TWO men have been arrested after Extinction Rebellion activists claimed responsibility for breaking windows at Barclays' new offices in Glasgow.
At 8am, two activists said they broke the windows at the branch in the offices at Clyde Place Quay.
They then held up banners which stated, “this is an intervention” and “stop funding Rosebank”.
The protest is part of Extinction Rebellion and Money Rebellion’s UK-wide Better without Barclays campaign against the bank.
Extinction Rebellion GLASGOW activists have broken the windows at Barclays new offices in Glasgow to demand an end to its funding of fossil fuel crisis. THREAD 🧵 pic.twitter.com/TBnI6iWdIz
— Extinction Rebellion Scotland 🌍 (@ScotlandXr) November 14, 2022
Myke Hall of Extinction Rebellion Scotland said: “Barclays are putting up the money to develop Rosebank.
“They want to extract and burn millions of barrels of oil to get even richer. It’s disgustingly greedy and it’s violence against all life. We will not tolerate it.”
Rosebank is an oil and gas field around 100 miles off the coast of the Shetland Island.
The Glasgow protesters said the field had more than 500 million barrels of oil, and claim Barclays have provided Norwegian state-owned firm Equinor with $2.46 billion of backing since 2015.
Alex Cochrane of Extinction Rebellion Scotland said: “Barclays are the biggest funders of fossil fuel in Europe.
“Their greed is exploiting and creating a future of amine, displaced people and global suffering.
“We all know we need to wean ourselves off fossil fuels. We all the climate crisis is already hitting us yet Barclays still refuses to do the right thing for us.
“For all our sakes, they must stop using our money to fund fossil fuels.”
The group claimed the action in Scotland’s biggest city followed in the footsteps of suffragettes and the anti-Trident Ploughshares movement, “using nonviolent direct action and causing damage to property to prevent and draw attention to greater damage”.
A Police Scotland spokesman said: “Around 8.10am on Monday 14 November, police were made aware of damage to a property in Kingston Street, Glasgow.
“Officers attended and two men have been arrested. Inquires are ongoing.”
Barclays has been contacted for comment.
