We All Want to Just Stop Oil plans mass swarming march in London on Saturday

A coalition of groups including Just Stop Oil, the Peace and Justice Project and Insulate Britain plans to disrupt central London this Saturday with a mass swarming march. The organisers say that the march will bring central London to a standstill and is just a taste of what they plan for the Autumn.[1]

We All Want to Just Stop Oil aims to recruit thousands of ordinary people from the progressive labour movement, faith communities, charities, social institutions, environmental groups, and all walks of life, to help create mass civil resistance in support of its five demands, which are a set of sensible concrete steps to address both the climate crisis and the cost of living crisis. 

The five demands are to end new oil and gas licences, to insulate our homes, to give everyone enough free energy to cover the basics like heating, cooking, and lighting, to provide cheap public transport and to tax big polluters and billionaires to help fund this programme, including retraining of workforces in new green jobs.

Indigo Rumbelow from Just Stop Oil said:

“Tuesday’s extreme heatwave was a warning about what we will face as the climate collapses – thousands of deaths, homes lost to wildfires and emergency services stretched to breaking point –  we are so unprepared for extreme heat and it’s only going to get worse. 

“It’s clear that the politicians won’t save us.That’s why we want to bring together the broadest coalition we can to stop new oil and gas licensing and implement an emergency plan that will reduce our carbon emissions and put money back in people’s pockets. We are encouraging everyone to step up and join us on Saturday to help build the movement. ”

Jeremy Corbyn, the founder of the Peace and Justice Project, said:

“It’s too hot and everything is too expensive. That’s the crisis. You can’t separate out the cost of living and climate crises. The whole system, which creates billionaires and starves hundreds of millions, is the crisis. It can’t be resolved, it must be overcome and transformed.

“Movements are the motor of change in history. When we come together, we can transform the world. And we must because those in power – the fossil fuel giants, the billionaires and the governments they own – are picking our pockets and stealing our future.”

Selma James, founder of Global Women’s Strike said:

“Mums and carers South and North are central to stopping fossil fuels and other extractive industries, to reclaim the land and soil that belong to those who care for it. We demand a Care Income for all, every gender, doing the work of protecting human life and the natural world.

“From the Nigerian women organising against Shell to the UK nanas against fracking, from women human rights defenders in Thailand restoring the natural world destroyed by mining, to women farmers in India regenerating the soil…we all deserve a reliable income. About time to Just Stop Oil!”

Sara Callaway from Women of Colour said:

 “Fossil fuel interests ally with dictatorships and their militaries, spreading corruption, using extreme violence, to profit by destroying our world. We’re calling out the environmental racism that means those with the least resources and who have been plundered and robbed the most, are still paying the highest price for the climate crisis. We refuse to be forced by poverty to work for or be killed by oil or other polluting industries.”

Ruth London from Fuel Poverty Action said:

“The government is not only granting permission to new oil and gas extraction, it is subsidising it with millions of pounds a day of public money. Money desperately needed for people now going hungry in uninsulated, poorly repaired housing, at the mercy of a rapidly changing climate.

Just Stop Oil’s march is the first to support our demand for #Energy For All (e4a) – free energy for every household to meet our basic needs. It is urgent for climate and energy campaigns to seriously confront the crisis hitting everyone’s pockets, and Just Stop Oil is doing that.”

Kate Hudson from the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament said:

“The world faces twin existential threats – of climate catastrophe and nuclear war. We have to prevent both – and oil is at their heart, fuelling the war machine and burning the planet. Please join CND in supporting this crucial demonstration. Now is the time to protest and survive.” 

Liam Norton from Insulate Britain said

“The government plans to open new oil, gas and coal projects when we are experiencing 40 degree temperatures here in the UK is the biggest act of criminality by an acting government our history. They are participating in the destruction of this country and the murder of countless people around the world. What else can you call it? In order to stop new oil and gas we need to Insulate Britain. Now.”

Saturday’s event will involve swarming marches setting off from eleven separate locations, following different routes through London and converging on Parliament Square at 1pm. The combined groups will then stage a symbolic mass sit down before heading off to St. James Park for small group discussions. The aim is to recruit march participants to be activists in their communities and organise further actions including mobilising people to join in a wave of mass popular action in the Autumn. [2]

The action comes at the end of a week in which UK temperatures soared to their highest recorded level, sparking wildfires across the country, buckling train tracks and increased deaths from heatstroke. [3] 

We are not prepared for extreme heat and it is only going to get worse. We face the total collapse of society within decades. We are calling a public Zoom meeting to address this emergency. Please join us on Tuesday 26th July, where we will hear from Lee Jasper (race relations activist, co-founder of Operation Black Vote / BARAC UK / Blaksox), Bill McGuire (Professor Emeritus of Geophysical and Climate Hazards, University College London), Roger Hallam (co-founder of Extinction Rebellion, Insulate Britain and Just Stop Oil), and many more. All are welcome. Register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87329706641?pwd=LzdWOUlEZUh1MnNZTDBTTWFZdmdIZz09

ENDS

For more information, please see WeAllWantToJustStopOil.com. Text on the website may be attributed in copy to the organisers. 

Press contact:    07762 987334

Email: ​​​​​​​[email protected]

Video testimonial here:

High quality photos and video footage available here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Dgcuv5vJjzfdSrdpX6HJEaayoidc08xy?usp=sharing

Website: https://juststopoil.org/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JustStopOil/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/just.stopoil/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/JustStop_Oil

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-t4U1Azf8AOkCBJILSNBmw

Notes for editors

[1] Groups supporting the event

  • Just Stop Oil
  • Peace and Justice
  • Fuel Poverty Action
  • Insulate Britain
  • Wellbeing Economics Brighton
  • Stop The War Coalition 
  • Women of Colour
  • Global Women’s Strike
  • Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
  • Animal Rebellion 
  • Scientists Rebellion 
  • Extinction Rebellion Trade Unionists 
  • People’s Assembly 
  • Disabled People Against Cuts

[2] Starting locations for march: Aldgate Square (tube), Angel (train), Euston (train), Lancaster Gate (tube), Lord’s Cricket Ground, Mornington Crescent (tube), Oval (tube), Paddington (train), South Kensington (tube), Victoria (train), Waterloo (train).

[3] https://www.mylondon.news/news/london-heatwave-live-london-fire-24532390?utm_source=taboola&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=exchange

About Just Stop Oil

Just Stop Oil is a coalition of groups working together to demand that the government immediately halt all future licensing and consents for the exploration, development and production of fossil fuels in the UK.

We must urgently end our reliance on fossil fuels to avoid irreversible changes in the earth’s climate system. We cannot continue to burn fossil fuels in the belief that future developments in carbon capture and storage and other so-called “unicorn technologies” will allow us to suck vast quantities of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. 

The UK must begin this process immediately. It starts by calling a halt to any further fossil fuel projects on the UK Continental Shelf. That would give us eight years of fossil fuel production left in which to rapidly transition to a zero carbon economy.

Everyone knows we have to engage in massive changes. Just Stop Oil is a coalition of groups demanding the no-brainer things be done immediately – actions that will reduce the demand for fossil fuel energy dramatically such as insulating our homes, rethinking how we travel, getting on with renewable energy and making sure no-one is left behind. 

We either come together as humanity or we die. Youth know which they choose. They have already chosen. They are in the streets to demand a future. We are all in the streets to make sure they get it. It’s as basic as that.

Further information about Just Stop Oil and our demands here: https://www.juststopoil.org

Most of our funding for recruitment, training, capacity building, and education comes from Climate Emergency Fund