Exposed: Activists behind Ritz and Crown Jewels stunts plot to paralyse London and maintain week-long shoplifting raids
A plot to paralyse parts of London by anti-capitalist activists who defiled The Ritz has been exposed.
Direct action group Take Back Power announced plans last night to bring parts of London to a standstill this Spring with mass demonstrations to protest against the ultra rich.
Organisers of the group told an open launch event attended by the Mail that activists will ‘take over’ high end stores and raid food stores as part of a week of action in April.
Co-founder Arthur Clifton, 25, told more than 140 would-be activists who attended the launch the plans were part of a long-term aim for ‘mass-mobilisation’ of 10,000 supporters he hopes will carry out acts of ‘civil disobedience’ at the 2029 election.
The group, which has already made headlines with high-profile stunts including pouring manure onto the floor of The Ritz hotel in Mayfair and smearing custard on a case containing the Crown Jewels, will begin its campaign of Robin Hood-style actions as early as March.
Privately educated Mr Clifton, who attended Latymer Upper School where fees are 30,000 per year, said up to 100 activists at a time will enter food stores such as Marks and Spencers in the capital and ‘strip the shelves’.
Speaking on Wednesday night, Mr Clifton, who has previously been convicted for his role in protests with Just Stop Oil, told how Take Back Power members will carry out a weekend of so-called ‘Take Backs’ in March in towns and cities across the UK.
These will involve activists entering supermarkets and grocery stores and ‘taking’ – shoplifting – food from the shelves before ‘redistributing’ it to the community.
Take Back Power plans to halt parts of London this spring with a week-long series of actions including taking over high-end stores and stripping food from supermarket shelves
Activists from the group previously emptied bags of manure under a Christmas tree at The Ritz in Mayfair, London
Former Just Stop Oil member Arthur Clifton, 25, is a leading organiser for anti-capitalist group Take Back Power
He said this could be done in several ways, from simply handing out items to passersby on the streets to donating the groceries to foodbanks.
Then in April, the group intends to hold a week of action in London, consisting of ‘a massive take back’.
Elsewhere, members will initiate ‘takeovers’ which will see them enter, occupy and disrupt elite spaces such as high-end shops and department stores.
Other stunts involving mass occupation and individual acts of disruption will also take place during the week.
First launching two months ago, Take Back Power describes itself as opposing the super rich and is calling for the replacement of Britain’s current political system with a citizens’ assembly, or ‘House of the People’.
Its website states: ‘Britain is broken because the super rich are pocketing billions, whilst ordinary people struggle to get by.
‘They are the reason we have kids going to bed hungry, unaffordable homes and s*** in our rivers.
‘They profit from killing children in Gaza and heating the world to boiling point.’
The launch event also heard from former Just Stop Oil member James Skeet
At the protest at The Ritz in December, activists unfurled banners which read ‘Inequality is s***, tax the rich’
The site adds: ‘Why should the rich pay a lower tax rate than the hard working majority? We need ordinary people to decide how to tax extreme wealth, with a citizen-led assembly.’
Mr Clifton told those gathered online there is a need to ‘fundamentally replace [our] political system’, adding: ‘No-one is coming to save us except us’.
‘This needs all of us, this needs everyone,’ he said. ‘We need to tax the rich, that’s the solution.’
Elsewhere, he described stopping Reform UK from entering government in 2029 is ‘goal one’ for the movement.
Those at the event also heard from former New Statesman journalist Grace Blakely, and co-founder of Take Back Power James Skeet.
Mr Skeet, also a former member of Just Stop Oil, said a ‘revolution’ was necessary. He told the group that based on ‘legal advice’ he wanted to explicitly state he was not encouraging anyone to break the law or engage in direct action.
He went on to describe the current political climate as having ‘some concerning echoes’ of ‘Weimar Germany’ in 1939.
The meeting heard from a protester named Jo who was recently arrested as part of protests organised by Defend our Juries for holding a sign that read: ‘I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action’.
The Daily Mail recognised several other people at the launch event as having a history of taking direct action, including 83-year-old priest Sue Parfitt.
Take Back Power has active communities in eight UK cities and is looking to expand this in the coming months, attendees were told.
Previous actions have seen members empty out several bags of manure onto the floor of the Ritz Hotel and smear crumble and custard over a glass case containing the Crown Jewels.
The group claimed the latter event helped it to raise £50,000, while the video of the incident at the Ritz was viewed more than five million times.
Take Back Power says it intends to earmark £26,000 to run public meetings and training in eight cities to ‘mobilise new people into action from January to March’.
A further £20,000 will compensate new members who undertake actions, £12,000 will pay for their accommodation, £6,000 their travel costs and £4,000 their equipment.
