Extinction Rebellion plan endless mass climate change protests in London

Extinction Rebellion will hold what could be its longest protest as it plans to occupy sites around London until its demands are met.

An Extinction Rebellion demonstrator is arrested at Trafalgar Square in September 2020. Picture: Getty Images

Extinction Rebellion is to hold what could be its longest protest as it plans to occupy sites around London until its demands are met.

The climate action group said that it would return to the streets of the capital from August 23 with the aim of holding as many as eight sites.

Most would be in the City to disrupt financial institutions but there would be other demonstration at sites likely to cause significant disruption to the public.

Activists protest outside the Bank of England in 2019. Picture: AFP

XR brought parts of London to a standstill in April and October two years ago with roadblocks and encampments at places such as Trafalgar Square.

Policing those protests cost 37 million pounds. It held flying protests in September last year.

This time an initial two-week demonstration is scheduled, but the group said that it would hold sites until the government agreed to its new demand that all public investment in fossil fuels cease immediately.

Extinction Rebellion climate protesters spray-painted Parliament House in Canberra on Tuesday. Picture: Twitter

Alanna Byrne, a spokeswoman, said that although the focus of the protest would be banks, the public would also be disrupted in an attempt to get people talking before the Cop26 climate conference in Glasgow in November.

Starting this week XR is hosting online training courses for people planning to join the protests.

During the first two weeks of the protest, which XR calls the Impossible Rebellion, an animal welfare march will take place at Smithfield meat market.

 

Hundreds of XR protesters have been convicted of blocking roads since 2019, however many of those convictions are in doubt after the Supreme Court ruled that peacefully and briefly obstructing a highway for a genuine political cause was lawful.

Clare Farrell, a co-founder of XR, said: “We are in the midst of a collective act of global, social evil which is unprecedented in all of history. The time to work together is now, mass movements can create rapid change and we are in open rebellion until we see real action.”

The Times