Just Stop Oil

Just Stop Oil   (Activism)
Interest of	Marcus Decker, Morgan Trowland

Just Stop Oil is a British environmental activist group. Using civil resistance, direct action, vandalism and traffic obstruction, the group aims for the UK government to commit to ending new fossil fuel licensing and production. The group was founded in February 2022 and began protesting at English oil terminals in April 2022. The group has gained both criticism and approval of its methods of activism.

In August 2024, with 21 activists imprisoned for peaceful protests, Just Stop Oil said:

Until leaders act to protect us, Just Stop Oil supporters will continue to take the proportional action necessary to generate political pressure.

Just Stop Oil is working with an international network of groups to demand our governments establish a legally binding treaty to stop extracting and burning oil, gas and coal by 2030, as well as supporting and financing other countries to make a fast, fair, and just transition. This can be accomplished by endorsing the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative and seeking a negotiating mandate to establish the treaty.

2022 London protests

In 2022, Just Stop Oil staged 32 days of disruption in London from the end of September and throughout October, which the Metropolitan Police said resulted in 677 arrests with 111 people charged.

M25 motorway closed

Just Stop Oil protest on the QEII Bridge

On 17 October 2022, two Just Stop Oil supporters Marcus Decker and Morgan Trowland scaled the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, which connects the M25 between Essex and Kent, causing its closure. One of the climbers, Morgan Trowland, was a bridge design engineer from London. The closure resulted in six miles (ten kilometres) of congestion on both directions of the bridge. After 36 hours, the protesters agreed with police to leave the bridge, and were arrested. The bridge remained closed for another 6 hours. The two were sentenced to a combined 5 years and seven months in jail.

Jail sentences

The eye-catching protest by Marcus Decker and Morgan Trowland received a similarly dramatic response after they were convicted by a jury at Southend Crown Court of causing a public nuisance. Decker was imprisoned for two years and seven months and Trowland for three years. Passing down the longest sentences in UK history for non-violent direct action, Judge Shane Collery said he wanted to deter others from copycat actions. The men, he said, had caused a very important road to be closed, and disrupted travel for many tens of thousands of people. The Judge looked at the press gallery as he said to both of them

"You plainly believed you knew better than everyone else … In short, to hell with everyone else."

UN rapporteur's concerns

Long sentences handed to two Just Stop Oil protesters for scaling the M25 bridge over the Thames are a potential breach of international law and risk silencing public concerns about the environment, a UN expert has said.

In a strongly worded intervention, Ian Fry, the UN’s rapporteur for climate change and human rights, said he was “particularly concerned” about the sentences, which were “significantly more severe than previous sentences imposed for this type of offending in the past”.

“I am gravely concerned about the potential flow-on effect that the severity of the sentences could have on civil society and the work of activists, expressing concerns about the triple planetary crisis and, in particular, the impacts of climate change on human rights and on future generations.”

Noting Decker and Trowland’s rights to peaceful protest, Fry asked the UK government to explain “why, in light of the current climate crisis, it was necessary to introduce and pass the Public Order Act and how both the Public Order Act and the sentencing of Mr Decker and Mr Trowland are compatible with international norms and standards”, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

He demanded ministers indicate “what steps have been taken … to ensure that non–governmental organisations, civil society organisations and all human rights defenders can carry out their peaceful work free from threat, violence, harassment or retaliation or any sort”.

Appeal to Supreme Court refused

On 12 October 2023, refusing to allow an Appeal to the Supreme Court, Lady Chief Justice Lady Carr said the jail terms were "not excessive" and the sentences met a "legitimate" aim of deterring others from such offending. Lady Carr added: "The sentences should not be seen as having a 'chilling effect' on the right to peaceful protest or to assembly more generally - deterrence and 'chilling effect' are not the same.

However, Daniel Friedman KC, representing the activists, had previously argued their jail terms were "the longest ever handed down in a case of non-violent protest in this country in modern times".

But judges said the jail terms reflected "Parliament's will" under new laws carried out under the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act.

PM defends sentences

On 21 November 2023, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak defended sentences handed to two Just Stop Oil climate campaigners following criticism from the United Nations.

Morgan Trowland, 40, was jailed for three years and Marcus Decker, 34, for two years for causing a public nuisance after scaling the Dartford Crossing Bridge.

The UN had warned the government in a letter that the "severe" sentences could stifle protest.

Rishi Sunak said in response in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that those who break the law should feel the full force of it: "It's entirely right that selfish protestors intent on causing misery to the hard-working majority face tough sentences. It's what the public expects and it's what we've delivered."

People vs Oil

“It is a total political failure," Morgan Trowland said in a statement to the BBC from prison. "It is People vs Oil, and our government has signalled that it is on the side of oil."

"By not even responding to the concerns in this letter, the government is showing an extraordinary disregard for our civil liberties," said Jodie Beck, Policy and Campaigns Officer at the human rights charity, Liberty.

"Protest is not a gift from the state, it is a fundamental right," she added. "The government should be ensuring demonstrations are safely facilitated and that protest rights are safeguarded."

 

Related Document

Title	Type	Publication date	Author(s)	Description
Document:High-stakes fight for one tree comes to an autumnal crunch	Article	19 November 2023	Tim Adams	"If insurers are allowed to succeed here it will threaten many thousands of trees across the country", says barrister Paul Powlesland. "The fact is we all have a stake in Haringey's Oakfield plane – as long as it still stands."

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References

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