Police arrest Extinction Rebellion protesters in Melbourne

More than one hundred Extinction Rebellion protesters marched through Melbourne in the afternoon before stopping at the Flinders Street Railway Station, where a smaller group split off from the rally and sat down in a circle at the intersection.

An XR videographer livestreamed the protest to social media, calling the sit-down protesters “brave rebels who are willing to face arrest.”

“This is civil disobedience in action,” she said.

Some of the protesters chanted “people power, power to the people” as Victorian Police officers circled around them.

A snare drummer in the crowd bashed on his drum and a woman with a megaphone apologised to people under the age of 30, Australia’s First Nations people, Palestinians and West Papuans.

“We are really f**king sorry,” the woman shouted.

“Our government is exporting weapons to Israel.

“This whole system began with colonisation.”

Some of the protesters could be seen wearing Palestinian Keffiyeh scarfs.

Extinction Rebellion is a radical but nonviolent environmental movement that pursues protest action to draw attention to what the group sees as an escalating climate change emergency.

Some of the protest action is illegal, for example disrupting traffic flows on major bridges or roads.

Earlier this month, XR activist Deanna ‘Violet’ Coco was arrested for shutting down the West Gate Bridge in Melbourne.

The videographer spoke with one of the sit-down protesters, who acknowledged their action would disrupt others, but argued it was “minuscule” compared to what was “coming down the line”.

“There’s no music on a dead planet,” he said.

“We are facing a future of floods, fires, refugees crises.

“We are demanding the government declare an ecological emergency.”

The police went around the circle, issuing move-on orders to each of the protesters one-by-one.

When the protesters did not move, the police arrested them one-by-one and moved them off the street.

As the police moved on the protesters, some in the crowd chanted “Extinction! Rebellion!”

One protester, speaking before the sit-down, called for a “revolution”.

“I feel like we’ve failed,” she said.

“Why wasn’t there a revolution thirty years ago? Why isn’t there a revolution now? I don’t understand.”

Some of the protesters, who the videographer called “red rebels”, sported long red costumes and stark white-painted faces.

After the arrests, the rally moved off the road and onto the footpath and walked back to Treasury Gardens where the march began.

“We’ll be back,” the crowd chanted.