A group of student Just Stop Oil supporters disrupted traffic in Waterloo today, whilst three others defied their draconian bail conditions at Parliament Square. This is the tenth consecutive week of slow marches to demand an end to new oil, gas, and coal projects in the UK. [1]
A group of 25 students began marching outside Waterloo station at 12pm and continued for almost half an hour before receiving a Public Order Act (Section 12) notice from the Metropolitan Police and leaving the road. The students elicited strong reaction from the public, receiving both support and hostility from some quarters.
The students then proceeded to Parliament Square, to witness three students defying their draconian bail conditions banning them from ‘protesting without police permission’ for the next three months. The students then sat down on the pavement outside the Houses of Parliament with placards and gave speeches through a megaphone.
The repressive bail conditions had been imposed on the three after they were arrested for peacefully sitting outside Total Energies headquarters on Tuesday. 27 students were arrested that day, many of whom have had similar bail conditions imposed despite not being charged with any offence.
A Just Stop Oil Spokesperson said:
“This criminal government is threatening young people’s lives by encouraging new oil and gas and changing the law at the behest of big oil corporations to ensure that no-one can stop them.”
“The Met Police’s arbitrary imposition and enforcement of vague bail conditions is part of a campaign of intimidation to silence young people, who have every right to defend themselves against a government that is intent on annihilating their futures. The Police’s failure to arrest these three breaking bail is a tacit acknowledgement that they have overstepped their authority.”
“This illegitimate Prime Minister is now openly boasting that the laws the police are enforcing were written with the aid of dirty oil company money and we already know that the government has bypassed parliament in order to impose them. This from a political party that took £3.5 million in bribes last year from the fossil fuel industry. Corporations have overthrown democracy.”
“We must assert our centuries old right to resist. Every right we have was won through civil disobedience – the right to strike, the right to vote. The stakes at this moment in history are higher than they have ever been.”
“We will continue to take reasonable, proportionate measures in defence of our young people, and all those on the frontline of climate collapse in the UK and around the world. ”
On Wednesday this week, the Prime Minister revealed that the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022, which seriously restricts the right to protest, was written in collaboration with the Policy Exchange – a notorious and influential right-wing think tank funded by oil giant ExxonMobil. Rishi Sunak previously worked at the think tank before becoming Prime Minister. [2][3]
One of those in the road this morning, Tara Vellani, 22, a Psychology student from Manchester said:
“I have been marching with Just Stop Oil this week because I am sick of seeing people, primarily in the Global South, constantly suffering as a result of the choices our government is making, and so we are coming together to demand no new fossil fuel licences.”
“Being sat with my friends in front of the Total headquarters on Tuesday and watching at least half of our group get arrested for simply sitting on the floor was a complete attack on our right to freedom of speech and assembly, at a time when we all need to be speaking out.”
Evan Usher, a 19-year-old student from Leeds was also marching in the road today. He said:
“The reality that my generation is living with, is one in which we can’t have children without knowing that we’ll have to raise them in a world without food security, where there are annual deadly heat waves, where hundreds of millions of people are forced to flee from their homes as they are pushed outside conditions that are suitable for human survival. We have to face that prospect every day.”
“Once you realise that the climate crisis is something that’s been done to us by a very small number of people, it becomes very clear what has to be done. I don’t feel I have a choice in this anymore.”
On Tuesday of this week, seven Just Stop Oil supporters sprayed black and orange paint over the exterior and interior of the Total Energies headquarters in Canary Wharf, East London in resistance to the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) project they are principally funding. This project will displace 100,000 people, wreaking devastation to homes, farms, and landscapes in Uganda and Tanzania, as well as produce monstrous amounts of carbon emissions that are accelerating climate collapse. [4]
Just Stop Oil supporters have completed up to seven marches a day, six days a week since the 24th April. Over 600 ordinary people from all over the UK have taken part. Including arrests at the Coronation and cultural and sporting events there have been around 217 arrests this year over 60 people have been charged with various offences including failure to comply with Public Order Act (section 12) conditions.
Since the Just Stop Oil campaign launched on 14th February 2022, there have been 2,200 arrests and 138 people have spent time in prison, many without trial. Just Stop Oil supporters Morgan Trowland and Marcus Decker are serving three-year prison sentences for resisting new oil, gas and coal in the longest sentences for peaceful climate action in British history .
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.
We need to resist new oil, gas and coal. Support students against the East African Crude Oil Pipeline. Find out how: Join a Zoom call on Sunday 2nd July at 3pm:
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.
[3] https://www.libertyhumanrights.org.uk/advice_information/pcsc-policing-act-protest-rights/
[4] https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/oct/27/east-african-crude-oil-pipeline-carbon
