Protest group Youth Demand has risen to prominence after announcing its members planned to “shut down London” for an entire month.
The news came after six supporters of the protest group were arrested by police at a Quaker meeting house on suspicion of conspiracy to cause a public nuisance
Youth Demand, which splintered from environmental group Just Stop Oil, said raid took place as members shared plans for “non-violent civil resistance actions” across April.
As a result of the publicity following the arrests, the group says hundreds of young people have expressed interest in joining the protests to highlight Israel’s actions in Gaza.
Now The Independent asks:
Who are Youth Demand?
The group emerged from the youth wing of the Just Stop Oil, which last week announced an end to disruptive protests.
A spokesperson told The Independent: “A significant portion of young people in the movement were deeply concerned about the scale of the crimes being undertaken against the population of Gaza by Israel, and felt in order to begin to deal with the crisis effectively, it needed its own campaign.”
The protesters claim to have mobilised over a thousand people to take part in around 60 “actions”.
But it's hard to be certain about the number of people who have joined Youth Demand as the group admits to having “fuzzy edges” on the data.
The spokesperson said: “We don't have a membership roster or anything of that nature. We don't have a leader, although we do have a strategy team to guide decision-making, and there are a number of different spokespeople.”
The group say its core aims are that the UK government enact a total trade embargo on Israel and that those “most responsible for the damage wrought on our communities from continued fossil fuel burning pay damages to those most affected by rapidly accelerating climate breakdown”.
What action is planned in April?
After pasting a photo of a mother and child from Gaza over Picasso’s Motherhood, spraying red paint over Ministry of Defence offices and targeting Sir Keir Starmer’s London home, the group promised to take its actions to a “whole new level” in April.
They posted a plan to “shut down London” using non-violent tactics including “swarming” to block roads “day after day” similar to Just Stop Oil.
The group will hold open rallies every Tuesday throughout April and will be holding an event alongside pro-Palestine groups in front of Senate House Library in central London on Tuesday night.
What does group want to achieve?
Introducing themselves to the world in March last year, the group was clear on their aims, saying: “We are launching a campaign of nonviolent resistance against the government and the Labour Party in the face of the crimes you are committing. Young people demand an end to the killing. “
They asked political parties to commit to:
- Imposing an immediate two-way arms embargo on Israel,
- Stopping the development of new oil and gas
It added: “Your betrayal of our generation will result in the most unimaginable outbreak of collective power, creativity, love and defiance. So we can’t say we have nothing to thank you for. See you on the streets. Yours sincerely, Youth Demand.”
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