News

Latest developments, from across the network

• Opens in a news pageNewsletter February 2024

  

  letztegeneration.at

  On February 19th, we launched our new demand for a constitutional right to climate protection in front of lots of journalists who communicated our words to the country. Then we got started with action…

  First, we brought a band onto the highway during a roadblock and played a live concert there. People who got out of their cars started dancing instead of shouting, hitting or honking. It was great!

  

  Then we started our current protest wave, beginning with massive disruption on the highway in the capital, Vienna. We needed to make sure we would not be arrested for actual crimes because we are under investigation for being a criminal organisation. So instead of gluing ourselves to the road with sand, we locked ourselves to cars with finger and arm locks. We held the spot for three and a half hours - a new record!

  Then we dumped a pile of horse shit on a very pretty crossing right next to Schönbrunn and titled it as the Chancellor’s climate policies. The media loved it and copied the message we wanted to send very well.

  

  The next day, we sat in front of the Parliament, which made conservative politicians act like we were storming the building. Even the police felt the need to clarify that we were nonviolent and did not storm anything.

  Before ending with our biggest protest in central Vienna, we annoyed the Chancellor’s office with counless phone calls, mails, faxes, social media comments and letters. We asked him about the climate protection policies he is failing to implement, and we requested his opinion on our new demand. He should like it because it was actually a demand of his own political party in 2019!

  

  noedbremsen.dk

  In February, Nødbremsen (the Emergency Brake) organised its first simultaneous protests, with three road blockades happening at the same time on the E47 highway and in central Copenhagen, uniting 18 people - the biggest number we’ve had so far - to demand that the Emergency Brake is pulled to avoid climate catastrophe.

  We also organised a cultural protest and interrupted the Danish Melodi Grand Prix, the annual Danish music competition that selects the country's artists for Eurovision. Two supporters jumped on stage with banners to ask a simple question: "Who Votes for a Future?"

  

  The Melodi Grand Prix is a cultural event which joins over a million Danes together in song and dance, but the song contest has always been about more than just music. It is about bringing the people of Europe together through a language which we all share - music - in solidarity, diversity, justice and respect.

  Climate collapse is putting all these values at risk, and the Danish government is actively escalating this collapse. Let the song we sing to our European neighbours be one of solidarity and climate justice.

  

  ultima-generazione.com

  This month, our group got involved with the farmers’ protest. At the beginning we were really unsure which position to take, but we quickly decided to take the farmers’ side.

  Why? Since the beginning, politicians have tried to use this protest to push their anti green deal agenda, but they don’t have the right to become the farmers’ spokespeople.

  

  We spoke to some committed farmers and even attended one of their protests. On TV, we said that we understood the root causes of the protest: huge inequalities, the need for fair compensation and the uncertainty brought by the climate crisis.

  Yes, the farmers' movement is heterogeneous and at points contradictory, as some of their demands are incompatible with sustainability. Nevertheless, taking their side was the right thing to do. We shouldn’t let politicians turn citizens against each other: we are all only asking them to protect our future.

  

  It’s only February, and Canada’s news agencies are warning us that “low snowpack and high temperatures forecast [are] already raising wildfire concerns,” with even right-wing newspapers warning of extreme danger come spring 2024. 

  We demand that the Canadian government creates a national firefighting agency that trains and employs 50,000 people to help us fight wildfires, and you would imagine that the government  would agree given the context. However, every single politician in this fossil-fuel-addicted extractivist nation is keeping their head in the sand, so it’s up to young people to take action. 

  

  This month Last Generation Canada swung back into action in Ottawa and received a lot of media attention as Gillian set a stroller on fire on Parliament Hill and Etienne splattered pink paint on dinosaurs in the Nature Museum in Ottawa. Amy, Ben, Xavier, and others were arrested for peacefully sitting on the road. We also welcomed back Dan from prison - you can listen to his story here.

  

  declareemergency.org

  On Valentine's Day, two Declare Emergency supporters, Kroeger and Jackson, covered the case protecting the US Constitution with red powder in the National Archives. This was a hugely successful action in getting the media’s attention as dozens reported on us, including the Washington Post, Forbes, and the Huffington Post. 

  

  Kroeger, was put in jail for this and two other actions, where he remains until his next hearing in March.

  

  återställvåtmarker.se

  This February, we have been taking over the public space with a new poster campaign.We included two posters with quotes from politicians: the climate minister stating that she’s the “world best at environmental politics”, set over an image of a community in Sweden that has been flooded since last year, and a quote from the prime minister saying “climate activists pretend to care about the climate”.

  The third poster was made by a famous Swedish satirist, Max Gustafson, who made an original comic for us that pokes fun at Återställ Våtmarker and highlights the absurdity of complaining about peaceful disruptive climate activists while living in a highly destructive system.

  

  The campaign has been a huge success, with more than 100 people signing up all over the country in just one and a half months. Our aim was to mobilise people and to cause disruption in response to current events and it’s working! We’ve already created breaking news in Karlstad, where 100 posters were put up in one hour on Tuesday night last week.

  

  letztegeneration.org/en

  Not all the successes of our resistance are immediately clear. Sometimes, a huge victory doesn’t happen during an action but outside of it.

  This is what happened in February. The supreme court of the state of Bavaria ruled that a lower court had unjustly imposed a two month prison sentence on four supporters of the Last Generation. Maja, Christoph, Karl and Max, for blocking a road once. 

  They had all taken part in other Last Generation protests, but had not yet been convicted for them. A lower court judge ruled that they must be imprisoned for two months as political offenders, but a higher court ruled overruled the previous sentence, giving us faith that the courts can still act responsibly when they look carefully at the facts. 

  

  You can read Maja’s words here… 

  “For months, I have been waiting for a letter telling me to immediately go to the nearest prison to serve two months' imprisonment. I adjusted my plans for the whole year. I started meditating again and asked friends for support during my incarceration. I felt prepared and ready. But every time I talked to my co-defendants about the preparation, my chest tightened, and fear and anger rose inside me. 

  When I received the news that our appeal had been successful against all expectations, I felt an enormous weight fall from my shoulders. What it meant for us was clear: it was confirmation that peaceful protest, even if it can be annoying, should not simply be put behind bars. The psychological pressure and threats that the court wanted to use to break us don't work. We know what is at stake.

  Nothing can stop us from doing the right and least we can in the face of the climate catastrophe. We have learnt once again that it is worth continuing our resistance even in court.”

  

  renovate-switzerland.ch

  On Thursday 8 February, Eric splashed the Federal Palace (seat of the Swiss government and Parliament) with orange paint to make their responsibility in the unfolding climate catastrophe visible. 

  

  At the time, Nikoko was still in prison in Vaud for filming an action in 2021, and we organised more than 20 actions in support of his innocence. He was released on Saturday 10 February after almost three months, and went straight back to sticking posters on the walls of Vaud’s High Council only eight hours after he had been freed. 

  

  juststopoil.org

  This month, undercover journalists pretended to expose our (already public) plans to hold politicians to account at their workplaces, in the street or at their homes. The plan to take power back from our “leaders” wasn’t a secret, but the outrage about our strategy brought us back into the national conversation.

  Politics is broken, the British people know that. So we used the attention to announce our plans to support ordinary people in this year’s election, as well as the creation of citizens assemblies to give the public a voice to demand real action on the emergencies facing humanity.  

  

  Apart from our plans for the UK’s democracy, we’re preparing our biggest action plans yet. This summer, when the heat is unbearable, the grass is dry and water is rationed, we’ll be taking action at airports to shine a bright light on the biggest consumers of oil and gas and bring the people into resistance with us. More details are coming soon…

• Opens in a news pageNewsletter January 2024

  

  letztegeneration.org

  2024 will be a year full of new protests. We will continue to be disobedient and organise mass protests all over the country. But this time we will do it without our high-visibility jackets and stickers. Our aim is to hold disruptive gatherings with as many people as possible in locations where protest cannot be ignored, and to stay there until the federal government recognises we can do better. 

  We will also confront politicians and powerful people at events about their silence on the climate crisis, like we did at a trade fair with Friedrich Merz, the leader of the oppossition party in Germany. We will draw up a declaration for leading politicians to agree to and that anyone in the country can sign. 

  The climate crisis, growing fascism and social injustice threaten our coexistence. The question in 2024 is: are you one of those who accept injustice, or one of those who will stand up against it?

  

  Lina, on how she confronted Friedrich Merz at a trade fair: 

  “We sat in the audience with our hearts pounding, surrounded by suit-wearing politicians. Friedrich Merz entered, shook hands with everyone in the front row - including some of us - before sitting down. When he took the stage for his speech on German agriculture, everything happened very quickly. He talked about securing agriculture and food in the future. How can he seriously claim that? How can he knowingly ignore the fundamentals of this planet so much and still tell the fairy tale of a perfect future? 

  We joined him on stage peacefully, one by one, and confronted him with these questions as we opened two banners, until we were stopped. We interrupted because we need change. We asked simple questions that require answers from those in power.”

  

  www.noedbremsen.dk

  In January, we executed a total of six protests: two road blockades, two highway blockades and two cultural protests.

  The road blockades took place in Copenhagen to reach as many people as possible, while the highway blockades were located on one of the 15 highways that the Danish government plans to expand. We also disturbed a Danish media event to demand that the media industry takes responsibility for its influence on the discourse around the climate collapse. Finally, we disrupted the ceremony after the Queen of Denmark's final New Year's speech, which was seen by over 2 million Danes - that’s 35% of our nation's population!

  Each of the protests sparked responses from citizens and politicians, including the Danish transport minister, Thomas Danielsen. He says he doesn’t know how to fix Denmark’s transport issue, but we have one clear recommendation: don’t spend 26 billion crowns on building 15 new highways in the middle of a climate collapse! 

  

  My name is Vera, I am 21 and have just finished my second month as a Nødbremsen supporter. 

  Like many others, I had protested against the inaction of our governments in a civil, obedient manner throughout my life. But I remained pessimistic. After reading a newspaper titled “The climate fatalist is the modern day climate denier,” I was convinced I had to do something with my hopelessness. I chose to escalate my protest and join Nødbremsen.

  This month I have been part of my first road blockade and cultural protest, where we interrupted the guards ceremony after the queen’s speech at new years which was broadcasted all over Denmark. I have been met with both rage and praise for protesting, and both make me feel that I am now part of something important. I believe civil disobedience is the best strategy to resist oppression and fight for our future. 

  

  letztegeneration.at

  We started 2024 with two viral actions that gained international media attention, including disturbing another ski competition in Bischhofshofen by invading and throwing orange powder on the slope, and organising a street protest in a luxury ski resort. 

  It was so cold during the protest that the police gave us blankets to make sure we were okay, and our video of this moment made the news in Germany and Switzerland, and got 220k views on Twitter alone!

  We will continue to dirsupt ski events that are in the international media’s attention.

  

  My name is Roman. I’ve been part of Letzte Generation Austria for the past five months. In my “normal life”, I study chemistry and work as a project manager in the steel industry. 

  These five months, and especially the last one, have been full of ups and downs, but being given a blanket by the police and seeing them behave in such a humane way gave me a lot of hope.

  Yes, there are downs, but from the past month of strategic planning and protests alone I can say that I’ve never been happier to be a part of something, and that I’ve never been more convinced that when we link up with the A22 Network we can make a crucial difference. 

  

  www.lastgenerationcanada.ca

  One of our rebels who took action in Ottawa was just sent to prison for 14 days for trying to paint Save Old Growth on a bridge last year in K'emk'emeláy (Vancouver). Although the crown asked for jail time, we never seriously considered that he would get anything more than probation or house arrest. 

  Dan is a roofer, a rock climber, a mountaineer and a lover of nature. He watched as temperatures on the Squamish Chief mountain went from a maximum of 26 degrees to a maximum of 42 degrees in 17 years. 

  In his December trial, he asked every police officer if they would break the law in an emergency. They all said yes. He asked if they take shade under a tree on a hot day. They all said yes. He thought this was an open-and-shut case. But not in the court of Judge Nancy Adams, who was not impressed with Dan's questioning of our "man-made laws".

  It took us five days to locate what jail Dan had been sent to. He will be out Tuesday January 30. Please join us in sending much love to Dan, aka Renewable man, for his heroic service to our planet.

  

  I’m Jillian Maguire, a high school teacher, and I was out on the road for Last Generation Canada’s first action phase. 

  I was horrified recently when our friend Dan, one of the most gentle, caring and principled people, was sentenced to 14 days of jail, a $900 fine, and 18 months probation for trying to paint "Save Old Growth" on the deck of Vancouver's Lion's Gate Bridge with the previous Canadian A22 campaign. It is unconscionable to me that the courts would see fit to put a man in prison for trying to warn society about the dangers of cutting down the last 2.7% of our old-growth trees. 

  I hope that people are as outraged as I am and that they join us in Ottawa this February. We will demand a national firefighting agency of at least 50,000 people so we are not covered by forest fire smoke, and a citizens' assembly to guide Canada's response to the climate and ecological crisis. We obviously can't trust our so-called leaders to get us out of this mess.

  

  återställvåtmarker.se

  After our last action wave in September 2023, we began work on our new “48 hours” projects, in which we react quickly to trigger events in society as a way to keep our resistance relevant and powerful. 

  After a month of hard work, our first 48h action took place: Restore Public Transport. 

  

  We wanted to capitalise on Swedish people’s anger at the increased cost of public transport while the price of gas is reduced, so our first direct action was to force the subway’s ticket gates open to let people walk through without paying. We created a new sign-up link, a new banner, new leaflets, and a whole new message for people to take part and the response was great!

  We received a lot of new sign ups and reached out to organisations already working on this issue that were able to help us spread our message even further. 

  

  I am scared, sad and pissed off. I am Malin. I am 51 years old. I am a mother of two daughters, aged 12 and 15. How can I prepare my children for what is coming? 

  I want humanity to live in peace with earth and one another, within the planetary boundaries. Can we do this right now? At this point, it means living outside of society. But this is because the social contract is already broken. It lies like crumbs around our feet. 

  I put my physical body in the way. I put my legal body in the way.

  To sit on the motorway is an expression of doing everything I can. An act of proportionality of my actions to the urgency of the climate emergency. 

  But some today are already exposed to the climate hell we, in privileged countries, are only beginning to imagine. In Somalia, Magda Gad, a journalist, describes the end of humanity. She sees mothers burying their children in the sand. Turning a blind eye is unbearable. 

  I have a voice in society, a privileged place, and a constitutionally protected right to demonstrate. Therefore I also have a moral obligation to use these rights to resist peacefully against the unwillingness of those in power to stop the climate and societal collapse, for my children’s future and the future of all children. 

  

  ultima-generazione.com

  On the 18th of January, the Italian parliament voted in favour of a new law increasing to up to 60,000€ the fines against people carrying out our most common actions of peaceful resistance (especially those involving paint). 

  Some politicians declared their firm opposition to the law as its only aim is to stop dissent (which should be guaranteed in our constitution). We sent 8000 emails to our president asking him not to sign the new law. But it wasn’t enough.

  The law passed, under particularly ironic circumstances: during one of our supporters' trials that same day, the judge recognised the “moral value” of our actions. 

  

  My name is Maria Letizia, I’m 63 years old and I’m a researcher. In the Ultima Generazione campaign I work to care for the parents and other relatives of the people taking action, among other things. I think this activity is really important, because it isn’t easy for a parent to accept that their child is taking direct action and risking jail. 

  Even if many share the values and ideals of our “activists”, they will always worry about the consequences of their actions. Part of my work is to organise moments where everyone can share their feelings and worries and receive support.

  

  juststopoil.org

  We’ve gained a lot of knowledge together over the past two years, so this month our strategy team took time to travel the country and speak with every region and every team in the campaign. 

  While we plan for the future, we are preparing to start taking back the power from our corrupt politicians. In our local teams, we are close to launching our Wide Awake campaign that will disrupt politicians as they try to gather support for the next election, focusing in particular on the Labour Party. Until they promise to stop all new oil and gas in the UK, we won’t let them rest!

  

  I am Béa. I am mixed-raced of Armenian/Nigerian heritage from London. 

  I often state my heritage because being mixed-raced has informed my understanding of the world; being of an ancient lineage has connected me greatly to our natural world; but most of all it has influenced what is most important to me and how I bring that to a movement for change: intersectional inclusion and diversity. Without the intersection of social justice our power to change is wounded. We are weakened when we are not united. It is not only about one voice, but listening to all voices. 

  Growing up within civil rights rallies and movements, it became increasingly obvious that racial justice is climate justice, it’s queer liberation, it’s justice for occupied people, it’s migrant justice. Climate catastrophe has its root in colonialism and neoliberal capitalism, therefore justice for the climate is justice only when all of those who are systemically oppressed are liberated. This I’m very passionate about. 

  Almost a year ago I was asked to fill in for a role at Just Stop Oil. Because of my passion for diversity, I began to organise panel talks that intersected climate issues with other social justice issues, with some huge and notable speakers. It’s been such an honour to do this work, and I hope it continues to encourage people to unlearn, learn, and listen. Knowledge is the enemy of ignorance, and goes hand in hand with compassion and love. 

  And with love, justice soon comes. 

  

  asdas

  https://renovate-switzerland.ch/

  renovate-switzerland.ch

  On the 16th of January, Eric and Anthony stuck pages from the IPCC report to the walls of Vaud’s Cantonal Parliament. Other supporters carried out the same action for several days. This was partly done in response to the 60-days imprisonment of Nikoko, who received this sentence for filming a similar action in 2021. We want to show the Swiss government that prison will not stop our commitment to act against the climate emergency.

  

  Hi, my name is Anthony, I’m 21 and I put an end to my studies to devote all of my time to civil resistance for the climate. Why? Because I don’t have a future anyway, and putting my personal comfort above the billions of people who suffer from the climate crisis would be too selfish. 

  I have several roles in Renovate Switzerland, like coordinating relations between different local communities, leading the Geneva community, and mobilising people for our project calling out Nikoko’s imprisonment. 

  For two weeks I stuck the IPCC report twice to Vaud’s Parliament and once to the Public Ministry, and every day to various state buildings, to tell the government it should act on the climate emergency instead of sending its whistleblowers to prison. 

  The first time I took this action was at the end of a parliamentary meeting. I felt calm and confident until we saw the two police officers behind the door, but we did what we set out to do anyway and stuck the report to the walls. In the end, the officers confiscated our tools but they didn’t arrest us, and we stayed by the door to talk with the representatives that came out after their meeting. 

  I was very happy after we took this action, and determined to do more of them!

  

  www.declareemergency.org

  On January 19th, four Declare Emergency supporters were banned from Washington DC for the next two years, in addition to suspended jail terms and probation for two years, for blocking traffic on a major DC highway in August. 

  

  In August 2019, my friend Kent called me: the news about that spring’s Extinction Rebellion London Bridge blockades had finally trickled down to North Carolina. Within the month we had joined with others working to start local XR chapters. Few moments in life have made me happier than the moment that I joined others to glue-on to the yellow and pink Extinction Rebellion boat within sight of the White House that September. 

  At one point during our recent trial, the lead prosecutor said: “Getting arrested is a badge of honor for you, isn’t it?”, one of many moments during the trial where the chasm between the officers of the court and that of the defendants was so wide that it was challenging to know where to begin to respond.

  That prosecutor could never understand the peace that comes from sitting in the road knowing that you are doing everything you can possibly do to oppose a path of massive suffering.

  The work I’ve done for DE over the past two years and for Extinction Rebellion before that has been intense, but working hard to stop humanity’s self-destruction has been the only way I could live with the situation. 

  I am grateful to those who make this work possible. 

  

  www.stoppoljeletinga.no

  This month, we had great news. Norway’s top court said that three recently approved oil and gas projects are illegal and that the government must now consider emissions that come from the burning of oil and gas reserves when approving projects. Some politicians are now arguing that all projects since 2020 should be stopped.  

  We will continue our resistance with Stopp Oljeletinga, and we are now working towards the next action phase planned for April, focusing on locally-based and student-led mobilisation. To do this we are reviewing our structure to better support our core identity and sense of community. 

  Luckily a strong core of people is forming, bringing a lot of excitement and potential with it!

  

  restorepassengerrail.nz

  Restore Passenger Rail is experiencing its last month under that name. With the election of a right-wing government, we must now turn our focus to local government. This campaign began with a mild disruption to a meeting of the Christchurch City Council, but the largest change is yet to come.

  We have begun the process of rebranding ourselves, and we will soon have a new name which will highlight our broader focus. Instead of focusing on a large, single issue, we will focus on a variety of climate-related transport issues from a local to a national level. An added bonus is that we may even be able to entirely evade an order by the Advertising Standards Authority (a non-governmental oversight authority for advertising) to take down our "offensive" posters.

  The final news for the Restore Passenger Rail group is positive; one of the last headlines to which our name will be attached is that one of our supporters who sprayed a luxury car dealership has been discharged without conviction.

• Opens in a news pageNewsletter December 2023

  We are a growing international network ​racing to save everything we love by using effective civil resistance across our 12 countries. We are here to make clear: humanity is better than to give in to extinction. 

  This newsletter brings together our work in December, as well as some of the voices of the people making it all happen.

  ​Support us. Join us. You are ​needed.

  Donate to support our network here

  

  https://www.noedbremsen.dk/stoet

  This month, Nødbremsen (The Emergency Brake) became the newest member of the A22 Network, based in Denmark.

  The Danish government pretends to be leading climate action but is doing the opposite. They will spend €3.5 billion on building 15 new highways before 2035 as they cut back public transport. Local people and NGOs are being ignored, but the government boasts it has “listened to the interest of private companies”. 

  Building these new highways will emit more than 1.3 million tonnes of CO2 and will create a lock-in effect for decades as the number of private cars increases.

  We are peacefully blocking roads and highway exits and disturbing cultural events with the simple demand to the government that they cancel this project.

  With five road blockades and disruption of two cultural events, we executed our second protest period. Many of Denmark's biggest newspapers covered our actions, and we got responses from both politicians and citizens. We used the moment to spread our message and invite people to join our resistance.

  We look forward to drawing inspiration from our fellow campaigns in the A22 Network and harnessing this inspiration to grow our campaign much bigger and stronger in the new year.

  

  My name is Nicolai, I'm 27 years old and work as a sustainability engineer in the building industry. But above all, I'm part of Nødbremsen. I say this because I completely believe that our civil disobedience is the best strategy to achieve meaningful and timely political action on the climate collapse.

  A few weeks ago, I participated in my first protest with Nødbremsen, a blockade of one of the 15 highway projects that have recently been approved for construction or expansion. These highways are a blatant example of our government's continued acceleration of the climate collapse. We can no longer bear witness to it. 

  There's nothing radical about protesting for a safe and livable planet. I'm not special. I'm not unique. I'm a regular Danish citizen who's had enough. 

  

  https://letztegeneration.at

  Austria has increased its repression of peaceful climate protesters since our protests in November, and is now trying to make us as a criminal organisation. Political pressure against us is high, which shows that our protests are working and can no longer be ignored! 

  Among the people who are being criminalised are social workers, students, retired people, nurses, data analysts, facility managers… and the authorities do not seem to have a clear strategy as to whom to target. We are all at risk.

  We sent out a press release and launched a fundraising campaign which raised over €17,000 to cover the legal costs that the government keeps piling on against us. Within minutes, the news had become the top article on all media websites and Letzte Generation became a topic on Austria’s most relevant TV panels. 

  On 22 December, we protested with people from Germany at the German/Austrian border in Kufstein.

  This ended a strong year of rebellion for us, with 128 protest days, 217 street protests, 33 marches and 29 special actions including paint or events, which was covered in 2751 media articles. 

  

  Lena, a nurse and mother of two, risks up to three years in prison for her involvement in Letzte Generation. She responds… 

  “In November, I glued myself in front of the Austrian parliament to the street for my daughters. But although I am burdened by the repression and criminalisation of our peaceful protests this December, my love for my children gives me the strength to carry on.” 

  

  https://letztegeneration.org

  2023 is over, and we as Last Generation put up a lot of resistance throughout Germany this year. Guided by our conscience, we stayed strong in the face of obstacles. We have given many people a feeling of power and effectiveness by showing that we can fight back when politics fail to protect us, and we received an incredible amount of support in return.

  Our civil resistance has achieved a lot. At the end of December, a court case took place in the regional court for the first time, during which a judge heard climate scientists and a protest researcher as experts to help decide whether Last Generation’s protests are justified in light of the climate crisis. 

  The success of our resistance in the long term depends on more than individual victories such as this one, which is why we are currently working on creating new strategies to increase the impact of our resistance in 2024. 

  See you in 2024 - definitely on the streets.

  

  I’m Jana and I’m part of our strategy team. The past two years have been very eventful for Last Generation Germany, so we are using our time now at the turn of the year to determine our strategy going forward. 

  An important part of this work is to reflect on the assumptions on which our civil resistance is based. Two years ago, we were only a few dozen people causing a lot of public disruption to penetrate the country’s consciousness. Today, we are many more and everyone in the country knows us. 

  From this position we can now consider how best to increase the pressure on the federal government to protect us from the climate crisis. Once our general strategy is determined, a detailed plan will emerge, but what we know for sure is that we always have the choice to free ourselves from our powerlessness and stand in the way of our supposed “fate”. 

  No one can take our spirit of resistance away from us.

  

  https://www.stoppoljeletinga.no/

  December started with a shock as six of us received record fines for slow marches in October. 

  But we are in good spirits as we believe in the power of solidarity and mutual support. We started a fundraiser to help pay the fines and have already raised Kr38,000 out of the Kr150,000 (€13,400). 

  We refused to let fines or any kind of repression stop us, so on 16 December we took action again, this time on ski slopes. 

  The Norwegian Skiing Association is sponsored by oil corporations, despite the fact that skiing in Norway is threatened by the warmer climate which these companies are causing! 

  5 of us tried blocking the cross-country World Cup race in Trondheim. Although we were stopped by security guards before we could reach the slope, we still received a lot of media attention, keeping the pressure against the Norwegian Skiing Association to push them to divest from oil. 

  

  I’m Ragnhild Kvist Simonsen and I filmed the action on the ski slopes.

  I remember the stranger we chatted with as we watched the race before taking action. She was from the US and had travelled to cheer her children who were competing. She was so friendly then, but after we tried to block the race and were taken away, I overheard her say: “They’re horrible people.” I understand her reaction, but it hurt.

  Norway is an interesting country to do climate activism in. We are a nation of extreme oil wealth, with pride in the industry, and an apathy towards the crisis. Our actions attract a lot of negative attention from the public, which is both frightening and empowering. 

  When I think about the action on the ski slope and the woman I met there, I hope she does not just dismiss us as troublemakers but comes to understand why a young stranger who could have been a friend would choose to do this.

  It’s easy to dismiss strangers as horrible people. That’s why I believe that engaging with the community is one of the most important things we can do. I am fighting for a world where we love and care for our friends, our neighbours, and even the strangers we do not agree with.

  

  After our actions in November and the arrests, court appearances and prison time we faced together, we have taken time to rest and support each other in December. 

  We have been in resistance together for two years. Just Stop Oil is known across the country and our demand is popular. Now is the perfect time for us to reflect on what has worked well and what didn’t work so well to figure out where we go from here.

  2024 is going to be a huge year for political power in the UK and we will be there to make sure that the criminals choking our world with new oil, gas and coal are held to account.

  

  The following are extracts from a Guardian interview with Morgan Trowland, released this month after 13 months in prison for taking action with Just Stop Oil:

  “I’m personally not that bothered,” Trowland told the Guardian. “It was a lot of quiet time to do lots of reading philosophy and poetry.

  “It’s not good, but personally I don’t think it’s very scary. It just seems really absurd. It feels really absurd to me because, like, that is supposed to scare us into accepting climate and ecological collapse, and accept living in a self-destructive societal system? It’s a nonsense.”

  But perhaps Trowland’s most surprising lesson from life behind bars was about happiness. “It was quite easy to be happy in prison, because you can always come up with some mental pursuits … And that felt really good just because, you’re sent there to be punished, right? It’s supposed to be bad, you’re supposed to feel miserable, downcast all the time … So that was a good lesson, that you can be really happy with just some books of poetry and just going to a garden each day.”

  “It’s really nice to be home with my partner and cat, and it’s delightful to just be relaxing at home. I want to see if I can recover that very relaxing mind state that I had in prison. I want to see if I can get relaxed enough to write a poem in the outside world.”

  Marcus Decker, Morgan’s partner in action, remains in prison and is facing deportation. Over 149,000 have signed a petition calling for him to remain in the UK. Add your name here!

  

  Our December action campaign began with the arrest of 12 people for participating in a  roadblock. It was tough and we couldn’t get in touch with them until the trial, three days later. 

  Now they are out of prison but must stay in their cities of residence. This deeply impacted our plans, but we managed to carry on. We organised one day of collective and concentrated action with more than 150 people, ending with a two hour roadblock while we occupied the street and held citizen assemblies. 

  

  Hi, my name is Giacomo. I work as a data analyst and I help Ultima Generazione with fundraising and digital action. This month we managed to collect many email contacts through petitions, doubling our mailing list to 9000 contacts. 

  This was possible thanks to some extreme events we faced (floods at the end of November, then the 12 arrests), but we also had success with social media ads. Even a small investment, like €10 per day, got us as much as 100 signatures to our petitions. There is still much to learn but there’s a lot of potential! New contacts mean more people to our talks and new potential supporters and action takers.

  

  France’s courts and the state have been relentless in their attacks on citizens committed to the climate this month, but we have continued to take action. 

  After record levels of rain in October and France, 6 supporters ended November by spraying the Christmas tree at France's biggest Christmas market in Strasbourg with orange paint to highlight the hypocrisy of COP28. As Antoine said, “If I look back 10 or 20 years from now, I won't be able to bear not having taken action. I'm also acting out of love, for my nephews and godchildren. For their future. For my future. For your future.

  A week later, around fifteen citizens got together for a big action to put the thermal renovation of buildings back on the agenda. Using dozens of radiators they symbolically blocked the Concorde bridge in Paris.

  Over the month, France's civil resistance movement decided to join forces to send out strong messages to the courts and the state. With Extinction Rebellion and other groups we published our first opinion pieces to call for justice and an end to the state’s criminal hypocrisy: "Police, justice: the new face of French-style ecology” and "NGOs for the climate: faced with political deafness, justice must take a stand”.

  The same day, Matthieu and Sébastien went on trial for covering the Ministry of Ecological Transition with paint in January 2022. Twelve more citizens had trials this month, with many facing years in prison and large fines for blocking roads last year. 

  They all need our unfailing support if they will make the courts see reason and open their eyes.

  

  My name is Julie, I'm 27 years old, and today I'm taking action to give my brothers and sisters a decent future. Today we're blocking the road in front of the National Assembly to demand thermal renovation of buildings using radiators as symbols because every year 10,000 people die in substandard housing. 

  I'm here is because I want a world with more dignity, a world that is fairer in social and environmental terms. Especially for my little sisters and brother, who want children soon, and because I want children too. 

  I've read the IPCC reports, I know the figures that prove the injustice: the 10,000 deaths a year in substandard housing, the destruction underway and to come, the condemnation of the state for climate inaction. This is not the world I aspire to, either for myself or for those I love. 

  As the eldest of my siblings, I have a duty to act to ensure the future of my sisters Layla and Sirine, and my brother Yann. I want to say goodbye to this old world for them, I want to create a new world that is liveable, happy and fair. And for them, I thank all those who are working to ensure that humanity takes a different path, and I thank all those who do not choose to remain passive. 

  We are at a crossroads, let's move together towards social and climate justice!

  

  In December, Joanna, one of the two climate protestors who put paint a case containing a famous sculpture in Washington’s National Gallery of Art in April, pleaded guilty to injuring museum property and faces a sentence of up to five years in prison. The other protestor, Tim, said he would decline a plea deal and will go to trial in 2024 instead. He also faces jail time for his action. 

  

  My name is James and I have been involved in the climate resistance movement for twenty years. I currently do work on social media and other work for Declare Emergency. 

  In the past I wrote extensively about climate change and capitalism, but, realising that words without action are meaningless, I started taking part in active resistance with movements like Extinction Rebellion and others. 

  I take action because we face the potential extinction of our species, and to avoid all the suffering and injustice that would take place on the way there. The more I learn about our planet and us as humans and the more overwhelmed by the scale of the task ahead of us I feel. 

  Despite this, I find hope and motivation in the growing ambitions, sophistication and size of the climate movement attempting to carry out this task. In 2024, with luck and determination, we will take another big step forward in finding our way back to Earth. 

  

  After organising 40 actions in 2023, we started December by spraying orange paint on the offices of UBS in Lausanne. It was the second action in a fortnight to highlight the slowness of Swiss banking giant UBS in renovating its buildings. 

  We chose UBS was chosen as the target to highlight the need for government pressure to speed up insulation. As a financial power, UBS has all the money it needs to renovate its buildings. 

  We took action just before Christmas to remind the country that ordinary people are spending the holiday in prison for peaceful climate action. How can we look our children in the eyes and wish them a Merry Christmas when their future is doomed by current politics?

  

  My name is Selina Lerch and I'm 29 years old. I’ve been involved in the campaign of Renovate Switzerland which is part of the Act Now movement, since March 2022. 

  I coordinate the Community Circle which aims to welcome and integrate new people into the movement. I feel empowered and that I’m in the right place. At the same time I’m extremely sad to be doing this.

  For 2024 I hope that the movement continues to grow, that new people take on new responsibilities and that the climate crisis is taken seriously by politicians.

  

  How Helen and Alfred started the Swedish Resistance

  It is exactly two years today since we met in a dark shabby basement in Malmö, the perfect location for planning the revolution. A bit chilly, wrapped up in blankets with constant noise from pipes in the ceiling, the ideas slowly started to manifest themselves on the massive whiteboard.

  We both said, ”we are not leaving this basement before we have the plan for saving the world”. A bit cheesy and naive, but we both truly meant it. We were tired of being anxious about the future and not having a plan of how to change it. Tired of joining Extinction Rebellion demonstrations, pleading to politicians and hoping our theatrical shows would get them to change direction. 

  On the whiteboard Alfred drew up the main target: ”to democratically stop global warming.” But to achieve this grand goal we had to pull off peaceful revolution.

  Helen freaked out on the couch: “ I don’t know how to do that. I don’t have a degree in social sciences.” “Well, I don’t know how to do that either,” Alfred replied, “but we have to try.”

  We phoned up people from Insulate Britain to find out how they came up with their demand and thoroughly studied the book ”Blueprint for revolution”. Several days later and a bit thinner, Återställ Våtmarker was born.

  Two years have now passed and we are so thankful, happy and proud that more people continue to join Återställ Våtmarker and share their skills to help fulfil our common vision. 

  Let there be more sleepless nights in basements across the world. Let the revolution begin.

  Helen and Alfred, co-founders of Återställ Våtmarker.

  

  

  In December we doubled our actions against luxury car sellers. We sprayed paint over two shops in a single morning and received an incredibly gratifying media response. The police were strangely uninterested and let the protesters involved walk away without arrest.

  Two days after this, we slow marched down a street which the media called “a key transport link”, even though it was a road in a wealthy suburb housing the regional headquarters of the governing right-wing party and eight car dealerships - including four luxury car sellers!

  We notified the police in advance of this march, but they had no idea what to expect. With so many potential spraying targets, they sent dozens of officers and many, many cars. We had a surprise when we reached the car dealerships: all of their staff were out and lined up on the street, waiting to see what we would do. We concluded our march with a street demonstration.

  In a year in which we’ve struggled to get covered by the media, it was good to realise we can still get their attention.