The call comes in response to the tabling of anti-protest laws in the UK Parliament this week.
Climate campaigners from across Britain have announced they will take to the streets later this year in protest of a new law tabled in Westminster’s Queen’s Speech this week.
Extinction Rebellion have hit out at the tabling of the Public Order Bill tabled in the Queen’s Speech on Tuesday, with a promise to bring millions of people onto the street from September.
The Bill, which seeks to reintroduce the curbs on protest recently thrown out of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill by the House of Lords, is an attempt to curb protests by Extinction Rebellion, Just Stop Oil and Insulate Britain calling for the government to take proportionate action on the climate crisis.
On the same day that the Public Order Bill was tabled, UK Met Office researchers said that there’s now around a fifty-fifty chance that the world will warm by more than 1.5C over the next five years.
Following the failure of the COP26 climate negotiations in Glasgow last autumn, Extinction Rebellion announced plans to mobilise two million people in 2022, equivalent to 3.5 per cent of the UK population.
Charlie Waterhouse from Extinction Rebellion, said: “It is foolish to think that announcing new curbs in the Queen’s Speech will stop people taking to the streets to demand their government act to ensure a safe future for people in the UK and around the world.
“As we in Extinction Rebellion know full well: what we do works. It’s worked countless times before. It has worked to give us weekends and the vote, human rights and freedom. And it will work again.
“Faced with a government incapable of anything other than a desperate attempt to shore-up its own power and cover-up its criminality it is the only thing we can do. To be a bystander is not enough.
“When juries are asked to sit in judgement of their peers, they are acquitting. The government’s increasing reliance on private injunctions shows that they know they cannot rely on the courts, because the courts agree with us.
“So Boris Johnson and Priti Patel, we thank you. Our organisations were set up to break the law to drive positive change. Your actions show that we are winning.”
The move by Extinction Rebellion comes as a YouGov poll reveals that disruptive protest is increasing the numbers of people in the UK willing to take climate action, with around 1.7million adults in the UK saying they would consider engaging in climate action over the next 12 months. The poll also found that: “When asked about satisfaction with the efforts of the UK government, only 26.1% of UK adults thought the government was doing a lot to tackle climate change, with 46% disagreeing with this statement.”
