A coalition of groups including Just Stop Oil, Jeremy Corbyn’s Peace and Justice Project, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and Insulate Britain plans to disrupt central London this Saturday and Sunday with a mass civil resistance march. The march, one of several large events planned for the day, will bring thousands of ordinary people to the streets of the capital to demand an end to the government’s harmful policies. [1]
‘We All Want to Just Stop Oil’ brings together a range of groups focussed on the cost of living and climate crises. By joining forces, the partners will highlight the connections between the energy crisis, which is driving millions of families into fuel and food poverty across the UK, and the climate crisis, which right now is causing mass loss of life and suffering all over the world, impacting first and hardest on countries in the global south who have contributed the least to rising global heating. [2]
Beginning at 11am, people will assemble at 25 starting points across London, including Waterloo, Paddington and Euston stations. From these locations, the groups will converge at Westminster to demand an end to the economic and moral madness of continued oil and gas expansion. [3]
There will be a photo call at 2pm, on the northside of Westminster Bridge, close to the Boudicca monument, with coalition partners and supporters present. Spokespeople from the various partners and supporters will be available for interview.
A Just Stop Oil Spokesperson said:
“We are currently witnessing the breakdown of all we hold dear. Our government has not ‘got this’ – they are increasing the grip of fossil fuels at our throat. If the government won’t stop approving new oil and gas projects then we will make them stop. Come to Westminster from 1st October to peacefully join thousands of other ordinary people in civil resistance because our lives depend on it.”
Jeremy Corbyn, the founder of the Peace and Justice Project, said:
“Record breaking weather is happening everywhere and everything is too expensive. That’s the crisis. You can’t separate out the cost of living and climate crises. The whole system, which creates billionaires and starves hundreds of millions, is the crisis. It can’t be resolved, it must be overcome and transformed.”
Stuart Bretherton, 24, Energy For All Campaign Coordinator, Fuel Poverty Action said:
“The climate crisis and the cost of living crisis are a direct result of how our economy is run for the benefit of an energy industry that will chew us up and spit us out. But at the same time we have common solutions to both these crises. Climate justice doesn’t mean further hardship, it means warm homes, lower bills, cleaner air and a better economy for every one of us.”
Lee Jasper of Blaksox, said:
“The west relentlessly pumps out its carbon gas to feed its insatiable consumer economies, while the poorest people on the planet, in the global south endure climate catastrophe, famine and drought, whose people are being sacrificed to maintain unsustainable western lifestyles. We need climate change and climate justice.”
Zita Holbourne, Chair of Black Activists Rising Against Cuts, (BARAC UK) said:
“The issues of climate displacement, environmental injustice, migration, colonialism, reparations and systemic racism are all interconnected and part of the same struggle for racial justice and human rights globally. There can be nothing about us without us and until all of us are free, none of us are free.”
Kate Hudson, from the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament said:
“Fossil fuels have contributed to the two greatest threats facing humanity – climate catastrophe and nuclear war. They cause and sustain global conflict, entrench inequalities and have left some of our most precious environments on the brink of irreversible collapse. CND backs JSO’s actions: the government urgently needs to switch its spending priorities particularly at this time of deep financial crisis. We need climate protection, not Trident; investment in our nurses and public services, not nuclear weapons and power, and to ensure good wages for all instead of further defence spending.”
Liam Norton, from Insulate Britain, said:
“The government’s plan to open new oil, gas and coal projects is the biggest act of government criminality in our history. They are participating in the destruction of this country and the murder of countless people around the world. What else can you call it? In order to stop new oil and gas we need to Insulate Britain. Now.”
[Source was a Just Stop Oil press release]
