Police and Protesters clash during Extinction Rebellion Protest
Words by Emma Goldrick
Monday marked the beginning of a three-day-long Extinction Rebellion non-violent protest in major cities across the world. Marketplace in Sydney was filled with voices chanting “system change, not climate change!” demanding that the government takes initiative on the climate crisis we are in the midst of. Over 30 arrests were made in Sydney of individuals involved in the non-violent climate rally organised by environmental activist group Extinction Rebellion also known as XR. The arrest and detainment of activists have been criticised as silencing the democratic rights of people to protest.
The rally which was attended by 500 people involved a ‘sit-in’ on the road parallel to UTS. The demonstration began at Belmore Park near Central before moving to the ‘sit-in’ where a number of arrests were made. Thus far the demonstrations have only disrupted traffic, however, NSW Police have issued warnings that they are aware the group plans to occupy the train networks today.
XR protests on the principle that they are ‘stop(ing) the city to stop climate change’, which inconveniences city-goers, traffic and public order in order to demand attention. The rallies will appear across major cities, seeing thousands of Australians use blockades to create attention to the climate catastrophe. Extinction Rebellion has already made noise in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne, with over 100 arrests being made of activists involved in the series of protests. Extinction Rebellion is not confined to Australia, it originated in the UK and is continuing to grow in numbers as the threat of climate change becomes too real to be passive too. Citizens are continuing to see the situation of climate change as direr leading to more extreme action being taken in an attempt to remedy the situation.
The current campaign has been dubbed ’spring rebellion’ in which protestors aimed to target cities and create pressure for governments to declare a climate emergency. Former Greens Senator Scott Ludlam, who was one of the demonstrators arrested in Sydney on Monday said that activists were “like the smoke alarm in a burning building”.
Arrests also included Sydney University student Lily Campbell, who was kept in police custody overnight and detained for over 24 hours. Campbell's initial bail which included a ban on associating with other XR members, from attending future XR events and an exclusion zone in Sydney CBD has subsequently been dropped.
During the demonstration, several elderly protesters were led away by policemen, which sparked other XR participants to lie down on Broadway in protest of this intervention. There has been a series of reports of police misconduct and brutality - with ABC reporting that one elderly woman screamed “You’re hurting me, please stop this” as police dragged her away.
Extinction Rebellions cry for urgent climate action will continue to play out in cities across Australia until the government properly address the crisis we are amongst. XR is an extreme response to an extreme situation that will only continue to grow as we stagnate in addressing this issue.