Just Stop Oil supporters are continuing their fourth week of marching, every day, in central London. Just Stop Oil is demanding an end to all new oil, gas and coal projects in the UK. [1]
At around 8:45 am, 28 Just Stop Oil supporters began marching from Newington Causeway, near Elephant and Castle, towards the Inner London Crown Court, where another demonstration is taking place. Police issued a Public Order Act (Section 12) notice by around 9:45, forcing the supporters off the road. A further march is expected to start shortly. Just Stop Oil supporters have been marching in the capital, every day since the 24th of April.
The demonstration at Inner London Crown Court will be a repeat of one that took place yesterday. 24 people, including an olympic champion, seven medical professionals, three quakers, a former police officer, a former lawyer, two teachers, a Church of England priest and ten others, sat outside the court, holding placards that detail a well established principle of the British legal system- that jurors have an absolute right to acquit a defendant according to their conscience. Last month, Trudi Warner, 68, was arrested outside Inner London Crown Court for holding a placard with the same message. [2] [3]
At Inner London Crown Court later today, the fifteenth Insulate Britain public nuisance trial continues. Four supporters are appearing before Judge Reid, after joining peaceful action to demand the government insulate British homes. Judge Reid has prevented defendants from explaining their motivations for taking action to the jury and they risk contempt of court if they mention the climate and the cost of living crises in their testimonies. Three people have been imprisoned at previous trials for simply mentioning why they took action. At the start of the trial yesterday Judge Reid told the jury that “Whoever has written these placards are improperly trying to influence you”. [4][5]
One of those taking action this morning, Eilidh McFadden, 21, a policy student from West Lothian, said:
“What is happening in British courts is outrageous. Good people are being silenced from telling the whole truth. In any other sort of trial you would be encouraged to provide context for your actions. The only reason Judge Reid has ordered this, is because he knows if juries hear the whole truth, they are likely to acquit. This is a show trial.”
“Today, I am taking action because I can no longer sit on the sidelines as our government’s actions push millions in this country into poverty, and cause the displacement of many more across the world. If the criminals in government, and those complicit in the police and judiciary, think they can silence us with gagging orders and authoritarian new laws, they can think again. We will not stop until our demands are met. The noise of the people is only getting louder.”
Another of those taking action this morning, Xander Cloudsley, 29, a community food worker from Glasgow, said:
“As a community food worker, I work with those hit hardest by the cost of living crisis; honest, decent people who are being swindled by our criminal government and the morally decrepit oil and gas companies they’re in bed with.”
“It is time to cast aside the comforting myth that our government or the ‘powers-that-be’ will solve the climate and cost of living crises out of duty to their people. They are knowingly and wantonly destroying our way of life, so they can line their own pockets. Meanwhile, the people of this country, and the world over, struggle daily to make ends meet.”
Since the Just Stop Oil campaign launched on 14th February 2022, there have been over 2,100 arrests and 138 people have spent time in prison, many without trial. There are currently two Just Stop Oil supporters serving three year prison sentences for resisting new oil, gas and coal.
We stand with these political prisoners, with the 1,800 victims of the UK’s broken criminal justice system, imprisoned for over a year without trial, and with the 1,700 murdered across the global south, for protecting all our lives. Normal people must come together to resist these criminal governments and hold them to account for their genocidal policies. [6][7]
Just Stop Oil is calling on everyone to get off the sidelines and join in civil resistance against new oil, gas and coal.
The time is now. Join us and slow march while you still can. Our indefinite campaign of civil resistance is underway and will not end until our government makes a meaningful statement halting new fossil fuel projects in the UK.
Join Just Stop Oil on a slow march at midday every Saturday, at Parliament Square until we win.
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 siren sounding and ‘blue lights’ on.
[2] https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/apr/04/climate-activist-trudi-warner-held-sign-telling-jurors-act-conscience-charged
[3] https://insulatebritain.com/2023/05/15/breaking-high-noon-at-crown-court/
[5] https://insulatebritain.com/2023/03/03/two-insulate-britain-supporters-jailed-for-seven-weeks-for-mentioning-fuel-poverty-and-climate-in-court/
[6] Fair Trials reports that the number of people being held in prison without trial in England and Wales is at its highest for over 50 years, with 1,800 people in prison without trial for at least a year. https://www.fairtrials.org/articles/news/highest-number-of-people-on-remand-in-england-and-wales-for-over-50-years/
[7] A recent report from Global Witness says that more than 1,700 people have died while trying to prevent mining, oil drilling or logging on their lands. https://www.globalwitness.org/en/press-releases/deadly-decade-land-and-environmental-activists-killing-every-two-days/
