‘WE QUIT’
Extinction Rebellion announces END to public disruption demos as they ‘haven’t worked’… piling pressure on Just Stop Oil
EXTINCTION Rebellion has vowed to end its disruptive demonstrations in 2023 because "nothing has changed".
The eco group announced that instead of blocking roads, smashing windows, vandalising buildings and dangling from bridges, it will turn to simply "talking".
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The surprise announcement was made quietly via an email to supporters just after midnight on New Year's Day.
A spokesperson said: "Extinction Rebellion is making a bold New Year’s resolution for 2023: we’re quitting actions that target the disruption of the public.
"This is a big decision. Public disruption has raised the alarm on the climate and ecological emergency incredibly successfully.
"But while the alarm has been raised, nothing has really changed.
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"So in 2023, it’s time to try something different."
Instead of its usual stunts which caused traffic jams, petrol shortages and even stopped people getting to work and receiving hospital treatment, XR members will this year "prioritise attendance over arrest" and "relationships over roadblocks".
This means, they said, "taking disruption directly to the UK's seat of power".
The decision will pile pressure on environmentalists at Just Stop Oil and Insulate Britain, who used similar tactics in 2022.
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But Just Stop Oil has promised to continue its disruption, potentially going even further than before.
A spokesperson said the UK was "barrelling down the highway to the loss of ordered society" so its members must "move from disobedience into civil resistance".
Insulate Britain, which repeatedly clogged roads last year, also shows no sign of stopping, with members "committed to civil resistance as the only appropriate and affective response".
Some of XR's most infamous action has involved its members lying in roads and suspending themselves from bridges.
The group was also behind blockades at major oil facilities, the spraying of fake blood at the Treasury and Buckingham Palace, and the smashing of glass at the News UK building and Barclays Bank HQ.
Activists even glued themselves to supercars at the Paris Motor Show and
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