The Nonviolent Struggle for Our Planet’s Future w/ Lynne Jones

How do we communicate with those who disagree? Is property damage nonviolent? Is the law just? Join veteran activist, doctor and aid worker Lynne Jones at this year’s Khushwant Singh Literary Festival to discuss her history of activism and the future of civil resistance. Lynne will be joined by Akshat Rathi, journalist and author of Climate Capitalism: Winning the Global Race to Zero Emissions.

Lynne will be offering a compelling, ground-level account of the last five years of UK protests, exploring how and why ordinary citizens have adopted extraordinary methods to confront the climate and nature crises. Sharing her 1980s experiences opposing nuclear weapons at Greenham Common, and her journey in movements like Extinction Rebellion today, Jones reflects on public history and her personal story to unpack nonviolent protest in a world on the brink.

Can we learn from past movements? How to communicate with those who disagree? What kind of disruption is most effective in Western democracies? Is property damage nonviolent? Is the law just? How important are direct interventions, boycotts and non-cooperation? What can indigenous campaigners of the Global South teach us?

About the book

As floods and fires rage across the planet, ever more people are embracing nonviolent action to achieve political change. Can it work?

Doctor and aid worker Lynne Jones offers a compelling, ground-level account of the last five years of UK protests, exploring how and why ordinary citizens have adopted extraordinary methods to confront the climate and nature crises. Sharing her 1980s experiences opposing nuclear weapons at Greenham Common, and her journey in movements like Extinction Rebellion today, Jones reflects on public history and her personal story to unpack nonviolent protest in a world on the brink. Can we learn from past movements? How to communicate with those who disagree? What kind of disruption is most effective in Western democracies? Is property damage nonviolent? Is the law just? How important are direct interventions, boycotts and non-cooperation? What can indigenous campaigners of the Global South teach us?

A lifetime of activism has taught Jones that we all have more power than we realise. It’s time to use that power—before it’s too late.

About the speakers

Lynne Jones OBE is a child psychiatrist, WHO and UNICEF consultant, and author of acclaimed books including Outside the Asylum and Then They Started Shooting. BBC Radio, The New Statesman, the London Review of Books and O, The Oprah Magazine have featured her field diaries from conflict and disaster areas.

Akshat Rathi is an award-winning senior reporter for Bloomberg News. He is the host of Zero, a climate podcast for Bloomberg Green. He has a PhD in organic chemistry from the University of Oxford, and a BTech in chemical engineering from the Institute of Chemical Technology in Mumbai. He has worked for Quartz, The Economist and the Royal Society of Chemistry. His writings have also been published in Nature, The Hindu, Guardian, Ars Technica, and Chemistry World, among others.