The Boston chapter of the international environmental advocacy group Extinction Rebellion (XR) held its third annual Week of Rebellion last week, staging non-violent protests outside the Massachusetts Statehouse and trying to engage the public in discourse about climate change. 

For several days, XR members continuously chained themselves to the gates of the General Hooker entrance and solicited staffers and passersby, refusing to move until the Massachusetts government announced an immediate ban on new fossil fuel infrastructure. 

Last Friday evening, to conclude their week of protest and to “make resistance fun again,” XR organized a “die-in” demonstration followed by a pizza and dance party in the Boston Common at the corner of Beacon and Park Street. 

In Extinction Rebellion’s slogan, the group conveys its purpose of expressing “Love and Rage.”

“This kind of action brings both together,” Jamie McGonagill, a member of XR since 2020, said as she set up cardboard gravestones labeled “polar bears” and “coastal communities” along the sidewalk.“On the love side, we come together in community, we dance, celebrate, break bread and share music. And on the rage side, we raise our voices in protest of the inaction of our leaders in the State House and in the media and their failure to tell the truth about the severity of the climate crisis.”

To kick off the die-in, XR members with brass instruments led the group in a jazzy rendition of some of the organization’s slogans to the tune of “Jump the Line” and “Bella Ciao,” directly addressing Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey, urging her to oppose a new proposal that would install a natural gas pipeline across New England. 

For the following half an hour, around 40 members of Extinction Rebellion lay on the paved walkways of Boston Common playing dead while members came up to the microphone and gave speeches. Among them was Timothy Peters, who spoke on the need for immediate climate action. 

“In Florida now, state employees are forbidden to use the terms ‘climate-change’ or ‘global warming’ in official communications,” Peters said, referencing the bill that was signed by Florida state Gov. Ron DeSantis that erased most references to climate change from state law. “When you’re stuck in a hole, the first thing you need to do is stop digging. We need to reach net-zero [emissions] by 2030, and we need to start now.”   

When the momentum of the protest lulled between speakers, many members laid on the ground groaning or shouting, as if experiencing real death. Some exclaimed “My planet!” while others closed their eyes and tried to stay still. A group of three XR members dressed in elaborate red costumes who refer to themselves as the “Red Rebels” walked slowly around the group of protesters, kneeling over them and letting the red tulle of their dresses graze the protesters. The brass band then played a slowed version of “Amazing Grace.” 

When the “die-in” was done, XR members mingled over vegan pizza and set up paper lanterns along the sidewalk as the sun started to go down. 

Stewart Clements, an XR protester sporting a double-sided smock with the words “Climate Justice Now” block-printed across it, shared that he hadn’t been an active protester since the Vietnam War in the 1960s, until he found XR.

“I saw a die-in at Harvard Square, and it was so powerful that I decided I was going to stop thinking I know everything, or that it’s just a personal thing, and actually step forward in my life and act,” Clements said. “We are moving forward into this catastrophic time and solutions are not evident, they are slow, crises are going to be multiple, and what is going to save us is small communities of people that have each other’s back and that they can trust.” 

Somewhere in the crowd, a speaker quietly started playing disco tunes while people continued to eat, slowly becoming louder and occasionally accompanied by the brass band. Soon enough, the small circles of people began to disperse and members began to dance, some opting for traditional disco moves while others bounced and free-styled. 

“We like to disco because it can get more people to join and keeps people learning and active,” 10-year-old Clio Paralta-Packard said before twirling away to a dance circle of other young protesters. Those who didn’t feel like dancing examined the buttons and stickers made by XR’s art collaborative. 

The dance party ended as McGonagill offered a few words of closing.

“We are so lucky to be here, and I mean it,” McGonagill said. “How lucky we are to be alive during a time when it has never been more crucial or more possible to act with heroism, with selflessness, to act with compassion. How wonderful we are to be alive in the times of dragons so that we may be the ones to slay them.”