What are they?

People’s Assemblies are a way for a group of people to discuss issues or make decisions collectively, where all voices are heard and valued equally and no one person or group are able to dominate the process. Assemblies can be a form of direct action if they are being held in a space designed to be disruptive or during occupations.

People’s Assemblies are simply a crowd of people talking in an organised way, sharing their feelings and ideas about change. As the world becomes more and more atomized, meeting with strangers and sharing your feelings is itself transformative. In the context of Extinction Rebellion, assemblies will be constructed in a way where people are safe to share the grief and loss they feel for a world that is rapidly collapsing. The assemblies will hold that grief with respect and allow people to work together to organise towards rebellion and a shift away from the system that has brought us to this crisis of all crises.

People's Assembly Manual

We’ve put together a People’s Assemblies Manual, which explains what they are in more depth – and how to run them yourself!

People's Assembly Facilitation Training

People's Assemblies can be run by anyone. However, it is also helpful for folk to have done some facilitation training beforehand. This video is from a training held on 11th April 2019.