As many of us will have seen, there have been many recent protests carried out by activist groups such as Extinction Rebellion and Just Stop Oil across the UK.
Between 11th August and 11th November this year, 184 protests were identified across the UK, and 54% of these took place across London. High profile protests have included disruption of heavy traffic routes such as the M25 and the Dartford Tunnel. There has been an increase in the crossover between socialist protest groups focused on the cost-of-living crisis and environmental activism.
The CEMEX security team works closely with local police forces and security groups to monitor the risk to the business presented by environmental activism. All employees should be aware that it is almost certain that mass protests will become more frequent due to the increase in coalition between socialist and environmental activist groups. It is highly likely such protests will continue to occur as people struggle through the cost-of-living crisis and that climate groups will continue to organise sustained campaigns over consecutive days more frequently.
Research has further identified roadblocks have increased significantly, alongside protests involving vandalism and criminal damage and the use of paint being used to damage buildings has increased significantly. As you may have seen, the inconvenience caused by roadblocks has led to members of the public intervening and attempting to physically remove protestors from the road themselves; activity no one at CEMEX should become involved in.
The Security team, therefore, wanted to take this opportunity to update everyone on the developing threat of environmental activism and urge employees to remain vigilant. Colin Jones, UK Security Manager, commented: “The news has been full of stories of environmental protests over recent weeks, and those structured around disrupting traffic are particularly impactful to our business.
However frustrating and inconvenient these protests may be, it is crucial that no employee takes matters into their own hands and tries to intervene or remove any protestors they may come across. As always, we ask employees to ensure they follow the guidance in our protest contingency plan and contact either myself or John Sweeting with any questions.”
To view the full protest contingency plan, click here.