At the Quaker Meeting Room in Westminster on a Thursday evening, there’s an unusual buzz among the normally tranquil parquet floors and soft lighting. Around 40 people, most of them in their twenties, accessorise their baggy clothes and directional haircuts with black-and-white keffiyeh scarves. A few people pass around leaflets and stickers, cups of tea. It could be a student networking night, or a Fresher’s Week social. Instead it’s an event for Youth Demand, a protest group who have threatened to “shut down” London this summer, in what they are calling “the biggest sustained wave of resistance for Palestine the UK has seen.”
But there’s also some nervous tension in the air. Last time Youth Demand held a public meeting in this spot, dozens of police officers armed with Tasers broke down the door and arrested everyone present. Ella Taylor, 20, a student from London, was one of six people arrested.
Also read: Who are the protestors behind Youth Demand?
“I felt shocked and outraged,” she says. “We were cuffed and driven to police stations in Bromley and Kingston and I was held until 3.30am. We shouldn’t be the ones arrested, the government should. They’re the ones arming genocide in Gaza and breaking international law. But it just shows how weak [the police] are, that they arrested six women sitting around drinking tea. They’re terrified of our collective power and our community is one of resistance.”
At almost exactly the same moment that Just Stop Oil announced they are ‘hanging up their hi-vis’ for good at the end of April, another — albeit more baby-faced group of activists — are getting ready to unfurl their bright orange banners and cause untold disruption on the roads of London.
The two groups seem to have a lot in common and it’s not surprising - Youth Demand emerged from the student branch of Just Stop Oil around January 2024. Since then they have staged dozens of major actions, including placing toddlers’ shoes outside Keir Starmer’s house in Kentish Town to symbolise the massacre of children in Gaza, and pasting a photograph of a Gazan mother and child over a Picasso in The National Gallery.
The group's most recent stunt saw activists lay “body bags” outside Foreign Secretary and Tottenham MP David Lammy's door on Tuesday.
But this month has seen them launch their biggest protests yet, promising a series of “swarm” roadblocks, 10-minute blocks in the road designed to cause “non-stop disruption” across the city. The group has two aims: for the UK government to stop all trade with Israel, and to make the “super rich and fossil fuel elite” pay damages to the communities and countries harmed by fossil fuel burning. The figure they suggest is £1trillion by 2030.
But is more “civil disobedience” what’s needed to evoke real change? Or are these vulnerable young people at risk of getting swept up in a movement which could lead to substantial jail time?
How ethical is Youth Demand?
For Chiara Sarti, 25, it’s a risk worth taking. Originally from Rome, she is now studying for a PhD in Computer Science, and was part of Just Stop Oil before joining Youth Demand. “As a young person I have zero faith in the current political regime to deliver anything other than genocide on a bigger and bigger scale,” she says. “It’s happening now in Gaza and it’s coming on a global scale through climate collapse. When I started reading climate science in 2023, and I saw the heatwaves at home in Italy where the roads were melting, I couldn’t sleep. I knew I had to do something.”
Sarti says she’s not afraid of the new anti-protest laws, such as 2024’s Serious Disruption Prevention Orders, which have allowed police to clamp down on activists, and have led to harsher jail sentences for Just Stop Oil activists. 15 members of JSO are currently serving jail sentences following arrests and charges.
“We’re talking about the destruction of everything we know and love. What’s a few years in jail?” she says.
According to Youth Demand, they have 25,000 people on their mailing list and they had a surge in interest — and more than 200 new sign-ups — after the arrests at the Quaker House at the end of March.
Although Ella insists the group is a “mixed bag and everyone is welcome” - and there’s no age limit to signing up - most of the members are in their twenties. You have to be over 18 to take part in their direct action. And, as is often noted about eco activists, as a group they are predominantly white and seemingly middle-class.
But unlike other protest movements to emerge in recent years, there’s a distinctly youthful energy to their message - and, arguably, also a wide-eyed idealism and even naivety to their demands. When you register your details with the group, you get a welcome email littered with exclamation marks (which is also the group’s logo) and teenage-sounding phrases such as “it’s awesome to have you here”.
Youth Demand has already raised more than £140,000 from small donations from the public and, like Just Stop Oil and XR, their planning is meticulous. They organise events and actions through Signal and Telegram, hold Zoom training sessions on what to do if you’re arrested, and are savvy at making social media videos to encourage followers to take action or make donations. Their Instagram now has 30,000 followers, to which they wryly note “thank u @metpolice_uk”. The revolution may not be televised, but it might be on TikTok.
A Met Police spokesperson said: "Youth Demand have stated an intention to 'shut down' London over the month of April using tactics including 'swarming' and road blocks. While we absolutely recognise the importance of the right to protest, we have a responsibility to intervene to prevent activity that crosses the line from protest into serious disruption and other criminality.”
I can see how someone younger or more impressionable might get sucked in
Joe, 27, an actor living in east London, was at the Youth Demand event at the Quaker Meeting House. “Like a lot of people I see horrible videos of what’s going on in Gaza or read the news about climate change and it can feel really hopeless,” he says. “I hadn’t even heard of Youth Demand until the other day, but it feels good to be doing something. I feel a lot more informed after coming here. I’ve been to a few meetings of some climate groups before and they can feel a bit culty. I can see how someone younger or more impressionable might get sucked in.”
Dr Rupert Read is the author of and was one of the founding members of XR, but has now set up a more moderate movement called the Climate Majority Project. “The passing of Just Stop Oil is an important moment for those of us in the climate movement to think about which techniques actually work,” he says.
Also read: Just Stop Oil's craziest protests, from spray painting Stonehenge to storming the West End
“I think Youth Demand and other protest groups need to be pretty careful to act in ways that are easy to understand by the public. We don’t want to alienate people, we need vehicles that huge numbers of people can get behind. Not thousands or hundreds of thousands, but millions. We need ways for masses of people to say ‘We don’t want this’, which is why I think petitions to parliament and action on the ground, within communities, is more effective.”
Change happens by making an emotional splash
George Ferns, a senior lecturer in business and society at the University of Bath, disagrees. “Disruptive protests may be unpopular, but they are effective at attracting media attention and public awareness,” he says. “Change happens by making an emotional splash. Of course, disruption risks alienating some people – but that can actually strengthen a movement’s overall influence. The “radical flank effect” shows that when radical activists push boundaries, they often make moderate voices in the same movement appear more reasonable. Recent research on Just Stop Oil found that even when the group provoked public anger, support for moderate organizations such as Friends of the Earth increased.”
Ella Taylor says she wishes she could just sign online petitions and act within the law, “but it doesn’t make change”. Indeed, the impassioned antics of Youth Demand are a direct antidote to criticisms that Gen Z are just a bunch of lazy armchair activists.
I think everyone is aware of the massive injustice in the world, but for us it’s our future reality
“We can’t sit by and wait for the government to grow a conscience,” she says. “Women didn’t get the vote by protesting peacefully. I think everyone is aware of the massive injustice in the world, but for us it’s our future reality. Young people today won’t have the same lives as our parents’ and our grandparents’ did. We’re growing up in a world where our futures have been sold out. We have the energy and the awareness to do what it takes. Historically, most social change has started with the youth.”
She points to the Children’s March in Alabama in 1963, where over 1,000 children marched through the streets to protest segregation. “They were arrested and beaten by police and spent weeks in prison, but their demands were met,” she says proudly. She doesn’t mention that many - including Malcolm X and Martin Luther King - were against the march as it exposed children to violence.
When I ask her if she’s scared of going to jail, she pauses. “Of course I’m scared, but it’s much scarier to do nothing.”
