Earlier today, Just Stop Oil announced that it will cease all its campaigning activities at the end of April.
There are sound reasons for doing this. After all, it is now official government policy not to allow any new oil and gas developments in the North Sea – and there’s no doubt that Just Stop Oil’s highly creative, nonviolent campaigning played a significant part in that decision. “Job Done”, you could say.
But it’s a big blow, for all that. And the climate movement here in the UK will, in my opinion, be a lot weaker because of it.
Over the last three years, Just Stop Oil’s campaigns have forced politicians and the media to confront the reality of the climate emergency, have exposed the massive gap that exists between what climate scientists are telling us and the pathetically inadequate response to that science from the politicians, and have challenged all of us to “stop standing by” – by leaving to others the hard grind of climate campaigning.
In that regard, whilst its resources have been tiny, its impact has been huge. And the burden of making that happen has fallen on relatively small numbers of people prepared to put their freedom on the line – despite increasingly oppressive new legislation restricting our rights to protest and to freedom of speech here in the UK.
It’s been my privilege to work with 26 of Just Stop Oil’s younger activists over the last nine months, co-creating a new book about the climate crisis and the role of Nonviolent Direct Action. Some of them are still in prison, some have already been released, and some have yet to appear in court. It’s them I’m thinking of today.
27th March 2025
