Shut The System is an anonymous climate activist network that claims it has been forced underground by the Conservative and Labour governments’ authoritarian crackdown on peaceful protest. They launched last year with a sustained property damage campaign against Barclays Bank (in collaboration with the currently proscribed Palestine Action group), which they believe led to a major change in policy.
In January, Real Media reported on their sabotage action in Tufton Street, which crippled communications at the various climate-denial and right-wing lobbyists housed there.
The group struck again later the same month targeting insurance companies across the UK, cutting communications cables that appeared to serve AXA, WRBerkeley, and AIG as well as Lloyd’s brokers.
A few months later, they resumed a campaign against Barclays, due to its massive investment in fossil fuels, striking various targets on the eve of the annual general meeting.
Today, the group announced the start of a ‘Summer Of Sabotage’, publicising a series of overnight actions in the City of London and in Northampton.
The group claim that gas switches were sabotaged outside the London office of JPMorgan Chase, and electrical cables serving the Allianz office in Bishopsgate were cut.
Image: Shut The System
In Northampton they also cut wires to a 5G communications mast which they believe serviced Barclaycard’s headquarters.
According to research by Reclaim Finance, JPMorgan Chase is the world’s largest investor in fossil fuels, and Barclays is the biggest in Europe.
As well as being another major fossil fuel insurer, Allianz has been the subject of pro-Palestinian protests due to major investments in defence contractors supplying Israel, and its continued investment in Elbit Systems which provides deadly drones to the IDF.
The group blame rapidly increasing repression as the reason for their tactics. When Extinction Rebellion arrived on the scene, they made much of their accountability, always remaining on the scene after carrying out actions, or even handing themselves in at police stations. They believed that when juries were made aware of the current scientific warnings, and heard the motivations of disruptive protesters, they would be acquitted. In a number of high profile trials, they proved their case.
In response, and under pressure from fossil fuel lobbyists and opaquely-funded right-wing ‘think tanks’, new rulings extensively restrict what a jury is allowed to hear, and new laws characterise anything more than ‘trivial’ property damage as a serious imprisonable offence. The emergence of groups like Shut The System, that believe in non-violence but are now unaccountable, seems inevitable. A spokesperson said:
“We have been forced underground by draconian anti-protest laws. The British state has recently shown how much they are willing to suppress peaceful protest. History shows direct action and sabotage are highly effective so we cannot stop while the climate emergency wages on and we see the most hopeful path forward is to operate beyond the state’s reach.”
The group’s demands are based on the 2025 Banking On Climate Chaos report, calling for financial institutions to adhere to the IPCC 1.5 degree climate pathway, to enable a fair, just and sustainable transition:
- Prohibit all finance and insurance for fossil fuel expansion immediately.
- Adopt absolute financed emissions reduction targets for oil, gas, and coal aligned with a rigorous 1.5C scenario.
- Demand robust 1.5C-aligned transition plans for all existing fossil fuel clients.
- Protect Indigenous Peoples’ and human rights.
- Scale up financing for a just and fair transition.
NB The separate campaign group Insure Our Survival are planning blockades and other protests against financial institutions in September, starting with AXA and AIG. They say that AXA is the most supportive insurer of both of Israel and of many of the world’s worst carbon intensive projects, and they might buckle to the threat of boycott pressure as they are also the number one provider of insurance to the public. The much smaller AIG group also insures damaging projects and unlike many other insurers they have so far refused to rule out the highly controversial East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP).
