Protests in London have seen 122 arrests and closed 55 bus routes
IN FRONT OF a bright pink sailing boat emblazoned with the words “tell the truth”, an elderly man in red trousers is telling his. He urges the crowd assembled in the centre of Oxford Circus to use their anger about climate change, but not to allow it to put off others. “If we’re abusive to people that’s not helpful,” he warns, before proceeding to invoke Martin Luther King and Gandhi. He then loses his train of thought.
The climate protests, which began on April 15th in 80 cities across 33 countries, may look familiar, but they have a steely core. Extinction Rebellion, the group organising them, was set up in October last year after 94 academics wrote to the Guardian newspaper, calling for action.
The attention this generates can be converted into more activists. Loz, a teacher taking advantage of the Easter holiday to hand out leaflets, says this is her first environmental protest. She was inspired by an Extinction Rebellion event in Bristol, where she now attends weekly meetings. In a tent next to the pink boat, earnest young men explain to passers-by how rigorous academic study of protests has shown that, to bring about change, at least 3.5% of the population must be mobilised.
Extinction Rebellion presents climate change as a moral, not political, cause but tries to avoid being too preachy. As one flag states, “We live in a toxic system but no one individual is to blame.” There are now around 150 chapters in Britain, from Penwith in Cornwall to Inverness in Scotland. Peaches, an artist and psychotherapy assistant, says the protests “are the first thing that spoke to me that it could make the impact we need.” Other green movements have failed, she adds.
Some on the left are turned off by the tactic of using arrests to generate publicity, believing it will alienate those who can’t afford to be jailed. Others point out that lots of anti-fracking protesters were locked up without drawing much public sympathy. Still, there are plenty of volunteers in London. By noon on the second day, 209 people had been arrested in the capital. Organisers will be hoping that translates to lots more activists for the next round of protests.
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