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Extinction Rebellion (XR) has announced two weeks of protests in London. ‘The Impossible Rebellion’ comes off the back of recent climate crises, including widespread flooding in the capital and across the UK. The protest specifically targets the City of London for the responsibility – or lack of it – it has for global emissions in terms of the companies and businesses it collectively owns. According to the group,
‘The City of London was the financial force behind Britain’s role in transatlantic trade of African people as slaves, insuring vessels and arranging cargoes. The City also played a pivotal role in British colonialism.’
It continues: ‘Today the City of London, via the investments of the companies that it hosts, is responsible for 15 percent of global CO2 emissions. If it were a country, it would be the ninth biggest carbon emitter on the planet. Not one of the top ten funders in the City has made a serious plan to exit fossil fuels, despite having pledged to reach net zero by 2050.’
The group started yesterday by scaling the Square Mile’s Guildhall and unveiling a banner that read ‘Co-Liberation/Freedom Together’. The next events are as follows.
XR’s programme (in their words):
Monday August 23, 10am – Trafalgar Square: rebellion begins
Tuesday August 24, 10am – St James’s Park: Not in Our Name an XR Cymru Action (meet near café at Storey’s Gate, St James’s Park).
Tuesday August 24, 11am: Make Pensions Green – Get Out Of Oil & Gas with XR Grandparents & Elders (meet at Tooley Street, London Bridge).
Tuesday August 24, 4.30pm – Cavendish Square Gardens: Code Red for Fossil Fuel Fashion
Wednesday August 25, 10am – Brazilian Embassy: Global Day of Action for indigenous peoples of the Amazon Rainforest
Wednesday August 25, 11.30am – Piccadilly Circus: Courage Calls to Courage a Women and FINT action
Friday August 27, noon – Bank of England: Blood Money March presented by Decolonise the Economy
Saturday August 28, noon – Brixton Market: Global Majority-Led Crises Rally
Saturday August 28, 12.30pm – Smithfield Market: Animal Rights March led by Animal Rebellion
Sunday August 29, 11.30am – Ducketts Common Carnival for Climate Justice!
Bank Holiday Sunday and Monday August 29-30 – West London: Imagine the Impossible
Monday August 30-Friday September 3: rebellion continues
September 4: Nature Rebellion March organised by our sister movements and after-party.
Affirmative action: 16 years of the World Naked Bike Ride in London.
A London chippy is under threat for its Jack the Ripper-punning name.