Star date: 2nd September 2019

MORE DIE-INS, CLIMATE PROTESTS AT BARCLAYS AND OUTSIDE COURT AS NORTHERN REBELLION DRAWS TO CLOSE

Today, the four day Northern Rebellion draws to a close with Extinction Rebellion supporters gluing themselves to Barclays Bank in Manchester, plus more die-ins, processions and actions.

Meanwhile, Rising Up! Manchester Families is to protest at the Greater Manchester Pension Fund, calling on it to divest £2billion from fossil fuels within two years and to invest in local climate solutions instead.

Full details here...

This morning eight Extinction Rebellion supporters glued themselves to Barclays in Manchester to protest about the bank's funding of the fossil fuel industry, while others are outside Manchester's Civil Justice Centre in support of the anti-fracking legal challenge due to take place today.

A statement from Extinction Rebellion adds that, later today, the group will lead a peaceful, musical protest procession around the city centre from Deansgate 'staging non-violent 'die-ins' as they go, to raise awareness of the climate emergency and highlight the threat of ecological breakdown and biodiversity loss'...

Meanwhile, Rising Up! Manchester Families is staging a protest outside Greater Manchester Pension Fund office in Droylsden calling on it to divest £2billion from fossil fuels within two years and to invest in local climate solutions instead.

The Extinction Rebellion action outside Barclays follows a similar protest in July (see here) highlighting the bank's £15.6billion of assets in oil, gas and coal extradition globally.

"Barclay's has funded the fossil fuel industry, from fracking and coal here in Britain to the Dakota Access pipeline in North America" states an Extinction Rebellion spokeperson "Mines and oilfields are financed with the help of Barclay's, who are increasing their financing for fossil fuel.

"Today we're calling on them to stop doing that and recognise that we are facing catastrophic ecological breakdown - which these practices are contributing to" they add "Not a day goes by without further news of the unfolding crisis; whether its unprecedented fires in the Arctic, glaciers melting at terrifying rates, thousands of species being lost. We have just a handful of years before the damage we have done to the planet becomes irreversible."

Extinction Rebellion supporters will also join other anti-fracking groups outside Manchester's Civil Justice Centre, to show support for the three anti-fracking protesters appearing in court as part of a legal challenge, which aims to reduce the scope of Cuadrilla's injunction against demonstrations outside its fracking base in Blackpool. They will also be calling for a reduction of sentencing for protesters found to be breaching this injunction.

"The protestors appearing in court today were amongst the first to stand against an injunction designed to stop people protesting against Cuadrilla, a company which said it could frack without causing earthquakes or environmental damage" explains an Extinction Rebellion spokesperson "In reality, Cuadrilla has in fact caused more than one hundred earthquakes including a 2.9 intensity six. This is just one of many awful impacts Cuadrilla have admitted - it has also cold vented 6.8 tonnes of methane."

Later, the group will lead a peaceful musical protest procession from Deansgate around the city centre "staging non-violent 'die-ins' as they go, to raise awareness of the climate emergency and highlight the threat of ecological breakdown and biodiversity loss".

Marchers will carry plants with them from the guerilla garden the group created this weekend on John Dalton Street, to be repurposed in the disused Central Retail Park on Great Ancoats Street, which they want to be transformed into a People's Park, rather than a car park.

Extinction Rebellion will end its Northern Rebellion following an extensive clean-up later today.

Meanwhile, as part of the Northern Rebellion, young protestors from Rising Up! Manchester Families are heading to the Greater Manchester Pension Fund (GMPF) headquarters in Droylsdon calling on it to divest £2billion from fossil fuels within two years and to invest in local climate solutions instead.

The children will be delivering their message via poetry and cards, and will be dressed in green and blue as 'Ethel and the Earthlings', accompanied by the Greenpeace polar bear, Sami...

"It is so hard explaining to my five-year-old Maia that not only is not everyone fighting for our future but that many are still making money from its destruction" says Rose Arnold, Rising Up! Manchester Families organiser and mother "Even as councils across the country are declaring climate emergencies many are still invested heavily in industries which cause climate breakdown. In Manchester a big one is the airport but also the public sector pension fund, GMPF, has £2billion supporting companies such as Shell, who have known for 30 years the devastation they are causing.

"Maia thought perhaps they didn't have children, or maybe they didn't know what was happening and she wanted us to let them know" she adds "Dressing up as Ethel and the Earthlings is a playful way for younger children to engage in what are big and scary questions without being terrified. They are asking GMPF to think of their futures."

A Pension Fund spokesperson hit back at recent protests insisting "The Greater Manchester Pension Fund is working hard to become carbon neutral and it has been recognised by the Environment Audit Committee as being one of the most engaged in the country in doing so. This needs to be balanced against the Fund being top performing over thirty years and creating an additional £3.7billion of value above that of the average LGPS pension fund. The Fund has a fiduciary duty to demonstrate that its investment decisions do not threaten its financial performance..."

For a background on the Northern Rebellion see previous Salford Star articles – click here and click here