Around 6,000 activists mobilised to blockade five major bridges across London on Saturday as part of Rebellion Day, a civil disobedience event organised by campaign group Extinction Rebellion.
Southwark, Blackfriars, Waterloo, Westminster and Lambeth bridges were occupied by Rebellion Day protesters, some of whom locked themselves together; others linked arms and sang songs. In the afternoon the demonstration moved to Parliament Square, where protesters planted three trees. 82 protesters were arrested, the majority for obstruction under the Highways Act; they have all now been released. Extinction Rebellion claims police put signal blockers in place during the protest to prevent live streaming.
Green Party peer Jenny Jones, who attended the Rebellion Day protest, told the Guardian: “We are at the point where if we don’t start acting and acting fast, we are just going to wipe out our life support system. It’s fine to think we are a rich country – the sixth biggest economy in the world – but actually we won’t do any better than anywhere else, because climate change will massively affect us too. Basically, conventional politics has failed us – it’s even failed me and I’m part of the system – so people have no other choice.”
Rebellion Day, one of the largest acts of peaceful civil disobedience in the UK in several decades, is the latest in a series of direct action events orchestrated by Extinction Rebellion. The group intends to continue its campaign on later this week with a “swarm” of roadblocks in Parliament square, beginning on Wednesday.
Extinction Rebellion is calling on the government to reduce the UK’s carbon emissions to zero by 2025 and create a “citizens’ assembly” to form an emergency plan of action to combat climate change. The group advocates non-violent protest and civil disruption, as demonstrated at Rebellion Day, to draw attention to its cause; and is running a series of workshops across the country to train civilians in peaceful direct action tactics.
