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Pro-Palestinian protesters voice disgust at Sunak ‘extremist’ comments

The Guardian | Protest -

Day of action takes place at almost 50 Barclays branches across England and Wales including one in central London

Protesters have gathered in London and at almost 50 other locations across England and Wales over Israel’s war in Gaza, a day after Rishi Sunak said democracy was being targeted by extremists.

The Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) singled out Barclays for its day of action, with hundreds of people taking part in a demonstration outside the bank’s Tottenham Court Road branch in the centre of the capital.

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The ‘mob rule’ that Rishi Sunak fears most lies in the ranks of his own party | Andrew Rawnsley

The Guardian | Protest -

The Tory leader has been flabby about policing extremism on his own side

Conservatives would usually be the first to complain when police officers are diverted from their duties tackling crime and maintaining order to participate in a publicity stunt. Yet it was Rishi Sunak who last week summoned police chiefs to Downing Street for no better reason than to provide him with an audience of blue uniforms to hear his unevidenced claim that there is a “growing consensus that mob rule is replacing democratic rule” in Britain. A consensus among whom? The hosts of GB News? The most rabidly rightwing tabloid ranters? The leadership of the Reform party?

The police chiefs themselves have been strikingly reluctant to endorse Mr Sunak’s contention that Britain is descending into “mob rule”. This sounds like the kind of thing a rent-a-gob reactionary backbencher might spit out in the hope of being quoted by the Daily Mail. You don’t expect to hear that kind of nonsense coming out of the mouth of the prime minister. Not least because it wouldn’t normally be considered either clever or responsible politics for the leader of the country to suggest that it was plunging into violent anarchy on his watch. Unless, that is, the leader was aiming to do a Donald Trump by seeking to gain advantage through fomenting fear, increasing division and toxifying the atmosphere to justify trampling on democratic norms.

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Police aggression towards Gaza march observers ‘on the rise’ in UK as woman says officers knocked her over

The Guardian | Protest -

Legal adviser to pro-Palestinian protesters was taken to hospital by passersby after the incident on Westminster Bridge in London

A 71-year-old legal observer has accused a group of police officers of deliberately knocking her over and leaving her bloodied and unconscious on the ground during a Gaza ceasefire protest in London.

Lesley Wertheimer – who was wearing a hi-vis bib with “legal observer” printed on the back – crashed face down into the road when a phalanx of about 30 police officers ran towards Westminster Bridge during the first pro-Palestine demonstration of 2024.

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Peta protesters disrupt Victoria Beckham’s Paris fashion week show – video

The Guardian | Protest -

Victoria Beckham’s show at Paris fashion week was interrupted by protesters from the animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta), who invaded the runway to protest against her use of animal products. Protesters wore white T-shirts that read: 'Turn your back on animal skins' and 'Animals aren’t fabric'. They walked alongside models on the catwalk, holding up placards that read: 'Viva vegan leather'. The European president of the group said on Friday: 'No garment or accessory is worth violently slaughtering and skinning a sensitive and intelligent animal. We are urging Victoria Beckham to turn instead to the ethical and eco-friendly innovations available today, such as high-end leather made from apples, grapes, pineapples, mushrooms and more.'

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Pro-Palestine marches to continue after Sunak ‘extremists’ speech

The Guardian | Protest -

Organiser suggests PM consider own MPs’ behaviour after speech about rise in ‘extremist disruption’

Pro-Palestine protests are to continue across the UK on Saturday after Rishi Sunak’s warning that democracy was being targeted by “extremists”.

In an address to the nation on Friday, the prime minister spoke about “forces here at home trying to tear us apart”, in the aftermath of the 7 October attacks by Hamas against Israel.

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Peta protesters disrupt Victoria Beckham’s Paris fashion week show

The Guardian | Protest -

Activists protest against fashion designer’s use of leather, urging her to use vegan alternatives

Victoria Beckham’s show at Paris fashion week was interrupted by protesters from the animal rights group Peta, who invaded the runway to protest against her use of animal products.

Protesters wore white T-shirts that read “turn your back on animal skins” and “animals aren’t fabric”. They walked alongside models on the catwalk, holding up placards that read: “Viva vegan leather”.

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Rish! purposefully grips his lectern – but shows he has no grip of the country

The Guardian | Protest -

PM spends 10 minutes sharing his innermost fears with the nation without offering any solutions

Nothing shouts “Don’t panic! Don’t panic” more than a hastily arranged speech from the prime minister outside No 10 at 5.45pm on a Friday. Still, on the plus side, those who chose to carry on watching Pointless on BBC One won’t have missed a thing. It would have been hard to tell the two apart.

Rishi Sunak is the politician’s anti-politician. If he ever came close to a real politician, he might dissolve on contact. Just as well there are so few of them in his cabinet. You could almost call it a talent – the unerring ability to do the wrong thing. To strike the wrong tone. To misjudge the situation. Every time you think things couldn’t get any worse, Rish! appears to say: “Hold my Coke.”

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Extremists trying to tear us apart, says Rishi Sunak in impromptu No 10 speech

The Guardian | Protest -

PM condemns ‘shocking increase in extremist disruption and criminality’ in wake of Gaza war, in sometimes rambling address

Rishi Sunak has claimed extremist groups in the UK are “trying to tear us apart”, in a hastily arranged Downing Street statement that came hours after George Galloway won a byelection in Rochdale.

Standing outside Downing Street late on Friday, the prime minister condemned what he called “a shocking increase in extremist disruption and criminality” after the 7 October massacre by Hamas and the Israeli invasion of Gaza.

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‘Stop insuring fossil fuel’: activists target London insurers in week of action

The Guardian | Protest -

Marches, protests and sabotage attacks as City at forefront of global campaign against industry

Traffic petered out on Gracechurch Street, in the heart of London’s financial district, as hundreds marched down the road, in step with samba drummers beating a military tattoo. “Climate activists for a free Palestine,” said the banner that led them.

Their target was No 20, an office housing the UK headquarters of Axa insurance group, which, as well as being the world’s sixth biggest underwriter of fossil fuel projects, has been singled out as a facilitator of Israel’s illegal settlements.

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Tories accused of hypocrisy for supporting farmers’ protests

The Guardian | Protest -

Campaigners and human rights experts point to crackdown on climate and Gaza protests

The Conservatives have been accused by human rights experts of hypocrisy after cracking down on climate and Gaza protests while celebrating and endorsing farmers’ protests in Wales.

Rishi Sunak joined a protest of farmers in Wales last Friday, after they had obstructed a road while campaigning against the Labour government’s new farming subsidies scheme. But this week he vowed to crack down on protests, referring to them as “mob rule”. On Wednesday, the Welsh Conservative leader, Andrew Davies, along with many of his colleagues greeted and posed for photographs with farmers who formed a large group outside the Senedd and blocked a main road with tractors.

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‘Two worlds colliding’: Berlin transport workers and climate activists unite over rights

The Guardian | Protest -

Two groups are striking for better working conditions and investment in Germany’s underfunded public transport

At first sight, the gathering in an office complex in east Berlin resembles a self-help group. But the public transport workers and climate protesters sitting in a semi-circle introducing themselves have been thrown together, they say, to fight for a common cause.

“Hello, my name is Erdogan. I’m a bus driver in the northern zone of Berlin and have been in the job for 32 years. I’m glad someone is finally taking our profession seriously,” says one.

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Iranians expected to shun first election since death of Mahsa Amini

The Guardian | Protest -

Turnout of 38.5% or less predicted despite moves to make voting easier and allow more candidates

A majority of Iran’s angry and disillusioned electorate are predicted to stay away from parliamentary elections on Friday, viewing the process as a masquerade of democracy intended to give legitimacy to a regime that has failed to deliver on living standards, the environment and personal freedom.

In repeated speeches, the ageing supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, has urged those planning to boycott the vote that it is their patriotic and Islamic duty to elect a new four-year term parliament – the 12th since the 1979 revolution – and an 88-seat “assembly of experts” that will choose his successor in the event of him dying during its eight-year term of office.

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Tories accused of using ‘mob rule’ claims to justify restricting protests

The Guardian | Protest -

Labour among those criticising Sunak, Braverman and others for exaggerating threats to democracy from peaceful gatherings

The Conservatives have been accused of exaggerated rhetoric to justify a crackdown on protest rights, amid a pushback by civil liberties groups, which accused Rishi Sunak of exaggerating the threat of “mob rule”.

MPs have recently shared details of their own experiences of facing death threats and abuse, and a £31m package to improve their safety has been unveiled by a Home Office minister, who described pro-Palestinian protesters as “thugs”.

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Inside the campaign to stop the largest gas projects in Africa

Waging Nonviolence -

This article Inside the campaign to stop the largest gas projects in Africa was originally published by Waging Nonviolence.

In Mozambique’s northernmost province of Cabo Delgado, multinational giants TotalEnergies, ExxonMobil, Eni and others are developing three liquid natural gas, or LNG, projects. They will cost $50 billion, making them the largest LNG projects in Africa. Only one of these projects has started gas extraction, and already the industry has brought devastating consequences for communities, the land and climate — and has pushed the poor country further into debt.

However, the industry has a thorn in its side: the international Say No to Gas! campaign, which won’t let it get away with its actions without a fight.

The campaign is led by Friends of the Earth Mozambique, known locally as Justiça Ambiental, or JA!. For six years, until last July, I worked for JA! coordinating the international work of the campaign. My ultimate role was to make sure that the experiences of people on the ground reached an international level and platform.

As JA! Director Anabela Lemos recently explained, “The communities we work with have been suffering at the hands of TotalEnergies and companies that have taken everything from them, but they have remained resilient. Journalists and activists we know have disappeared, fishing and farming communities have lost everything. The industry is not bringing any of the ‘development’ they promised, but just pushing already poor people further into poverty.”

JA! works directly with community members in the gas region who are putting their lives on the line. At the same time, it is up to the international partners, who lobby against industry players in the countries where they are based, to amplify the voices of those people suffering on the international stage.

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These are voices of people who have been displaced by TotalEnergies to build their Afungi LNG Park that will hold support facilities for offshore gas extraction. At least 550 fishing and farming families were displaced to a village many miles from the sea. They have lost their farmland, and hence their entire livelihoods, and are now living off erratic aid.

The industry has been fueling a war that has been raging for six years, and has already displaced over one million people. This war between insurgents, private security and the militaries of Mozambique, Rwanda and other countries only began when the gas companies became present in the area.

Media and civil society are oppressed in the country, and many who speak out face legal repercussions or worse. One activist that JA! worked with disappeared after raising their voice at a community meeting, and several journalists have been missing for years. This makes resistance inside the country very difficult, and just speaking truth to power or writing an article raising problems with the gas industry is a revolutionary act.

People have lived in fear of both insurgents and the military, who have often extorted families for their compensation money. Many women in communities have faced or been threatened with sexual assault.

At an environmental level, the industry will irreversibly destroy the Quirimbas Archipelago, a UNESCO Biosphere, home to many endangered species of animals and plants. And the carbon emissions for just the construction of one LNG train in the park will increase the greenhouse gas emissions of Mozambique by up to 14 percent.

International pressure builds despite challenges

There are several ways in which international partners amplify the voices of these Mozambican communities.

One approach is through what the campaign calls “industry confrontation.”

Protesters marched on Standard Bank’s headquarters, which is one of the biggest financiers of Mozambique gas, during their annual general meeting in Johannesburg in 2021. (Say No to Gas!)

Partners from Europe and the U.S. — and where possible, JA! members — attend shareholder meetings to disrupt them, hold actions and publicly ask difficult questions.

In 2021, Friends of the Earth France helped to shut down the TotalEnergies shareholder meeting in Paris by blocking the entrance and forcing the company to move the meeting online. Meanwhile, at COP26, activists disrupted an Eni event by standing up and playing a voice recording of a Mozambican activist.

The campaign has also worked with other campaigns like Shell Must Fall!, Don’t Gas Africa and Collapse Total, which also fight the East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline, and the Fair Finance Southern Africa Coalition.

Partners in different countries use different strategies depending on the specific involvement of that country, each adding a different element to the campaign.

For example, in the U.S., where government agencies like the U.S. ExportImport Bank are also funding Mozambique LNG, with $4.7 billion in public funds, Friends of the Earth U.S. has been filing complaints with the bank’s accountability mechanism. Other international funders like the U.S. Development Finance Corporation, African Development Bank and Japanese government financiers have also been targets of complaints.

“The U.S. is an international leader whether we like it or not,” said Kate de Angelis from Friends of the Earth U.S. “So if we are able to convince the U.S. to stop overseas finance for fossil fuels, it makes it much more likely that Japan and other countries will follow.”

Activists outside the Royal Courts of Justice while Friends of the Earth and JA! challenge the British government’s financing of Mozambique LNG in 2021. (Say No to Gas!)

Friends of the Earth England, Wales and Northern Ireland took the U.K. government to court in 2020 for a judicial review of its financing of the Mozambique LNG project with $1.15 billion.

Even though the Supreme Court rejected the legal challenge, “the case has been highly significant,” said Rachel Kennerley from Friends of the Earth England, Wales and Northern Ireland. “It posed critical questions for the government over its responsibility to now act in accordance with the Paris Agreement and increased the legal risk around projects like Mozambique LNG.”

Knowledge creation is another important part of the campaign.

Previously, JA! and its partners created a report about funding for Mozambique gas from Export Credit Agencies, which are government agencies that use public money to finance projects abroad. And this month saw the release of a Solutions for our Climate report about Korea’s role in Mozambique LNG, along with a Columbia University report commissioned by JA! and a number of campaign partners on Investor State Dispute Settlements. JA! also published a joint report with the Fair Finance Coalition about South African government financing of Mozambique gas.

In the near future, JA! will be releasing a report with novel research on the complicity of consulting firms in the devastation caused by Mozambique gas.

Cimate activists pasted this fake advertisements for Shell on a bus stop in the Netherlands in 2020. (Say No to Gas!)

The campaign has also undertaken creative methods of resistance. In 2020, in collaboration with climate activists from around the world, they did a series of “adhacks” in Portugal, France and the Netherlands, where they pasted fake advertisements for Shell and Portuguese fossil fuel company Galp, on bus stops around the cities. Similarly, in London during the same year, the campaign collaborated with Platform London to paste images on billboards against HSBC, one of the biggest financiers of Mozambique gas.

In 2021, during COP26, activists projected messages on the outside of the SEC building in Glasgow where the meeting was being held. The next year, at a Shell annual general meeting in the Hague, activists placed a wrecking ball outside of the building; and in Denmark, protesters blocked Total petrol stations for several days. The campaign has also produced comic books, short films and music videos.

But with a campaign fighting a major industry, challenges will naturally arise.

“The difficulty is that we are not just fighting fossil fuel companies, we are fighting an entire global system where wealthy capitalists, mostly from the Global North, exploit the poor for fossil fuels which are destroying the climate,” Lemos said.

De Angelis says that there are challenges specific to different governments. In the U.S. for example, “The impacts on local communities and local environment are often very quick to be dismissed or completely ignored no matter what the evidence,” she said. “Japan has also been a major hindrance as it has a very conservative government that has refused to stop supporting fossil fuels and is openly hostile to impacted communities.”

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Another challenge is the danger and difficulty of field work for JA!. 

The war has meant that for most of the last five years the gas region has been closed to non-residents, journalists and most NGOs unless they received government permission and were chaperoned by the military.

JA! has an employee based in a community in this region, who works directly with people who live there. But they have been terrified to speak out about their suffering, for fear of reprisal from the government or the military.

‘A lot has changed’

But the campaign has seen the impact of its work along the way. In one community in Cabo Delgado, when women’s presence was required for legitimacy of the industry’s so-called consultation meetings, women refused to attend. In the Netherlands, the Ministry of Finance held an independent evaluation of the government’s financing agreement with the Mozambique LNG project of $800 million, following the campaign’s lobbying. This brought major public and parliamentary attention to the usage of public funds for a destructive project.

Affected community members, while devastated, have felt supported by the campaign. “For us, since JA! started working here in Palma, a lot has changed,” Arabe Nchamo said. “We complained to the white people about not having transport to the beach, and after JA! talked to them, we have transport, tricycles and bicycles. We are grateful. We complained about the new farmland being far away, and JA! worked hard until we managed to get the company to give us transport from the farms to the houses.”

During Shell’s annual general meeting, Code Rood activists brought a massive wrecking ball to a protest outside Shell’s office in 2021. (Say No to Gas!)

Lemos says that the campaign’s plans now are to continue its work as a watchdog in the gas region, monitoring and publicizing human rights and environmental violations and amplifying voices of affected communities at international platforms. This is done, for example, through meetings with the European Union, United Nations officials, shareholder meetings, in-person meetings with financiers and relevant states, and continuing in-depth research. It will also emphasize the fact that these fossil fuel companies’ actions in Mozambique show how blatantly they are moving away from any chance of a just transition to renewable energy.

TotalEnergies’ Mozambique LNG Project has been on pause since 2021, after a major insurgent attack in the region. But the construction of its park may restart very soon. This has created a window of opportunity for financiers to reassess their funding of the project. And the campaign is putting serious pressure on these players, reminding them that were they to finance this destructive project, they would be complicit in its impacts.

“The Mozambique LNG project is a good example of the colonial nature of a lot of fossil fuel investments,” Kennerley said. “Stopping Mozambique LNG and the gas industry across the country is extremely important because Mozambique is already on the front line of the climate crisis. Its people are already vulnerable to extreme weather and aren’t being served by the current energy system, which has not delivered energy access.”

This article Inside the campaign to stop the largest gas projects in Africa was originally published by Waging Nonviolence.

For ‘mob rule’, Rishi Sunak, look no further than your cabinet | Brief letters

The Guardian | Protest -

Chaos at the top | A Breathtaking reminder | Ending sentences with prepositions | Getting hold of British Gas

Rishi Sunak suggests “mob rule is replacing democratic rule” (Report, 28 February). It’s refreshing for a prime minister to be so critical of his own government, but surely he is being unfair to mobs? Any self-respecting mob has more organisation than the present cabinet.
Alan Gray
Brighton, East Sussex

• I have contacted ITV to urge it to rebroadcast the docudrama Breathtaking (TV review, 19 February) during the upcoming general election campaign. This devastating reminder should be at the forefront of minds when voting. We must never forget what they all did – the good, the bad and the corrupt.
Clive Needle
Rowhedge, Essex

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Why does Rishi Sunak want to clamp down on protests?

The Guardian | Protest -

Is the PM right to claim there is ‘a growing consensus that mob rule is replacing democratic rule’?

Protests, notably over Gaza, are once again in the news, though now because of the political and police response, and particularly because of comments from Rishi Sunak on Wednesday.

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Welcome to topsy-turvy Britain, where it’s opponents of Israel’s war who are the extremist ‘mob’ | Owen Jones

The Guardian | Protest -

Apologists for the mass slaughter of Palestinians are held up as mainstream, respectable moderates. Meanwhile, the destruction of Gaza goes on

A new consensus has emerged in British politics: peaceful protesters are dangerous, hateful extremists, but apologists for the mass slaughter of tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians are mainstream, respectable moderates. From his prime ministerial bully pulpit, Rishi Sunak declares there is a “growing consensus” that “mob rule is replacing democratic rule”. The world has been turned upside down, and you are entitled to ask why.

How this all unfolded is instructive. Last week, the Scottish National party used one of its three annual opposition days to table a motion demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. Labour was in a bind: under pressure from voters who are opposed to Israel’s brutal war, a huge parliamentary rebellion beckoned, with shadow ministers prepared to resign.

Owen Jones is a Guardian columnist

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

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Rishi Sunak accused of ‘hysterical nonsense’ after claiming ‘mob rule is replacing democratic rule’ – UK politics live

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Campaigners and MPs have dismissed the prime minister’s claim as hyperbolic, alarmist and illiberal

Polls have opened in the Rochdale byelection after a chaotic contest dominated by the war in Gaza, Josh Halliday reports.

A total of 128,786 people were waiting for an initial decision on an asylum application in the UK at the end of December 2023, down 20% from 160,919 at the end of December 2022, PA Media reports. PA says:

According to new figures from the Home Office, the total is also down 27% from the 175,457 people waiting for a decision at the end of June 2023, which was the highest figure since current records began in 2010.

The number of people waiting more than six months for an initial decision stood at 83,254 at the end of December, down 24% year-on-year from 109,641, and also 41% down from the record 139,961 at the end of June 2023.

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