Climate and justice activists from Extinction Rebellion (XR) Salisbury joined with groups across the UK this week to invite members of the public to their four-day protest in London entitled “The Big One.”

To announce this, a large banner with the words “Unite to Survive: 21 April 2023” was hung from a pedestrian bridge across Churchill Way during the Easter weekend.

This banner drop was part of a UK-wide collaboration inviting people to the peaceful protest between Friday, April 21 and Monday, April 24.

“The Big One” is supported by a list of more than 100 other organisations, charities and non-governmental organisation (NGOs), including Greenpeace, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), Friends of the Earth, trade unions and a host of other climate and social justice groups.

The aim is to rally 100,000 people at Parliament for the biggest environmental protest in years.

The organisations’ goals are to end all new licences and funding for environmentally damaging oil, gas and coal and political reform that XR said would “upgrade democracy by using a participatory approach to politics at local, national and UK levels.”

Di Cross, who helped display the banner, said: “I will be going to ‘The Big One’ because I think coming together with other climate and justice-concerned groups and movements is the only way now to make a difference.

“Our politicians are wedded to ‘business as usual,’ which is the path to destruction. Change will have to be driven by citizen-led decision-making, and 100,000 or more people outside Parliament delivers a strong, clear message that we want to see a fair, just and swift move away from the fossil fuel economy.”

XR Salisbury said it has chartered a coach leaving Salisbury for London on Friday, April 21 for people to join the protest.