2024: Now we step it up
January 01, 2024 by Extinction Rebellion
As we enter 2024, Extinction Rebellion UK is sending a clear message.
The Government, Corporations and Big Oil have not made the necessary and urgent changes needed for a fair and just transition to secure a liveable planet for all. So we will be escalating actions and tactics throughout the course of the year.
YOUR TIME IS UP!
In 2023 we saw more record-breaking extreme weather events than ever before. Twenty-one species identified as extinct in the US alone, with many more unidentified all over the world lost to us forever . Our first day of 2C global heating.
And yet our government has invited in more oil and gas, and weakened its net zero targets. They have been criticised by their own independent advisors, as well as the National Audit Office and a cross-party group of MPs. But the government thinks the truth is optional and dissent is criminal, pushing through tougher policing laws that the UN calls ‘troubling’.
What we did in 2023
There have been immense acts of resistance and hope across the world.
In 2023, XRUK set out a goal of disrupting power, not the public.
We kept that promise. In April, 100,000 people came out for The Big One, supported by the biggest coalition of environmental organisations ever assembled. This act of peaceful protest, with family friendly tents and a joyful spirit, gave people who weren’t ready for civil disobedience a chance to show their compassion, anger and power.
We targeted the industries that are harming us.
We helped to shut down the Oil and Money conference, brought to a halt the Farnborough airfield and Luton Airport private jet terminal, disrupted arms fairs and blocked the UK’s largest open cast coal mine, Ffos-y-Fran, ultimately getting it shut down for good.
Blocking the entrance to the Ffos-y-Fran coal mine in Wales, July 2023. Photo: M. Pell.
Our actions were targeted, creative and everywhere.
In the second half of the year alone, rebels took nearly 1,000 actions across the country. We protested outside banks and insurers, particularly Barclays, Europe’s megafunder of fossil fuels, and disrupted AGMs joyfully with song and theatre.
We called out the epic amounts of raw sewage being pumped into our rivers and seas, with family friendly acts of resistance. We saw thousands of people ‘Paint The Streets’ to make XR visible across the UK.
Protests about the dumping of raw sewage into our rivers have been happening all over the UK, with XR local groups collaborating with other NGOs and activist groups. One such protest took place in Hastings! Photo: Cathy Teesdale.
Decide together
Letting the people decide is a central part of XR – which is why we established over 20 community assemblies this year. Each assembly forms part of a bigger plan to escalate informed, joint decision making all the way up to Westminster. More about this in the coming weeks!
The community assembly that took place in Haringey in November 2023 is one of over 20 community assemblies already happening all over the UK. Local groups work together with communities, other NGOs, associations and local councils to come to fair solutions for the community on issues that matter to them. Photo: Tim Varlow.
Decentralised
And we did all this through the power of an autonomous UK-wide movement with more than 200 local groups, community groups and campaigns.
When our rebels break the law in defence of life, we support them.
We are glad to have had many wins in the courts this year. We are grateful to those who have put their liberty at risk in service of a fair, just, and liveable world.
What we achieve, we achieve because we unite to survive.
We worked with hundreds of other movements, organisations and communities, stood in solidarity with others, were supported by over 100 leading public figures, and put the climate crisis in the news.
But our political system is failing us.
Our government has failed to make the urgent changes required for a liveable world, despite the urgency and scale of the climate and ecological crisis.
There is one answer to the situation we are in, an antidote to the lies and misinformation – we demand a Citizens’ Assembly on Climate and Ecological Justice. Because when you can’t trust those in power, the people are the answer!
So now what?
Now we step it up. We mobilise.
Each week in January, we will be sending you a specific route to activism. Turn your rage into resistance.
With truth, we will make a stand, a bold and rebellious stand, for all life on earth.
REBEL FOR TRUTH!
Sources
- Sky News, Hottest 12 months in 125,000 years – how extreme weather broke more records in 2023, 29 December 2023
- The Guardian, ‘Grief is a rational response’: the 21 US species declared extinct this year, 29 December 2023
- Independent, Earth crosses 2C warning line for first time, 20 November 2023
- BBC News, Could Rishi Sunak’s green review threaten UK net zero?, 20 September 2023
- Reuters, UN rights chief urges UK to reverse ‘troubling’ Public Order Bill, 27 April 2023