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ou’ve probably heard about Just Stop Oil and the group’s climate protests since last year, leading to a number of arrests and criminal charges.
On October 5, the activist group staged their latest demonstration during a performance of Les Miserables in the West End, at the Sondheim theatre.
The climate activists, who are campaigning to end the use of oil to save the planet, took to the stage and raised a flag, prompting the performance to end early.
Event organisers explained that the disruption meant the audience had to be evacuated and performers were unable to finish the show.
William Village, chief executive of Delfont Mackintosh Theatres, which owns the Sondheim, said: “During the first half of our performance of Les Miserables, individuals from Just Stop Oil invaded the stage, abruptly stopping the show.
He added: “Following our safety protocols, the audience were asked to leave the auditorium and the Met Police attended.
“Regrettably, there was insufficient time to enable us to complete the rest of the performance.”
Five people were reportedly arrested for the protest.
Although the climate activists allegedly received boos from the audience, it appears that the protestors believed that Les Miserables was the perfect setting for a protest.
Hanan, a 22-year-old student who took part in the Just Stop Oil campaign, suggested their cause drew parallels to the show, which tells the story of a group of revolutionaries in the 1832 Paris Uprising.
She said: “Les Mis is about the June rebellion where ordinary people stood up and organised themselves against a government that consistently showed no interest in their wellbeing.
“I’m taking action with Just Stop Oil because the UK government has approved hundreds of gas and oil licences knowing the full consequences this will have on our climate and society.”
Just Stop Oil has organised a number of protests within the last year, including storming the British Grand Prix track in early July, where a protestor cable-tied himself to a goalpost. In late June, several activists glued themselves to the frame of a Van Gogh painting in London’s Courtauld Gallery.
From what they’re hoping to achieve to when the group was founded, here’s everything you need to know about them.
What is Just Stop Oil?
Just Stop Oil was founded in April 2022, and the group has staged several protests since.
The climate-activist organisation is formed of several groups, with organisers from Extinction Rebellion and Insulate Britain at the helm.
Its website states: “Just Stop Oil is a coalition of groups working together to ensure the Government commits to halting new fossil-fuel licensing and production.
What are Just Stop Oil’s goals?
While the name is a key giveaway, Just Stop Oil has a number of objectives to put an end to new licensing and “consents for the exploration, development and production of fossil fuels in the UK”.
The group is also demanding that the Government stop all new oil and gas projects.
The website says: “Allowing the extraction of new oil and gas resources in the UK is an obscene and genocidal policy that will kill our children and condemn humanity to oblivion. It just has to stop.
“If we continue down our current path, it will destroy families and communities. We will face the starvation and the slaughter of billions of the poor — and the utter betrayal of our children and their future.
“Does our government get this? They are actively enabling the fossil-fuel industry through obscene subsidies and tax breaks for new fossil-fuel extraction.
“They are wasting billions supporting unicorn technologies, such as carbon capture and storage projects, which provide a fig leaf for business-as-usual to continue. There has been no rapid and sweeping social change, no widespread adoption of low-carbon technology, no war-style mobilisation.
“The choice: rapid transition to a low-energy and low-carbon world, or social collapse. We can do it now, in an orderly manner – creating millions of proper skilled jobs and protecting the rights of workers in sunset industries – or we wait for the unavoidable collapse.”
Why are Just Stop Oil members being arrested?
Following the latest Mes Miserables protest, five people were reportedly arrested for their part.
This summer, the UK government gave police more power to move protesters who disrupt transport as part of the Public Order Bill. Offenders risked facing jail sentences. The new rules were largely believed to have been introduced in response to climate protestors.
It’s also not the first time that group members have been arrested for their climate activism.
In October 2022, Just Stop Oil activists blocked Park Lane, the four-lane road alongside Hyde Park. Police said 11 people were arrested for obstruction of the highway and one on suspicion of criminal damage.
Days later, activists from Just Stop Oil threw tomato soup over Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers painting at the National Gallery in London.
The two activists, who then glued themselves to a wall in the gallery, were placed under arrest for the attack on the painting, which is covered by glass and worth about £72.5m.
In a statement, Just Stop Oil said it was “calling for the Government to commit to immediately halt new oil and gas licences in the UK and for the directors, employees, and members of art institutions to join the Just Stop Oil coalition in peaceful civil resistance”.
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