Just Stop Oil has announced they’re putting an end to their disruptive direct action campaigns, and are in the process of building a “new resistance”, but have argued there’s still “work to be done”
The eco-activist group, Just Stop Oil, has officially announced an end to their direct action campaigns. After years of high-profile and disruptive protests, the group posted on their X page that they are “hanging up the hi vis” (a reference to their signature orange vests).
On the afternoon of March 27, Just Stop Oil activist Hannah Hunt stood outside Downing Street to make the announcement: “Three years after bursting on the scene in a blaze of orange, at the end of April the Just Stop Oil campaign will be hanging up the hi-vis”.
According to Hunt, whose speech three years ago signalled the start of Just Stop Oil’s direct action campaigns, the group has achieved unparalleled success. “Just Stop Oil’s demand to end new oil and gas is now government policy, making us one of the most successful civil resistance campaigns in recent history,” she said. “We’ve made fossil-fuel licensing front page news and kept over 4.4bn barrels of oil in the ground, while courts have ruled new oil and gas unlawful.”
READ MORE: Just Stop Oil protesters break silence on life behind bars in same prison as Lucy Letby
Hunt indicated a need for a change, saying there is still more work to be done: “We are heading for 2C of global heating in the coming decade, resulting in billions being killed, mass civil unrest and social collapse. Meanwhile, we are seeing corporations and billionaires buying political power and using it to punch down on the weak and the vulnerable.”
Hunt confirms the group is creating a “new strategy to face this reality” as “nothing short of a revolution is going to protect us from the coming storms.” Both Hunt and the Just Stop Oil X announcement made reference to a “new resistance” but little details of what is to come have been shared.
For now, the group is preparing for their final mass protest in Parliament Square on April 26. After which time the campaign would only go on “in the courts and in the prisons”.
The end of the group’s direct action campaigns comes after Ed Miliband, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, met their primary objective: to end new fossil fuel licences in the UK. Secretary Miliband’s new zero plan has satisfied the group who have claimed the success as their own.
Writing for the Sunday Mirror, Secretary Miliband said: “The net zero economy is thriving. Recent figures from the CBI show the net zero economy grew three times faster than the economy as a whole last year – with employment in the sector up by over 10%.”
Just Stop Oil’s announcement to end direct action campaigns has been met with mixed reviews. The eco-activist group has had a rough relationship with the public as a result of their brazen and disruptive stunts.
Earlier this year, Just Stop Oil activists upset theatregoers when they stormed a West End stage during Sigourney Weaver’s performance in The Tempest. The Just Stop Oil activists launched a confetti cannon on stage and held up an orange banner, eliciting boos from the audience.
The group has been behind a host of similarly splashy and disruptive protests around the country. Throwing soup at Van Gogh’s Sunflowers at the National Gallery, splattering paint on the US Embassy and even blocking passenger traffic at the airport.
While some may be feeling relief at the group’s announcement, it has yet to be seen how other climate activist groups will adapt their response. Greenpeace UK publicly acknowledged Just Stop Oil’s announcement with a press release of their own.
Will McCallum, co-executive director of Greenpeace UK, highlighted the hard work of Just Stop Oil but said it’s no time to get quiet. “Just Stop Oil paid a heavy price for raising their voices at a time when politicians and corporations are trying to silence peaceful protesters – in the streets and in the courts. We must not allow our hard-won right to protest to be stripped away, because it is the right that all other rights depend upon.
McCallum promises that: “Greenpeace and many others will continue to defend this proud tradition of taking action on issues that matter to make change possible.”