By James Buckser
Boston University News Service
Patrons of the Central Boston Public Library were in for a surprise on Saturday, as protesters played dead on the sidewalk in Copley Square.
Extinction Rebellion Boston (or XR Boston), a Massachusetts chapter of an international climate activist movement, held a protest against the international COP 29 summit in Azerbaijan, where world leaders have gathered to discuss climate change.
“COP 29 has been hijacked by oil republics,” said Jamie McGonagill, media and messaging director at XR Boston.
McGonagill said that Azerbaijan, a “massive petro state,” was planning an increase in gas production and was using its hosting of COP as a way “to legitimize an authoritarian regime.”
“It’s set to use COP 29 to develop its international oil ties rather than stopping the climate crisis that is being fueled by oil,” McGonagill said. “It’s an incredible injustice.”
The march or “funeral procession,” as an XR media advisory called it, began at the entrance to the Boston Public Garden and moved down Newbury Street to the Copley Square Library and back.
A Red Rebel during the demonstration in Boston. Photo courtesy of John Maniace/BU News Service. 
Red Rebels during the demonstration in Boston. Photo courtesy of John Maniace/BU News Service. 
Red Rebels during the demonstration in Boston. Photo courtesy of John Maniace/BU News Service. 
A Red Rebel during the demonstration in Boston. Photo courtesy of John Maniace/BU News Service. 
A Red Rebel during the demonstration in Boston. Photo courtesy of John Maniace/BU News Service.
A main feature of the procession were periodic “die-ins,” where participants would lay on the ground, feigning death.
Jo, a Simmons University student and participant in the protest, said the die-ins were “meditative.”
They said in a world that moves quickly, it was nice to “sit in this issue” and “in this moment,” making “space for that in your own mind and body.”
“It was very powerful,” Jo said. “And also like centering and grounding.”
Cailey, also a participant and student at Simmons, said demonstrations like die-ins make people curious.
“It kind of forces them to notice,” Cailey said.
The XR procession was joined by the Red Rebel Brigade, which the media advisory called an “international performance activist troupe dedicated to illuminating the global environmental crisis.”
The Red Rebels dress in red gowns and headdresses with white face paint. According to the advisory, they “serve as a physical manifestation of climate grief, wearing red to symbolize the life force that connects all living things.”
Susan Lemont, an XR member who helped coordinate the procession, is a Red Rebel herself.
“When you have a die-in and the Red Rebels, that really is a really important mix, I think, and it makes it very moving,” Lemont said. “It gets the point across that people are dying because of the climate crisis.”
McGonagill said there is “something really mythical” about the Rebels, and that it’s “incredible to see them transform.”
“When Susan Lemont is in Red Rebel garb, she is not Susan, I don’t know who she is,” McGonagill said. “She is something not quite human, and it is palpable to the point where I think even people who have no idea what’s going on, when they see the Red Rebels walking, they will stop what they’re doing and they will look at them.”
While Lemont said the Rebels had met with some animosity, “people are usually fairly polite.”
“It’s a great way of drawing attention to the climate crisis because people pay attention when we show up,” Lemont said. “It puts an exclamation point there.”
McGonagill said “the dream” for this protest would be that legislators and Gov. Maura Healey see it and “enact a ban on new fossil fuel infrastructure,” which is “always the best case scenario” for the group’s actions.
McGonagill said what she expects will actually happen is “a handful of people who engage with our volunteers will do a little googling and will feel uncomfortable about COP 29,” and have conversations with people they “otherwise wouldn’t have had.”
“Whether their motivation is to seem cool and globally engaged, whether their motivation is to connect with loved ones who they think are more affiliated with activism or with climate, it doesn’t really matter,” McGonagill said. “What matters is that more people have conversations about the climate crisis, and the Overton window can start to shift so that the climate crisis is a normal topic to bring up at the dinner table.”
