by Extinction Rebellion plans to shut down London with biggest protest yet to last for weeks
Josiah Mortimer - City Hall editor, MyLondon
EXCLUSIVE: XR organisers have warned the protests will be 'day after day' and are likely to impact the Easter holidays
XR has previously blocked bridges and roads across the capital (Image: PA Wire/PA Images)
Josiah Mortimer - City Hall editor, MyLondon
EXCLUSIVE: XR organisers have warned the protests will be 'day after day' and are likely to impact the Easter holidays
XR has previously blocked bridges and roads across the capital (Image: PA Wire/PA Images)
Climate activists are planning a new wave of protests in London that will be their largest ever coordinated “resistance” and could go on for weeks. Extinction Rebellion campaigners are preparing to target oil and energy giants and the impact is set to hit over the Easter Bank holiday, MyLondon can reveal.
On Monday (February 14) the direct action group will release plans for a “prolonged period of action” starting in Hyde Park from April 9 onwards, with protests in the capital potentially extending for weeks.
An Extinction Rebellion spokesperson told MyLondon: “This will be day after day. We’ve launched a big mobilisation plan, with hopefully several thousand attending." The protests will focus on XR’s “immediate demand” to end the sale of fossil fuels. The spokesperson added: “It will be very oil focused. There will be definite disruption across London.”
MyLondon understands it could involve attempting to shut down energy giant and oil firm headquarters. Shell has a huge office on London’s Southbank, the National Grid has its headquarters on the Strand, and energy giant BP's global headquarters are in St. James's Square in Central London.
READ MORE:'I’ve blocked roads around Parliament - and the new anti-protest law won’t stop me'
A giant boat blocking the area outside Parliament in 2020 (Image: Jamie Lowe / Extinction Rebellion)
In a call for participants, XR said: “Every rebel is invited to take part in mass resistance together in London on April 9th onwards. Rebels are invited to participate in a very simple action plan with varying risk levels. This would mean no more scattergun actions but to come together in unity with a single message, demand and a flexible action design.
“The moments of mass participation will be designed to be simple to join, openly organised, and with the ability to continue for weeks at a time....Our targets: UK Government, and related polluters investing in global extinction of all life.”
Aims include to “create proportional disruption to the crisis” and to “overwhelm the state/police through mass resistance and attrition tactics.” Previous XR weeks of action have included shutting down central London bridges including at Waterloo and Westminster, locking on to floats and barriers, and creating huge floats to block roads.
The campaign group is seeking to raise £500,000 to fund the protests, and has so far brought in around £50,000. Organisers are hopeful they will raise the funds needed, including to pay for people to travel to the “uprising”, and to buy additional PA speakers “to replace equipment seized by police.”
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