Jeremy Corbyn unites with direct action group Just Stop Oil

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https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/jun/16/jeremy-corbyn-unites-with-direct-action-group-just-stop-oil

Jeremy Corbyn Sophie Brown, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Jeremy Corbyn, the former Labour leader, has teamed up with direct action campaigners to form a new “red/green” climate and social justice movement which aims to stage a “major wave of popular mass action” later this year.

Corbyn’s Peace and Justice Project, which he set up in 2021, is joining forces with Just Stop Oil campaigners who have staged a series of disruptive climate actions over the past six months.

The new movement – which also includes trade unionists, civil society organisations and leftwing activists – argues that the current “destructive economic model” is the root cause of the cost of living crisis as well as the climate crisis.

New red green coalition forms to confront cost of living and climate crisis through a “major wave of mass popular action”

Lawrence Leather, 22 a spokesperson for Just Stop Oil, said:

“It’s been over a year since Sir David King, the former UK chief scientific adviser warned the ‘next three to four years will determine the future of humanity”. But still the government refuses to do anything.

“As the climate breaks down, the cost of everything will rise. That’s why we want to bring together the broadest coalition we can, including the trade unions, Britain’s biggest social movement, around concrete demands that decarbonise and put money back in people’s pockets.

“We are encouraging everyone to step up now and join the movement. The politicians won’t save us. It’s on us to change history. Their time is up. Our time is now.”

Jeremy Corbyn, the founder of the Peace and Justice Project, said:

“Movements are the motor of change in history. When we come together, we can transform the world. And we must because those in power – the fossil fuel giants, the billionaires and the governments they own – are picking our pockets and stealing our future.

“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.”

Continue ReadingJeremy Corbyn unites with direct action group Just Stop Oil

Climate protests news 4 May 2022

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Members of Extinction Rebellion and sister movement Money Rebellion disrupted the annual general meetings of Barclays Bank in Birmingham and Standard Chartered Bank in London demanding both banks stop financing fossil fuels. Speeches were interrupted at both AGMs, with some wearing masks of Standard Chartered’s Chairman, José Viñals, and the bank’s CEO, Bill Winters, while at the Barclays AGM protestors set off personal alarms. 

Barclays is the UK’s largest investor in fossil fuels, having put over $19.6 Billion into the industry in 2021 alone, while Standard Chartered financed over $6 Billion in the same year, ranking them the third biggest UK bank investing in fossil fuels behind Barclays and HSBC. 

Barclays and Standard Chartered AGMs are the latest to see disruption from protestors demanding an end to fossil fuel investments. HSBC’s meeting was interrupted last week with protestors singing a a revised version of the Abba hit Money, Money, Money during the chairman’s speech.

Extinction Rebellion protesters send Barclays’ AGM in Manchester into chaos

Video footage revealed shows shouting and heckling, with security officers called to attend and requests for people to be taken from the building.

Chairman Nigel Higgins was forced to pause the meeting while security removed the protesters as he was repeatedly interrupted, with the activists dominating the first 45 minutes and setting off personal alarms as he spoke. One woman protester glued herself to her seat in the audience to avoid being removed, according to reports.

Barclays Bank Oxford shut down by Extinction Rebellion protestors

South Lakes Just Stop Oil activist skips court for Warwickshire protest

A CLIMATE activist has skipped her High Court hearing to take part in a protest outside Kingsbury Oil terminal in Warwickshire.

Margaret Reid, 51, from South Lakes, joined ten other activists from Just Stop Oil at the protest and were expecting to be arrested after telling police there was a warrant out for their arrest.

It is expected that they will be jailed for their action.

Supporters of the Just Stop Oil coalition are demanding that the Government stops issuing new oil and gas licenses.

Continue ReadingClimate protests news 4 May 2022

Just Stop Oil news 3 May 2022

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Just Stop Oil protested at the Nustar Clydebank fuel depot near Glasgow, Scotland today.

Just Stop Oil blockades terminal in Glasgow in first Scottish action

Shortly before sunrise on Tuesday, about 40 supporters of the civil resistance campaign against fossil fuel production blocked the entrance to the Nustar Clydebank terminal, locking themselves together and climbing on tankers.

Fourteen more activists made their way inside, with three scaling a storage silo and the rest climbing into pipework distributing fuel around the site, halting operations.

Just Stop Oil, which is calling for the government to promise a moratorium on new fossil fuel projects, said the action was prompted by plans for new oil and gas fields in the North Sea, off Scotland’s coast.

Protesters arrested at oil terminal climate protest, Police Scotland say

Chief Superintendent Lynn Ratcliff said on Tuesday evening protesters were asked to leave and that a “number of people who decided not to cooperate have subsequently been arrested”.

Just Stop Oil protests: Four charged over M25 services damage

Four people have been charged following climate protests at two motorway service stations on the M25 in Surrey.

On Thursday Just Stop Oil said 35 of its supporters blocked petrol stations at Cobham and Clacket Lane services.

The two men and two women have been charged with causing criminal damage of more than £5,000. A further four people have been released under police bail.

An additional 27 people are still under investigation, Surrey Police said.

Continue ReadingJust Stop Oil news 3 May 2022

Climate protest news 28 April 2022

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Just Stop Oil protesters sabotage petrol pumps on M25 motorway

About 35 supporters of the Just Stop Oil campaign staged blockades at the Cobham services in Surrey and the Clacket Lane services in Kent, both on the M25, smashing the display glass on petrol pumps with hammers and defacing them with spray paint.

The action against new fossil fuel targets came after the companies controlling the fuel terminals that had previously been targeted obtained civil injunctions banning protests at their sites.

The activists struck at the two motorway services at 7am. A video from one site showed a campaigner using a small window-breaking hammer to smash the glass on one pump, and spraying the broken dial with orange spray paint.

Continue ReadingClimate protest news 28 April 2022

Climate protest news 27 April 2022

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Just Stop Oil protesters defy cops again as arrests made on second day of action

Ten more arrests have been made after a protest outside a giant Midland oil terminal today. It was the second demonstration in two days at the Kingsbury depot, near Tamworth.

Activists stood and held placards outside the UK’s largest inland oil depot on April 27. According to protesters, they were arrested “pretty swiftly”.

Yesterday, April 26, some 16 people were taken into custody for blocking the entrance to the site. Activists on the ground told BirminghamLive it was the first action since they wrote to Boris Johnson demanding a halt to all future licensing and consent for the exploration, development and production of fossil fuels in the UK.

Climate protester sprays government building with paint using fire extinguisher

Campaigners from a group called ‘Axe Drax’ covered the headquarters of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy with paint using a fire extinguisher.

According to the group’s social media account, they want to pressure the government into cutting ties with the Drax Group.

It’s part a string of protests targeting the company, which operate a biomass fuel station in North Yorkshire.

Continue ReadingClimate protest news 27 April 2022