On Saturday morning at 5am, about 18 Just Stop Oil supporters set off to attend the coronation. Underneath their raincoats they were wearing Just Stop Oil T-shirts, and they carried small orange flags emblazoned with the logo and slogan. None were carrying glue or any lock-on devices. Once in position on the Mall, they had planned to unveil their T-shirts and wave their flags as the royal carriage passed. A move that would have spread our demand to “Just Stop Oil” across the globe.
One was arrested before they managed to meet up with the group. A further 13 were arrested on the Mall, before they had revealed their T-shirts and flags. Four more supporters and an independent journalist following the group were arrested outside Downing Street. The Met confirmed it had arrested a total of 52 people around the coronation for affray, public order offences, breach of the peace and conspiracy to cause a public nuisance.
So while the world was looking forward to watching a 74-year-old billionaire receive a sparkly hat, the British state was arresting people for conspiratorially planning to reveal T-shirts and flags.
Just Stop Oil was not the only group targeted at the coronation. Supporters of the anti-monarchy group Republic were also arrested and Animal Rising has said that about 20 of their supporters were arrested while attending a nonviolence training, miles away from the coronation. The group had confirmed on multiple occasions it would not target the day’s events.
Just Stop Oil supporters knew this moment was coming. The Public Order Act, further restricting the right to protest, is just the latest repressive legislation. The home secretary has been stoking hatred and division for months, and we at Just Stop Oil have become almost immune to the abuse from ministers and the billionaire-owned propaganda factories. “Eco-zealots”? Sure! Along with the entirety of the world’s climate scientists. Extremists? Yes, if you think that acting out of compassion for those on the frontlines of climate collapse is extreme, we’re OK with that.
Meanwhile, away from the media circus, the government is quietly signing off on more than 100 new oil and gas projects that will destroy the lives of hundreds of millions of ordinary people, while enacting laws to ensure that no one can stop them. It is ignoring the advice of climate scientists, the International Energy Agency and its own Climate Change Committee, who have all said, loud and clear: no new oil and gas if we are to avoid total climate breakdown. This government doesn’t care about science, justice or reason. It has been bought by an industry that will sacrifice the whole of humanity for a last-minute dash for profit.
And as the world looks on in horror, it is bringing in a series of laws that would make a dictator blush. The government is engaged in a wholesale assault on our human rights: migrants’ rights, workers’ rights, protest rights – nothing is sacred.
On Thursday, the people made their anger, their utter contempt, clear at the ballot box. We face policing at the whim of the home secretary, government by diktat and decree, and an increasingly hostile judiciary handing down disproportionately harsh sentences for peaceful protest. Make no mistake, this affects every one of us, regardless of our political persuasion.
Arresting people for wearing T-shirts is a move worthy of a fascist state. How much more evidence do we need and what are we going to do about it? These arrests will not stop us: we will continue to do whatever is nonviolently possible to end new oil and gas. And we will keep protesting every Saturday in Parliament Square.
Chloe Naldrett is a spokesperson for Just Stop Oil