Fifty activists from Extinction Rebellion Spain, among whom there were 6 activists from The Avalon Project, blocked the access to the headquarters of the Spanish oil company Repsol, which is ranked number 23 in the list of the 100 most polluting corporations (CO2) on the planet.
This non-violent direct action took place on Monday, 15th April, launching day of the global rebellion proposed by Extinction Rebellion (XR) internationally, using lock-on tubes to close the main entrance of the corporation from 7:30 to 10:00 am.
Every half hour, the Declaration of Rebellion composed by XR Spain was read through the public address system. This Declaration had been presented to various government ministries and before public opinion on 8th April, with the signature of over 120 scientists, artists, intellectuals, writers and other remarkable persons from the Spanish cultural and social world. In addition, a performance was also played to highlight the loss of 200 species of plants and animals per day that is currently taking place on the Earht due to human activities.
Speaking to the international news service Agencia EFE, Grian Cutanda, founder of The Avalon Project, said: “The environmental movement has been pressing governments and markets for decades in order to they take action against climate change and the destruction of ecosystems, and they have ignored us. Now we have no time left, and this is the reason why we have decided to go further and adopt civil disobedience strategies and non-violent direct actions for governments and the media tell the truth about the seriousness of this ecological crisis and adopt drastic measures to mitigate the already inevitable effects of climate change.”
This XR action was covered by news agencies like EFE and Europa Press, and it had its repercussion in media companies such as Cadena SER, La Vanguardia, Público, El Diario.es, El Confidencial, 20 Minutos, o El Independiente, among others.