XR is also urging its subscribers to join a march they are supporting alongside the People’s Assembly on Saturday. There is no indication that other organizations are considering breaking the law

Police chiefs are under pressure from the Interior Ministry not to allow a repeat of previous protests that have paralyzed the streets.

Kit Malthouse, the police minister, told the Telegraph over the weekend that they “will not tolerate groups such as Extinction Rebellion using guerrilla tactics to shut down printing presses and deny the public access to the press. ‘information”.

Mr Hallam made no secret of the fact that he believed XR followers should break the law and told them over the past six years that he had been arrested about 20 times and jailed three times.

In his video “Advice to Young People in the Face of Annihilation”, which he says he wrote in prison, he claims that all of his tactics were developed by people like Gandhi and Luther King.

“We have to break the law. Don’t let anyone tell you that you’re going to go somewhere without breaking the law, ”he says.

The 55-year-old former organic farmer who co-founded XR in 2018 continued, “It’s only by upsetting people through non-violent disruption that you unlock the potential, the potential to create change …

“Eighty percent of people hate you, so what. In 1961, Martin Luther King was America’s most unpopular man.

The divisive tactics that often turn members of the public against the Extinction Rebellion cause are said to be the cause of a split in the campaign group.

But Mr Hallam encouraged young activists to follow his path, telling them that they are the ones who have “massive power”.

“Young people are photogenic, they are sexy,” he said. “These are the people that people notice. If you have a bunch of kids getting arrested, it’s worth 1,000 adults, because it’s visual, and people are like, “What is this?” “

He also encouraged schoolchildren who wish to participate in strikes like Greta Thunberg’s “Fridays for Future” protest to strike “three or four days a week” in order to gain international attention.

“The police will come to your house and drag you out, and it will be in the press,” he said, urging his supporters to do things that disrupt “the economy”.