THE Glasgow offices of insurance giant AXA were the target of an Extinction Rebellion protest today, as they accuse the company of “keeping killers safe.”

Staff turning up for work in the morning were greeted by campaigners with oil and blood tears painted on their faces and the sound of news reports of climate disaster and the genocides in Sudan and Gaza ringing in their ears.

The company has become a focus for protest due to its extensive business interests either as an insurer of or investor in weapons companies such BAE Systems, Boeing and Leonardo, as well as fossil fuel giants like BP, Exxon, Gazprom, and Shell.

The action forms part of a week of global protests which seek to draw attention to the role of business not only supplying the equipment to conduct genocide and prop up the fossil fuel industry, but also the capital to bankroll them.

Pointing to recent Boycott Bloody Insurance analysis showing AXA invests in 68 of the 115 fossil fuel companies for which investment data is available, activist and rail maintenance worker Elle Miller said: “Insurance companies like AXA have not changed behaviour despite the breakdown of climate and associated deaths by floods, fires and landslides across the world. 

“Nor have they taken heed of the unimaginable genocide unfolding in Gaza. By continuing to insure and invest in the same old, same old corporations, AXA is showing its true colours as a violent and ruthless company that prioritises keeping killers, rather than innocent civilians, safe.

“AXA is in fact deeply responsible for deaths both by climate and genocide. 

“Accountability is in the air though, so AXA had better change fast or watch out.”

AXA UK was contacted for comment.