65 Just Stop Oil marchers were arrested at Parliament Square on Monday after 10 minutes 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’.
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”
One of the participants, 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.”
Imogen May, 24, a food producer from Halesworth 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.”