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Extinction Rebellion target Black Friday by blocking Amazon fulfilment centres

Extinction Rebellion target Black Friday by blocking Amazon fulfilment centres 2

Now eco mob target Black Friday: XR activists lock themselves to bamboo towers and scaffolding as they block 13 Amazon warehouses across the UK

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Extinction Rebellion mobs have blocked more than a dozen Amazon fulfilment centres across the UK as they target Black Friday shoppers. 

Pictures showed activists sitting in large bamboo towers outside the warehouses, preventing vans and lorries from getting in. 

In Dartford – one of some 14 sites targeted – protesters held a sign saying ‘Black Friday exploits people and planet’, while in Peterborough the slogan was ‘infinite growth harms planet’. 

In Manchester, XR have strewn items along Sunbank Lane near Manchester Airport in order to stop traffic. Other sites that have been blocked include ones in Peterborough, Newcastle, Darlington and Dunfermline. 

One distribution centre near Bristol has also been blocked since 4am. 

Extinction Rebellion activists block a street leading out of an Amazon fulfilment centre in Peterborough with bamboo structures and banners

Extinction Rebellion activists block a street leading out of an Amazon fulfilment centre in Peterborough with bamboo structures and banners

XR activists placed a sign along the road saying 'infinite growth finite planet'. Protesters use bamboo structures because they take time for the police to dismantle

XR activists placed a sign along the road saying ‘infinite growth finite planet’. Protesters use bamboo structures because they take time for the police to dismantle 

Essex Police said they were dealing with an XR protest in Tilbury. 

The force tweeted: “We’re dealing with a protest outside an Amazon warehouse in Windrush Road, Tilbury and engaging with people at the scene to ensure it remains safe.

“However, we expect the disruption to run into the morning rush hours and we’re asking motorists to take some delays into account.”

XR South East UK tweeted: “Extinction Rebellion blockade #AMAZON fulfilment centres across the UK and Europe on #BlackFriday holding them responsible for the damage they do to #PeopleAndPlanet. #InfiniteGrowthFinitePlanet.”

But angry social media users hit out, with one tweeting: ‘Agree with saving the climate…but you need public support to get the government to care. 

‘Blocking roads just annoys folk and loses you the good will from the public (especially the working ones whose taxes pay your benefits).’

Each of the bamboo structures (including this one in Peterborough) had someone sitting inside

They are designed to be as difficult to dismantle as possible

Each of the bamboo structures (including this one in Peterborough) had someone sitting inside. They are designed to be as difficult to dismantle as possible 

Amazon has published a commitment to reach net-zero carbon across the business by 2040, 10 years ahead of the Paris Agreement.  

Earlier this month XR pledged to mobilise two million protestors to launch what it says will be ‘the largest act of civil resistance in UK history’ in April next year.

The environmental campaign group made the pledge today after criticising this month’s climate summit, claiming it did not go far enough to tackle the crisis.

The group said that the number of activists taking part in their demonstrations had dwindled during the pandemic but that they hoped to rely on record numbers in 2022.

In a video which draws on images of the Suffragettes, Ghandi and Martin Luther King, XR spokesperson Nuala Gathercole Lam calls for action and says: ‘When millions of people come together to demand change, governments have no choice but to act.

‘This is what’s needed now. Let’s do what works – prolonged, disruptive, non-violent civil resistance.’

Citing research carried out at Harvard University, XR says that movements which achieved ‘active engagement’ of at least 3.5 per cent of the population have ‘never failed to bring about significant social and political change’.

The group says that 3.5 per cent of the UK population equates to 2.3 million people and has set itself the target of recruiting those people for its campaign in 2022.

XR believes if they hit this target then their protests in April next year will be ‘the largest act of civil resistance in UK history’ as it issued an appeal for people to join its cause. 

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