Our Actions
For details of upcoming actions, visit our Events page. For more up-to-date accounts of our recent actions and campaigns, visit our campaigns page and our blog.
Climate Rush so far…
Climate change wake up call for Vince Cable and Philip Hammond
Between 5.30 and 7.00 am on a June 2011 morning Climate Rushers visited Transport Secretary Philip Hammond and Business Secretary Vince Cable, wrapping their homes in ‘Climate Crime Scene’ tape. On their first day back in Parliament after half term Ministers were called on to attend the United Nation Climate Change Conference in Bonn, which began yesterday and will last two weeks. Climate Rush stuck banners to Cable’s and Hammond’s houses reading ‘THERE’S NO PLANET B – SOLVE CLIMATE CHANGE’.
Railway Adventure: The Unfair Fare Dodge
In April 2011 Climate Rush boarded a train to Canterbury and paid what we felt was a fair fare. We did this as a protest against the grotesque price of traveling by rail in the UK and the massive 31% fair hikes the government has planned over the next 5 years. We demand that public, more carbon efficient transport, is encouraged and that money is put into the railways rather than the aviation and petroleum industries. The day was an outstanding success and a beautiful day out - we were lucky enough to have the support of the Craftivist Collective who made a 25-metre long train bunting petition which decorated the train (before it was presented to Transport Secretary Philip Hammond). As part of the action a wonderful team of cyclists rode the whole 60 miles from London to Canterbury to meet us. We praise them for their outstanding effort, and stand in awe of their calf muscles!
Rob Flello MP rushes to the rescue of Climate Rush
At 8am on a November morning in 2010, Climate Rush sent a deputation of 12 Edwardian-costumed women to Parliament to demand the Sustainable Livestock Bill be passed. Like their sisters before them, they were stopped by police. Undeterred, these modern-day Suffragettes called Robert Flello MP, the minister who put forward the Sustainable Livestock Bill. The women, wearing pinnies that read ‘Support Sustainable Agriculture’, handed him a hamper full of sustainably-farmed goodies and wished him luck in the debate.
Climate Viagra
At 6 AM on the day before the Lib Dem conference, six (very apologetic) climate couriers were ringing on Nick Clegg’s doorbell to deliver a rather unusual package – a huge climate viagra to help him ‘get hard’ on tackling climate change. Inspired by the film Beyond the Pole, which has as its strapline ‘Don’t Be Impotent, Be Important’, we hoped to send a positive message to Nick that this was the moment to place climate change ‘sensitively but firmly at the heart of all government policy’. You can sign the ‘ get hard on climate change’ petition here and watch a video of the action here.
Love Opera, Hate Oil Spills
As BP spent the summer of 2010 trying to clean up its image by sponsoring arts, a group of climate suffragettes went to the opera (a live screening from the Royal Opera house in Trafalgar square) to remind the crowd, and the company, that its reckless actions wouldn’t be forgotten.
The Great Climate Swoop
In October 2009, a thousand activists from Climate Camp, Plane Stupid and Climate Rush descended on Ratcliffe-on-Soar coal fired power station, shutting down the turbines for over 24 hours and saving the planet tonnes of CO2. We provided a troop of climate suffragettes for the ‘footsteps to the future’ block, distracting the police while several hundred others took down the fences.
Clarkson manure dump
While walking between Oxford and Stroud we got a tip off that we’d be passing by Jeremy Clarkson’s house and decided to pay him a little visit. We were annoyed with him for using his column in the Sun to suggest that climate change wasn’t man-made, and of course Top Gear is a celebration of all things carbon intensive. Since he’s so blasé about his own emissions, we thought we’d drop off some of ours – a pile of horse manure, which we dumped on his drive. Clarkson took it as a joke it was meant to be, and we hope our central message got out: that we actually love Top Gear, and we think Clarkson is a brilliant TV host, we just wish he’d give up his old-fashioned gas guzzlers and start test driving the technologies of the future, like Dale Vince’s super sexy wind powered sports car…
Climate Rush on the Run
In early September 2009 a motley crew of landlubbers set off from Sipson Airplot for a 350 mile journey with three horses, two carts, a bender tent that slept 15 and four bags of sashes and suffragette costumes. For a month we trekked across the south of England, passing through High Wycombe, Aylesbury, Oxford, Stroud, Bristol, Exeter and ending, tired but triumphant, in Totnes. We spent our journey running workshops, doing actions, handing out our magazine, Here Comes the Sun, and talking to everyone we met about climate change. You can read all about it on the On The Run blog.
Mandelson Lock On
While Vestas wind turbine factory was closing down from lack of investment in the UK wind industry, Peter Mandelson as Business Secretary arranged a million pound bail out for Vauxhall to help them through the recession. So, on a sunny day in August, two suffragettes (and the Yes Men in their signature Survivaball suits) chained on outside his super plush house in central London to ask Mandy to ‘put some wind in Vestas’ sales’. The factory was under occupation at the time, and we hope our solidarity action helped to keep it in the news, and to draw attention to Mandelson’s role in helping out fossil fools like the car industry while letting the technologies of the future fall behind.
Climate Rush: Love Life, Hate Palm Oil, 1st July 2009
On the eve of the largest Agro-fuels investment conference Climate Rush decided to rush the hotel where the major investors in agro-fuels were holding their gala dinner. We pledged to have a protesting presence at any conference that was pushing false solutions, such as unsustainable agro-fuels, to climate change. If we are to stand a chance of stopping runaway climate change then we must protect our largest carbon sink, the world’s rainforests, rather than chopping them up to get rich by planting agro-fuels.
Climate Rush: Bike Rush, 1st June 2009
On the first day of the UN Climate Summit in Bonn over 600 climate Suffragettes mounted their bikes and took over central London. As international leaders were discussing what to put on the agenda for the UN Climate Summit in Copenhagen we were proving to our politicians that there is a public mandate for action on climate change. We took a tour of climate criminals whose offices are based in central London, BP, BAA, Shell, Unilever, before congregating on Westminster Bridge, just under Big Ben. We closed the bridge for over an hour whilst we unfurled our picnic blankets, listened to a ceilidh band, climbed on Boudica’s statue and dropped banners proclaiming – DEEDS NOT WORDS.
Climate Rush Parliament Glue-On, 27th April 2009
We take inspiration from the suffragettes, so what better way to show our gratitude than by celebrating a centenary? For over five years they mounted action after action, so there are loads of anniversaries to work with. On 27th April 2009 the centenary of Marjory Humes’ action came up. 100 years ago she had chained herself to a statue in Parliament and had to be cut free by police. It was also four days since Ed Miliband had declared his plan to invest in a new generation of coal-fired power stations, his answer to our energy insecurity. So what did the Rushers do? They glued themselves round the same statue and spent two hours in the heart of Parliament talking about the need for truly clean energy.
Climate Rush Closes RBS HQ, 5th March 2009
In the week when Fred the Shred, CEO of a nationalised Royal Bank of Scotland, refused to give up his £16 million pension, Climate Rush decided to hold a party outside RBS HQ. The Royal Bank of Scotland prides itself on being ‘the oil and gas bank’, investing more in high carbon industry than any other UK bank. We held a street party outside their London head offices forcing them to shut their doors for two hours and hindering the smooth running of their business. Our protest was reported in the Financial Times, signalling to big business that protests will be mounted against banks propped up by taxpayers, that continue to support the biggest carbon emitters.
Climate Rush Host ‘No New Coal Awards’, 26th February 2009
On the evening of the UK COAL AWARDS held at the illustrious Landmark Hotel in London, the Climate Rush decided that such a corporate back-slapping event for the most polluting UK industry must be disrupted. We publicised that we would be holding our own NO NEW COAL AWARDS at the same hotel at the same time. Terrified of our protesting presence we forced the UK COAL AWARDS to cancel their event, costing them at least £5000, and relocate to another venue. The Landmark Hotel were so embarrassed by our presence within and outside their hotel that they pledged never to hold the award ceremony again. Success!
Climate Rush Gets Chained to Parliament, 28th January 2009
On the day that the Houses of Parliament were debating the expansion of Heathrow Airport, ten climate suffragettes went armed with chains to the gates of Westminster. Our aim was to create a visible protest that would be impossible to ignore. As the politicians walked into the Houses of Parliament to hold their debate about the climate impact of Heathrow Airport, we wanted them to walk past a group of activists who are so concerned about climate change that they would risk arrest. We were joined, last minute, by a pensioner from Twickenham who frustrated with writing to her MP and going on marches had decided to take a step further and engage in civil disobedience. Nice one Jean!
Climate Rush Hits Heathrow, 12th January 2009
Two days before the government gave the go ahead for a third runway at Heathrow, Climate Rush held a sit-in dinner at domestic departures, Terminal One. Over 700 intrepid Climate Suffragettes hid their costumes under coats and their picnics in carry-ons. At 19:00 a string quartet struck up, picnic blankets embroidered with our protest slogans, were unfurled and a merry dinner began. A parachute was brought out and one hundred children stood around it, swirling it into the air and singing ‘we’ve got the whole world in our hands’. Our protest was covered by every national newspaper and appeared on Sky and BBC news channels. Ahead of the government’s decision we provided the media with a story about how strong a public mandate there was against the expansion of Heathrow Airport. If the runway is constructed it will make Heathrow the largest carbon emitter in the UK.
The Climate Rush, 13th October 2008
We celebrated the centenary of the Suffragette Rush on Parliament by holding a rally in Parliament Square, with speeches by women including Rosie Boycott and Caroline Lucas MEP, which climaxed with a rush on Parliament. 100 years on and our focus was no longer votes for women but instead climate action now. Over 1000 women joined the rally and were inspired at 19:00 to rush Parliament, forcing them to lock shut their doors and halt their business. Our three demands were emblazoned on our red sashes – ‘no new coal’, ‘no airport expansion’ and ‘reform climate policy’. Three days later Ed Milliband, Secretary for Energy and Climate Change, did indeed reform climate policy when he pledged in the Climate Change Bill to cut UK emissions by 80 percent by 2050.
Chalking Pavements and Sashing Statues
In the build up to our first Climate Rush we used creative ways to publicise the event. Dressed as Suffragettes we went to Parliament Square and hung sashes on the important dead men that line three of its sides. Whilst some of our number clambered over statues, others handed out fliers to passing MPs and civil servants. We then took to the busy Friday night streets of Soho to chalk the details of our Climate Rush on walls and pavements all over town.
