Climate activists put off by ‘excessive’ prison sentences

The orange banners of Just Stop Oil will hold the traffic in the center of London on Saturday afternoon. Activists in brightly colored visibility vests force long rows of double -deckers, black taxis, bentleys and ferraris to stop. With hundreds of demonstrators, they stroll over the broad lanes of the British capital. Their final destination: the head office of oil company Shell.

There is one essential difference with earlier protests. This time the authorities know about it and the London police are guiding the procession, in contrast to all those times that the environmental activists held surprise actions. In recent years, Just Stop Oil Oil Oil Oil has been occupied the M25, the Rondweg of London. They threw soup at a painting by Vincent van Gogh, smeared the historic stones of Stonehenge with orange powder paint and disrupted football and cricket matches, musicals and weddings.

On Saturday, the Just Stop Oil campaign group came together for the last time. The activists stop. The organization gives the organization that their goal has been achieved. The current government (Labor) no longer issues new permits for drilling to gas or oil in British waters. Exactly what Just Stop Oil fought for. But between the rules it appears that legislation in the United Kingdom with which order-disrupting actions can be tackled harder, forces the movement to change strategy. The years of prison sentences imposed on their activists have a deterrent effect.

In British media it is speculated that the group will organize more underground actions, or fall into splinter movements

Activist Juliette Brown – black glasses and bright orange vest over her black jacket – has also been arrested. It was during one of the protests where they stopped the traffic with a slow march. Her case never came to court, but Brown says that she was aware in advance that a prison sentence was a possible consequence for her. « That was not a easy decision, but yes, I thought that was worth the risk. » She works as a doctor in London and regularly sees patients who suffer from air pollution in the city.

Blocking tunnels

In 2022, the then government of the Conservative Party adopted legislation, making ‘the deliberate or reckless causing nuisance’ a criminal offense. A year later a list of concrete criminal offenses were added, which seemed to be tailor -made for actions from clubs such as Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion. Changing yourself and blocking roads, tunnels or other important infrastructure was all punishable.

« In the context of those laws you should see this decision (from Just Stop Oil to stop, ed.), » Says Juliette Brown. A friend of hers, also a doctor, was sentenced to a year in prison for a protest action at a gas station. The medical supervisor has temporarily suspended him because of that conviction, so he cannot get back to work immediately if he is released later. « A prison sentence, no matter how short or long, has an enormous impact on your life. The assessment of campaigning becomes very difficult. »

She points out that the repressive measures resulted in part from the advice of a think tank that turned out to be donations from the American oil company ExxonMobil. Brown: « So we have to compete against corrupt politicians who prefer to accept money from the fossil industry and are willing to send peaceful demonstrators to prison. » Labor, in power since last summer, maintains the new laws. And the party top distanced themselves from the suggestion that their decision on new drilling permits was prompted by the Just Stop Oil campaign. The Order-Verdorende Actions called for irritation in many British, even though a majority of the population supports policy to combat climate change.

During the demonstration on Saturday, the frustration about the penalties that their activists receive is clearly visible. « Stop locking up people who tell the truth, » says the protest signs. And on T-shirts of some activists: « Jury members have an absolute right to release a suspect on the basis of their conscience. » This refers to cases in which judges, also on appeal, stipulated that the considerations of suspects do not count for their actions. So where the protesters like to explain that the climate crisis and the lack of policy justify their protest, the British courts only look at the question of whether activists are guilty of the fact that they are suspected of.

Punishments twice as long

Just Stop Oil appealed against the penalties that their activists received. In March, the penalties of six convicts were indeed lowered, because the higher judges found the penalties of four and five years in prison ‘excessive long’. But for ten other activists, the length of their sentence was maintained. In England and Wales, the convicted persons, compared to other countries in Western Europe, are sentenced to be sentenced to a prison sentence relatively often. And the average length of penalties has doubled over the past decades.

How to continue for climate activists? Even though Just Stop Oil Success claims, on the demonstration on Saturday they see the future gloomy. « The goal of having only 1.5 degrees Celsius heated up has long since disappeared and the emissions of greenhouse gases are still increasing, » says one of their activists Tim Crosland in his speech.

In British media it is speculated that the group will organize more underground actions, or fall into splinter movements. Crosland also suggests that there will be a continuation of the campaign: « We have already cleared what comes afterwards. And that will be good. » For British who have annoyed the inconvenience that Just Stop Oil caused, he also has a message: « Do you say we undermine our goal with our actions? Then I say: Do you really not understand that it is also your goal? »

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