The activist group Just Stop Oil (JSO) recently announced that it would cease all of its activities from the end of April. The group’s announcement signals a victory of sorts, since the new British Labour government has pledged to end oil and gas exploration in the North Sea. But it is also a mark of the profoundly changed conditions for climate activists under new UK legislation that aims to clamp down on disruptive street protests.
In 2019, Extinction Rebellion was able to occupy an area of central London for nearly two weeks. Now, the UK Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 includes the draconian provision of making it an offence to cause “serious distress, serious annoyance, serious inconvenience or serious loss of amenity” to the public. Alongside changes to the UK’s Public Order Act, these legislative changes have tipped the balance against public protests. Activists have paid a heavy price. According to JSO, over 3,300 arrests took place over the last three years. Seven JSO activists are serving jail sentences of up to four years, and a further eight are on remand awaiting sentencing. Phoebe Plummer and Anna Holland were jailed for two years and 20 months respectively for throwing tomato soup at Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers painting at the National Gallery in 2022. (The painting was not damaged.)
While the tactics of Extinction Rebellion, Just Stop Oil and Insulate Britain did not always enjoy broad public support, they do put climate breakdown and political complacency into the media spotlight. In fact, researchers have found that strikes, sit-ins, occupations and blockades are more likely to achieve results than less disruptive protests such as marches, demonstrations or petitions. In addition, the public controversy they provoke has been shown to lead to increased public support for the moderate flank of the climate movement rather than turning people off completely.
But the courts are increasingly precluded from treating incidents of disruptive protest with leniency, even when they are made on conscientious grounds. Perhaps it is not surprising then, that some activists are now turning to clandestine sabotage activities against the assets of the fossil fuel industry, inspired by Swedish academic Andreas Malm’s influential book How to blow Up a Pipeline. A new group called Shut the System has already targeted the machinery of the fossil fuel economy by secretly cutting internet cables in the city of London.
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Ireland has a long history of climate and environmental activism which includes protests against LNG and fracking, the Corrib gas pipeline, tree felling at the Glen of the Downs, Sitka spruce plantations and data centres. Some of these actions have led to prosecutions and jail time for trespass, obstruction and breaches of court orders.
US president Donald Trump has made a catastrophic alliance with interests bent on environmental and climate disaster. As a result, the atmosphere for climate activists is darkening not just in the US, but across the world.
Last month a jury in the US state of North Dakota awarded damages of nearly $667 million against Greenpeace over its support for the campaign against the North Dakota access pipeline, which if upheld could put the organisation out of business in the US. Of this fine, $200 million relates to the alleged defamation of the Texas-based firm Energy Transfer (valued at $70 billion) in a suit that has all the hallmarks of a SLAPP, or strategic litigation against public participation.
SLAPPs are used by companies and wealthy individuals to harass and intimidate their critics by tying their energies and resources up in litigation, and for this reason have been outlawed in 31 states across the US. But not in North Dakota.
SLAPP campaigns can and do happen in Ireland too. The courts service has the power to dismiss such claims under existing statutes and under the new EU anti-SLAPP directive but has often failed to do so. This leaves the targets of the SLAPP vulnerable to the vast resources of the Goliath in question.
Greenpeace has lodged an appeal against the North Dakota ruling in a case that will test the robustness of the First Amendment rights in the US Constitution. But we would be foolish to underestimate the power of the fossil fuel and extractive industries and their determination to silence critics by drawing on the authority of the state.
Sadhbh O’Neill is an environmental activist and researcher
