Three years after bursting onto the scene in a blaze of orange, protest group Just Stop Oil say they will be ‘hanging up the hi vis’ at the end of April.
The environmental activists have become renowned for throwing paint, powder and even soup on everything from embassies to artistic masterpieces.
The climate group says it is ending ‘direct action’ as its initial demands have now been met by the UK government.
‘The end of soup on Van Goghs’
Just Stop Oil activists have made numerous press headlines for their disruptive, non-violent protests that have included gluing themselves to a Van Gogh painting and smearing cake on a waxwork of King Charles III at Madame Tussauds.
During their three-year history, the group’s supporters have been arrested 3,300 times and imprisoned 180 times for breaking laws they say were drafted by the fossil fuel industry.
Their stunts will now be a thing of the past come the end of April, however, as the climate group say they are ending their public protests.
It comes after UK Energy Security and Net Zero Secretary Ed Milliband confirmed earlier this month that the government will ban all new oil and gas licences in the UK.
“Just Stop Oil’s initial demand to end new oil and gas is now government policy, making us one of the most successful civil resistance campaigns in recent history,” Just Stop Oil activist Hannah Hunt said in an announcement outside Downing Street in London on Thursday.
“We’ve kept over 4.4 billion barrels of oil in the ground and the courts have ruled new oil and gas licences unlawful,” the 22-year-old said, whose speech on Valentine’s Day 2022 launched the group’s campaign.
In a statement, Just Stop Oil said this marks the end of soup on Van Goghs, cornstarch on Stonehenge and slow marching in the streets, but not the end of trials, tagging and surveillance, fines, probation and years in prison.
“We have exposed the corruption at the heart of our legal system, which protects those causing death and destruction while prosecuting those seeking to minimise harm,” the group said.
“Just Stop Oil 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.”
Just Stop Oil is taking a new approach
Just Stop Oil’s campaign of direct action will end with a final protest in London’s Parliament Square on 26 April.
However, the group say their activism will not be over after that, but will be taking a different approach.
“Governments everywhere are retreating from doing what is needed to protect us from the consequences of unchecked fossil fuel burning,” their statement continues.
“As we head towards 2°C of global heating by the 2030s, the science is clear: billions of people will have to move or die and the global economy is going to collapse. This is unavoidable. We have been betrayed by a morally bankrupt political class.”
Just Stop Oil says they need a new approach as “corporations and billionaires corrupt political systems across the world”.
“We are creating a new strategy, to face this reality and to carry our responsibilities at this time. Nothing short of a revolution is going to protect us from the coming storms,” the group said.
