A call for international rebellion has been issued for between April 15th
and April 21st
Local climate action chapter Extinction Rebellion Tampa Bay has announced a calendar of actions and protests for the week beginning Monday, April 15th. The plans are part of a week of “International Rebellion” called for by Extinction Rebellion (XR), which brought its message of non-violent mass action and climate emergency to the UK in October and has since spread quickly across the globe to include tens of thousands of active participants. The primary action will be held at 10am on Friday, April 19th at Tampa City Hall, in solidarity with
climate strike students.
It will feature a die-in protest and funeral procession to symbolize the deadly seriousness of the climate crisis, and comes ahead of Tampa’s mayoral runoff election on April 23rd. On March 15th over 1.6 million students went on strike from school around the world to demand significant action against greenhouse gas emissions. Other events planned during the week include rallies at the Tampa office of Chair of the Select Committee on the Climate Crisis Kathy Castor and at St. Petersburg City Hall, a noise demonstration at TECO headquarters in Tampa against their plans to build a fracked gas unit, and a social “Beach Uprising” event at the weekend. The full list of current details can be found at the event page.The broad intention behind the week of action is to build links between XR and other movements, and to further support for XR’s long term strategy of coordinated and sustained economic disruption to prevent climate breakdown.
Actions are being planned in dozens of U.S. cities and around the world, including an indefinite occupation of central London and a climate action camp in Los Angeles. Previous events held locally since XR Tampa Bay was formed in November include a St. Petersburg march and mass artwork protest during a national day of action in January, and a noise demonstration against the Spring Coal Forum in Clearwater Beach in March. In the run up to the week of action the group will be holding an introductory talk at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Clearwater on April 7th, and tabling at the St. Pete Earth Day Festival on April 13.
