Letzte Generation Austria stages a messy sit in at Vienna Airport for Oil Kills.
This issue: XR Vaal vs Coal Mines | France’s Water War part II | Oil Kills
Dear rebel,
Renown climate scientist Johan Rockström has given an updated assessment of our planet, and his verdict is terrifying. The Earth is heating quicker than scientists expected, the planetary systems that absorb heat are already showing signs of overwhelm, and irreversible cataclysmic tipping points are on our doorstep.
Rockström ends on a note of positivity (this is a TED talk) by affirming that the majority of citizens across the world care about the planet and want solutions to this crisis, and those solutions are available - we just have to use them.
Except we don’t. We trundle on towards the abyss, seemingly uninterested in cheaper green energy and circular economies. While Rockström doesn’t mention this paradox, let alone explain it, he does show the reason for it on a slide…
Rockström shows this slide but doesn’t discuss it. We’re top of the list. Photo: TED
To avert disaster, we need to see the fastest economic transition in history. But capitalism has created vast inequality, meaning too much power is in the hands of a small elite that would rather sustain their privileges under the current economy than sustain life under a new one.
So instead of political progress we get COP, instead of technological disruption we get carbon capture and AI, and instead of market forces we get fossil fuel subsidies of more than $7tn globally.
Which just leaves us, mass movements. We are the one remaining driver of economic transition that this elite hasn’t extinguished - though they are certainly trying, as the recent 5-year imprisonment of an XR co-founder demonstrates.
French police fire so many tear gas grenades at peaceful protesters, they set fire to fields… again.
In this issue, we show how activists are pushing against the ecocidal confines of capitalism. In Action Highlights we report on the South African rebels who are refusing to have more dirty coal mines on their doorstep, despite the promise of new jobs, and we investigate how an alliance of activists in France are using genius tactics to disrupt the privatisation of their water.
For Solidarity Corner we celebrate Oil Kills, an exciting new global collective that includes XR groups, and has disrupted airports around the world in an effort to get governments to sign a fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty.
Shortly after Rockström’s speech, Roger Hallam, the imprisoned co-founder of XR, made a statement over a prison phoneline. In it, he framed his activism as not being against climate change, but against “the biggest death project in human history”.
That death project has already begun, and it is about to get much worse, much quicker than we thought. Capitalism is its engine, and we must resist it in every way we can. Hundreds of millions of lives are in the balance.
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Contents
- Action Highlights: XR Vaal vs Coal Mines, France’s Water War part 2
- Action Round Up: Netherlands, Serbia, Ecuador, USA, Italy, Australia, Ireland, UK, Austria, Cameroon, Bolivia, Nigeria, DRC, Argentina
- Solidarity Corner: Oil Kills
- Announcements: GS Fundraiser: XR Batwa Uganda, Translators Wanted!
Action Highlights
Rebels Won’t Rest In Peace Over Coal Mines
12 JULY | Johannesburg, South Africa
Rebels mourn for their land outside the coal company planning to pollute it. Photo: Alex Patrick/News 24
XR Vaal and other local activists held a funeral for their land, air, and water outside Canyon Coal, a company planning two new open-cast coal mines in their already heavily-polluted region.
When security forced the rebels to move away from the company entrance and instead gather in a cul-de-sac at the back, the protesters took the opportunity to form a sombre procession through the streets of Johannesburg, drawing many more onlookers and enraging Canyon executives.
A startled chief executive still came out to receive a list of demands about the proposed coal mines, which were sourced from the many residents of the Vaal Triangle whose lives will be severely disrupted by the project. Some will live within 200m of the mines.
Rebel demands are handed to a Canyon Coal executive. Photo: Julia Evans/Daily Maverick
Rebel demands included more stringent environmental and health protections for those living and working nearby, a long-term waste management plan, and greater transparency from a company that has not properly consulted local residents.
The mines will use precious groundwater to wash 1.7 trillion tonnes of coal per day, depleting and potentially poisoning the region’s drinking water, and destroying receding wetlands. Nearby buildings, which include schools, risk structural damage from blasting, and Vaal’s air, already some of the most polluted in South Africa, can only get worse.
Many locals suffer respiratory diseases after decades of intensive fossil fuel spewing industry in the area. Canyon Coal are promising the mines will provide local jobs, but they will not outnumber those lost once farms and other businesses are forced to relocate.
Locals have organised against the mines since their proposal in 2019. If green lit, they will extract coal for approximately 30 years. Photo: Alex Patrick/News 24
Residents throughout the region are unified in opposing Canyon Coal’s plans, which have been submitted to the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy for final clearance. XR Vaal are reaching out to other local groups, and planning a visit to the ministry in Pretoria.
Rebels wrote a letter to the minister involved back in 2022 when local children were being injured and even killed falling into disused open mining shafts. That letter was ignored, but this time, the rebels will be making their demands in person.
Follow XR Vaal’s campaign on Facebook.
Duck Weed Deployed!
16–21 JULY | Melle, Saint-Sauvant, La Rochelle, France
A kite carrying duckweed flies off to clog a commercial water reservoir.
In alliance with XR and other activist movements, Les Soulèvements de la terre (‘Earth Uprisings’) organised six days of action to protest huge state-funded water reservoirs being constructed by agribusinesses in France.
The French interior minister tried yet failed to dissolve the collective after similar protests in 2023, but the expansion of these massive privatised water stores has continued, so the disruption has too.
The vast plastic-lined reservoirs (‘mégabassines’) hoard water in a wasteful and ecologically harmful way, but ensure that big agricultural corporations have year-round irrigation, at the expense of small-scale farmers and local communities. This is becoming an ever more urgent problem in France as climate breakdown generates higher temperatures, and more frequent and intense droughts.
An assembly in the Water Village on the second day of the campaign.
The new wave of resistance had a Water Village as their base. Constructed in a field in western France, the encampment provided everything from free catering and childcare, to music and discussion spaces. The inhabitants met up with thousands more activists from across the country to stage protests in several nearby locations.
For the first action, around 10,000 activists marched to a commercial reservoir owned by a major agriculture company. Hundreds of police descended on the site, firing so many tear gas grenades that a wheat field caught fire. Despite the chaos, a group of activists on bicycles, led by Naturalistes des terres, still managed to deploy butterfly-shaped kites to drop duckweed into the water – a fast-growing plant that can easily invade and block water pipes and pumping systems.
The protest shifted from reservoirs to a port at La Rochelle, the site of another damaging practice of agribusiness: exporting grain for animal feed, which causes ecological and social harm on multiple levels. Farmers driving tractors, and thousands of activists on foot, bike and boat, arrived at dawn to blockade the port. Les Soulèvements de la terre are emphatic that farmers, who have far more in common with citizens than with corporate agribusiness, are not the enemy.
Farmers, rebels and other activists march to La Rochelle to blockade the port.
Throughout the campaign, the police were a large and aggressive presence. They ID’d activists both on their way to the Water Village and within it, and beat marchers with batons in the port, leaving many with severe injuries, though not as many as in the previous campaign in 2023.
Stopping the expansion of these reservoirs – and diminishing the dominance of massive commercial agriculture – is a hard fight that is only getting harder as the far right rise in France. A recent arson attack on a ZAD protest site saw an activist held at knife point as their car was set on fire. But this activist alliance is not backing down. They will now mount legal challenges, alongside direct actions.
Find out more about XR France and Les Soulèvements de la terre
Action Round Up
6 JULY | The Hague, Netherlands & Belgrade, Serbia: XR Netherlands resumes its glorious blockade of the A12 motorway, demanding an end to fossil fuel subsidies. Police immediately used water cannon to disperse the protesters, which included medics, scientists, an orchestra and Greta Thunberg, but they stayed put. So police arrested them and drove them away in buses. XR Serbia protested outside the Dutch embassy in Belgrade in solidarity with their rebel comrades.
7 JULY | Quito, Ecuador: Victory! A court rules that pollution violates the rights of a river that runs through Quito. The Machángara River is dead after 100 years of abuse, but thanks to local ecoactivists, and a clause in the Ecuadorian constitution which affords rights to natural features, the court has ruled that the government must now clean it up. The government is appealing.
8 JULY | New York City, USA: The Lamentors silently shuffle from California to New York City to take part in the “Summer of Heat on Wall Street” campaign - an ongoing protest at the HQ of Citibank, the world’s largest funder of fossil fuels since the Paris Agreement. The rebel mourners were arrested for blockading the bank, but still returned days later to stare at its staff as they arrived for work. Around 4,000 activists have taken part in the peaceful blockades since they started in early June, and at least 475 have been arrested, many on ridiculous grounds, like the musician who faces 7 years in jail for playing the cello. Bank security have assaulted protesters, while executives have called for them to be machine-gunned. Photo: Ken Schles
9 JULY | Bologna, Italy: Rebels occupy Bologna’s city hall on the first day of a G7 Science and Technology meeting, chaining themselves across its entrance and dropping a banner from its roof. Police shoved activists, smashed their phones, and held 20 in police custody for 7 hours without food or water. One female rebel was subjected to a full and completely unwarranted strip search.
9 JULY | Newcastle, Australia: Blockade Australia finish the longest ever consecutive blockade of the world's biggest coal port. The 30 activists who occupied coal trains and suspended themselves over rail tracks across 15 days are now receiving significant fines and months of prison time. You can hear from two of them about why they took part in this podcast episode.
11 JULY | Dublin, Ireland: While thousands prepared to run through the city, XR Ireland held a rally to denounce J.P. Morgan, the sponsor of the Docklands 5k race, for its colossal and continuous financing of fossil fuels since the Paris Agreement. Thanks to the bank's dirty investments, the race route will be underwater within the lifetime of its runners.
18 JULY | London, UK: A judge passes the UK’s longest sentences in living memory on five Just Stop Oil activists for planning to peacefully disrupt a motorway. One activist, a co-founder of XR, was sentenced to 5 years imprisonment, the others 4 years. None were allowed to mention climate change in their defence, and when all but one did so anyway, they were re-arrested and imprisoned. The UN Special Rapporteur on Environmental Defenders called it a very dark day for human rights. Weeks later, 5 more Just Stop Oil activists were imprisoned, meaning 26 people are currently imprisoned in the UK for non-violent climate protest.
29 & 30 JULY | Linz, Austria: Rebels and members of Last Generation blockade a major road through Linz in multiple locations on two consecutive days to protest the construction of the A26 motorway. Activists used banners, chains, tripods and armlocks to disrupt rush-hour traffic, reminding drivers that more roads create more traffic. Four rebels were arrested, with one was taken into custody. Austria has not reduced its greenhouse gas emissions since 1990, yet fossil fuel mega-projects continue to get state backing.
2 AUGUST | Limbe, Cameroon: XR Cameroon mobilises in the coastal city of Limbe to raise awareness about the immense damage fossil fuels and plastic waste inflict on human and marine life. Rebels visited local petrol stations and launched a thorough beach clean-up, sorting the vast amount of plastic waste for recycling.
6 AUGUST | La Paz, Bolivia: Rebels stage a funeral march for Bolivian wildlife, wearing animal masks and holding up coffins. The Amazonian country has been ravaged by record forest fires, with the regions of Santa Cruz and Beni most devastated. Forest fires are not natural tragedies in Bolivia, but a tool of agribusiness and cattle ranchers to clear forest land for profit, often with the blessings of the state. XR Bolivia demanded justice for the Amazon, and a proper fire prevention plan from their government.
8 AUGUST | Port Harcourt, Nigeria: Scientist Rebellion Nigeria take to the street of Port Harcourt, a city in the oil rich Niger Delta, to demand that the government, banks and insurance companies stop investing in fossil fuels. The 30 activists called for more biodiversity and fewer oil and gas billionaires.
11 AUGUST | North Kivu, DRC: Despite continuing violence in the region by a Rwanda & Uganda backed militia, XR Rutshuru bravely continue their campaign to educate locals about the looming threat of oil and gas extraction, both to their livelihoods and the nearby Virunga National Park.
14 AUGUST | Wanda, Argentina: XR Misiones visit the Ministry of Ecology to condemn Arauco, a forestry company that’s planted vast pine forests in the region and colluded with the state to violently evict indigenous families from their land. The rebels were accompanied by an indigenous family - one of two to have their homes and crops bulldozed and burnt to the ground by state police and Arauco staff. Family members were beaten and tortured, while their livestock were killed or stolen. XR Misiones have launched a media campaign to demand justice for the families and an end to Arauco’s violent monoculture business. Their alien pine forests grow fast but drain groundwater, kill biodiversity and leave locals with respiratory diseases from the pollen.
Solidarity Corner: Oil Kills
24 JULY - ONGOING | Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Uganda, UK, USA
Oil Kills actions in Spain, USA, and two in Canada (bottom). The tactics vary, but the central demand, and non-violent ethos, remains constant around the world.
A new international coalition of activist groups, including XR Boston, XR Sweden, XR Finland, XR Netherlands, and Scientist Rebellion groups are disrupting airports to make one demand - the adoption of a treaty to end fossil fuels by 2030.
Under the banner Oil Kills, small groups of activists have occupied airport departure lounges, plane cabins, terminals, and roads across three continents – and they aren’t done yet. Here’s the numbers so far: 500 people, 31 airports, 22 groups, 144 arrests, 22 people in prison – all in support of their one demand.
The new coalition formed when members of XR, the A22 Network, and Stay Grounded began reaching out to other groups globally. What resulted was an alliance of civil resistance groups focused on the sustained disruption of airports – a key pillar of the fossil fuel economy.
All participants are committed to non-violence and the key demand – but from there individual creativity and context has led to an array of tactics: from airport glue-ins, to plane occupations, to spray-painting terminals, to street marches.
Police arrest an activist who reached the Ugandan Parliament. Photo: Busein Samilu
After the initial whirlwind of actions in July, with 37 arrests over the first two days alone, disruptions continued steadily across three continents, with especially relentless activity in Germany.
On August 9th, Students Against EACOP Uganda joined the Oil Kills campaign, planning a peaceful march to the parliament in Kampala and the delivery of a petition demanding an end to the East African Crude Oil Pipeline, and for their government to sign the treaty to end fossil fuels.
But the police mounted roadblocks to stop the march from starting, and arrested 45 student activists and three bus drivers on arrival. Two remaining students regrouped and managed to reach the parliament building before being violently arrested.
More Oil Kills actions in (Clockwise from top left) Switzerland, UK, Austria and Spain.
“The resilience under extreme repression shown by Students Against EACOP is an inspiration and metaphor for the Oil Kills movement,” said a coalition member. “We refuse to die.”
Oil Kills welcomes large and small groups to join their coalition. As a rebel with XR Boston explained, “there have been actions where small groups or even lone activists have held up an Oil Kills banner and received media coverage and support because they are part of a global campaign which can’t be ignored. You can make a big impact. We urge more local groups to get involved.”
Learn more about Oil Kills and use this Solidarity Toolkit to spread their message.
Announcements
XR Global Support Fundraiser: XR Batwa, Uganda.
Donate Now
Survivors tell how rock-filled floodwater from nearby mountains washed away their house.
XR Batwa is supporting women and children in Uganda suffering from climate change induced earthquakes, crop failures, and mudslides.
Everything has been swept away
Heavy rains are causing major disruption to the impoverished Bundibugyo district. Roads and bridges are too damaged to use, causing food shortages and cutting off medical care and schools. Hundreds of families, mainly women and children, have lost everything to mud slides. Mattresses, pots, school books: everything has been swept away by the mud.
Rebels are helping every way they can
XR Batwa is supporting the affected women and children, providing first aid, distributing food, helping with shelter, collecting supplies and school books and, together with local leaders, building a warning system to help locals prepare for extreme weather. Rebels are doing everything they can, but they need your help!
Your help is essential
Your contributions will give affected families a chance to resume normal life. These vulnerable women and children contribute so little to climate change, but suffer so greatly from its consequences! And they are just one of so many communities unfairly bearing the brunt of this crisis. That is why your support is essential.
Why not support XR Global Support with a monthly contribution, and ensure rebel groups have deep roots all over the world? However you help us, thank you!
XR Global Support: Translators Needed
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They are specifically looking for volunteers who can translate English text into the following languages: Hindi, Italian, German, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Polish.
To apply, please fill in this short onboarding form and hit the submit button.
Goodbye!
An indigenous acitvist and Red Rebel join hands outside COP26 in Scotland.
The XR Global Newsletter will be taking a short break and return under new management. Tell them how you would like to see the newsletter evolve by emailing xr-newsletter@protonmail.com
A big thank you to all the rebels who told us their stories, and all the readers who heard them.
This newsletter is brought to you by XR Global Support, a worldwide network of rebels who help our movement grow. We need money for this crucial work.
