Just Stop Oil supporters are marching from Parliament Square to the Home Office today to show solidarity with the UK’s political prisoners including those wrongly imprisoned for resisting the government’s genocidal plans to licence over 100 new oil and gas projects by 2025. [1]
Just Stop Oil supporters Morgan Trowland and Marcus Decker received draconian 3 year jail sentences for climbing the QE2 Bridge as part of Just Stop Oil’s campaign of disruption in the capital during October and November 2022. They had already been on remand for six months. In addition, there are currently five Insulate Britain supporters serving jail sentences for public nuisance after vowing to continue in civil resistance. [2]
Supporters will meet outside Parliament at 11am before moving to Victoria Tower Gardens South to hear speeches and a recorded message from Morgan Trowland. The march will depart for the Home Office at 12:30pm.
Once at the Home Office, supporters will join the ‘Shut it Down’ rally organised by a coalition of coalitions and led by Black Lives Matter. We will march on Downing Street to protest the government’s ongoing anti-democratic and racist assault on refugee rights, human rights and our legal rights to assemble and protest. [3]
The government has introduced a raft of new legislation aimed at restricting migrants rights, workers rights, protest rights and human rights. Today’s rally comes on the heels of yet another announcement by Suella Braverman of plans to bypass parliamentary process to give police additional powers to break up “slow walking” protests under new secondary legislation. [4][5][6]
A Just Stop Oil spokesperson said:
“Our criminal government has betrayed us all, they are taking us down a path to societal collapse and destroying the conditions that make human life possible.
At the same time they are engaged in an outright assault on migrants rights, workers rights, protest rights, human rights. We face policing at the whim of the Home Secretary, government by diktat and decree, and an increasingly hostile judiciary handing down disproportionately harsh sentences for peaceful protest. Why are cowardly judges choosing to imprison people who stand up for life, rather than putting our criminal government on trial? ”
We march together today to show we will not be intimidated. We will not abandon our friends. We stand with Marcus and Morgan. Civil resistance is our only hope. This is life or death, survival or collective suicide. We won’t stop until our genocidal government ends new oil and gas.”
Since the Just Stop Oil campaign began on April 1st 2022, there have been over 2,100 arrests and 138 people have spent time in prison, many without trial.
In moments of emergency, we must stand up and be brave, we must stand up for good over evil, life over death, right over wrong. Just Stop all is calling on everyone to pick a side. We need everyone to get off the sidelines and join in civil resistance against new oil and gas. Join us while you still can. Our campaign of civil resistance will not end until our government ends new oil and gas.
Come to Parliament Square at 7am every weekday and midday every Saturday to join a slow march to stop new oil and gas.
ENDS
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Notes to Editors
[1] 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. Just Stop Oil is a member of the A22 Network of civil resistance projects. Climate Emergency Fund is Just Stop Oil’s primary funder for recruitment, training, and capacity building.
Just Stop Oil ‘Blue Lights’ policy: our policy is, and has always been, to move out of the way for emergency vehicles with ‘blue lights’ on.
[2] Just Stop Oil: https://juststopoil.org/2023/04/21/bridge-climbers-get-3-years-in-longest-ever-sentence-for-peaceful-climate-action/
Insulate Britain: https://insulatebritain.com/2023/04/20/breaking-courts-prove-themselves-to-be-morally-bankrupt-as-five-people-are-jailed-in-one-week-for-vowing-to-continue-in-civil-resistance/
[3] Black Lives Matter event details: https://www.instagram.com/p/CqNt2RoIXoD/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
[4] The House of Lords voted a total of eight times to block a series of authoritarian proposals in the Government’s Public Order Bill during the Bill’s Report Stage. https://www.libertyhumanrights.org.uk/issue/public-order-bill-explainer-what-happened-in-the-lords-and-what-happens-next/
[5] The home secretary is now introducing a statutory instrument that will come into effect without being voted on in parliament. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/climate-protest-slow-walking-police-b2328346.html
[6] The UK is becoming increasingly authoritarian as restrictive laws and dangerous rhetoric are creating a hostile environment towards civil society in the UK.
https://monitor.civicus.org/country-rating-changes/uk/
