Meet the US Oligarchs Funding 'Stop Oil' Protests

US Big Oil, Big Business, and Big Gov't are funding these 'useful idiots' who proudly sport rainbow flags with Communist insignia

Now, who would have guessed that US-based interests are funding many of the nutjobs who are attacking paintings with soup, glue themselves to trunk roads, or cause havoc in airport terminals.

Almost two years ago, when this kind of ‘Extinction Rebellion™’ kind of agit-prop first became kind of ‘a thing’, I penned a short essay. Entitled, ‘Against the Climate Taliban’, I contrasted what happened when, back in 2001, a few months before the US invasion of Afghanistan in the wake of ‘9/11’, the Taliban blew up the Buddha statue of Baimyan. Outrage at the destruction of cultural heritage ensued.

In contrast to the quite benevolent, if not outright sympathetic reporting in legacy media concerning the current acts of climate ‘activists’, back in 2001, even mainstream media reported more accurately and openly about these destructive acts…

It seems all the more strange once one considers the destruction of cultural artefacts by the Taliban in 2001 and the widespread outcry in legacy media at the time.

Why are the attacks on European cultural assets not worth a bad or at least thought-provoking word about the ‘Last Generation’ to the same people in legacy media?

In case you missed out on this one, please find it here:

Against the Climate Taliban

Today, however, we shall enquire about the funding behind these absurd groups, courtesy of the Switzerland-based NZZ. Translation and emphases mine, as are the bottom lines.

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There is a worldwide movement behind the coordinated actions: Who is funding the airport blockades?

They want to save the world and have recently started blockading airports to do so: the climate activists are backed by a broad network financed by super-rich Americans.

By René Donzé and Alan Cassidy, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 27 July 2024 [source]

They spill orange paint on the floor, hold up orange posters, and wear orange waistcoats. The climate activists who turn up in the entrance hall of Basel Airport on Saturday [27 July 2024] around lunchtime stand out. They are disruptive. ‘Oil kills’ is written on their banners. One activist shouts: ‘Our governments don’t care whether we live or die!’ Another activist is screening travellers, holding a microphone in front of them and asking: ‘Are you aware of what you are causing with your flight?’

The reactions of passengers at the airport are mixed. ‘You have something there’, says an elderly woman waiting for her flight, obviously happy for a change. ‘Get lost!’, shouts an angry traveller from Brazil. Most of the people standing next to the protesters at the Swiss Int’l Airlines check-in counter are looking at their mobile phones impassively.

After five minutes, police officers appear and put an end to the protest. They take the activists away, in at least one case quite unceremoniously—Basel Airport is located on French territory, where nervousness is high after the attacks on the train network. They face charges of trespassing and property damage.

‘Terrorist methods’

Airports have become the latest target of climate activists this week, not only in Switzerland (there was also a demonstration in Geneva on Saturday), but throughout Europe, the USA, and Canada [looks a bit like the ‘Pride™’ month activism (shitshow), which similarly leaves behind those outside ‘the Collective West™’]. In Cologne and Frankfurt, activists glued themselves to the runway and even paralysed air traffic for several hours. Activists in Oslo, Helsinki, and Vienna also tried to disrupt flight operations, in some cases successfully. In Zurich, they blocked an access road to the airport with a sit-in.

In Germany in particular, the protests triggered angry reactions from politicians. The Secretary General of the German FDP, Bijan Djir-Sarai, spoke of ‘terrorist methods’. Transport Minister Volker Wissing called for ‘maximum severity’ against those responsible. It sounded similar in Switzerland: the judges must ‘finally crack down’ on radical climate activists, SVP National Councillor Mauro Tuena told 20 Minuten, including with prison sentences—the necessary legal basis must now be created [why do we need new laws? I mean, this sounds like a Trojan Horse to me].

Behind the coordinated actions is a worldwide movement of activist groups that calls itself ‘Oil Kills’. It has formed in recent months and, according to its own statements, consists of ‘ordinary people who are doing what our criminal governments have failed to do’ [talk about ‘the Revolution™’], as they write in a press release: ‘We are putting our bodies on the wheels of the global fossil fuel economy.’ [nope, you’re not; if you’d be doing so, you’d be attacking oilfields in Saudi Arabia, offshore platforms in the Gulf of Mexico, or pipelines in Russia; jus’ sayin’]. Specifically, they are blocking infrastructure in order to persuade governments to phase out the use of oil, gas, and coal by 2030 [if, as a hypothetical, we would do so, billions of people will die; if ‘Oil Kills’ talks about ‘criminal governments’ they are doing but one thing: projection]. Above all, however, they also aim to generate maximum media publicity [oh, look, something to gauge return-on-investment by the funders].

‘Oil Kills’ consists of groups that have been organising illegal and often radical protests for years. For example, ‘Just Stop Oil in the UK’, whose activists made headlines by throwing tomato soup at a Van Gogh painting. Or the Last Generation in Germany, who not only block roads, but have also stuck themselves to a railing in the Elbphilharmonie concert hall [i.e., the Climate Taliban I mentioned at the top of this posting].

Money From the USA—A Lot of Money

They are all part of an international network backed by a powerful foundation: The Climate Emergency Fund (CEF) was founded in 2019 by American investor Trevor Neilson and Rory Kennedy, the daughter of former US Senator Robert F. Kennedy [oh, look, US politicos plus big biz protagonists: why am I not surprised?]. Last year alone, this foundation distributed around 3.74 million dollars to 34 different organisations worldwide. In its annual report, the CEF proudly writes that this mobilised 214,000 protesters and generated 44,000 media reports. The foundation’s director thanks the ‘courageous, disruptive climate activists who are shaking humanity awake’.

The CEF foundation’s biggest donors include Aileen Getty, the granddaughter of oil tycoon Jean Paul Getty, Abigail Disney from the Disney dynasty and Hollywood film director Adam McKay [and, of course, Hollywood must not be amiss here, too]. There are also many small donations from all over the world. The money goes directly to individual groups, such as the Last Generation ‘climate gluers’ [orig. Klimakleber, i.e, activists glueing themselves to roads] in Germany or the Renovate Switzerland activists. On the other hand, the CEF also finances the A22 Network, which is so named because it was founded in April 2022. It comprises active protest groups worldwide. Only those with a certain size and impact are accepted [only those are funded that play along].

What was not previously known is that the most recent actions under the label ‘Oil Kills’ at airports are also supported by the CEF [brought to you, among others, by Big Oil money: talk about irony, let alone shame]. Officially, the activists are financed via a crowdfunding platform on which donations can be made either to individual country groups or to the umbrella organisation [where is the difference to money laundering?].

However, money also flows in from the USA: ‘All donations received are doubled by the Climate Emergency Fund’, says Swiss climate activist Max Voegtli. However, the condition is that these funds are only used for lectures and training for the activists. In other words: any costs for legal consequences are borne by the climate campaigners themselves.

Max Voegtli [remember his name] is a key figure in the scene [orig. Szene]. This week, he was at the forefront of the actions in Zurich and Basel. The climate activist, who hit the headlines a year ago for boarding a plane to Mexico himself as a critic of air travel, knows several groups from the inside: he says he became ‘aware of civil resistance’ through Extinction Rebellion (XR) and their protests in Zurich and England, then took part in Renovate Switzerland’s street blockades.

Voegtli has now co-founded a new group called ‘Drop Fossil Subsidies’. This group is at the forefront of the ‘Oil Kills’ actions. ‘We wanted to broaden the spectrum of civil resistance’, says Voegtli. The group is demanding that the federal government, cantons and municipalities ‘immediately’ stop all subsidies that support fossil fuels [again, doing so will kill billions of people, mainly due to huge disruptions in the production of fertilisers, diesel fuel, and pesticides, which would drastically curtail food production and usher in the greatest famine in history].

‘We are not distancing ourselves from the climate gluers’

Both globally and in Switzerland, the groups are networked and in some cases even have overlapping membership [which is kinda the textbook definition of a cross-border, multi-jurisdictional ‘criminal conspiracy’]. They often change names and composition [which gives you intent to commit a felony or two]. Extinction Rebellion in Switzerland, for example, has largely disappeared from the scene. They now mainly participate in the activities of other groups, says a Zurich representative. The term Renovate Switzerland, which in the past was associated with climate glueing campaigns, has also disappeared. This group is now called ‘Act Now!’.

Their spokesperson Cécile Bessire says that they no longer want to limit themselves to calling for the energy-efficient renovation of buildings, as Renovate Switzerland did. Now, under the slogan ‘Liberate Switzerland’, they are also calling for a ban on the sale of new cars with combustion engines.

Just how close ‘Act Now!’ and ‘Drop Fossil Subsidies’ are was demonstrated on Wednesday in Zurich, where activists held up banners from both groups. On Saturday, they divided up the work. ‘Drop Fossil Subsidies’ organised the action at Basel Airport, while ‘Act Now!’ organised the authorised demonstration in the halls of Geneva Airport. ‘The aim of our relatively mild action was to allow more people to take part than in a blockade, which requires more courage’, says Bessire. However, she does not want to rule out such actions by ‘Act Now!’ in the future:

We are not distancing ourselves from the climate gluers, but we are now in a different phase. [it’s always about ‘the Revolution™’]

According to Bessire, ‘Act Now!’ has around 70 activists involved in the organisation and up to 290 campaign participants. ‘Drop Fossil Subsidies’ has around 30 activists.

Small groups, in other words—but with pretty big disruptive potential.

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Bottom Lines: Beware of Politicos Bearing Gifts

If you wish to educate yourself further about some of the groups mentioned in the NZZ piece, please venture over to the website of the Climate Emergency Fund.

They even have a ‘Theory of Change’ section, which holds the following, which, strangely, the NZZ journos left out:

Only mass organized people power can wake up the public and force governments to act on the climate crisis…

Fossil fuel extraction continues because the fossil fuel industry uses its incredible power to ensure that government policies protect profits at all costs…

Protest movements create change by building narrative power, pressuring political leaders, generating public support, and fundamentally changing political conditions…

Interrupting business-as-usual forces politicians and the media to pay attention, and forces members of the public to choose a side.

I’ve bolded the first sentence, the emphasis in Italics is there in the original. If only there was a word that we could use that describes, accurately, what is meant by a ‘mass [of] organized people [that] force[s] governments’.

In my dictionary, this is called ‘problematic’, to say the least, esp. if we’re talking about extra-legal, or outright illegal, activities.

This is also why I consider it highly disingenuous, to say the least, if politicians are calling for new laws to deal with stuff (conspiracy to commit a felony, cross-border activities, intentional disruption to public live, and, of course, the call to kill billions of people) that police and the justice system are literally dealing with on a day-to-day basis.

The comparison with (to) ‘9/11’ and its aftermath—the PATRIOT ACT— is the only thing that appears apt. I think it goes without question that, if new laws are written to deal with the climate ‘protesters’, that these will be applied to everybody else, too. If in doubt, why not enquire about Barack Obama’s drone-executed kill list…

Also, lest I forget, and since there’s this key figure, Max Voegtli, named explicitly, it might be interesting to note that he’s of a particular kind.

As reported by the Aargauer Zeitung a year ago (23 June 2023), he’s a 31 year-old ‘full-time activist’ who ‘doesn’t want to refrain from flying himself’. A year ago, he vacationed in Mexico after participating in a climate protest in Paris (and, deservedly, earned an internet ‘shitstorm’):

When Max Voegtli appeared at the airport on Thursday, the activist was recognised by various passers-by…

Both Züri Today and Blick were sent pictures of the 30-year-old showing him at Zurich airport. It became clear that the activist would be travelling to Paris—much to the annoyance of the people who had taken the photos. ‘As a climate activist and road blocker, that’s not acceptable, there are no excuses. I’m outraged,’ one eyewitness told Züri Today.

Voegtli’s flight caused incomprehension, especially because Paris can also be reached by direct train from Zurich.

You’ll probably guessed what Renovate Switzerland, Mr. Voegtli’s ‘employer’, had to say about this:

When asked about the pictures, Renovate Switzerland backed Voegtli. The NGO told Züri Today that it did not know where he was. They further held that they are not responsible for what Renovate employees do in their private lives.

Meanwhile, Renovate Switzerland spokeswoman Cécile Bessire [oh, look, the same person as in the NZZ piece] has no sympathy for the criticism and subsequent reports in the media. She speaks of a ‘media witch hunt against the climate movement and the people who are committed to it’. She also criticised the Blick newspaper, saying it was ‘outrageous’ that Voegtli had been photographed at the airport.

Rules for thee, but not for me, is what Ms. Bessire said. Airports are ‘public’ places, Mr. Voegtli is a public figure, hence there’s no problem there, I’d argue.

Speaking about Mr. Voegtli’s ‘commitment’, however, the Aargauer Zeitung accompanied their reporting with the following picture (which they’ve received from private individuals):

Look: the rainbow flag with hammer and sickle. On an Apple laptop.

Call me ‘suprised’ (not).

Also, if you’re thinking about me calling their aims ‘the Revolution™’, well, there you go.

Given that the NZZ reports, quite accurately, if with many gaps, that Mr. Voegtli and his ilk are funded, among others, by Big Oil, the Kennedy family, and Hollywood (Disney), we may, rather safely, conclude:

These ‘climate activists’ are, in Lenin’s appropriate terminology, ‘useful idiots’.