Dear friends,
We hope you all had a restful holiday and are resolved to get back into action, leading up to our big event in London on April 21. We will be hard at work recruiting friends and neighbours, building alliances with local groups, and getting ready for the biggest Extinction Rebellion action ever!
If you’d like to hear more, Clare Farrell has beautifully articulated our aims in this podcast (note: some strong language, if there are sensitive listeners nearby).
Dates for your diary
- Saturday 14th January, 2:30-4:30pm: Singing Workshop (South Oxford Community Centre)
- Sunday 22nd January, 12pm: Strike March (Manzil Way)
- Thursday 26th January, 7pm: Rusty Bicycles Affinity Group meeting for all those living in OX4. For venue details contact: xr-oxford-rustybicycles-coordinators@googlegroups.com
- Saturday 28th January, 12pm: Dirty Water (Wolvercote Bathing Area)
- Sunday 29th January, 11:30am, Path of MADness on Holocaust Memorial Day. Contributions on climate change and the sixth great extinction are welcome. (Heyford Park, Bicester)
- Wednesday, 1st February, 7pm: Media & Messaging meeting (Zoom). Email xroxfordcomms@gmail.com for details.
- Thursday 2nd February, 7:30pm: Actions circle meeting (Zoom). Email xroxfordactions@gmail.com for details.
- Sunday 12th February, 5:30pm (and every second Sunday): Headington Fringe Affinity Group monthly meeting/social (Butcher’s Arms, Headington, OX3 7AN)
- Friday 21st April: The Big One (London). Make sure your diary is clear, and tell your friends!
News
Singing workshop
Start the new year with singing! We know singing at protests can be really powerful and effective, and would like to build a collection of songs that lots of us in XR Oxford know for use at future actions. Come and join us for an afternoon of song learning and sharing, including the wonderful XR Anthem. All welcome – no previous knowledge or expertise is required and all songs and harmonies will be taught by ear. If you have a song you’d like to bring along and teach, please let us know in advance by emailing xroxfordactions@gmail.com. If possible, bring a small contribution towards room hire, and a mug for tea!
Come along to South Oxford Community Centre from 2:30-4:30PM on Saturday 14th January. The venue is fully accessible (via ramp up to door).
March Together, Strike Together!
Oxford & District Trades Union Council has called a march and rally with the South Central Postal branch of the CWU. The theme is “March Together, Strike Together!”, in support of strike and on cost of living. The crisis has been exacerbated by energy bills resulting from the continuing use of fossil fuels and the general vulnerability of UK food security to long supply chains and insufficient UK food production.
Meet at Manzil Way at 12PM on Sunday, 22 January 2023.
Dirty Water
We’re joining groups across the country to highlight the government’s failure to ensure our rivers are clean and unpolluted.
In October 2021 the government blocked an amendment which would have required water companies to reduce the amount of raw sewage they dumped into British rivers. In spite of this, Thames Water has continued to release untreated sewage into the Thames. West Oxfordshire has recently been plagued with sewage releases, but, given the poor state of Government environmental policies concerning water, neither our rivers nor seas can be considered safe or unpolluted year round.
We are inviting Oxford’s two MPs, Anneliese Dodds and Layla Moran, both of whom voted in favour of the amendment in 2021, to speak at the event. We hope individuals and groups with an interest in cleaning up our rivers will join us in this peaceful and symbolic action. This might include wild swimmers, paddle boarders, anglers, Wildlife Trusts, environmental groups and anyone else who loves the river and Port Meadow.
If you are part of a group who might be interested in joining the action, please pass on this link to them.
Groups who’d like to be co-hosts should contact Steve Dawe, stevedawe@gn.apc.org
If you might be able to help with organising the action, please contact April, xroxfordcoordinator@gmail.com
Gather at Wolvercote Bathing Area (191-193 Godstow Rd, OX2 8PJ) on Saturday 28th January at 12PM.
In love and rage,
The XR Oxford Crew