Coloured flags and flares, pink boats and potted plants. Love them or hate them Extinction Rebellion protestors know how to make their presence felt.

Newham Extinction Rebellion group (XRNewham) organises local actions as well as joining with XR groups from across the UK for the main rebellions, most recently during the first two weeks in September in London, Cardiff and Manchester.

Specific focus for XR Newham is to urge Newham Council, City Hall and the Government to act to mitigate the toxic air that Newham residents suffer. Every year 96 people die in our Borough from conditions associated with poor air quality. Newham has the most toxic air, the most vulnerable population and the biggest polluting infrastructure – City Airport, large road networks, the concrete factory and now the planned Silvertown tunnel linking Greenwich and Silvertown.

Extinction Rebellion works with the principle of Non Violent Direct Action (NVDA). The organisation is committed to all forms of non-violent disruption to get the message of the climate emergency across. XRNewham rebels’ most recent action was to plant 26 silver birch trees on a piece of wasteland behind the Crystal building close to the entrance of the proposed Silvertown tunnel.

During the short ceremony to celebrate the planting, Victoria Rance of Stop Silvertown Tunnel Coalition, said: “If completed, this tunnel will allow articulated lorries, too big for the Blackwall tunnel, to disgorge more pollution onto the streets of already polluted Newham where 10 per cent of babies are born underweight and asthma among children is at disproportionate levels.”

Alessandra Safiyah Palange, member of XR Muslims, said: “On one side I am a Muslim woman, a PhD student, and a mum who has struggled to talk about environmental issues to my family.

“….Yet, I felt a shimmer of light running through my head when we declared rebellion. As a decentralised network, a movement of movements, Extinction Rebellion empowers individuals and groups big and small, it gives us the tools to work together without overly prescriptive guidelines”.

Eden Sophie, co-founder of XRNewham, said: “It’s easy to feel completely powerless and hopeless in the face of the climate crisis. It was easy to feel like there was nothing I could do.

Being part of Extinction Rebellion has helped me transform my fear and anxiety about the future of our planet into positive change.

“I have got to know more people in my local community and everyone brings something different which is why the movement is so creative. A phrase used often in XR is “We are all crew” and for me it embodies the empowerment and hope that XR brings me.”

XRNewham’s main group meets online once a fortnight and has various working groups – arts, media & messaging, actions, regenerative cultures, outreach which also meet regularly. To find out more, visit www.xr-newham.earth.

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