12/24/2023 0 Comments Big ben pictures to printAlso targets: the Natural History Museum in Kensington, west London. Just Stop Oil supporters recently at The National Gallery in London – wearing appropriate JSO white t-shirts for suitable pictures during and after the act – broke the glass covering The Rokeby Venus, a painting by Diego Velázquez as slashed by a women’s suffrage campaigner, Mary Richardson, in 1914. Just as (performance) art is hinted at in protest, so is history. People all over the world are suffering and dying from the consequences of the climate crisis caused by these industries who we allow to meet with our politicians and have privileged access to.” She added: “That is why we have to take direct action to stop this and to kick oily money out of politics.” In other words, given such global topics, any organisation can be at fault or called to order for having a connection with the topic, in this case a hired venue. On attending that demo at Park Lane she said: “Behind these closed doors at the Oil and Money conference spineless politicians are making deals and compromises with lobbyists from destructive industries the fossil fuel industry. It’s worth quoting the celebrity Swedish climate change protester Greta Thunberg. As is her wont, she spoke extravagantly of such actions being ‘unacceptable’ (although as they carry on regardless there comes a point when they are accepted?) and promised to be ‘uncompromisingly tough’ against such disruption.Īs for who and where protesters will make demos, it’s striking how just about anywhere, even an organisation that may take no view on the protest topic, can be a target. Home Secretary Suella Braverman has shown interest in such protests, for example in July holding a ’roundtable’, of event organisers and police, after Just Stop Oil protesters targeted such high-profile events as the Wimbledon tennis fortnight, and a Test match at Lord’s cricket ground. Just Stop Oil is undeterred JSO is calling on ‘everyone’ to join daily at midday in Trafalgar Square to march in London, from November 20. Met Police have this month indeed (as Just Stop Oil have stated) used a section seven order from the Public Order Act 2023, to arrest slow marchers in central London. If a new public order law is made to combat one protest tactic (tunnelling, such as under Euston Gardens against HS2, in the winter of 2020-21 or blockading of newspaper print works sit-downs on bridges or motorway gantries, or ‘slow marching’ on main roads ‘locking on’ to a gate – criminalised under the Public Order Act 2023), protesters will come up with another. The Home Office’s and successive Home Secretaries’ legislative efforts to combat such protest appear to have made not the slightest difference. If only fraudsters, shoplifters, burglars and car thieves were as considerate!? We have cooperated fully with the police’. To stay with the Sunak property example, Philip Evans of Greenpeace UK commented afterwards, when four from Greenpeace were arrested that they had been ‘entirely peaceful and we were diligent in ensuring that no one was home and that no damage would be done to the property. Arguably the pick of the year was the draping of black fabric around Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s property in North Yorkshire, again requiring climbing – ladders and ropes, and which prompted much spluttering and comment which was part of the purpose of the drapery. Much ingenuity, even art, goes into these stunts: the planning to find the right site, the time to go about the action. Protest and demos have their own lexicon, even. The actions go on, regularly: a ‘living artwork made of seed paper’ displayed at Westminster another living artwork ‘guerrilla-plated’ by volunteers at a disused Tesco-owned site in Liverpool. Protesting as outdoors and invigorating, even playful, to make a point (in the case of the octopus, Greenpeace seeks a moratorium on deep sea mining). Again, activists in boats carried hand banners that read “Protect the Oceans”. Again, the same themes: of something visually arresting (which duly got pictured in the mainstream media) that required some skill (whether abseiling or motoring down the Thames in a boat). Early this month, Greenpeace placed on the riverbank at the foot of Big Ben a giant inflatable purple octopus, a week ahead of the King’s Speech. To quote only from Greenpeace and JSO’s most recent actions: Greenpeace scaled the Intercontinental Hotel in Park Lane in London’s West End, unfurling a banner with a pithy message (good for gaining attention and for publicity photos) ‘Make Big Oil Pay’ and blocking entrances to keep delegates out of a gas and oil conference.
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