From June 11th to June 13th Rebels from across the country made their way to Cornwall to make a stand against G7 leaders’ empty promises. The purpose of the weekend of protests was to bring to the attention of these world leaders the dangers of inaction in the face of the climate crisis and ecological collapse. XR Bath Rebels got involved in a wide variety of actions that helped catch the attention of world leaders and the public.
On Friday the 11th of June, Bath XR Rebels participated in a performance called “Drowning in Oil” (footage above). Rebels performed a symbolic drowning by characters that represented Shell and BP. The message behind this action was to inform the public of how big oil companies continue to be licensed to extract more oil despite already having enough at their disposal. All this continues to happen despite the fact that these companies have known since the 1950s what burning oil does to the planet. This dramatic production caught the eye of the public and drew attention to the horrors of BP and shell.
Dirty Scrubbers from XR Bath and XR Scotland joined forces to wipe away the filth of Barclay’s lies!
In describing what the protests were like in Falmouth on the 12th of June, Carmen, a 20 year old XR Bath Rebel who got involved with the dirty scrubbers action, described it as “such a heart-moving, colourful, impactful and sunshiny day that anyone from any walk of life should be sad to have missed it”. XR Rebels took to the seaside streets with samba drums, banners and costumes galore. They stood alongside protestors fighting against the Tigray genocide, Myanmar coup, Kashmir conflict and Ugandan human rights abuses. The cross-section of social justice movements present in Falmouth helped all leaders and members of the public awaken to the pain and thirst for change throughout the world.
[2] Banking on Climate Chaos: Fossil Fuel Finance Report, 2021: https://www.ran.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Banking-on-Climate-Chaos-2021.pdf