Extinction Rebellion (XR) has warned ministers it will step up its campaigns in “new and inventive ways” if they do not agree to two demands ahead of a major four-day climate protest in central London.
Climate protest group XR; Global Justice Now, a democratic social justice organisation; Don’t Pay UK, a grassroots campaign opposing the rise in energy bill; and the PCS union have called on the Government to “end all new licences, approvals and funding for fossil fuel projects”.
They also want ministers to “create emergency citizens assemblies to lead on fair, long-term solutions to the most urgent issues of our time”.
On Tuesday, Marijn van de Geer, of XR, told a press conference: “From today, we are putting the Government on notice.
“They have seven days to agree to enter negotiations around these two demands or we will step up our campaigns in new and inventive ways, working towards a coalition unprecedented in size.”
She said the Government has until 5pm on Monday April 24 “to agree to enter negotiations about the two collective demands that we have presented to them today”.
Ms van de Geer added: “If we don’t get a response, at 10am on Tuesday April 25 Extinction Rebellion will build an unprecedented coalition, stepping up our campaigns in the weeks and months ahead along three pathways – that is to picket to stand in solidarity with the strikers, to organise locally and to disobey.”
Discussing the warnings on TalkTV, Tory MP Craig Mackinlay dubbed the protesters “pampered youngsters” who go on “gap years on the beaches of Thailand and sip Mai Thai whilst talking about Marxism on their top of the range smart phone”.
Watch the clip in full below:
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