By Ben Kerrigan-
Extinction Rebellion (XR) activists have gathered in Trafalgar Square this morning to kick off an ‘endless protest’.
XR has planned an initial two-week demonstration of mass civil disobedience, calling for urgent government action on climate change.
The group said it will hold sites until the government agree to its new demand to immediately halt all public investment in fossil fuels.
Eight XR activists were arrested last night as they scaled the portico of the Guildhall, the centre of City government on Gresham Street, ahead of the protests to drop a banner that read ‘Co-Liberation / Freedom Together’.
The so-called ‘Impossible Rebellion’ precedes major climate talks at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow this Autumn.
XR said it will hold the sites until the government agree to its new demands to “stop all new fossil fuel investment immediately, supporting a just transition.”
XR argue the world’s richest countries are ‘not building back better’, and have collectively ‘spent $40 billion more on fossil fuels than clean energy since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic’.
The group – made up of three separate Samba bands – had met in St James’ Park, just behind Downing Street, an hour beforehand under the watchful gaze of the police.
They were given an escort to Trafalgar Square, holding up traffic for ten minutes and prompting irritated motorists to honk their car horns in frustration.
Two Metropolitan Police helicopters hovered overhead monitoring the crowd below.
After an hour in the square – where some of the 1,000 gathered listened to speeches on climate change -they began to march once more and again block the road.
Some had banners which read ‘Code Red for Humanity’ and ‘Rebel for Life’ while many others waved colourful flags bearing the XR hourglass symbol.
Standstill traffic can be seen queuing behind the giant table, painted in XR’s signature bright pink, which activists have stationed at Long Acre junction.
A painted message on the structure reads ‘Come To The Table’, as the group want to encourage members of the public to ‘sit down to discuss the climate crisis’.
Image: Neil Edwards