Last week, on Friday, December 29th, Ultima Generazione (or, Last Generation Italy) climbed atop a platform in a shopping mall in Milan, Italy, and splashed paint all over a Gucci-sponsored Christmas tree. A video captured the moment they gave the tree a new paint job.

On Twitter/X, the group writes: “In an Italy that has suffered 11 billion in damages from extreme events, in a Milan that has experienced yet another flood of the Seveso, the elevation of luxury to a symbol, when students here cannot pay their rent, is an insult.”

Instead, Ultima Generazione wants to elevate their current demands of the Italian government. They are asking for a “Repair Fund” to be made available. That is, they are asking for a 20 Billion euro fund to be set up, ready to be given to people and communities in need the moment there is a natural or economic disaster. They want this to be an evergreen fund, so that money comes in as soon as it goes out. They are asking for participatory processes to be set up for affected communities to be able to decide for themselves how money should be divided, and want the money to be taken from profits of and subsidies for fossil fuels.

The group says: “The world they sell us as attainable is not. The system we live in is not sustainable, neither economically nor ecologically. We need a #RepairFund for damages, not yet another display of luxury and an unattainable lifestyle.”

While some may be enamored with them, the fact is that luxury lifestyles and high-end consumer goods are responsible for a massive amount of destruction of the planet and climate, and scientists tell us that a collapse is incoming if we don't change course. The destruction of the climate means the destruction of the whole superstructure of society – everything that makes up our day to day lives, all of the things which make our lives livable. All of the holidays, the services, the stocked grocery stores, the internet, the ability to move about, to spend time with loved ones, to do enjoyable things, are all about to be ripped away from a great mass of humanity, including many of us Americans.

That is why it makes complete rational sense for people such as the supporters of Ultima Generazione to take action such as they have done, to shine a light on the road ahead of us, to force public consciousness of the crisis, to push a government which cares more about obeying the elites than preventing mass genocide and taking care of it’s own suffering citizens.

Ultima Generazione is a member of the A22 Network for civil resistance.