Il sangue delle nostre figlie

Da tradurre e scrivere bene

Blood Of Our Children is a taboo breaking act of minor criminal damage that forces the public to connect the climate and ecological emergency with the mass slaughter it is already leading to. Its main purpose is to use controversy and polarisation to gain press and build the movement, but also to shift what's known as the ‘Overton Window’, the window of accepted conversation in public life. Many people still don’t connect climate change with the reality that it's already killing people in the Global South and, unless radical action is taken, it's going to lead to millions if not billions of deaths around the world. 

The action is a great next step for rebels who have taken part in a road block and want to move up to their next action. 

THINGS YOU’LL NEED

• Big Extinction Rebellion banners 
• Extra banners or placards saying ‘Blood Of Our Children’ / ‘Business As Usual = Death’ / ‘Climate Change Kills’ / ‘Our Blood Our Future’
• Black suits and shoes for main rebels to wear
• Large buckets printed with the extinction symbol 
• XXXX litres of washable fake blood. Use recipe [insert link to recipe]
• Portable sound system and microphone  

PREPARING FOR THE ACTION

1. Recruit at least 10 rebels to be blood pourers. Ask them to source black suits to wear for the action. 
2. Prepare some spokespeople to give testimonials over the microphone during the action. It's good to get them briefed on some of the core facts about the emergency but for maximum impact you want spokespeople who can speak with raw emotion about how shit scared they are for their future. Mothers, pregnant women or grandparents talking emotionally about their fears for their children’s futures. 
3. Scout out a visually stunning location. Think about the space outside government buildings or the road outside. A flight of steps works really well too. Ultimately your aim is to get one stunning image in the press so think about what angle the photo will be taken from and what will be in the background. 
4. Give blood-pourers a legal briefing on what the possible legal consequences will be. In other countries rebels have not been arrested for this action, but there is the potential to be arrested and charged with criminal damage. Fake blood poured directly onto a building is much more likely to result in this charge than fake blood poured into the road which is more likely to be tolerated. 
5. Identify a police liaison and preplan how you will talk to the police on the day . You might want to consider speaking to the police and telling them that you will be doing this action, explaining the fake blood is washable and not permanent and communicating that the action will be nonviolent and peaceful. It's generally best not to tell them the exact location in case they try to intervene before the blood can be poured.
6. If the location of your action requires a road to be blocked then recruit teams and coordinators to do the road blocking element following the guidance in the 3 minute roadblock action guidance. 
7. It's good to gather a bigger crowd who will participate as general protestors for the action. If you need to keep the exact location secret you could advertise the event’s time and rough geographic area and either ask people to meet at a point nearby 

DOING THE ACTION

1. If blocking the road, follow the 3 minute roadblock guidance and peacefully close the street to clear space for the action.
2. Have the blood pourers line up ceremonially in position - remember to think about what will make the most impactful photo. 
3. As quickly as possible, to make sure that you aren’t interrupted by the police, pour the blood in unison. Keeping an air of solemnity will make this most impactful. You might want to have more than one bucket each for maximum impact. 
4. Hear speeches from spokespeople over the microphone.