More than 50 protesters who are demanding urgent action to address the climate crisis were sent to jail on one day this week after refusing to comply with court proceedings.#
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Many of the protesters made it clear they would continue to take action at the Kingsbury terminal if they were released on bail, despite an injunction prohibiting protests at the site still being in force.
In response, 30 protesters in Birmingham and 21 in London were remanded in prison and are due to appear before the courts again next week, when activist group Just Stop Oil said they could face lengthy spells in prison.
Climate activist group Just Stop Oil have disrupted three oil terminals and many M25 petrol stations this week. Just Stop Oil are calling for no new oil and gas ventures in UK which is accepted as a necessary measure to address the climate crisis.
Dozens of environmental protesters have blocked critical oil infrastructure in Essex and the Midlands as they revived a campaign to “just stop oil”.
At daybreak on Tuesday, about 50 people took part in protests targeting three oil terminals, from where fuel is distributed to petrol stations, the activist group Just Stop Oil said.
In Essex, about 30 activists occupied the Inter oil terminal in Grays and blocked a road leading to the Navigator oil terminal in Thurrock, while five others occupied tunnels dug beneath access roads to the terminals.
In Warwickshire about 20 people tried to block access roads to the Kingsbury oil terminal, the campaign said. Four others were said to be occupying two tunnels near the site.
Environmental protesters have blocked three service stations on the M25 in a second day of action this week attempting to put pressure on the government to end new oil and gas projects.
According to the Just Stop Oil campaign, 32 of its supporters took action from 5am at Cobham services in Surrey, Clacket Lane services in Kent and Thurrock services in Essex.
They blocked access to petrol pumps by sitting in the road with banners, while some sabotaged petrol pumps by breaking the display glass, covering them with spray paint or locking on to them.
JSO, FPA, PJP protest London 23 July 2022. My pic, free to use.
I’ve not long got back from the Just Stop Oil, Fuel Poverty Action, Peace and Justice Project protest in London.
Coming soon a rethink by me of how to campaign effectively. Our planet is burning and it’s clear that the Paris Agreement goals were seriously wrong. The World’s climate is fekked now never mind 1.5C rise and there is no action from governments other than accelerating the destruction of out beautiful World. Please feel free to contribute and comment once it’s published.
ed: Forgot to say that I argued with Piers Corbyn while I was there.
Climate protest group Just Stop Oil has halted traffic on the M25 this morning, declaring the London orbital motorway a “site of civil resistance” following record-breaking temperatures on Tuesday.
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The group has issued a statement saying the record heatwave is “without doubt the most important moment in UK history”.
“All-time temperature records are being obliterated, thousands of people are expected to die from heatstroke and the liars and plotters who are vying to lead us are too busy fighting among themselves to even care,” the statement said.
The group accused the government of being “criminals”, who they said were “overseeing the destruction of everything that is needed for society and the state to function”.
Enough is enough. When did we decide to just sit there and be OK with people in the fifth richest country in the world having to choose between food and heating? When did that happen? When did we decide that we are just going to sit there and let civilisation as we know it to collapse because the government is refusing to cut carbon emissions in line with the cries of the world’s most renowned climate scientists. When did that happen?
People have woken up to the fact that there is only one crisis – the crisis of an elite which cares no more about old people dying of the cold than it does about young people dying of hunger before they get to middle age. This elite refuses to see the misery it is already inflicting on the Global South. The global majority already faces looting, exploitation and climate breakdown. Know one thing for sure – this is murder, plain and simple. Today’s fossil capitalism profits from yesterday’s barbarous imperialism. And they will carry on unless we stop them. No one is coming to save us – not the politicians, not the NGOs, not the entrepreneurs – the only way things will change now is through People Power. It has been the case throughout our history, and so it is today.
We All Want to Just Stop Oil is bringing together the wider environmental and progressive labour movements, faith communities, charities, people from social institutions and famous people – along with thousands of ordinary people who have never before been involved in anything like this – to create mass civil resistance. This is how we will overcome entrenched power – ongoing organised peaceful civil disobedience – slow marches, sit downs, blockades, etc., week after week. They may arrest people but we will not be afraid. We will be courageous, and our contagious courage will spread. They may imprison people but that will make us even more determined to show our solidarity. Their time is up. Our time is now.
On 23 July we are gathering to connect and build. Then, thousands of us will mobilise around the country to prepare for an Autumn of popular mass action – like Extinction Rebellion did in April 2019, forcing the government to respond by occupying central London. But this time involving many more people from a wide coalition of groups, building a deeper, more powerful movement.
