The Whole Truth Five (from left to right) Lucia Whittaker De Abreu, Cressida Gethin, Louise Lancaster, Daniel Shaw and Roger HallamPhoto: Just Stop Oil
SIXTEEN non-violent Just Stop Oil protesters handed draconian sentences since July have been granted an extraordinary mass hearing before the Court of Appeal next year, it was announced on Saturday.
The hearing on January 29 and 30 at the Royal Courts of Justice in London will examine four separate cases involving activists from the group. Key points of contention will include whether conscientious motivation should be considered a mitigating factor.
The outcome is anticipated to be a defining moment for protest rights in Britain.
The 16 include the “Whole Truth Five,” who organised a protest on the M25 calling for a halt to new oil and gas licences. Roger Hallam, Cressida Gethin, Louise Lancaster, Daniel Shaw, and Lucia Whittaker De Abreu received a combined total of 21 years for their action.
At the time, UN special rapporteur Michel Forst said the verdict marked a dark day for “anyone concerned with the exercise of their fundamental freedoms” in Britain.
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Spokesman for the Free Political Prisoners campaign Lex Korte said: “A subset of judges have responded all too eagerly to the call from the disgraced Lord Walney, the arms and oil industry lobbyist, to jail peaceful climate campaigners for longer than if they’d committed serious crimes of sexual violence.
Activists march in London to demand an end to fossil fuels and militarism on November 16, 2024. (Photo: Denise Baker)
“We won’t stop until political leaders divest from war and destruction—and invest in a just, ecological, and equitable transition,” said one campaigner.
Thousands of climate justice advocates took to the streets of London on Saturday to demand the U.K. government “end its reliance on fossil fuels, commit to paying climate reparations, and end its complicity in the genocide in Gaza.”
Organizers said more than 60 groups—including Extinction Rebellion, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, Amnesty International U.K., Palestine Solidarity Campaign, War on Want, and Just Stop Oil—took part in the March for Global Climate Justice. The demonstration took place amid yet another shambolic United Nations Climate Change Conference and as Israeli forces continue a war on Gaza that U.N. experts this week called “consistent with the characteristics of genocide.”
More than two dozen associated protests were held in cities and towns across Britain and Ireland, including Dublin, Edinburgh, Manchester, and Sheffield. Over 150 actions around the world are planned for what organizers are calling a Global Day of Action for Climate Justice on Saturday.
“Thousands of us united today in a historic mobilization on the streets of London, across Great Britain, and worldwide to demand an end to the era of fossil fuels and an end to the genocide in Gaza,” Climate Justice Coalition national coordinator Angus O’Brien said in a statement.
“The issues we face are global, and so is our response,” O’Brien added. “We won’t stop until political leaders divest from war and destruction—and invest in a just, ecological, and equitable transition.”
Lauren MacDonald, the lead campaigner at Stop Rosebank, said: “Every day we are witnessing the worsening effects of climate change as they creep closer and closer to home. All this while governments insist on pandering to the demands of mega-polluters in an endless cycle of ignorance that endangers us all.”
“Oil money has been linked to violence throughout history—and this is no different now,” MacDonald continued. “Even the Rosebank oil field here in the U.K. will see £253 million in revenue flow towards a company that has been flagged by the U.N. for human rights violations in Palestine.”
Earlier this week, green groups including Oil Change International, Friends of the Earth Palestine/PENGON, and Tipping Point U.K. highlighted how fossil fuel companies including Britain’s BP “enable and profit from Israel’s genocide in Gaza” and perpetuate “a long history of the industry’s complicity in mass atrocities worldwide.”
Joanna Warrington, a campaigner at Fossil Free London—a group known for its bold direct action protests—said Saturday that “in gleaming London offices, fossil fuel giants like BP line their pockets while our planet burns and millions suffer.”
“Every day, they stop at nothing to maximize their profits, fueling genocide, corrupting politics, and pushing our climate closer to collapse,” she continued. “We are marching today to demand that the U.K. government breaks free from the grip of mega polluters, stands up to their relentless greed, and stops enabling the violence and destruction they profit from.”
“Another world is not just possible—it’s essential,” Warrington added, “and it starts with holding fossil fuel corporations accountable.”
MacDonald asserted that “if we want to maintain a liveable climate, and sever the toxic links between fossil fuels and atrocities across the globe, we must do everything we can to make a rapid and fair transition away from oil and gas.”
Extinction Rebellion (XR) and Just Stop Oil have stormed multiple insurance offices today (28 October 2024) in their latest round of protests.
The action has seen XR occupy the lobby of the Walkie Talkie building in Fenchurch Street, which is home to insurers such as Tokio Marine Kiln. Protesters from the group also said they had occupied one of Hiscox’s offices.
🚨 HAPPENING NOW
XR Faith & Global Justice activists have occupied @HiscoxUK demanding they cut ties w/ the East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline!
