Welcome to Newsletter XTRA, where everything we couldn’t fit into the main Global Newsletter has its moment to shine. This month we cover actions in Austria, Australia, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Guyana, Netherlands, Norway, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, UK, USA, and Zimbabwe.
29 MAR | Vienna, Austria: Three Ukrainian activists from FridaysForFuture joined the BlockGas protests in Vienna. Despite coming from a war-torn country, they were confronted by the police.
3 APR | Cape Town, South Africa: A small but high-profile Extinction Rebellion protest met the controversial Russian oil and gas seismic blaster, the Akademik Alexander Karpinsky, when it returned from creating oil and gas maps of a globally important marine sanctuary off Antarctica. Photo: Nic Bothma
1 APR | Berlin, Germany: For April Fools 30 rebels, some dressed as petrol-heads, put on a bike show in front of a luxury car dealership selling Jaguar and Land Rover fossil fuel vehicles. The activists suggested that the car dealer should introduce a new line of zero-emission vehicles in the form of bicycles. Photos: Stefan Mueller
21 MAR | USA: A large alliance of eco groups including XR rallied outside fossil fuel funding banks across the country. In DC, elders blockaded four banks with rocking chairs. In Seattle, Elders climbed ladders to blockade the front doors of Chase bank.
22 MAR | London, UK: Rebels spray-painted the offices of various tabloid newspapers to call out their suppression of the climate crisis. Balloons helped a large banner with the words ‘CORRUPT AS FUCK’ float up to the executive floor of Rupert Murdoch’s News UK offices.
7 MAR | Zimbabwe: On International Women’s Day, XR Zimbabwe called on all women to rise up and speak out for a liveable planet, climate stability, clean green energy, green jobs, nature protection, biodiversity and nature restoration.
6 MAR | Zagreb, Croatia: At a coal power plant in Plomin, XR Zagreb protested the import of coal from countries affected by conflicts, human rights violations, and those forced into debt crisis by creditor institutions such as the IMF and World Bank.
31 MAR | Bendigo, Australia: Dramatic scenes outside the National Australia Bank in Bendigo as three were arrested during a week of national action for MoveBeyondCoal.
30 MAR | Madrid, Spain: Rebels stained the Congress of Deputies with fake blood on the day 15 activists from Scientist Rebellion began their trial for doing the same action nearly a year earlier. They face terrorist charges that could lead to 8.5 years in prison!
1 MAR | Oslo, Norway: Greta Thunberg was twice detained during a demo demanding the removal of 151 wind turbines from reindeer pastures used by Sami herders. A transition to green energy should not come at the expense of Indigenous rights.
23 MAR | Copenhagen, Denmark: A rebel sounded the fire alarm at Christiansborg, the seat of the Danish parliament, after the UN climate panel published a new report so scary that the EU's climate chief said that if we don't speed up climate action, our children and grandchildren will have to fight wars for food and water.
10 MAR | Kalin’a, Guyana: Police in riot gear used teargas and batons against indigenous protestors defending the Amazon rainforest. Five were arrested, including a child. The Centrale Electrique de l’Ouest Guyanais (CEOG) plans to raze 80 hectares of forest belonging to indigenous people to build the world’s biggest hydrogen-based renewable energy storage facility (illustration above). The locals have been calling for the factory to be moved for 4 years.
24 MAR | Melbourne, Australia: Much loved Discobedience returned to Aussie streets as rebels danced the afternoon away for climate justice! Photos: Matt Hrkac and Danielle Judd
5 MAR | Finland: Elokapina (XR Finland) was one of the organisers of several Nature Marches which brought 7,500 people onto the streets to demand more nature and climate action from the incoming Finnish parliament and government.
5 APR | Washington DC, USA: Three days after its launch, Climate Defiance, a new, youth-led American collective using disruptive action to stop fossil fuels, shut down the White House climate czar's keynote speech, confronting him in front of hundreds of elite policymakers. Climate Defiance intends to blockade the White House correspondents’ dinner this month to demand an end to fossil fuel extraction on public land.
20 MAR | Chambery, France: Rebels and other activists blockaded the entrance to the Savoie-Mont-Blanc airport in protest against private jets.
4 APR | Amsterdam, The Netherlands: VICTORY! One of Europe's busiest airports, Amsterdam's Schiphol, announced that it will BAN private jets by 2025-26. This comes after months of protest from XR Netherlands and Greenpeace.
12 MAR | Stockholm, Sweden: Rebels staged a snow-free ski race through the streets of Stockholm to highlight the latest measure of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere: 419 parts per million (ppm) - and to protest the lies of Preem, Sweden’s largest fuel company and "proud main sponsor” of the Vasaloppet, the world’s biggest cross-country ski race. Preem says it is moving towards a “more sustainable future”, when in fact it is continuing with the same large-scale production of fuel.
22 MAR | Cape Town, South Africa: A day after joining a major march calling for the government to enact system change and a just transition, rebels highlighted Cape Town’s water crisis. The city faces growing water demands, limited water sources, and ageing infrastructure, not to mention increasing droughts thanks to climate change.
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