Watch Massive Attack perform at Extinction Rebellion protest after police clear activists from Waterloo Bridge

The campaign is entering its second week

Massive Attack joined the Extinction Rebellion protest movement by performing to crowds at London’s Marble Arch.

The trip-hop legends played to activists and bystanders last night (April 21) as the climate change demonstration neared its second week of non-violent civil disobedience.

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The Bristol duo played songs including ‘Paradise Circus’ from their 2010 album ‘Heligoland’. It features some fitting lyrics: “It’s unfortunate that when we feel a storm / We can roll ourselves over ’cause we’re uncomfortable.”

Earlier in the day police removed the remaining protesters from Waterloo Bridge and made a number of arrests.

BBC News reports more 950 people have been arrested during the climate change demo and 40 people have been charged. The Metropolitan police has requested approximately 200 extra officers to help deal with the protests.

A number of celebrities have lent their support to the movement, which operates worldwide, including actress Emma Thompson and TV presenter and naturalist Chris Packham.

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Packham, who had addressed activists stationed on Waterloo Bridge on Sunday, was later asked by the Press Association if he thought the Government would listen to the activists’ demands.

“Well if they don’t listen next week they’ll listen next time, because we are not going away, this movement is here to stay,” he said.

Emma Thompson joins the Extinction Rebellion protests
Emma Thompson joins the Extinction Rebellion protests

Last week Emma Thompson climbed aboard a pink boat that was blocking London’s main traffic intersections at Oxford Circus.

“This is the most pressing and urgent problem of our time, in the history of the human race,” she told a crowd, adding that young people have been failed by her generation and politicians.

“I have seen the evidence for myself and I really care about my children and grandchildren enough to want to be here today to stand with the next generation.”

The demo site at Oxford Circus has since been cleared. Police have urged activists to stick to protesting at Marble Arch which they say has been designated for the campaign.

Extinction Rebellion co-ordinator Howard Rees previously told NME that the movement’s plan is for “ongoing escalation.”

Teenage climate change activist Greta Thunberg addressed crowds at Marble Arch on Sunday.

The Swedish 16-year-old said: “I come from Sweden and back there its almost the same problem as here, as everywhere, that nothing is being done to stop an ecological crisis despite all the beautiful words and promises.

“We are now facing an existential crisis, the climate crisis and ecological crisis which have never been treated as crises before, they have been ignored for decades” [via Guardian].

Extinction Rebellion is meeting today (April 22) to discuss its next steps forward.

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