. Linda is equal parts impassioned activist willing to forego freedom for her cause and cool-headed social psychologist hoping to one day write a PhD on democracy. I had the sense I was watching someone in the process of discovering how to synthesise these two seemingly mutually exclusive selves into a unique vocation that is of service to humanity and the natural world. It was exciting. Linda Doyle is a member of a generation facing an extraordinary challenge. And it is her unflinching commitment to putting her body, mind and heart on the line to meet the challenge that makes her extraordinary.

CAMERON ELLIOT: I’ve been watching Extinction Rebellion from the sidelines over the past 12 months with growing excitement, fascination and immense gratitude. It seems like the movement’s onto something quite powerful and effective. It also seems like Extinction Rebellion’s emerged out of nowhere but I’m sure that’s not the case. So how and when did the movement start and how has it evolved?

LINDA DOYLE: So the movement started maybe last May. It was a group of people who were already together participating in different campaigns. And they all came together to really work around the climate and ecological emergency. And they launched on the 31st of October 2018 when they declared themselves in open rebellion against the UK government. I joined