Europe’s top climate activists are planning a “massive campaign of civil disobedience” of highway blockades, hunger strikes and disruptions at “federal properties” in the US in August, DailyMail.com can reveal.
Leaders of Extinction Rebellion (XR) and other European groups known for large-scale disturbances are rapidly expanding their US-based franchise, Declare Emergency, to create chaos on this side of the Atlantic.
In a video conference attended by DailyMail.com, the Europeans taught their US allies how to raise money, boost membership and recruit dozens of “arrestable” members to lead the most aggressive protests.
In Europe, those groups have gathered tens of thousands of protesters and brought cities to a standstill, causing millions of dollars in losses, but it remains unclear whether they can match that success this side of the pond.
“What we want to do is launch a large-scale campaign of civil disobedience against the climate catastrophe in the United States,” Roger Hallam, the co-founder of XR, told the online gathering of several dozen US-based activists.
European climate activism has led to hard clashes between demonstrators and police, such as this month’s protest against oil use in Hoogvliet, the Netherlands. The organizers want to bring this to the US
Extinction Rebellion co-founder Roger Hallam (left) wants a summer full of climate protests in the US. Thibaut Cantet, an activist for France’s Last Renovation, said it was essential to get activism off the ground in America
Roger Hallam (above left) explained to Declare Emergency members how to raise their profile and attract members in the US
Hallam, who co-founded XR’s US-based sister organization Declare Emergency last year, said he had raised $1 million in the past week and plans to aggressively recruit 1,000 members in the coming weeks.
Speaking from the UK, the veteran activist said his organizational tactics “weren’t that complicated, have worked in many countries and we see no reason why they shouldn’t work in the US.”
Declare Emergency, while small, has made headlines in recent months, including when two members smeared paint on the casing of a Degas masterpiece at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC in April.
They have also blocked roads in the state capital and Maryland and gathered outside Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer’s home in New York City. Several members have been arrested and fined; the art gallery protesters face jail time.
But to date, the group has failed to match the scale of Europe’s climate chaos, particularly XR’s week-long series of rallies in London that closed drowning bridges and sealed off much of the city center, causing millions of dollars in losses in 2019.
Members have planted trees in Parliament Square, glued themselves to the gates of Buckingham Palace and other landmarks, destroyed works of art in grand galleries and closed off runways to private jets.
While many people support efforts to tackle global warming, others eschew the tactics of XR and other hard-line outfits, which have closed roads, highways, airports, offices and other public places.
Hallam said such a massive disruption was possible in the US, citing the decades of civil rights protests that changed attitudes toward gay rights and led to the massive racial justice protests over the 2020 killing of George Floyd.
Declare Emergency, which wants President Joe Biden to declare a national climate crisis and use his executive powers to sharply cut pollution, coordinates with foreign activists through the so-called A22 network.
Emergency protesters Tim Martin (left) and Joanna Smith, both 53, face jail for daubing red and black paint on the briefcase protecting Edgar Degas’ Little Dancer Aged Fourteen at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, in April
Police fire water cannon against Extinction Rebellion activists who blocked the A12 in The Hague for the seventh time in May
That grouping includes France’s Last Renovation, which temporarily suspended last year’s Tour de France cycling race, and Germany’s Last Generation, which has been repeatedly raided by German police as a “criminal organization” in recent weeks.
Another member of the network, Just Stop Oil, caused two members to throw tomato soup over Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers at the National Gallery in London last October.
During the conference call, Declare Emergency members did not say which protests were planned, but discussed hunger strikes and highway disruptions, such as those organized by Save Old Growth last year around Vancouver, Canada.
The protests would target Washington and New York City, they said.
Tim Martin, the social media organizer of Declare Emergency, who has been charged with conspiracy to deface the Degas statue at the National Gallery of Art, said he expected more attacks on “federal properties, like the museums.”
“We struck a chord there … so that’s a good thing,” said Martin, 53, of Raleigh, North Carolina.
While the US activists have made headlines, several members discussed the difficulty of staying coherent, complaining that they get bogged down by tests of “ideological purity” instead of taking action.
Speaking from the south of France, Thibaut Cantet, an activist for Last Renovation, said it was vital to launch European-style climate protests in the US – the world’s largest economy and largest emitter of greenhouse gases.
An Extinction Rebellion protests against the use of fossil fuels in the City of London, a major financial centre, in May
An activist sprays paint on London’s Guildhall during London’s Extinction Rebellion summer protests in 2021
“Nothing will work if it doesn’t happen in the US,” Cantet said.
The FBI did not immediately respond to DailyMail.com’s request for comment.
In recent weeks, European climate activists have gathered 60,000 protesters in London and derailed the continent’s largest private jet fair by chaining themselves to planes to protest the sector’s carbon emissions.
Protesters stormed Amsterdam Schiphol Airport in November blocking the takeoff of private jets, while others cycled around the runway where planes were parked, disrupting the flow of traffic for wealthy travelers.
UN experts say planet-warming gases are making Earth dangerously hot, but the US, China and other world governments have set ambitious goals to reduce the risk by switching to clean energy sources in the coming years.
Americans are less concerned about climate change than their European counterparts.
While 31 percent in the U.S. want to quickly switch to renewable energy sources, another two-thirds want to continue using oil, coal and natural gas, as well as the cleaner alternatives, according to a poll by the Pew Research Center.