Around 10,000 people marched through London on 20 September as part of the Make Them Pay protest. The demonstration was calling on the government to increase taxes on the super rich, to redistribute wealth and power to protect workers and the climate from the consequences of runaway global warming and the general collapse of the ecosphere.
Extinction Rebellion made clear the scale of the problem:
The UK has a shocking 156 billionaires. And how did they get so rich? Exploiting communities across the world, burning our planet, land grabbing. They profit from hardship. UK billionaires pay an effective tax rate of 0.3%. That’s less tax than normal people. Nurses, teachers, people working out in the community. Nearly 40% cent of billionaire investments are in highly polluting industries: oil, mining, shipping and cement.
The protest represented the left of the climate movement, those more willing to be clear about the problems of corporate capitalism and the enrichment of one tiny class of people at the expense of everyone else. Left NGOs like the Climate Justice Coalition, Global Justice Now and War on Want marched alongside the Fire Brigade Union (FBU), the Civil Service PCS union, the Bakers union, the teachers NEU and Unite Community.
Direct action climate groups like Extinction Rebellion, Fossil Free London and Stop Rosebank and Cut The Ties to Fossil Fuels also brought people out for the march.
This protest was part of a global day of action called by climate campaign groups and workers’ organisations which was targeting the super-rich and the economy that they profit from whilst the world burns.
Considering a lot of the climate movement has been reluctant to name the enemy as the capitalist class this protest represented a real step forward.
AntiCapitalist Resistance was on the protest and we have been involved in the coalition that called for it. For us the climate is the already posing revolutionary questions about what kind of society we live in and why we cannot continue to live under capitalism much longer. We worked with Ecosocialist Action Network to distribute leaflets calling for a wealth tax to offset the climate crisis.
It is clear that so many super rich billionaires are starting to back the far right with significant sums of money precisely because the scale of the climate crisis is becoming clear. The UN explained in 2024 what was the cost for dealing with the ecocidal nature of capitalism:
Estimates say that emerging markets and developing countries, excluding China, need between $2.3 trillion and $2.5 trillion a year by 2030 to meet climate goals. That is four times what is currently invested.
The next step is the 15 November protest, which will coincide with COP30. We are going to have a big anticapitalist bloc, calling for a democratically planned economy and radical abundance to improve lives whilst creating a sustainable human society on Earth.
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