British environmental activist group Just Stop Oil held its final demonstration in London on Saturday, ending three years of high-profile climate protest stunts as they moved their focus away from civil disobedience.
Several hundred supporters walked peacefully through the centre of the British capital, from parliament to the headquarters of oil and gas giant Shell, where they removed their familiar high-vis orange vests.
The group announced in March it would halt its headline-grabbing protests, arguing it had accomplished its initial aim of stopping Britain approving new oil and gas projects.
More than 3,000 Just Stop Oil protesters have been arrested since it was founded in 2022 and 11 of them are currently in jail, including 58-year-old co-founder Roger Hallam. Five more are due to be sentenced in May.
Stunts by its activists included targeting Vincent van Gogh’s “Sunflowers” painting with tomato soup and daubing the historical landmark Stonehenge with orange paint powder.
They also disrupted theatre and sporting events, including tennis matches at Wimbledon.
Over the years the action has drawn condemnation from politicians, police and some sections of the public.
But officially the group claimed a victory after the UK Labour government halted new oil and gas exploration licences in the North Sea.
Labour has distanced itself from Just Stop Oil, however. Prime Minister Keir Starmer criticised its actions and said protesters should face the full force of the law.
Mel Carrington, a spokeswoman for the protest group said that while its actions had been “very effective to get press attention”, the re-election of climate change sceptic Donald Trump as US president had made their work more difficult.
“The repression does make it more difficult to mobilize, and the external environment has changed” she told AFP.
Just Stop Oil has been coy about its future strategy but has said it will “continue to tell the truth in the courts, speak out for our political prisoners and call out the UK’s oppressive anti-protest laws”.
“In the background, we are working with other (similar) groups… to develop a strategy for what comes next,” said Carrington.
Last month, a London court cut by one year a five-year jail term imposed on Hallam, who had been convicted of conspiracy for planning to block the M25 motorway in an online call.
AFP
