At 8:10 this evening, a group of around 18 Just Stop Oil supporters gathered outside Rishi Sunak’s home in Kensington, London, and made themselves heard by beating pots and pans. They are demanding that the UK government immediately halts all future licences and consents for fossil fuel exploration in the UK. [1]
Carrying placards reading “COP Failure=Crop Failure”, “No rest for the Wicked” and “Arrest the Real Criminals”, the supporters sat and listened to speeches and a performance of the new single ‘We Tried‘ by Just Stop Oil supporter and musician, Louise Harris. Louise is notable for scaling a gantry over the M25 and delivering a tearful appeal for the UK Government to end new oil and gas. The ballad, with its tear-jerking music video, is becoming a runaway hit that has already peaked at Number 1 in the iTunes singles chart, and is climbing the Top 40 Global Charts. Chris Packham has called for it to be a Christmas number one.
Around 40 Police and several territorial support vehicles arrived from around 8:30 pm. The police detained all the Just Stop Oil supporters under Section 50 of the Police Reform Act of 2002. Police requested names and addresses of attendees which were given. At around 10pm officers began arresting the supporters, taking 16 into custody.
Pia Bastide, 29, is a community worker who was present. She remarked:
“People with flooded homes can’t sleep. Children dying from starvation can’t sleep. Communities staring down wildfires can’t sleep. So why should climate criminals like Rishi Sunak get a peaceful night’s sleep? Teenagers are being imprisoned for marching, without ever being convicted of anything. The Met Police should be targeting the real criminals – like Rishi Sunak, and all the oil barons striking slimy deals at COP28.”
Dubbing the action a ‘Wide Awake’ protest, a Just Stop Oil spokesperson said:
“There should be no rest for the wicked. Rishi Sunak has already abandoned the promises he made to his own children on climate – he should have listened to them. New oil and gas is a sealed death warrant for the young and those who have done the least to contribute to this crisis. It’s disgraceful that an unelected Prime Minister should throw our futures away to squeeze out more profit for his fossil fuel lobbyist cronies. Any politician who has the slightest desire to represent the interests of the British people would immediately ban all new licences for oil and gas in the UK.”
Meanwhile, a group of generous donors, including Chris Packham, is offering to double donations made to Just Stop Oil in the next 72 hours. Between 10am on the 30th November until 3rd December, all contributions made by members of the public will be matched pound for pound by the group.
Chris Packham said:
“Alarm bells are ringing! Good! – the world’s leaders are sleep-walking to oblivion, it’s time they woke up to their responsibilities and found the sense and courage to actually lead us towards environmental stability and recovery.”
Just Stop Oil is primarily funded by small donations from members of the public. If you would like to donate to Just Stop Oil and have your contribution doubled, please donate here.
There have been 657 arrests of Just Stop Oil supporters since October 30th. There are currently nine Just Stop Oil supporters in prison, seven of whom have been imprisoned, without trial, for peacefully marching in the road. They are Cressie Gethin (21), Noah Crane (18), Ella Ward (20), Ruby Hamill (19), Chiara Sarti (24), Phoebe Plummer (22) and Christopher Ford (46). They join Morgan Trowland and Marcus Decker, who have been imprisoned for over a year and were sentenced to 3 years and 2 years 7 months respectively, in the longest sentences ever awarded for peaceful direct action. [2][3][4][5]
Continued expansion of new oil and gas will bring about the wholesale destruction of ordered society and an end to the rule of law. We are not prepared to watch while the government continues to serve the interests of a few, at the expense of everyone else. It’s up to all of us to come together and resist. It is the will of the overwhelming majority of people that we take the actions necessary to ensure our survival and together we can make it happen.
People are marching every day from Trafalgar Square at 12pm, to bring an end to new oil and gas. On Saturday 2nd of December we will be hosting a mass march, starting 12pm at New Scotland Yard. Our government is waging war on its people, and we’re fighting back. They’re the real criminals – imprisoning peaceful people for taking proportionate action to protect their communities, whilst licensing more than 100 new oil and gas projects which will destroy everything we value. We’re coming together to demand an end to new oil and gas. It’s not a case of ‘if’ we will win; but ‘when’.
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.
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://juststopoil.org/2023/11/16/we-wont-let-them-get-away-with-mass-murder-for-the-sake-of-greed/
[4] https://juststopoil.org/2023/11/20/a-week-in-resistance-with-cressie/
