Climate activists from Just Stop Oil faced arrest (Picture: Just Stop Oil on Twitter)
The courts haven’t paused during the mourning period in their attacks on direct action climate protesters.
On Thursday, high court judges in Birmingham and London remanded 51 people to prison for at least a week. They had taken action at Kingsbury Oil Terminal the day before. And afterwards they refused to comply with court proceedings.
El Lytton stood on the court furniture. Ruth Jarman of Christian Climate Action refused to recognise the court’s authority, saying she was accountable to a higher power.
Tez Burns and Sheila Shatford turned their backs on the judge. Gerard Latimer, Mary Adams and Charlotte Kirin refused to stand for the judge and talked over her to explain their reasons for non-compliance.
Rajan Naidu held up a copy of The Uninhabitable Earth by David Wallace-Wells—and recommended it to the court before promising to break the injunction again if bailed.
During the Birmingham hearings, Diana Hekt made a statement saying, “I will just go and do it again, and again, and again. What else can I do?” Zoe Cohen said, “The judiciary is colluding with people destroying life on earth. I will break the injunction again—I have a moral duty to do so.”
In London, Michelle Cadet Rose spoke about her family in Barbados and how they will either drown or become climate refugees. We know what happens to climate refugees with dark skin, she said.
Since 1 April, when supporters of Just Stop Oil first began blocking oil terminals, police have arrested over 1,350 people.
At Kingsbury about 50 protesters staged a sit-in at the depot near Tamworth. In April, North Warwickshire Borough Council had obtained a High Court injunction against protests taking place outside the site. Warwickshire Police arrested people this week on “suspicion of the court order’s breach”.
Just Stop Oil says, “We’re done with begging. Voting has changed nothing. We are going to stop new oil whether those in power agree or not.
“As citizens, as humans, as parents and children we have every right under British law to protect ourselves and those we love. This is the moment, we are the last generation that can solve this.”
Just Stop Oil’s occupation of Westminster begins on 1 October.
But where there is repression, there is resistance.
Strikers are demanding an unallocated €1.6 billion go towards workers' pay rise
London march on 27 October
Another day of mass resistance
