Activists from Shut The System sabotaged telecommunications cables leading to far-right lobbyists’ headquarters at 55 Tufton Street on Saturday 4 January. They aimed to cut off telephone and internet services in order to cause financial losses and disrupt the lobbyists’ malignant work undermining democracy.
The non-violent underground climate group cut through fibre optic cables that carry data to the headquarters of lobbyists including the UK’s primary climate science denial group, the Global Warming Policy Foundation.
The activists left a statement under the front door explaining their actions. It began:
The greed-fuelled climate denialists and racists in this building are silencing warnings about the lethal risks of climate change while sewing hatred and division across our communities, all to prop up their wealthy, corporate friends and funders.
Shut The System does not tolerate murder and racism. We have cut off your Wi-Fi in defiance against the millions of deaths on your hands.
Tufton Street: a hotbed of climate denialism
Lobbyists at the Westminster headquarters have increasingly been the target of climate crisis protests over recent years. Around 100 protesters gathered with Climate Resistance outside the offices on 6 September 2024 after journalists including George Monbiot protested there in 2020, and Extinction Rebellion visited the offices as part of multiple mass protests across London.
The Global Warming Policy Foundation’s charitable status was challenged by more than 70 climate scientists, including a former chief scientific adviser, Sir David King, in an open letter sent to the Charity Commission in 2021.
Tufton Street’s personnel include Richard Tice, a co-founder of Leave.EU and the longest-serving leader of the far-right political party, Reform UK. The multi-millionaire property tycoon has relentlessly exploited anti-immigrant sentiment to pursue an end to the inheritance tax.
Telecommunications sabotage introduces a new tactic to Shut The System’s campaign of non-violent direct action against the financial establishments and corporations supporting fossil fuel expansion.
Shut it down
The nascent group has already achieved several wins with their signature tactic of covert, multi-site direct action. The group helped pressure Barclays to introduce new climate pledges and convinced the insurer, Probitas, to rule out support for the East African Crude Oil Pipeline and West Cumbria Coal mine.
They targeted more than 20 Barclays branches in collaboration with Palestine Action on 9 June 2024, calling on the bank to divest from fossil fuel expansion and successfully forced it to divest from Israel’s principal arms supplier, Elbit Systems.
A spokesperson from Shut The System said:
This is just the start. We are driven by justified rage and frustration at the rampant greed of those intent at accumulating wealth at the expense of life on Earth. We will not stop till justice is done.
Featured image supplied
