This month has seen more record shattering temperatures, and a King’s Speech which promised to destroy any environmental progress in this country. Extinction Rebellion Oxford has continued our resistance, forcing Equinor to withdraw from the university careers fair, campaigning on Cornmarket Street against Rosebank and Barclays Bank, and reaching out to commuters in Didcot about the coal-mining activities of RWE, owners of Didcot Power Station.
Dates for your Diary
- Wed 15 November, 7:30-9PM: South Oxford Geese affinity group meeting (New Hinksey) Contact: soxgeese@gmail.com
- Tue 21 November, 7-9PM: Introduction to Extinction Rebellion Workshop (The Community Works, Makespace Oxford, 21 Park End St, OX1 1HH)
- Wed 22 November, 12-1:30PM: Silent Sitting at Barclays (Barclays Bank, Cornmarket)
- Thu 23 November, 7:30-9PM: Headington Fringe AG get-together and action planning (Headington) Contact: headingtonfringecoordinator@gmail.com
- Fri 24 November, 5:30-7PM: Indigenous Climate Knowledge in Africa and the Need for Global Climate Justice (Lecture Room 1, Blavatnik School of Government, OX2 6GG)
- Sat 25 November, 12-2PM (tentative): Stop Rosebank protest and outreach in Oxford. Subject to confirmation. (Cornmarket, Oxford)
- Sat 25 November, 10:30-4PM: Oxford Green Fair (Oxford Town Hall)
- Tue 28 November, 6-7:30PM: XR Oxford Drummers Newcomer Session (New Marston Pastoral Centre, Jack Straw’s Lane, OX3 0DL)
- Tue 28 November, 7-9PM: Oxford United for Nature (Wesley Memorial Hall, New Inn Hall Street, OX1 2DH)
- Wed 29 November, 7:30-9PM: Talks, Training and Engagement working group meeting (Iffley Fields, Oxford) Contact: xroxford.tte@gmail.com
- 30 November, 2, 5, 6, 9, 12 December, 12-2PM: COP 28 Action and Outreach in Oxford (Cornmarket Street)
- Sat 9 December, 2:30-4:30PM: Oxford Climate Choir rehearsal (South Oxford Community Centre, Lake Street)
Please check our calendar for the most up-to-date information.
Get Active
Introduction to Extinction Rebellion
Are you new to Extinction Rebellion and curious to know a bit more?
Whether you are a new rebel or someone who has been engaged with XR for a while now, the workshop would be a great opportunity to reflect upon why we do things the way we do. The session covers principles and values guiding our action, our key demands, why we take non-violent direct action, and the different ways in which you could get involved. This is a safe space to reflect, discuss, question, and share.
Come along to this Introduction to Extinction Rebellion Oxford session on Tuesday 21st November from 7-9pm.
COP28
As world leaders gather for this year’s UN Climate Conference, we will be out on the streets of Oxford talking to the public about the COP conference, and especially about the need for climate justice for countries in the Global South, many of which are feeling the most severe impacts of climate breakdown. We’ll also be asking people to think about what they can do, and encouraging them to join us in taking action.
We will be on Cornmarket from 12-2pm on 30th November, then 2nd, 5th, 6th, 9th and 12th December.
Silent Sitting
Please come and join a fortnightly “Silent Sit” at Barclays Bank in Cornmarket as meditators and others, continue to campaign at Barclays about it’s funding of Fossil Fuel companies. Barclays is the biggest fossil fuel funding bank in Europe and the 6th largest funder in the world. With many world temperature records broken in 2023, it is vitally urgent that the use of fossil fuels is dramatically reduced in the short term. If banks cease to offer funding for existing and new fossil fuel projects, then the essential rapid reduction of harmful emissions can begin and our children and grandchildren can look forward to enjoying a liveable climate.
Barclays shows no appetite for significant change in its support of Fossil Fuel companies and so we hope that our quiet meditative presence outside Barclays Bank in Oxford will draw customers and passers-by’s attention to the contribution the activities of Barclays are making to the climate crisis we face. Other “Silent Sits” are being offered at other UK branches of Barclays at various times.
If you would like to come and meditate with us, please bring a placard, a cushion, stool or chair and sit in Cornmarket in quiet contemplative silence for as long as you are able between 12.00 and 13.30 on Wednesday 22nd November and fortnightly thereafter (with a focus on COP28 on 6th December). We would very much welcome others, respecting the quiet space we are trying to create, to engage with passers-by and Barclays customers by handing out leaflets and entering into conversations about Barclays contribution to Global Warming.
News
Extinction Rebellion Statement on Palestine Conflict
Extinction Rebellion UK has made this statement on the conflict in Palestine. The XR Oxford Coordinators Circle endorses this statement, calling for an immediate ceasefire in line with our core value of non-violence. XR respects individuals’ autonomy and right to make their own choices on these issues. Some groups in Oxford working to further this cause include:
- Oxford Palestine Solidarity Campaign
- Oxford Palestine Society
- Help the World Oxford
- Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
- Stop the War Coalition
Victory against Equinor at Careers Fair
After we have grown used to resistance or indifference to our actions, it’s a stirring feeling when protest really makes an impact.
Following the infuriating announcement on 27 September that the government was approving the Rosebank oilfield, the news that Equinor, the Norwegian state oil company that’s one of its major investors, would be exhibiting at the Oxford University STEM careers fair on 14 October seemed like insult added to injury. And an obvious target for protest.
Plans were quickly made and announced to picket the careers fair, asking students not to engage with Equinor’s stand. Then, at the last minute, a sharp-eyed rebel spotted that Equinor no longer featured on the web programme for the event. A phone call (posing as an interested student) confirmed it: Equinor had pulled out, no explanation given. It’s hard to imagine that our plans were nothing to do with this.
Of course, it is not a major victory. Rosebank is not affected, Equinor will doubtless get the recruits it needs in other ways. But we made it clear that the social licence that fossil fuel companies have long enjoyed is coming to an end. However much greenwash they concoct (Equinor claims to want to be “a leading company in the energy transition”), while they ignore the science and exploit fossil fuels, they will not be tolerated.
We decided to protest nonetheless, given that the university careers service is still promoting Equinor and companies like it. Outreachers had some fantastic conversations with students, who for the most part agreed that encouraging them to tie their futures to the obsolete oil and gas industry was totally inappropriate. They expressed a desire for student input on which companies, and kinds of companies, they would actually hope to engage with at these fairs, as well as which should be barred.