XR Boston's Tax Day action at the Federal Reserve

On Tax Day, July 15, XR Boston held a protest at the Federal Reserve. It was our first big action since the coronavirus pandemic and ended up being a fun and lively event.

The action highlighted a bright pink boat with "Climate Emergency" and "Just Transition" messaging on either side, mimicking a previous action by XR in London. Oil, gas, and coal business men and women held the boat hostage, killing the butterflies dancing below by covering them in (fake) oil. Climate activists from Sunrise Boston, a youth-led climate group, overthrew the fossil fuel execs and reclaimed the boat.

The skit highlighted the fact that fossil fuels are polluting our air, water, and land, harming life on earth, and speeding up the sixth mass extinction, the first mass extinction caused by human behavior. Fossil fuel infrastructure is normally built in disenfranchised and underserved communities, including Black, Indigenous, People of Color, and poor communities, endangering and harming populations that are already living under oppressive conditions.

The action focused on our demands for the Massachusetts and federal government to rapidly transition off fossil fuels, power the grid with renewables, and tell the truth about the severity of the climate and ecological crisis. We demanded that:

• The federal government stop giving tax breaks and subsidies to the oil, natural gas, and coal corporations that are fueling global destruction
• Our tax dollars be redirected to individuals and communities on the frontline of the climate and ecological emergency and toward a rapid transition to clean, renewable sources of energy and ecological sustainability
• The government tell the truth about the severity of the climate crisis and establish reparations and remediation led by and for Black people, Indigenous people, People of Color and poor communities who have suffered years of environmental racism and injustice
• The wealthy pay higher taxes
• Government budgets be reallocated to build cultures of care and repair to ensure an equitable and livable planet for all life and for generations to come, and to stop treating the earth as a commodity and people as disposable.

Check out photos of the action below!