Wrap-up: The Rebellion Week in Portugal in 10 Acts

The international rebellion week in Portugal consisted of 10 direct and non-violent actions that brought up seven themes (energy, transportation, food, political decisions, fashion, plastic and waste, and greenwashing), always focusing on our three claims: 1) That the governments tell the truth about the climate crisis; 2) A drastic reduction of the emissions of greenhouse gases trhough a massive mobilization of climate emergency and a just transition; and 3) Participative democracy.

The week started in the morning of April 15th, when activists set up a plastic net in front of Nestlé in Act 1: Nestlé, What to do with all your plastic?.

In the evening of the same day, in Act 2: Activists showed down the summit that gathered oil companies and the Portuguese government. Activists brought the rebellion to the front doors of the event “European Climate Summit”, which was home to another greenwashing operation. This act consisted in three scenes: A gathering in front of the event, a performance that represents the blood of future generations that the companies and the governments have in their hands, and finally, an intervention inside of the summit, where activists denounced the complicity of the minister for the environment.

Tuesday started by interrupting the broadcast of CMTV (network for the tabloid Correio da Manhã). In Act 3: Climate Alert: Alternative live emission in CMTV, activists invaded the live emission of CMTV against the complicit silence and connivance of the majority of the Portuguese (and worldwide) press about the climate emergency we live on.

Still on Tuesday, in Act 4: The fashion Industry kills! multiple activists got in H&M and celebrated the marriage between pollution and fast fashion. The activists alerted: the fashion industry is the second biggest polluting industry in the world. It relies mostly on fast fashion, which causes an unprecedented exploration of natural resources and the creation of jobs with slavery conditions.

Wednesday, in the early morning, there was a frontal clash between a paper plane of the Extinction Rebellion forces and an icon of the Socialist Party, set in an electoral propaganda poster in Praça de Espanha, Lisboa. Act 5: Socialist Party – “More planes, more pollution and sure deaths” showed down the project of the new airport in Montijo, that was the Socialist Party’s foremost advertised measure for the European elections.

Thursday, in Act 6: Activists protest in front of the Agriculture Ministry about contractual agreements with China. Activists made a sketch with the Portuguese Minister for Forests and Agrarian Development, Luís Capoulas Santos, receiving from the Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs, Wang Yi, a check with what our country will have to pay with its natural resources, social and environmental impacts, for the production of animals for human consumption.

Meanwhile, in Porto, Act 7: In the 50º anniversary of the Galp Refinery in Matosinhos, renewable energy showed up at the party demanding a fair energetic transition. A merry group gathered to block the Galp refinery in Matosinhos in celebration of its 50th birthday and demanding its early retirement.

Still on Thursday, in Act 8: Activists broke in EDP. Activists entered the EDP headquarters searching for the real energy minister, António Mexia, to demand him and the shareholders of this company to shut down the coal-fired centrals of Sines and Aboño, Portugal and Spain’s largest greenhouse gases emitters, and to train the workers of these centrals for the transition to a renewable energy economy.

Saturday there was a pacific and performative gathering in Porto. Act 9: Life or Death, where activists “died” in front of Shopping Via Catarina to sensitize the people for the necessity of declaring climate energy crisis, for the necessity of the regeneration of our business as usual culture, mass consumerism and the impact of diary choices, for the civilizational collapse in which we live and the urgency of governmental action.

The week is over when the activists want! 🙂 Monday, April 22th, a group of activists did the final act, Act 10: More planes? Just kidding!, in which activists bombed the prime-minister with paper planes, demanding him to tell the truth about the impacts of air traffic, showing down, once more, the project of the new Montijo airport.