Will Just Stop Oil Ever Stop?
By Chloe Jacob
As the UK government gears up to provide over 100 North Sea oil and gas licenses in the next year, there is widespread uproar among climate activist groups across the country. In reaction to the news, activist groups are ramping up the intensity and frequency of their protests, no group quite matching the public scrutiny and extreme gravitas demonstrated by Just Stop Oil.
Just Stop Oil define themselves as a “non-violent civil resistance group” that focus on the propensity of the UK government to ignore activist cries to partake in climate action at a legislative level. In recent weeks, the group have garnered wide-scale attention, leaving the public to wonder whether the nature of these climate stunts is stepping over the line of protest and into criminal territory.
The group has a particular following in university environments, with students displaying their disgruntlement with the Government and their own universities by spray-painting historical buildings with orange paint, the branding colour of the group. This was demonstrated in various parts of the UK (on October 9th in Bristol and Exeter; in Oxford on October 10th, and in Falmouth, Sussex, UCL, and Birmingham Universities on October 11th). Arrests of several students involved followed these events.
One protestor involved, Daniel Knorr of Oxford University, was quoted by the Daily Mail on his intentions for this protest stating:
“I am taking action to resist the destruction of my generation.” [1]
This poetic urge to instil destruction on the past in payment of the past’s destruction on the future rings true to the current dismay witnessed across the world. It is logical that protesters are amping up their efforts as the Government continues to dismiss more passive methods of protest demonstrated prior. It seems the protestors are acting from a sense of impending desperation at the trajectory of the UK’s climate policy under the guidance of Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak. The most recent stunt occurred on October 19th, with the activism group creating a human barricade at the Bibby Stockholm barge. This barricade was intended to stop a truck of asylum seekers being led to terrible living conditions on the accommodation barge, which had just been rampant with a dangerous bacterium. This blockage led to the driver of the truck breaking the human barricade by continuing to drive through, pushing people with his truck.
These protests follow similar stunts occurring over the past few months including interruptions of a performance of Les Misérables in London and the defacing of Van Gough’s Sunflowers in the National Gallery. These events have gained the attention of the Government and the UK media, however not in the way the group have hoped. Rather than driving change in public mentality and government policy, the group are being branded in extreme negatives by mainstream media. The Daily Mail published an article on the university protests, referring to the student demonstrators as “eco clowns” and “zealots,”[2] only furthering the public distaste for climate demonstrators in the UK. It seems these stunts have begun to overshadow their cause due to the media reporting on the group activities rather than the issues for which said activities stand for.
The Government’s reaction has also been counterintuitive to the group’s aims. In May and June of 2023, the parliament voted on a new legislation to further prosecute protestors on lesser grounds than before under the Public Order Act. This new legislation disallows “lock-ins,” where people chain themselves to public buildings, roadblocks, air transport blocks and more. “Lock-ins” are now treated as grounds for prosecution. This further restriction of protests in response to extreme protests from groups like Just Stop Oil creates a worrying precedent for further restrictions of civil action that should be a guaranteed right for every citizen.
It is impossible to argue that Just Stop Oil have not made a splash in the waters of climate action in the UK. Though they have certainly drawn attention to an overshadowed cause, it is difficult to understand how effective their actions will be. While some argue that they are a vital step in the forwarding of climate activism, it can also be argued that these acts will be detrimental to the cause, as well as to the ability of other causes to protest effectively. The group have no intentions of halting, with these acts culminating in a mass street protest occurring every day for a week from October 29th. The group believe this will be their most influential protest yet, with the organisers stating that they will march “week after week – until we win.” [3]
Edited By Sarah Michaelides
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