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Just Stop Oil protesters pictured spraying cornstarch on the Stonehenge stones. Just Stop Oil
climate action
We spoke to Just Stop Oil about why they're ending direct action and 'hanging up the hi-vis'
The final gathering in London today will mark the end of the group’s direct action protests.
CLIMATE PROTEST GROUP Just Stop Oil is set to hold its final direct action protest in London today, marking the end of a three-year campaign that has seen some of the most disruptive and divisive climate demonstrations in recent history.
In a statement released ahead of the event, the group announced it was “hanging up the hi-vis”, bringing to a close a movement that once threw soup at Van Gogh paintings, brought traffic to a standstill, and sparked fierce debate over protest rights and climate responsibility.
Just Stop Oil has claimed that its core demand – a ban on new oil and gas projects – is now UK government policy, describing itself as “one of the most successful civil resistance campaigns in recent history”.
Spokesperson Mel Carrington told The Journal that while the group’s direct action is coming to an end, the group will remain active in their support for climate-friendly initiatives.
“The fascists are coming, the super rich are leading us dry, we’ve got two degrees of global heating expected by the 2030s and billions of deaths within decades,” Carrington said.
“Frankly, nothing short of a revolution is going to stop this, so we’re taking all of that in and building something different.”
The group claims to have helped keep over 4.4 billion barrels of oil in the ground and celebrated recent court rulings that found new fossil fuel licences to be unlawful.
“Soup on Van Goghs, cornstarch on Stonehenge and slow marching in the streets” may now be in the past, the group said, but it stressed that the struggle is far from over.
Trials, surveillance, fines and prison sentences for activists continue, it noted, adding that its mission will shift to legal advocacy and political resistance.
“We 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.”
Carrington added that the group will focus on “deliberative democracy” and building citizen assemblies across Britain, as a way of “putting ordinary people in charge of what happens”.
“We will be building a new street movement that is much more rooted in local communities, and on much greater scale than previously seen,” Carrington said.
“That’s our focus going forward, changing the economic and political system.”
‘Made the headlines’
Founded in 2022, Just Stop Oil became known for its bold and often controversial tactics, including motorway sit-ins, protests at sporting events, and targeting cultural institutions.
Carrington said that despite the major backlash, the group’s members “got much more thank yous, shoutouts and thumbs up than they got people pushing back”.
“Unfortunately, the media just focuses on the violence perpetrated against our folk, and that’s what made the headlines,” she added.
More than 3,000 arrests have been linked to the group’s actions, which sparked criticism from a number of UK politicians.
Last summer, five supporters of Just Stop Oil were given multi-year sentences for planning road-block protests on a British motorway. Even after their terms were reduced on appeal this month, they remain the longest ever handed down for non-violent civil disobedience.
Carrington explained that Just Stop Oil protestors are all prepared “to feel uncomfortable in social circles” or their workplaces.
“They’re prepared to speak the truth, and that’s what we need. However uncomfortable it is, we’ve got to be the adults in the room.”
London protest
Today’s demonstration is being framed as both a farewell and a call to arms – in their statement, the group warned that as global temperatures head towards 2°C of warming by the 2030s, the world faces mass displacement, economic collapse, and environmental catastrophe.
The UK’s Labour government, while signalling a shift away from new fossil fuel projects, has not officially credited Just Stop Oil.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer recently reaffirmed a commitment to continue using existing oil and gas reserves, describing them as part of a managed transition to cleaner energy.
Just Stop Oil’s departure from street-level activism comes as protest rights in the UK face increasing restrictions under the Public Order Act 2023, which expanded police powers to limit demonstrations deemed disruptive.
The group has argued these laws are being used to criminalise peaceful dissent.
Just Stop Oil supporters have been invited to join today’s action in Parliament Square, which the group describes as a symbolic turning point – not a retreat, but a redirection.
“See you on the streets,” the statement concludes.
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