What is Extinction Rebellion ?

Extinction Rebellion (XR) is an international movement using non-violent direct action to persuade governments to act on the Climate and Ecological Emergency.

On 31st October 2018, Extinction Rebellion UK announced a Declaration of Rebellion against the UK government. 94 academics supporting this declaration signed a first open letter to the Guardian saying:

When a government willfully abrogates its responsibility to protect its citizens from harm and to secure the future for generations to come, it has failed in its most essential duty of stewardship. The ‘social contract’ has been broken, and it is therefore not only our right, but our moral duty to bypass the government’s inaction and flagrant dereliction of duty, and to rebel to defend life itself.

A second open letter soon followed on December 9th of the same year. These letters did not only resonate in the UK. Within a few weeks XR had spread to lots of other countries, and in January 2019 XR Belgium was formed. Extinction Rebellion is now active in 56 countries, with 645 local groups (and counting) working relentlessly to build this global movement.

Previous national actions by XR Belgium

Royal Rebellion

On October 12th 2019, XR Belgium came together in our first national mass-mobilisation action: the Royal Rebellion. We occupied the Place Royal in Brussels and organised people's assemblies there on different topics. Police decided to end our action and unfortunately used illegal violence to achieve this.

Extension of the Rebellion

On December 20th, we gathered on the Grand Place to renew our declaration of Rebellion in a collective performance called Extension of the rebellion. The local authorities chose to cover our voices with loud Christmas music. But we will not be silenced.

Salon of Lies

On Saturday 18 January 2020, Extinction Rebellion Belgium carried out the action "Salon of Lies" to correct the deceitful image the car industry portrays of itself. This action of mass civil disobedience denounced the many lies which car manufacturers keep selling to the public to increase their sales at the cost of the environment, people's health, and social justice.

"Tell the truth" campaign

On April 14 ​at 10:30, ​Extinction Rebellion Belgium has published a ​fictional video speech by Prime Minister Sophie Wilmès on its online channels​. In this fake speech, our PM acknowledges that the current pandemic and the climate and ecological crisis has combined origins. She introduces a fundamental democratic renewal: political decision-making power to design such a recovery plan will be handed over to a Citizens' Assembly.

In the following days, rebels have published their own videos in which they share their questioning of Prime Minister Sophie Wilmès.

Our future, our choices

14 days of Cascading Rebellion from 2020 June 15– 27th... Business as usual has led to these crises, let's move on to something else! With Our Future – Our Choices, Extinction Rebellion Belgium is calling on everyone to stop the rushed race to "return to normal", and to take stock of our society. The campaign was developed over 3 stages of increasing intensity which culminated on 27 June with a big action of civil disobedience in Brussels.

Money Rebellion

On April 1st 2021, XR Belgium took part in an international wave of action against the funding of Ecocide by banks. We attempted to occupy lobbies of ING, KBC and Euroclear, but they closed their doors and we took the matter to the streets.

Time for Rage

On November 6, 2021, we tried to show our rage against the inaction of our politicians while the COP26 meeting was taking place in Glasgow. Our demand was to set up a Citizens' assembly in Belgium to define the measures to be taken to face the climate emergency.

The police were present in force to prevent us from carrying out this action. 238 people were arrested, the rue de la Loi was blocked for 2 hours.

Code Red

Since 2022, the local groups of Extinction Rebellion Belgium have decided to join forces with Code Red, a movement supported by various organizations, to block fossil fuels industries in Belgium via massive public mobilization. More info on www.code-rouge.be

Come and join us. Rebel for life. For the planet. For our children’s futures. There is so much work to be done!