another year of rebellion: 2024 action highlights

What a wild ride 2024 has been! Even in the face of accelerating crises, rebels across Turtle Island have stood up with courage and love to tell the truth, demand action, stand in solidarity, and help us move toward justice and regeneration. It is the community and networks we build together that have sustained us this year, and it is our community that will continue to sustain us in increasingly chaotic and uncertain times.

As we wrap up 2024, we’re highlighting some of the incredible actions some of our member chapters took this year.

To help us continue this work and ramp up the pressure in 2025, please consider donating to XR US. Your money will allow us to keep supporting chapters in various ways, including two grant rounds each year, media and messaging amplification, and more!

XR San Francisco Bay Area

Photo credit: Joseph DeRose and Leon Kunstenaar

In April, seven XR San Francisco Bay activists were arrested for occupying the lobby of Wells Fargo branch in San Francisco after 30 concerned citizens conducted a solemn vigil to highlight the interconnectedness of environmental injustices and financial misconduct. The vigil included a mournful choir calling out Wells Fargo’s complicity in climate chaos, interspersed with stories of individuals across the globe who are directly affected by the financial giant’s offenses.

Outside, passersby were given flyers encouraging them to write to Wells Fargo’s Chief Sustainability Officer to send the message to top executives at Wells Fargo to take immediate action on climate justice. The Chief Sustainability Officer resigned her post in the following month. This was part of an ongoing campaign against major fossil-fuel funder Wells Fargo, which is headquartered in San Francisco.

XR portland

Photo credit: parade banner: Pat K. and NW Methane office: Claire L

XR Portland, acting in coalition, had two major victories this year: pushing Oregon’s Department of Environmental Quality to fine and pause a permit for a fossil fuel export facility, and helping to reinstate Oregon's Climate Protection Plan. A key part of these victories was a Tell the Truth campaign targeting NW Methane.

Rebels dogged publicly sponsored events and protested repeatedly outside NW Methane headquarters, exposing the company’s misinformation and underlying profit motives. Eventually, the Climate Protection Plan was reinstated stronger than before; it will now be used to direct money from polluter fines to underserved communities for climate resilience and emission reduction projects.

XR Boston and xr vermont

Photo credit: XR Boston and Lauren Feeney, Lexington Observer (for the photo with rebels walking toward camera)

In April, 21 rebels from XR Boston and XR Vermont were arrested at Hanscom Field in Massachusetts after disrupting private jet flights for the ultra-wealthy. The activists demanded an end to a proposed expansion project that would, in effect, cancel out nearly 70% of all solar power ever installed in Massachusetts.

Activists entered the boarding area of fixed base operators and stood in the way of the planes so that they could not taxi to the runway. Several activists encircled the wheels of private jets with their arms and refused to move. Meanwhile, others blocked the entrances of Signature Aviation, Jet Aviation, and Atlantic Aviation.

Those 21 rebels face charges of trespassing and disorderly conduct, with one potential felony count. They endured a series of court hearings throughout 2024, and they will stand trial in March 2025.

XR Boston has a fundraiser to pay for ongoing activist support! Find out more here.

XR Philly

Photo credit: @laran_kaplan_photos

XR Philly and partner org Montgomery County for Palestine held a rally, march, and soft blockade of Day & Zimmerman, an arms manufacturer that supplies munitions to Israel. During the March action, rebels carried banners and prevented employees from accessing the company’s private parking lot and front entrance, continuing the blockade until threatened with arrest. In addition to decrying the genocide of Palestinians and the complicity of the US, speakers called attention to Israel’s ongoing ecocide — devastation that has rendered Gaza unlivable for both human and non-human life.

XR DC

Photo credit: XR DC

In October, XR DC staged multiple disruptions at the DC Public Service Commission’s Clean Energy Summit to demand the Commission say no to corporate utility provider Washington Gas’s plan to lock DC into decades more of fossil fuel filth — and instead say yes to jumpstarting a just transition to truly clean energy.

Rebels first disrupted the Chairman, asking him to commit to a methane-free future. In the afternoon, two rebels disrupted the Washington Gas spokesperson during a panel on the future of clean energy in the District, preventing the Washington Gas executive from spewing dangerous disinformation about methane gas. The action was part of XR DC’s ongoing End Methane, Electrify DC campaign, which aims to stop Washington Gas’s deadly methane gas pipeline projects and end methane gas use in the District for good.

XR Seattle

Photo credit: XR Seattle

In March, XR Seattle joined Seattle Troublemakers to blockade Amazon’s corporate headquarters after learning that the company had signed up to be a customer for the GTN XPress fracked gas pipeline expansion project. In July, Amazon announced that it was backing away from its contract with GTN, further endangering a project that was already struggling. We call that a win!

xr chicago

Photo credit: Barry Feldman

Rebels in Chicago stayed busy in 2024 with a variety of community outreach and education projects, including a Heading for Extinction talk, several tabling events and teach-ins, and leafletting actions targeting Bank of America, NASCAR, ABC News, and a US military air show. They joined a 350.org-led Climate Strike in April, participated in a Line 5 solidarity gathering in late October and, most recently, gave a presentation about nonviolent direct action and facing arrest at a local high school. XR Chicago is excited to take the high school presentation on NVDA on the road in 2025!

XR Street Theater

At the most recent XR US All-Chapter Gathering, XR San Francisco Bay gave a presentation about their street theater work. Two theatrical troupes developed by rebels in San Francisco Bay — the Lamentors and the Absurdists —  have recently made appearances across Turtle Island:

• The Sacramento Lamentors, in coalition with the SF Bay Lamentors, showed up at a board meeting of the California Public Employees Retirement System while the board discussed divesting from Exxon.

• The Ohio Lamentors traveled to Erie, PA to join a fracking protest at the Marcellus shale oil fields, where operations withdraw millions of gallons of water for each well pad, create toxic wastewater, and release methane and many other toxic air pollutants.

• The Absurdists took center stage – with Lamentors in a supporting role – at the annual VERGE sustainability in tech conference in San Jose. Costumed rebels hailed the sustainability professionals’ work and encouraged them to take further action on the climate crisis. The Absurdists put together a fabulous "Monopoly Game" skit that called out climate culprits.

For action highlights and opportunities to get involved in the movement like the actions you see above, join the XR US newsletter.