Hundreds of colorful flags bearing the symbol of the “disappearance” of the environmental protest waved over the grass near Marble Arch until 11 a.m., while samba bands warmed up. XR has promised to “immobilize the capital” next week, with new tactics being developed in response to increasingly harsh policing that has minimized the group’s efforts to disrupt last August. In Hyde Park, police vans and police on horseback patrolled the perimeter of the crowd, but the police presence seemed low-key. The crowd left around noon for a march in central London, blocking the road. A protester of the disappearance uprising in Hyde Park. Photo: Sabrina Merolla / ZUMA Press Wire / REX / Shutterstock Immediate action was planned on the sidelines against specific targets, but XR remained silent on the details of what those targets might be. During the morning, the protesters were mostly crowded by joining groups of relatives, greeting friends they had not seen from previous actions and enjoying a spring sunshine. Nicky Goulianis, 33, from London, stood in the middle of the crowd with her nine-month-old daughter, Clio, in a stroller. Asked why she took part in the protest, she replied: “All the reasons”. “I lived far away from the United Kingdom, but I admired the movement from afar, and I think it is encouraging to come here. I have lived in New York and I saw its echo in New York and I am really excited to participate today “, said Goulianis. “I think we need radical action. “I think often the oil and gas lobby does a good job of making us believe in individual consumption, but we have to change everything.” At the end of the crowd, with a small group, stood Marcelo Cervone, 28, who had adorned the top of his baseball cap with XR stickers. He said: “I want to safeguard my son’s future; he is four months old and I want to make sure he can dream, but, as we are allowed, he can dream big.” Cervone said he had been protesting with the XR for several years. “We all hope that we can put an end to the fossil fuel economy. “That’s the number one goal: a direct transition from a fossil fuel economy.” Dr. Graeme Hayes, an academic at the University of Aston who studies social movements, was also among those gathered in Hyde Park. Has observed, researched and analyzed the XR since its launch in 2018. “This is no different, it looks like it did three years ago, but probably with fewer people and it has obviously shrunk to a less closed space,” Hayes said. “Moving from Parliament Square to Hyde Park is also the transition from three years of interaction with policing and the inability to reserve this public space.” Hayes said he felt ideological barriers were holding XR back. “I have taken many photos of all the different signs. “So much is focused on your children or your children’s children,” he said. “There is always a sense of how justice is a relationship with the future. There is a shift in justice. As usual, there is a lot for justice and for Africa, and of course this is very important, but it does not concern here and it does not concern now. “I try to look for things about capitalism, for example, and it’s hard to find.”
