Be inspired by Paisley rebels, urge activists
Eco warriors look to weavers’revolt of 1819
Extinction Rebellion are urging Buddies to emulate the Paisley uprising of 1819 in the fight against climate change.
Activists have urged supporters to take to the streets to challenge global warming.
They want to echo rebels who staged a week-long protest against oppression two centuries ago.
Organiser Michael Carr spoke out after the group staged a demonstration outside Renfrewshire Council headquarters.
He said: “Two-hundred years ago, a great crowd of tens of thousands of rebels gathered in Paisley High Street.
“Many were local weavers, who helped to build Paisley into the town it is today, protesting about their work conditions.
“Many others came from all over Renfrewshire and beyond to commemorate the dead of the Peterloo massacre in Manchester several weeks earlier.
“Their demands were for reform of a system that at the time denied them any say — the right to vote, the right to organise, the right to dignity in work and life.
“The authorities and newspapers of the day called them rioters.
“They were ordinary working people demanding their basic rights.
“Extinction Rebellion is an international movement formed to protest and speak out in a new act of rebellion.
“Scientists and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change agree that climate change threatens the very existence of the planet and life on it unless action is taken now.
“However, governments and corporations are either moving far too slowly, or not at all.
“It’s time for another rebellion.” Extinction Rebellion protestors took their fight to Paisley’s Cotton Street earlier this week.
Ac t i v i s t s w i t h a megaphone urged others to join their cause.
They have vowed to return to the town for a demonstration setting out their ‘Declaration of Rebellion’ this weekend.
The manifesto calls for rejection of government until it commits to tackling global warming.
It warns rising temperatures are putting all life on earth at risk.
Members are demanding the government declares a climate emergency and acts to halt greenhouse gas emissions by 2025.
They also want to establish a citizens’ assembly to help steer legislation on the issue.
Michael added: “The authorities were so afraid of the 1819 rebellion of ordinary workers that they sought to halt the movement.
“Several days before the protest, they banned the display of flags and emblems.
“In defiance of the law, the Paisley rebels demanded free speech and displayed their flags, which were bordered in black to remember the dead of the Peterloo Massacre.
“They assembled on Meikleriggs Moor and marched to Paisley High Street to deliver their protest.
“We commemorate them as rebels, whose struggle for reform was ultimately successful.
“If they and the generations after them had not spoken out and marched, none of us would enjoy the right to vote and the right to speak out that we have today.
“This ecological crisis needs the sort of radical system change demanded by the Paisley rebels of 1819.”
Extinction Rebellion has vowed to protest on Paisley High Street from 11.55am tomorrow.