Taking action with Just Stop Oil

In this thoughtful and thought-provoking blog, NailsworthCAN member Bill shares his experience of taking action with Just Stop Oil. While NailsworthCAN does not take physical protest action as a group we value and respect all forms of climate action.

In October I took action with Just Stop Oil as part of their demand that the government end all new fossil fuel exploitation – no new oil, gas, coal or fracking. I was part of a team that blocked a junction in Holborn, London, and was arrested. Why did I do I it, why do I say it was one of the most ethical and moral actions I’ve ever done, and do I think I had any effect?

As I sat in that road I felt two things. Firstly the power of my connection with the earth that I am part of, with the beautiful planet that supplies all our needs but which is crying out in pain and being ignored by the power structures of our culture. And that, just as we were stopping the traffic, on behalf of the planet we were symbolically saying to our whole culture, ‘Stop, you cannot carry on like this.’

This felt like agency in a situation of urgency, after the many months I’d spent feeling depressed about the seeming inevitability of global temperature rises in excess of 1.5˚, the safe limit agreed by thousands of scientists. I’d come to feel resigned – I could alter my own impact on emissions but not affect the system that seems unwilling to make the changes needed.

I’d heard about Just Stop Oil, but had my doubts about actions that inconvenience and alienate the public. I also had big doubts about being arrested. Over a couple of months I vacillated. Looking back it was a rite of passage that took time and nerves. I first became convinced that I wanted to act for the planet in this way. Then I reached a commitment to going outside the law if that’s what it took. My doubts and anxieties remained until the day of the action, but once there I became very calm and committed. The arrest and police station process was very straightforward, if tedious. And it was quite pleasurable to be carried off by three police officers – the Guardian got a photo of me that they used a few days later.

So why did I do it?

 Because it’s documented that fossil fuel companies are continuing to actively delay change, and our government is supporting them. Most advertising by oil companies promotes their green values, yet 98% of their huge development budgets are spent on getting more oil out of the ground. And the government is issuing 140 new licences for oil and gas exploration, when the science is saying we should not start any new fossil extraction.

Because the climate crisis is still not being treated by the government as anything approaching an emergency. If we’d responded to climate change as we did to Covid we would be in a very different position now.

 Because the science tells me that the earth will be unliveable for most of us if we don’t change course ASAP. We will need to change our society, it’s just a matter of how much we do it voluntarily and how much we wait for events to force us, with worse consequences.

 Because every little nudge to accelerate that change of course is a nudge away from catastrophe. Political and social direct action campaigns have succeeded in the past (and most of those campaigns were vilified at the time, such as the suffragettes), and it’s worth trying now. If we can make any tiny difference then it’s worth it.

And because for me it is a worse option to sit at home and feel powerless. That strengthens my depression. I cannot ignore my tears and fears about climate change, and I need to try to make a difference from time to time. And working collaboratively with others who feel the same is one of the things that makes life joyful.

I also recognise that change can ultimately only happen through conversation and negotiation, and I salute all who are working tirelessly in that way. Direct action is a stimulus to support that change, a ‘radical flank’ if you like.

Do I think it achieved anything?

If you think it’s done no good because thousands of ordinary people are left angry at the inconvenience and suffering they’ve been caused, then what I say is not likely to persuade you otherwise. But what surprised me was that when I was sitting in the road I heard as many people thanking me and expressing support, as there were abusing me or spitting on me.

I’ve donated to environmental charities for over three decades, signed petitions, written to MPs and been on marches,  and yet we’re still on a highway to climate hell, to quote Antonio Gutteres, UN secretary general. Direct action puts issues on the agenda - surveys of attitude show that UK awareness of climate issues went up massively after April 2019 when Extinction Rebellion took over four sites in central London for a week. (Yes, I was there by the pink boat in Oxford Circus, like a snowball rolling and gathering momentum – on the fourth day a passer by in a suit gave me a £50 note saying, ‘Here, do what you can with this’.)

Direct action campaigns are like dropping pebbles into the ocean of the collective national awareness – it’s usually impossible to quantify the impact, even in hindsight. But the cans of soup being thrown over the glass of van Gogh’s Sunflowers has been viewed tens of millions of times, and Just Stop Oil’s daily actions throughout October, followed by the M25 gantry actions in early November became part of the national dialogue – to the extent that it was news when that round of actions stopped. And even if most of that dialogue is about the nature of the actions, that’s still a lot of people thinking about the content and aims. When I try imagining a world in which the words ‘just stop oil’ aren’t familiar to most people, I realise what a difference this movement has made.

The Stroud Just Stop Oil group continues and welcomes new people wanting to make change happen, whether arrestable or non-arrestable.