U.K. climate group calls temporary halt to disruptive protests

The UK division of climate change protest group Extinction Rebellion said its members planned to stage massive roadblocks, attach themselves to buildings and engage in other acts of civil disobedience because the methods had not had the desired effect.

“As we ring in the new year, we are making a controversial resolution to temporarily distance ourselves from public nuisance as our primary tactic,” the group said in a New Year’s website post.

“We recognize and celebrate the power of disruption to raise the alarm and believe that evolving tactics is a necessary approach.”

To achieve its goal of getting politicians, companies and the public to “end the fossil fuel era,” the group says it will focus on increasing support through actions such as asking 100,000 people to surround the Houses of Parliament in London on April 21. .

“At a time when speech and action are criminalized, building collective power, strengthening numbers and growing through bridge building is a radical act,” the post said.

“This year, we prioritize the arrival of arrests and relationships through roadblocks, because we stand together and become impossible to ignore.”

The British government destroyed it

In response to protests by Extinction Rebellion and other direct action groups, Britain’s Conservative government last year strengthened police powers to shut down disruptive protests and increased penalties for blocking roads, which can now carry prison sentences.

Even tougher moves have been rejected by Parliament, but the government plans to try again to pass legislation that would make it a criminal offense to disrupt infrastructure.

Civil liberties groups denounced the move as a restriction on free speech and the right to protest.

Roadblocks and occupations used in the past

In the four years since Extinction Rebellion was formed, the group has drawn praise and criticism with climate demonstrations designed to disrupt and often lead to mass arrests while successfully disrupting road and port traffic.

In April, British police said six people were arrested after activists boarded an oil tanker and blocked four London bridges to protest investment in fossil fuels. Extinction Rebellion said at the time that two former British Olympic athletes, gold medalist canoeist Etienne Stott and sailor Laura Baldwin, were among the protesters.

In a post Sunday titled “We Quit,” the British branch of Extinction Rebellion said the group helped drive a “seismic shift” in the climate conversation, “little has changed. Emissions continue to rise and our planet is dying. fast.”

The group says the confluence of multiple crises is the right time to try new approaches.

In an announcement about the April protest, it said: “Surrounding the Houses of Parliament every day in large numbers means we can leave the locks, glue and paint behind.”