Summary
A pocket-sized German-language protest-marshal guide from Extinction Rebellion Germany — stewarding a buffer, de-escalation, and crowd management at a mass action.
Body
The XR-DE Steward-Leitfaden is the German-language steward (protest-marshal) handbook used inside the XR-DE Bezugsgruppe system [source: xr-de-steward-leitfaden]. A steward is the visible, calm interface between the crowd and the police; the Leitfaden makes the role deliberately distinct from “security” or “peace-police” roles that risk cosplaying police authority. Stewards wear identifiable pink/orange vests and are accountable to the affinity groups at the action rather than to any external authority [source: xr-de-steward-leitfaden].
Coverage: buffer formation (how to form a human buffer between police and participants; how to coordinate with the legal-observer team and the police-liaison role); de-escalation technique (the German version of the ICNC de-escalation checklist — recognise agitation early, address the person not the crowd, de-escalate before escalation becomes inevitable, never raise your voice); crowd management (how the steward team handles the moment when police announce a kessel / kettle, how to communicate the announcement back to the affinity groups, and how to support arrestees through the steward-to-legal-observer handoff) [source: xr-de-steward-leitfaden]. Note that this Leitfaden is a sibling of the XR-DE Bezugsgruppen-Handbuch — a Bezugsgruppe focuses on the small group; a Steward is the role within a Bezugsgruppe that holds the wider action together.
The Leitfaden is published as CC-BY-SA in the lists (verify on the document itself) — short quotes and adaptation with attribution are permitted [source: xr-de-steward-leitfaden].
Use it for
Designing a steward team for a DE-language mass action; training stewards on de-escalation; coordinating stewards with legal observers.
Related
- affinity-groups
- boycotts-and-strikes
- dilemma-actions
- escalation
- framing-and-narrative
- leadership-development
- methods-of-nonviolent-action
- noncooperation
- nonviolent-direct-action
- one-to-ones
- pillars-of-support
- public-narrative
- structure-tests
- the-tactic-star
Open Questions
- Confirm CC-BY-SA on the actual document.
- Cross-link back to the steward role in the Bezugsgruppe handbook.