UK
Forget Labour And The Tories: The ‘Carbon Parties’ Will Not Save Us. That’s Why Just Stop Oil Wants Your VotesWe are seeing cowardice on a huge scale, so we will ratchet up pressure on MPs. We’ll also seek our own voice in parliament
By Sarah Lunnon
February 22, 2024
Source: The Guardian
Just Stop Oil activists block a street in the U.K. (Twitter/Just Stop Oil)
After two years of civil resistance, Just Stop Oil has made the issue of new oil and gas licences part of the political debate. These consents, which had previously passed almost unnoticed, have now become a major event. The government has responded to the movement by issuing three sets of repressive legislation. That is a response – even if not the one required or demanded. Yet people are still on the streets in defiance.
The Conservative party has spent months raising the profile of Just Stop Oil, and painting the Labour party as its political wing. If only this were true. Still, this means that, ahead of and after the general election, Just Stop Oil is now part of the national political debate.
At the end of last year, we wrote to all Labour MPs asking that they commit to resigning if, six months after gaining power, their leadership continued to implement Tory oil and gas projects. Making this commitment would have demonstrated a recognition of our current life-and-death predicament. It would have demonstrated that they understand the need for a response based on morality, a need to do what is right, a need to protect our homes and lives. None had the guts to respond.
If the Labour party in opposition, with a massive lead in the polls, cannot stand up to the Daily Mail, the finance sector and the Tufton Street thinktanks, how is it going to pursue a radical programme to protect us from the coming storm? We are witnessing cowardice on a national scale from the politicians who are likely to form the next government. How can we not escalate?
That’s why we are asking Labour MPs at their offices, in their constituencies, and at their homes to find their courage – and end the Tory oil and gas policies that are wrecking stable society. Ordinary people will demand of them that they recognise what is needed to defend us. We all have a right to feel safe in our homes, but with the storms, the flood waters and the fires we are not safe. When we’re choosing between heating and eating we’re not safe. When there’s one loaf between 10 shoppers we’re not safe.
People need to be protected from the coming terror; that is why we are asking Labour to deliver what is needed. No change is not an option. Either the state rapidly mobilises or we face spending our lives scrabbling in the flotsam and jetsam of an unknown planet, with every unprecedented extreme weather event or “natural” disaster merely the warm-up act for what comes next. Reform – working for small or large policy changes in the hope that the right thing will eventually be done – hasn’t worked.
We are building a popular, nonviolent campaign that will appeal to the sense of anger and betrayal now felt by millions in this country. If politics was working, we would not be living through a mass extinction event, have rising inequality and shitty rivers, and be heading for 2C of heating with no response.
The system is going to fail. It cannot recognise, respond or mobilise to face the coming crisis – so we have to change the system. It’s simple logic, but together we can protect our communities and families from the coming storm. We will replace today’s failing politics, so action can happen.
The Rev Mark Coleman, a Just Stop Oil supporter, is standing in the Rochdale byelection: the only candidate to be endorsed by climate scientists. In the coming general election, Just Stop Oil will either stand candidates or support independents who sign up to a radical short manifesto. A manifesto that centres on deliberative democracy for a new People’s House. This will be a standing citizens’ assembly tasked with finding a response to the coming extinction event and the cost of living crisis. It will be the fruit of leafleting, door knocking, public meetings – and a faith in the British public that party politicians have long abandoned.
The current political system has failed us, so we need to replace it. The carbon parties are not going to save us. They’re only going to take money from us, and give it to big corporations. Labour is flip-flopping over Gaza – and will do the same on protecting this country and its people.
New oil and gas will destroy our homes, our land, everything we cherish and love. The only justification is to make a tiny number of people very rich. We don’t think that’s a good enough reason. We are the only people telling the truth, the only people calling out those who are harming us, the only people with a plan to change the system.
Just Stop Oil activists block a street in the U.K. (Twitter/Just Stop Oil)
After two years of civil resistance, Just Stop Oil has made the issue of new oil and gas licences part of the political debate. These consents, which had previously passed almost unnoticed, have now become a major event. The government has responded to the movement by issuing three sets of repressive legislation. That is a response – even if not the one required or demanded. Yet people are still on the streets in defiance.
The Conservative party has spent months raising the profile of Just Stop Oil, and painting the Labour party as its political wing. If only this were true. Still, this means that, ahead of and after the general election, Just Stop Oil is now part of the national political debate.
At the end of last year, we wrote to all Labour MPs asking that they commit to resigning if, six months after gaining power, their leadership continued to implement Tory oil and gas projects. Making this commitment would have demonstrated a recognition of our current life-and-death predicament. It would have demonstrated that they understand the need for a response based on morality, a need to do what is right, a need to protect our homes and lives. None had the guts to respond.
If the Labour party in opposition, with a massive lead in the polls, cannot stand up to the Daily Mail, the finance sector and the Tufton Street thinktanks, how is it going to pursue a radical programme to protect us from the coming storm? We are witnessing cowardice on a national scale from the politicians who are likely to form the next government. How can we not escalate?
That’s why we are asking Labour MPs at their offices, in their constituencies, and at their homes to find their courage – and end the Tory oil and gas policies that are wrecking stable society. Ordinary people will demand of them that they recognise what is needed to defend us. We all have a right to feel safe in our homes, but with the storms, the flood waters and the fires we are not safe. When we’re choosing between heating and eating we’re not safe. When there’s one loaf between 10 shoppers we’re not safe.
People need to be protected from the coming terror; that is why we are asking Labour to deliver what is needed. No change is not an option. Either the state rapidly mobilises or we face spending our lives scrabbling in the flotsam and jetsam of an unknown planet, with every unprecedented extreme weather event or “natural” disaster merely the warm-up act for what comes next. Reform – working for small or large policy changes in the hope that the right thing will eventually be done – hasn’t worked.
We are building a popular, nonviolent campaign that will appeal to the sense of anger and betrayal now felt by millions in this country. If politics was working, we would not be living through a mass extinction event, have rising inequality and shitty rivers, and be heading for 2C of heating with no response.
The system is going to fail. It cannot recognise, respond or mobilise to face the coming crisis – so we have to change the system. It’s simple logic, but together we can protect our communities and families from the coming storm. We will replace today’s failing politics, so action can happen.
The Rev Mark Coleman, a Just Stop Oil supporter, is standing in the Rochdale byelection: the only candidate to be endorsed by climate scientists. In the coming general election, Just Stop Oil will either stand candidates or support independents who sign up to a radical short manifesto. A manifesto that centres on deliberative democracy for a new People’s House. This will be a standing citizens’ assembly tasked with finding a response to the coming extinction event and the cost of living crisis. It will be the fruit of leafleting, door knocking, public meetings – and a faith in the British public that party politicians have long abandoned.
The current political system has failed us, so we need to replace it. The carbon parties are not going to save us. They’re only going to take money from us, and give it to big corporations. Labour is flip-flopping over Gaza – and will do the same on protecting this country and its people.
New oil and gas will destroy our homes, our land, everything we cherish and love. The only justification is to make a tiny number of people very rich. We don’t think that’s a good enough reason. We are the only people telling the truth, the only people calling out those who are harming us, the only people with a plan to change the system.
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