The scene became familiar. Saturday, November 5, in the halls of the Prado museum, in Madrid, the Spanish capital, tourists flock to the paintings hanging on the wall. At the foot of two of the most famous works of the Spanish painter Francisco Goya, “The Naked Maja” and “The Clothed Maja”, visitors marvel. Behind their backs, two environmental activists take out a tube of glue hidden under their clothes and make their way to affix their palms to the frames of the paintings. Glued to the illumination, these activists, members of the “Futuro Vegetal” collective, affiliated with Extinction rebellion, managed in the confusion to tag “+1.5°C” on the hitherto immaculate wall of the room, in reference the warming threshold that the international community has set itself not to exceed. The security service intervenes and asks the curious to stop filming.
In the process, Extinction rebellion, a group adept in civil disobedience since 2019, claimed an action of “protest” against “the rise in global temperature, which will cause an unstable climate with serious consequences on the whole planet”. From Paris to New York, these shock operations have become frequent in the corridors of exhibition halls, especially after the highly publicized one of the throwing of soup on a painting by Vincent van Gogh at the National Gallery in London, mid-October. The message ? “Let’s take on everything, including the most sacred that is art, because opposite, it is death that awaits us if we do nothing”, sums up to AFP Xavier Arnauld de Sartre, geographer at CNRS. These collectives share an ambition: to highlight the climate issue, on the eve of the 27th United Nations International Climate Conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.
- Just Stop Oil, the orange tide
Born in February 2022 in the United Kingdom, this group is at the origin of the electroshock strategy motivating the series of actions that cross Europe. Identifiable thanks to the daily wearing of an orange vest, the British activists embarked, in October, on a vast operation to block London. The collective managed to block bridges, roads and crossroads daily by sticking their hands to the ground with glue. London traffic was very disrupted.
Claiming non-violent disobedience, Just Stop Oil calls for “the overpressure of new licenses and consents for the exploration, development and production of fossil fuels in the UK”. “We must do much more to put an end to the greatest crime against humanity. This is why we are entering the civil resistance”, indicates the collective on its site. Several activists of the British movement have already been sentenced to prison terms following blockades.
Another not insignificant marker, his sympathizers act openly. They are rather young, and graduates. Beyond the roads of London, Just Stop Oil has invited itself into museums and football stadiums. It’s the tomato soup throw, October 14, on The sunflowers of Vincent Van Gogh who offered the movement massive and European media coverage, inspiring other actions, particularly in France.
- Last renovation, national anchoring
Appearing in April 2022, Last renovation is also a fan of punchy actions. The organization invited itself to the Bastille opera disrupting a performance of the magic fluteinterrupted a stage of the Tour de France and one of its members got caught in the net of a tennis match during the last edition of Roland Garros.
On Saturday, the collective cut off traffic in front of the Ministry of Finance in Paris. A blockage reminiscent of that of the National Assembly, a few days earlier. These disturbances aim to directly challenge political decision-makers in order to call for a “comprehensive and efficient renovation of the French housing stock by 2040”. In this sense, Last renovation invites to “develop a simple and progressive financing system taking charge of all the work for the most modest owners”. Its demands are more limited to French society, unlike its neighbors who call instead for global action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
- Ultima Generazione, at the crossroads
What do Last Renovation, Just Stop Oil and Ultima Generazione have in common? The three groups wear an orange vest at each of their interventions. Members of the international A22 network coalition, which brings together eleven collectives around the world, they are financed by the Climate Emergency Fund, an investment fund for projects to safeguard the environment. Ultima Generazione is logically in line with its partners.
After a throw of soup on another painting by Vincent Van Gogh, The Sower at Sunsetexhibited in Rome, the movement clarified its motivations: “We act out of love of life, therefore out of love of art! In a future where it will be difficult for us to find food for all, how can we think that art will still be protected?”
Ultima Generazione shares another point in common with one of its neighbors: its name. His German comrades proudly display their surname on their mobilization T-shirts: Letzte Generation, which means “Last generation”. The members of the two groups also share the modus operandi. Earlier this month, two Letzte Generation activists threw mashed potatoes at a Claude Monet painting in Potsdam, Germany.
- Scientist Rebellion, the white coats come into resistance
Driven by the frustration of not being heard enough, researchers and scientists, after a long hesitation as to the best way to make their voices heard, have also embarked on actions of civil disobedience. Frustrated by the lack of sufficient action, they want to bring their moral backing to militant actions. “When we are working on the climate and we regularly announce that the situation is serious and that there is an emergency, sometimes we have to act accordingly and go and put ourselves in a little danger to show that these alerts are not not just words in the air”, argued with L’Express Milan Bouchet-Valat, member of the coordination of Scientists in Rebellion, the international movement at the origin of the actions carried out in Germany in recent days.
Scientist Rebellion claims “more than a thousand members across 32 countries”. All are science students and university professors and they have abandoned the orange vest of their companions in favor of the white laboratory coat. In October, they distinguished themselves during a large protest campaign, which had a strong echo in Germany, by calling on Chancellor Olaf Scholz to take immediate measures to reduce carbon emissions. They also call for more global measures such as “the cancellation of the financial debt of the countries of the South.
Scientists finally take up the same codes as other disobedience movements. Blocking of roads, disruption of warehouses of multinationals or even sittings in front of symbolic places… Among all these groups of activists, Scientist Rebellion seems to be the one that could be the most capable of transforming the movement of anger into a political dialogue. with governments.