Extinction Rebellion glue themselves to ground and strip naked outside banks
Extinction Rebellion (XR) activists staged a naked protest in the City of London yesterday, demanding banks cut ties with fossil fuel companies.
After first stripping off inside the HSBC building, activists quickly moved on to Barclays, taking their clothes off outside.
The nude protesters painted slogans on their bodies including ‘act now’ and ‘the naked truth’, in an effort to call out the alleged funders of the climate crisis.
Others had ‘Stop Funding Death’, ‘Morally Bankrupt’ and ‘Blood Money’ inked across their chests.
The only garments they continued to wear were their face masks.
Shocked customers were seen leaving their local branch to be greeted by the naked men and women holding a ‘We are all vulnerable’ banner.
Some activists even stripped off inside the banks.
XR said they hope parting with their clothes would encourage banks to part with their dealings with fossil fuel companies.
Protestor Jasper Bailey, 24, from Ipswich, said: ‘I was terrified to be naked in public, but I am more terrified of climate change.
‘Every year brings new dire predictions for the Earth’s climate, and every year we see even worse scenarios playing out before our eyes.
‘We can no longer fool ourselves that the climate crisis will only affect future generations.
‘In recent weeks, we have seen the climate breaking down before our eyes in an unprecedented series of horrific heatwaves, fires, and floods.’
Also on Friday, doctors and nurses staged a ‘die in’ outside JP Morgan’s headquarters in Canary Wharf in protest of the ‘biggest funder of coal, oil and gas extraction’.
A number of protestors dressed in medical scrubs, who were part of Doctors for Extinction Rebellion, also glued themselves to the ground.
They were freed by police officers only to be cuffed moments later.
This was the second time this week protestors targeted JP Morgan.
On Wednesday eight women armed with hammers and chisels broke two windows at the bank’s Victoria Embankment office.
Yesterday’s action is part of a two-week series of demonstrations against organisations investing in fossil fuels in the capital.
Almost 500 people have already been arrested at major disruptions in Oxford Circus, Tower Bridge, London Bridge and South Kensington.
The Metropolitan Police revealed there had been a total of 480 arrests since the environmental group working to highlight the climate emergency began its action on August 23.
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