We are a group of friends, comrades and accomplices who are organising in various capacities in Glasgow, Scotland.

Between the 31st of October and the 12th of November, representatives of state and capital are going to descend upon Glasgow in the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference(COP26). If we look at previous and historical UN attempts to “tackle” climate change, all we can find is three decades of inaction and greenwashing. There is no evidence that COP26 will be any different; in fact, this conference seems to be reaching new heights of hypocrisy, smugness and arrogance.

While pushing the myth of “green energy” throughout messaging around COP26, the UK state is attempting to open a massive new oil field in the sea north of Scotland. While maintaining a thin facade of inclusivity, the conference is excluding, through COVID restrictions which prevent them from ever reaching negotiations, the voices of those most impacted by the ecocidal policies of state and capital. While those most responsible for the climate catastrophe sit cosily in their conference centres, the people of Glasgow will have to put up with the militarisation of our streets and neighbourhoods at an unprecedented scale, as police from all over the UK infest our city. These are only some of the thousands of hypocrisies we will no doubt see around COP26. How can we expect such a conference to change anything when its largest monetary sponsors are Scotland’s largest polluters?

COP26, for us, is nothing but another attempt by international capitalism to defang and appropriate the climate struggle, greenwash its greatest ecocidal excesses and ensure its proliferation, by turning yet another crisis into a profit source – with the rest of us bearing the cost.

We are, therefore, highly doubtful of its ability to yield any positive climate action, never mind to “save the world”.

Unfortunately, gone are the days of the Red Clydeside, of the tens of thousands amassed at the Battle of George Square (although we wouldn’t be surprised if the British state pulled out the tanks for COP). Gone, also, are the days where we could establish rolling blockades against G8 summits in Scotland, at the peak of the anti-globalisation movement in 2005 . At the moment, radical forces in Glasgow are few and far between, with the milieu rendered weak by repression and burnout. Every now and then, however, one sees glimmers of hope, most recently the resistance to an anti-immigrant raid in the Pollokshields area in May 2021, which saw a spontaneous reaction from a few neighbours become a successful anti-eviction action by hundreds.

There have been protests planned for the COP26 conference, mostly by coalitions of activists, trade unions and NGOs; we hope that, within and outside of these protests, we will find a place for subversive, direct action. We hope that we will see in praxis the tension between destruction and creation located in the libertarian tradition so many decades ago.

International solidarity through subversive action

The climate catastrophe is a global phenomenon, which impacts each and every one of us deeply and diversely. We call for two weeks of international solidarity through subversive action, between the 31st of October and 12th of November, especially focused on the 6th of November, the Global Day of Action called by the COP26 Coalition. From banner drops, discussions and film screenings to protests, clashes and sabotage, support your comrades in Glasgow and around the world by resisting.

The time has come to say things without mincing words. Destroy COP26, destroy state and capital, create anarchy and autonomy.