Just Stop Oil, the direct action climate crisis group that developed out of Extinction Rebellion, and Jeremy Corbyn’s Peace and Justice Project have joined forces to create a new coalition, We All Want to Just Stop Oil. The group, which aims to create a coalition of green, trade union, left wing and civil society organisations and activists, sees the cost of living crisis and climate crisis as the same crisis.
Launching today, We All Want to Just Stop Oil has announced its first major action: a swarm march and assembly in Central London on Saturday 23 July. The organisers say this will involve “swarming groups of people, setting off from various meeting points, meandering into central London and bringing the city to a standstill.” Marchers will converge on Parliament Square, have a symbolic mass sit down and then go to a nearby park to have participatory discussions in small groups. The aim is to recruit march participants to be activists in their communities and organise further actions.
According to the organisers, the 23 July action is a taster of what’s to come, with a “major wave of popular mass action” planned in the Autumn as the government continues to fail to act on the cost of living and climate crisis. They claim that “ongoing organised peaceful civil disobedience – slow marches, sit downs, blockades, etc., week after week” is “how we will overcome entrenched power.”
We All Want to Just Stop Oil has five “specific, concrete and winnable” demands:
- No New Oil - Don’t destroy our kids’ future - Tax Big Polluters and Billionaires - Make them pay- Energy for All - End choosing between heating and eating- Insulate our Homes - Lower bills, less CO2, lots of good union jobs - Cheap Public Transport - Make it cleaner and easier to get around
The coalition will seek to expand over the summer, bringing in other environmental and political groups and trade unions. The group is supporting the TUC’s 18 June national march and has already received affiliations from a number of trade union branches and trades councils.
Lawrence Leather, 22, a spokesperson for Just Stop Oil, said:
“It’s been over a year since Sir David King, the former UK chief scientific adviser warned the ‘next three to four years will determine the future of humanity”. But still the government refuses to do anything.
“As the climate breaks down, the cost of everything will rise. That’s why we want to bring together the broadest coalition we can, including the trade unions, Britain’s biggest social movement, around concrete demands that decarbonise and put money back in people’s pockets.
“We are encouraging everyone to step up now and join the movement. The politicians won’t save us. It’s on us to change history. Their time is up. Our time is now.”
Jeremy Corbyn, the founder of the Peace and Justice Project, said:
“Movements are the motor of change in history. When we come together, we can transform the world. And we must because those in power - the fossil fuel giants, the billionaires and the governments they own - are picking our pockets and stealing our future.
“That’s the crisis. You can’t separate out the cost of living and climate crises. The whole system, which creates billionaires and starves hundreds of millions, is the crisis. It can’t be resolved, it must be overcome and transformed.
“We have one chance to create the green jobs of the future and save the planet.”
ENDS
Notes to editors
For more information, please see WeAllWantToJustStopOil.com. Text on the website may be attributed in copy to the organisers.
For interviews and access, please contact James Schneider on jamesghschneider@gmail.com or +447753881993 (WhatsApp, Telegram or Signal) and Sarah Lunnon on sarahlunnon@googlemail.com +447702153584