Just Stop Oil supporters are marching in London today to demand the government immediately halt all new oil, gas, and coal projects in the UK. [1]
At 10am this morning 65 Just Stop Oil supporters from the Midlands and East of England began marching around Parliament Square.
At 10:10am, a number of Metropolitan Police arrived and began pushing the Just Stop Oil supporters back and forming a chain across the road in an unsuccessful attempt to stop them from marching. Unlike previous Just Stop Oil slow marches which were policed using Section 12 orders, they issued a Section 7 order which criminalises members of the public based on alleged interference with ‘the use or operation of key national infrastructure’. [2]
Immediately the police began making arrests, arresting 65 people by 10:37. Officers dragged peaceful Just Stop Oil supporters across the pavement, kneeling and sitting on them to detain them.
A Just Stop Oil spokesperson said:
“Just Stop Oil supporters are willing to slow march to the point of arrest today, and every day until the police take action to prosecute the real criminals – the people who are facilitating new oil and gas when they know that to do so will kill hundreds of millions of people.
“Just in the last week, seven people have died in the UK as a result of extreme weather and scientists are telling us it will only get worse. Neither major political party is serving the interests of the country- they are serving the mass murderers profiting while the world burns. There is no real opposition.
“In times of crisis, it is down to ordinary people to take a stand against the rich and powerful by disrupting business-as-usual. We know it works. A mass road blocking campaign has just forced the Dutch government to halt oil and gas subsidies. That’s why people are coming together from all over the UK to march day after day in London from today. Its People vs Oil! Sign up at JustStopOil.org”
Since 2021 when the International Energy Agency (“IEA”) declared that there could be no new oil, gas or coal if the world is to stay within safe limits of global heating, it has been clear that new oil and gas licensing will kill hundreds of millions of people. [3]
This morning Just Stop Oil published a list of five high-profile individuals with specific responsibility for encouraging new oil and gas. The list uses evidence gathered by the World Environmental Crimes Unit and suggests that these individuals know all about the crisis to which they are contributing – but have carried on creating the conditions for mass killings regardless. Under Article 30 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, this means that the five men on our list could be guilty of the crime of genocide by oblique intent. [4][5]
Just Stop Oil wrote to the Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley on 26th October 2023 to demand that he open an investigation into the politicians and executives responsible for these crimes.[6]
One of those taking action this morning, Dr Ian Chapman, 52, a GP from Bury St Edmunds said:
“20 or 30 years from now, I won’t look back and regret having taken direct action, but I will regret it if I don’t. I expect to get arrested today, whilst the people in the building I’m marching past are making decisions that will kill millions. I will get off the road when the police take action against the real criminals.”
“We’re running out of time, and we all need to do what we can, right now. I don’t see how you can say you care about future generations, or your nieces and nephews or your grandchildren – I don’t see how you can say you love your children – if you do nothing to stop the destruction of the world they are going to grow up in.”
Also marching today is Imogen May, 24, a food producer from Halesworth. She said:
“I’m marching with Just Stop Oil because I have a six month old nephew, and I am so scared to think what his world will look like in five or ten years’ time. I’d love to live a normal life, without worrying about climate collapse. I know that to have a chance at having a normal life later, we have to take action now.”
“We’re simply demanding that the UK government does what its own advisors are asking it to do; the same thing as the United Nations, the Climate Change Committee and the Independent Panel on Climate Change. We must halt all new licences for fossil fuel production in the UK.”
We are not prepared to watch while the government plans for millions to die and destroys everything we love. It’s up to all of us now to come together and resist. We cannot let them divide us. Together we can be the real opposition this country needs and we will win. We will stop new oil and gas.
Throughout November, Just Stop Oil is calling on everyone to join us to march in London until the government comes to its senses and ends new oil and gas. Sign up for action here: https://juststopoil.org/take-action/
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.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2023/15/section/7
[4] https://juststopoil.org/genocide/
[5] Oblique intent : https://juststopoil.org/2023/04/03/two-words-that-change-everything/
