The International Rebellion will return to the streets of London on Monday because we are in a Climate & Ecological Emergency, and we need your help to make sure the world knows about what’s happening. 

To flag, there will be an opening ceremony this Sunday, 5pm at Marble Arch. Please join us. Some key documents: 

• Presentation from yesterday’s press briefing covering the International Rebellion 
• Media pack with background information about the working groups of Extinction Rebellion and the sites
• Press release covering the announcement of the sites around Westminster for the Rebellion

Email: press@risingup.org.uk

National Office Phone: +44(0)7986671716 / +44(0)7561098449 / +44(0)7804743058 / +44(0)77391 86640 / +44(0)7479234522

Bristol/Wales (We Are All Crew): +44(0)07722062502 / +44(0)7495297625

North England (Rewilding North): +44(0)7794718962 

South West England (Global Food Justice): +44(0)7711898499 / +44(0)7778267833

East of England and Midlands (Love Rebellion): +44(0)7548691855 / +44(0)7877769492

South East (Beyond Politics): +44(0)7857445653

Scotland/North East/Cumbria (Power in Truth): +44(0)7904591052 / +44(0)7507888837

London A (Burning Earth): +44(0)7459518464

London B (The Beacon): +44(0)7760 889153

London C (The Future is Here): +44(0)7967603717 / +44(0)7917103330

Animal Rebellion (The Garden City): +44(0)7464739319

Global Justice Site: +44(0)7983236252 / +44(0)7795360527

Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Media Assets | Crowd Funder  | What emergency? | Extinction Rebellion in Numbers |This Is Not A Drill: An Extinction Rebellion Handbook.

#EverybodyNow  #ExtinctionRebellion

‘If not now, when? If not you, who?’ Hillel the Elder 

#EverybodyNow: London’s Rebellion on track to be FIVE times bigger than April

The International Rebellion in the UK, which begins at 10am on Monday, October 7,  is set to be five times bigger than it was in April, when more than 1,000 people volunteered themselves for arrest while carrying out acts of peaceful civil disobedience to call on Government to act on the Climate and Ecological Emergency. 

To date, almost 10,000 people have confirmed that they will be coming to London to rebel, compared to 2,000 prior to April’s Rebellion. Amongst those confirming their participation, 5,000 have stated that they are willing to be arrested, 2,245 are willing to go to prison and 1,836 are prepared to go on hunger strike. Based on projections from April’s Rebellion, total numbers for this Rebellion could attract between 20,000 and 30,000 people.    

People are rebelling in these numbers because they realise the time to address this is right now, not in the year 2050, or even 2025. Scientists are despairing because we are almost out of time. They are telling us to panic. 

The weather won’t wait for politics, and so we will gather in Westminster and stay until the Government tells the truth that families across this country need to know. This includes the terrifying likelihood that our supermarkets will fail us because the food system is too fragile to continually withstand the shocks of extreme weather happening in other parts of the world. 

We are calling upon the Government to take responsibility and enact immediate, profound and sweeping changes to address this present day crisis. Until then, we will create a spectacular Rebellion. In addition to a family-friendly blockade of Westminster, there will be non-violent and creative disruptive actions to force the Government to train its focus on protecting the country from risks that have been ignored for decades by those in power. 

There will be a dizzying display of arts and performances to highlight visions and voices about what our future could be, if only the Government would act. This a future where our cultures are resilient, regenerative, and built on respect for one another, all other forms of life, and the planet that sustains us. A future where we survive.   

Rebellion will consist of three tactical elements: site ‘blocks’, mass participation actions, and decentralised affinity (member) group actions. Simultaneous protests will take place in 60 cities around the world.

Below are details of some of the upcoming actions. Please note that this is not a festival: timings are liable to change depending on the mood of the State. We come in peace.

Mass Actions Schedule

The mass participation actions will include the following:

1ST WEEK 

WESTMINSTER SITE BLOCKS

DAY: Monday 7 October

TIME: Varies depending on site

We will launch the October Rebellion by focusing on the Government and its fundamental failures to act in the face of climate and ecological collapse. The morning will be spent taking the 12 sites around Westminster and setting up our accommodation for the weeks ahead. 

GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENTS 

DAY: Tuesday 8 October

TIME: 7am

From the early hours Rebels will occupy / block all Government departments around Westminster to demand they tell us their plans for the emergency. To clarify, we will not be preventing civil servants from going about their work during the period of Rebellion. 

SOLIDARITY WITH GLOBAL SOUTH

DAY: Wednesday 9 October 

TIME: 6pm

WHERE TO MEET: Parliament Square

ACTION

XR Argentina and Chile will be holding processions in memory of the 164 activists and defenders of the Earth who were assassinated in the Global South in 2018. Rebels in over 50 cities around the world where the International Rebellion is taking place, including Los Angeles, Santiago, Washington DC, New York, Montreal, Buenos Aires, are invited to support and take part in this co-ordinated international action. 

In London, a procession will be held at Parliament Square, where participants will wear black, carry candles and a placard with the name of one of those earth protectors they are honouring.

CITY AIRPORT: FLY TODAY, NO TOMORROW

DAY: Thursday 10 October 

TIME: Set off from Westminster sites at 7.30am

ACTION

We will hold a peaceful mass sit-in to close City Airport for as long as possible. In small groups we will travel from our sites to the airport by public transport, walking, cycling, and other means. If you want to make your own way, head to City Airport in the early morning and await the beginning of the mass action. We will sit in and around the airport and overwhelm it with our numbers, simply using our bodies, so we will not be using drones.

THE PEOPLE’S SPEECH
DAY: Thursday 10 October 

TIME: Set off from Westminster sites at 7.30am

MIDDLE WEEKEND

GRIEF, REFLECTION & RESISTANCE

After a week of action we will pause to refocus on why we have to act now; to reflect on life lost as a result of Climate and Ecological breakdown. The weekend will be filled with talks, inductions and trainings for new rebels, and regenerative activities across all sites, to ground us and allow us to consider why we are here. 

EXTINCTION MARCH
DAY: Saturday 12 October

TIME: 2pm

WHERE TO MEET: Imperial War Museum

ACTION

We will gather in solidarity with thousands of people across the world who are already experiencing the worst effects of climate breakdown. We will stand together in resistance for global justice. We will then march through London in an expression of profound grief for all we have lost, and continue to lose, during the 6th mass extinction that is already happening. 

We will finish with a vision of the future that we want to build. You are invited to join this procession and express yourself in accordance to the mourning rituals of your culture. Start in nature, end in nature. We unite in grief, rage and love for life on Earth.

To find out more about the day, click here. 

SILENCE & CONNECTION 

DAY: Sunday 13 October 

TIME: 11am for 10mins

ACTION

There will be ten minutes of silence and stillness to connect to our deeper selves across all sites on Sunday as we reflect on the past week. We invite all sites to take time to reflect and be with grief through ceremony or sharing stories. 

There will be a longer grief ceremony on the Faith Bridge – Lambeth Bridge.

2ND WEEK

HUNGER STRIKE 

DAY: Monday 14 October 

TIME: Monday Morning

WHERE: Parliament Square

ACTION

This will be an unprecedented act of nonviolent protest: an international mass hunger strike taking place in cities all around the world. We will demand that our governments declare a climate and ecological emergency, set up citizens’ assemblies, and oversee a just transition for all.

CITY OF LONDON

There will be multiple elements to this action to ensure maximum disruption. The aim of the action is to block various transport access points in to the City of London.

DAY: Monday 14 October 

START TIME: 7am

WHERE TO SWARM: Festival Gardens (near St Paul’s) 

Montague Close (behind Southwark Cathedral) 

Exchange Square, Broadgate (behind Liverpool St Station)

START TIME: 9am

MEETING PLACE: Bank tube station, Threadneedle Street, EC3V 3LA. 

ACTION

Affinity groups will come together to hold mass actions across the City of London, disrupting roads, public transport, and financial institutions. This includes the Bank of England which is the UK’s central bank and regulates the financial sector. The sector’s contribution to funding climate breakdown is driving us towards ecological collapse.

NO FOOD NO FUTURE

DAY: TUESDAY 15 OCTOBER

START TIME: 10am

ACTION

We will come together for a feast to celebrate life, discuss food security, and share food on Vauxhall Bridge. Affinity Groups will block the bridge with the people waiting nearby for the signal to join them on the road. 

For more on information on this action, click here. 

URBAN HARVEST

DAY: Wednesday 16 October 

START TIME: Find out more at your site info tent

ACTION

We will continue to highlight food insecurity on Wednesday. In particular, our overreliance on imported food, and inability to feed ourselves from the land we live on. Rebels will harvest street fruit trees around town while swarming extremely disruptive road blocks. This action will support all levels of Affinity Group, so everyone can find a place. 

NO SOCIAL MEDIA IN A DEAD SOCIETY 

DAY: Wednesday 16 October 

START TIME: 10am 

WHERE TO MEET: Meet outside Euston Square tube station

ACTION

The media is complicit in failing to tell the truth about Climate and Ecological collapse. This failure goes far beyond old print media. XR Youth are taking action against new media outlets for their role in spreading systematic disinformation on climate change and the ecological crisis, and in warping democracies around the world in favour of extractivist, climate-denialist regimes.

XR Youth will present their own voices and their hopes and fears for their future as an alternative to the life-destroying propaganda of fossil fuel interests.

Get involved by gluing onto the doors, ‘redecorating’ the facades of social media company HQs, swarming the surrounding roads, and by livestreaming or uploading videos and other content to the platforms being targeted.

THE PEOPLE’S SPEECH 

DAY: Friday 18 October 

START TIME: 12noon

WHERE TO MEET: Trafalgar Square 

ACTION
In the face of Ecological and Climate breakdown, the Government needs to start taking action as soon as the new session of Parliament starts. The Queen’s Speech, on 14th October, will set out the agenda for the coming parliamentary session. We will gather at Trafalgar Square and deliver The People’s Speech, based on the demands of the rebels on the streets.

This will be accompanied by disruptive, creative actions.

OIL AND GAS SUMMIT

DAY: THURSDAY 17 OCTOBER

TIME: 9am

WHERE: Andaz Liverpool Street Hotel, 40 Liverpool St, London, EC2M 7QN

Governments, Regulators, and Authorities will descend on London to promote oil & gas globally. Governments must Tell the Truth and Act Now, not continue to fund and support extraction of Oil and Gas and the burning of fossil fuels. Gas is not a green energy source. We will disrupt this. Affinity groups will disrupt other conferences during the Rebellion that threaten all our futures.

ARTS ACTIONS LISTINGS

Creative Actions are the result of de-centralised workshops run by rebels of all ages and backgrounds from around the UK. Groups have committed weeks of time, resources and love to bring their work to the Rebellion.

These pieces compliment the XR Art Group’s powerful and playful imagery, exploring elemental themes of the climate crisis to integrate with sites and actions.

On your journey through Rebellion you might encounter:

Wildfires, the XR Skeletons Rebellion grief march, Eel windsocks, a Marine ‘Loctopus’, Gideon Mendel’s Drowning World Shields, rubbish collecting XR Clowns, Sacrificial artworks, the XR Dead Canary Emissary, moving Forests, Gaming oligarchs and grand pianos in the street.

Over the last months, established artists worked closely with newcomers to the creative process, united in grief, love and rage. This shared passion has led to democratic and unconventional work. Rebels training in Non-Violent Direct Action and the deeper principles of regenerative culture have transformed what it means to collaborate creatively. They have devised new creative systems to shift narratives and challenge establishment hierarchies. This is part of our journey towards a more sustainable and resilient future. 

Creative Actions, Kat Brendell, said: “We do it in the road. We are the creators of street theatre, we are the guerrilla knitters and the community groups riding wheelbarrows. We work on a shoestring, live on the edge and move like a shoal.

We prove that you can engage people with the climate crisis using PVA glue and a bag of feathers…We create work to keep spirits up and to sound the alarm. To de-escalate and to break denial. We belong to a tradition that goes back for as long as people have been pissed off.”

‘Don’t panic, be organic’ – Doug Francisco (Red Rebel Brigade)

Kat Brendel xr.artactions@gmail.com

Some highlights:

Peter Kennard at XR Peace

Street installation

XR Illuminated – Marine Procession

Regenerative Grief Procession featuring marine creatures, XR Skeletons Rebellion and beautiful lanterns and jellyfish made by XR Families. This action aims to increase awareness of manufacturing industries’ devastating environmental impact, representing a serious threat to aquatic life and consequently the future of our planet. This action brings us together to collectively grieve what we have already lost, whilst simultaneously regaining a sense of empowerment and active hope through the process of creating, singing, processioning and gathering together in honour of these invaluable species.

Landing Crew

Wednesday 10th October

An action/performance by 50 people based on the role of an Airport Landing Operations staff: performers move in silence as a block and perform slowed down deliberate movements mimicking those of operational landing staff at an airport docking an aeroplane with fluorescent bats. 

Splitting the Bill

Grotesque Personifications of Industry eat the planet alive and try to leave future generations with the bill.

LUNGS

A hypnotic dance piece developed by XR Hackney & XR Families which uses human bodies to create a sense of the earth’s lungs choking on fumes, before being relieved by the touch of nature.

XR Dead Canary Emissary (XR Wales)

Approxiately thirty Dead Canary Costumes which can be worn by whoever turns up. Actionable or not depending whose wearing them. They will be accompanied by a heartbeat of a scratch samba band falling to the floor, one by one, as indicators of our toxic system and sounding the alarm.

XR Bones

A performance action using movement, puppetry and ritual to present, honour and move with animal bones, and our own ‘human animal’ bodies. Through this we hope to open a space for nature, grief, honouring, considering species extinction, and humanity’s place in these, whilst giving these bones and their spirits an opportunity to come alive, play, express and communicate. We will be using a white silk and the skulls, bones and antlers of deer, reindeer, sheep, goats, and some other animals/smaller bones. Costume will be earthy colours of green, tan, grey (to decide on a unifying colour/aesthetic this weekend, possibly a grassy green like the duller XR green colour).

Possibly face paint of white, black and hints colour of the costume, using shamanic bones practitioners as inspiration.

Music will be Gaelic/medicine drum, wooden flute and viola (or at least one depending on musician availability). There will be a 15-25 minute choreographed performance version. 

XR Rebel Clown school (XR Bristol)

A daily Rebel Clown training workshop followed by costumed play with the clowns around the themes of the Rebellion. Our costumes are hard hats and construction wear to go with the ‘We are all Crew’ site theme. Anyone is welcome to join. 

XR Play Piano for the Future (XR Future Is Now site)

We are hosting street piano at *The Future is Now* Extinction Rebellion site this October. It is open to anyone that wants to play! Any level of experience is welcome, from seasoned concert pianists to children & beginners. We’re hoping to have a programme with some fixed slots for more experienced performers, but we’ll also have it available for anyone to step up and play the rest of the time. Bring along whatever music you want – the more variety of styles the better, and ensembles/bands are very welcome too! 

The piano will be an upright one, and we’ll tune it at the start of the rebellion, but please bear in mind that since this will be outdoors (with gazebo in case of rain) we can’t promise that the piano will be in perfect condition from beginning to end. The piano will form part of a street barricade, thus serving to block the road of the rebellion site but it will also be on wheels so we can move it in case of emergencies. 

Site locations, key actions and events:

Trafalgar Square – XR London – Burning Earth

Focus: “Burning Earth” – an artistic representation of a dystopian apocalyptic world, with waters running red, burning of the Amazon forests, and extinct animals tell an emotional story of loss. Visitors are encouraged to bring offerings to the dead in the form of ‘letters to the earth’, flower wreaths and candles.

Actions and events will include: An opening ceremony with indigenous leaders of the tribe Txana Ikakuru, samba, and the presence of names such as Juliet Stevenson, Jack & Finn Harris, Jarvis Coker and George Monbiot amongst many others. Expect live music, panel discussions, pop-up cinema, family-friendly workshops, art installations including night time projections on Nelson’s Column, trainings, clothes printing, wellbeing sessions and games.  

Victoria Embankment – XR Peace – Peace Rebellion

Focus: Demand that resources identified for the military be used to address the climate emergency. Climate change causes war, and war causes climate change, with a huge contribution to global carbon emissions coming from military activity. 

Actions and events will include: A new work of art by graphic artist Peter Kennard, who created the iconic CND symbol; talks and panel discussions featuring longtime CND Secretary Bruce Kent, Stop the War chair Lindsay German, author Victoria Brittain and CND and International CND co-chair Dr Rebecca Johnson; speakers, workshops, choirs, musicians, comedians, and storytellers exploring the links between militarism and the climate crisis.

Monday 3:30pm: longtime Secretary of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, Bruce Kent, will speak on the twin threats to humanity and the planet, climate change and nuclear war.

Monday 2 – 3:30pm: Lindsey German, chair of Stop the War, Victoria Brittain, journalist and author of Hidden Lives, Hidden Deaths and Dr Rebecca Johnson, co-chair of CND and of the International Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, will take part in a panel discussion.

Twitter and Instagram: @XRPeaceUK, #xrpeace

Whitehall – XR South East England – Beyond Politics

Focus: “Beyond politics”. A protest demanding the creation of a Citizen’s Assembly whose decisions are binding. The climate and ecological crisis is too important and too urgent to be left to party politics. 

Westminster Bridge – XR London – The Beacon

Focus: Hope in the face of Adversity. Expressing our solidarity, connection and compassion towards the people and species on the edge of destruction. The Beacon will signify danger, but also hope and salvation in the face of adversity, raising the voices of those at risk or already victims of rising sea waters and extreme weather.

Events and actions will include: talks, actions, processions and art installations focused on the threat of rising seas, extreme weather and mass extinctions. 

A spokesperson from RAPAR (Refugee and Asylum Seeker Participatory Action Research), who will be present in London at Millbank, as a part of the Environmental Justice Bloc and at The Beacon, said: “We are in a climate emergency which demands urgent action. We are also in the midst of a refugee crisis. The two are inextricably linked.

“The Global North’s pattern of mass consumption, manufactured by Capitalism and the colonial mindset of exploitation and oppression, have created this moment of ecological collapse and rapid climate change. Ecocidal industries are heating our planet to an unlivable point and creating the conditions in which where hundreds of thousands of people are compelled to leave their homes for inhumane refugee camps and dehumanising asylum systems around the world.”

Events and actions will include: 

Monday 7th from 10am: Workshops on decolonisation and oppression 

Monday 7th 6pm: A talk from Tom Watson, Labour Party

Tuesday 8th 12pm: Outside Parliament

Reforesting Parliament. placing 1’000 trees

Evening performances from the likes of ABSOLUTE, Jaguar, Raised Voices choir, House Gospel choir, Big Dike Energy, Little Gay Brother. 

Wednesday 9th: Panel discussion on People, periods and planet by the Women’s Environmental Network

Follow XRTheBeacon social channels for further details.

Twitter: @XRTheBeacon

Instagram: @xrthebeacon

Facebook: XR The Beacon

Millbank Road, Victoria Gardens- XR North England – Rewilding North 

Focus: Highlight the transformative potential of rewilding by creating an oasis of nature in our polluted capital. Three main concept pieces will be created, each complete with their own structures and arts activities: The Beehive, The Forest and The Nest. In the list of solutions to the climate crisis, rewilding is amongst the easiest to achieve. 

Events and actions will include: talks by Clive Lewis, Natalie Bennett and authors Sam Lee and Jay Griffiths, die-ins, arts activities, performances, creative forms of storytelling, people’s assemblies, live music from local northern bands, workshops and a family friendly space.

Rewilding Carnival Parade – Wednesday 9th 2pm – This will be an artistic and musical celebration of the beauty of nature, with a march of people dressed as animals and large wearable puppet creatures. The march will go through multiple sites before finishing at the Rewilded North site.

Rewild Yourself On Oxford – Friday 11th – highlight the need not just to rewild our green spaces but ourselves in terms of reconnecting with nature, stepping away from our phones and consumerism. There will be die-ins, an animal fashion show showcasing outfits that have been made on site from recycled materials and waste throughout the week

Nest Building – ongoing – an ongoing creative action based around people dressed as birds will be creating a large nest structure out of waste and recycled materials 

Lambeth Bridge – XR SW England / XR Faith – Global Food Justice / Faith Bridge 

Focus 1: Food Justice. Highlighting the devastating impacts that our global food system is having on people and the planet. Featuring a major feast event, to which all are invited. 

Focus 2: Faith Bridge. Leaders of Faiths and their communities will gather to create a sacred complex of temporary structures, including a sacred garden, and an Ark

Events and activities will include: live music, performances, talks, trainings, art installations, wellbeing workshops, clothes printing, creative actions, dance, choirs. 

Speakers will include:

Monday 7th 1pm: George Monbiot

Monday 7th 5pm: Tamasin Cave 

Friday 11th 5pm: Rupert Read

Morning Tuesday 8th – XR SW will march to the Defra offices and carry out a blockade, evoking World War II themes of self-sufficiency, mend and make do and all pulling together – expect braces, flat caps, 1930’s feel to placards and lots of wheelbarrows of country produce. 

Faith Bridge will host daily services, calendar-specific events, personal reflections on Faith & Deep Adaptation, and one-off invocations and blessings.

Smithfield Market and Department of Environment, Food & Rural Affairs – Animal Rebellion – The Garden City

Focus: Promoting plant-based food systems. Animal Rebellion will occupy and transform Smithfield’s whole-sale meat market into a vibrant, symbolic, plant-based market. Environmental journalist George Monbiot will cut the ribbon to open the Smithfield Plant-Based Market, and the space will be filled with the kinds of foods that will make up our future food system. After sharing their vision at Smithfield, Animal Rebellion will take their message to the Garden City site opposite Defra to foster conversation on how we can transition society towards a plant-based food system.

Events and activities will include: 

Wednesday October 9th: A shutdown of Defra itself

Thursday October 10th: An event targeting Cargill Meat & Poultry 

Friday October 11th: A shutdown of Billingsgate Fish Market 

The Garden City will feature music, talks, workshops, performances, candle-lit vigils and community activities, and space to grieve for the planet and the animals whose bodies lay within Smithfield.

Home Office – XR Bristol / XR Wales / XR Rainbow Rebellion / XR Farmers – We Are All Crew 

Focus: We Are All Crew. People at the front line of climate change shut down the Department of Transport, the Home Office, one of the DEFRA buildings, and the Department for Communities and Local Government. XR Farmers will bring a pink tractor and pink wheelbarrows alongside the message that farmers are on the front lines of climate change.

Rainbow Rebellion, LGBTQIA+ rebels, will highlight that marginalised and minoritised communities will be hit first, and worst. The site will feature a main stage powered exclusively by sunlight, which will move and flow to meet different needs each day and to tell the story of the growing Extinction Rebellion community. 

Events and activities will include: performances by folk singer Sam Lee and MC Xander, the launch of XR fundraising track Love and Rage, a grief march followed by a wake and a banquet, talks, storytelling, interactive street performances, an arts factory, live bands and DJs.

7 October 2pm – Climate Emergency Question Time Q&A  – We Are All Crew site. where passing members of the public, civil servants on their lunch breaks, XR Rebels, and Theresa Villiers, the new Environment Secretary at DEFRA, whom we’ve invited, can put their questions to a panel of well-informed climate scientists and others, about what the hell is going on with the ice caps melting, while the Siberian tundra and Amazon burn.  Come and hear the unvarnished answers to the questions you never previously felt able to pose.

8 October 12:30pm – Sam Lee, a British folk singer and traditional musician, will perform on the main stage at the We Are All Crew site.

8 October 7pm – Love & Rage XR Fundraiser Launch – We Are All Crew site. Launch of XR Fundraising track with music & speech

9 October all afternoon – Architecture Education Declares talks – We Are All Crew site.  Architecture Education Declares will be curating an afternoon of talks around architecture and the climate crisis, how to educate the next generation of architects in a climate crisis

9 October 9pm – MC Xander, who has gained global recognition for his mix of beatbox, politico-spiritual songwriting and mesmerising live looping will perform on the main stage at the We Are All Crew site. 

12 October – A Wake for All Life – We Are All Crew site. Following the grief march on Saturday afternoon, the site will be rearranged to form a banquet table, where everyone will come together in a wake. Together, rebels of all backgrounds will reflect, eat, dance and sing, sharing in sorrow and celebration for all life on earth.

Alexa, farmer, Bridport, Dorset, said: “As a woman coming late to farming and knowing next to nothing, I found myself instinctively wanting to work with nature and reduce impacts. The land itself seemed to hold the answers, and delivered lesson after lesson in the wisdom of sustainable methods. How exhilarating it is feel the strength of Extinction Rebellion reflecting the things I and millions of others have learned about nature through farming. 

Paul, farmer, Bude, Cornwall: “That’s why we need to stand together to make agriculture work for the planet, not against it. There’s so much more to be done! Change must come and it’s crucial that farmers are part of it.

“I have done quite a lot in the past 15 years in an attempt to reverse climate change – but it turns out that none of it has made any significant difference. That is why I joined Extinction Rebellion as soon as I heard about it and learned of its methods and principles.

“That’s why Extinction Rebellion is so important and almost certainly our last chance to preserve human civilisation for future generations,”

Department of Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy – XR Scotland / NE England / Cumbria – Power in Truth

Focus: Power in Truth. Rebels will tell the truth about the fossil fuels that power all our lives, while reflecting on their industry areas’ past and present links with the fossil fuel industry, through coal mining, fracking and North Sea oil and gas. 

Events and activities will include: a 10 hour reading of the ‘highlights’ of the 2018 IPCC Special Report on 1.5 Degrees Warming (which was read in full over 50 hours at the Edinburgh Fringe 2019 ‘1.5 Degrees, Live!’), ceilidhs most nights, testimonies from former North Sea offshore oil workers, people’s assemblies on the fossil fuel industry, ‘Adopt A Tree’ actions where members of the public will be given tree seed packages to plant, ‘Support Big Oil’ action where maligned ‘oil execs’ will ask the public for their help, actions around BEIS targeting the Oil and Gas Authority housed within, bands, music, workshops and trainings. 

Dr Anna Fisk from Glasgow Said, “Never forget that it is the people of the Global South and Indigenous North who are suffering first and suffering most from a crisis they’ve played the least part in causing. We tell this truth to power, and act in solidarity with those on the frontline of the global catastrophe.”

Teresa Hart from Edinburgh said, “My daughter Blythe wrote the XR anthem ‘Emergency’ and is the founder of Birth Strike. She is too frightened to bring a baby into this world unless massive changes to halt extinction come about. I am overwhelmed with sadness each time I face this fact: that I may never hold a child by my daughter. It breaks my heart.”

Patricia Mayborne, a health worker who is heading to London from Galloway, said, “This is not just a protest – it is a rebellion against mindlessly sliding into oblivion.”

Neil Rothnie, a former North Sea oil worker from Glasgow, added, “The 2019 report from the UK Oil and Gas Authority makes clear their intention to support the industry to pipe ashore up to 20 billion barrels of oil over the coming years. [1] If we allow this to happen, uncontrollable global warming and catastrophic climate change is inevitable.”

Horse Guards Road – XR East England & Midlands – Love Rebellion

Focus: Transforming St James Park into the Love Rebellion. The site will bloom with art, music and poetry acting as a model of XR’s ‘Regenerative Culture’: a way of living that is more connected with other humans and the environment, standing in intentional contrast with the divisiveness and vitriol plaguing British politics. 

Events and activities will include: a mass meditation; a protest outside HM Treasury; 

Women from this site will travel to Millbank to transform the monument commemorating the women of World War Two into a living memorial of the women and other communities to be disproportionately impacted by World War Three: the war on life. 

Jamie Osborn, 25, from Norwich, said: “I have seen how business as usual is destroying our planet and the lives of future generations. I want to see a different world where I can live without the threat of famine and flooding, but vested interests in Government and the fossil fuel industry won’t change easily. That is why I feel the only option now is to join the protests in London, and for everybody to come together and start to make the world we want to live in.”

Love Rebellion will be a space where we can overcome our isolation, hopelessness and animosity; to empower each other through compassion, courage and care. Because only through love can we bring about the rapid changes needed to avert climate and ecological catastrophe. Only through love can we live a legacy worth leaving to our children.  The site will echo XR’s radically inclusive ethos to create an inspirational and empowering space from which we will urge our leaders, in love, to act now: for the sake of life.”

The Mall – XR Families & London – The Future is Here 

Focus: We already have the knowledge. This site will showcase and explore the positive choices, innovations and community connections we can make to create a different way of living and being together. Renewable energy, circular economies, permaculture – the solutions exist, waiting to be applied at scale. 

Actions and events will include: Talks by George Monbiot, Charlie Gardiner, Flight Free UK, Olio, Mark Rylance, Tiffany Francis Baker, performances by XR Kids Band, Worldwide Welshman, and DJ Mark Lev, comedy by Nish Kumar and Laura Lexx, circus cabaret, electronic music, disco, dance actions and people’s assemblies.

Victoria Tower Gardens – Global Justice Rebellion – Demand Climate Justice For All!

Focus: International Impact. Highlight and honour the communities in other parts of the world who have been struggling against and resisting climate injustice for many years. 

The role of deep global inequality, current and historical power dynamics, capitalism and colonialism will be remembered as we build a politics of solidarity and systemic change. 

A space of cultural resistance, representing organisations across the world, sharing the long history of internationalist solidarity.

Events and activities will include: art and talks on the history of the struggle of black people against colonialism, genocide and ecocide and a day each dedicated to: the lives of activists murdered in the Global South, migrant justice, World Mental Health Day, Day of the Girl Child, and Indigenous People’s Day.

Notes to Editors:

1. https://www.ogauthority.co.uk/news-publications/publications/2019/uk-oil-and-gas-reserves-and-resources-report-as-at-end-2018/

About Extinction Rebellion:

Time has almost entirely run out to address the ecological crisis which is upon us, including the 6th mass species extinction, global pollution, and abrupt, runaway climate change. Societal collapse and mass death are seen as inevitable by scientists and other credible voices, with human extinction also a possibility, if rapid action is not taken.

Extinction Rebellion believes it is a citizen’s duty to rebel, using peaceful civil disobedience, when faced with criminal inactivity by their Government.

Extinction Rebellion’s key demands are:

1. Government must tell the truth by declaring a climate and ecological emergency, working with other institutions to communicate the urgency for change.
2. Government must act now to halt biodiversity loss and reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2025.
3. Government must create and be led by the decisions of a Citizens’ Assembly on climate and ecological justice.

Extinction Rebellion International Rebellion 

Activists will be taking to the streets in over 60 countries from 7^th October 2019 to demand governments tell the truth and act urgently on Climate change.  Many ordinary people from all walks of life will join the cause. This follows record numbers on the streets across the world  the Strike for Climate last week.

What Emergency? | Extinction Rebellion in Numbers |This Is Not A Drill: An Extinction Rebellion Handbook

Get involved:

• In the UK, come to one of our events, join the Rebellion Network and let us know how you can help out.
• Start a group where you are: in the UK or around the world.
• Find your local group.
• Check out the International XR website, with links to the French, German, Italian and UK websites.
• And while your time and energy are of most importance, if you are financially able to donate money, see our crowdfunder.

About Rising Up!

Extinction Rebellion is an initiative of the Rising Up! network, which promotes a fundamental change of our political and economic system to one which maximises well-being and minimises harm. Change needs to be nurtured in a culture of reverence, gratitude and inclusion while the tools of civil disobedience and direct action are used to express our collective power.

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