Just Stop Oil hold ‘final march’ as activists ‘hang up the hi-vis’

Yesterday's gathering marked the end of the group's street protests.

Hundreds marched through London yesterday for the group's final 'day of action'.

Activists labelled the march a 'defiant celebration of the effectiveness of civil resistance'.

However, all didn't go according to plan.

Footage shows a man slowly driving a white minivan into the environmental protesters.

The video shows people standing in front of the vehicle, some holding their hands up, telling police they're being 'pushed back'.

The minivan got closer to the group, right until the bonnet was pressing against them.

The man can be heard din the video saying to police: "What are you doing blocking the whole road up?

"What about my right to get home?"

Officers told the man that the disruption was temporary and reminded him of people's right to protest.

They then moved the group away from the vehicle.

The news that the group would be stopping their marches came last Thursday when Hannah Hunt, whose speech on Valentine’s Day 2022 marked the beginning of the campaign, made the announcement outside Downing Street.

“Three years after bursting on the scene in a blaze of orange, at the end of April the Just Stop Oil campaign will be hanging up the hi-vis.

“Just Stop Oil’s demand to end new oil and gas is now government policy, making us one of the most successful civil resistance campaigns in recent history. We’ve made fossil-fuel licensing front page news and kept over 4.4bn barrels of oil in the ground, while courts have ruled new oil and gas unlawful.

“But it’s time to change. We are heading for 2C of global heating in the coming decade, resulting in billions being killed, mass civil unrest and social collapse. Meanwhile, we are seeing corporations and billionaires buying political power and using it to punch down on the weak and the vulnerable," she added.

Hunt continued to say that the group would create a new strategy to tackle current realities, saying 'nothing short of a revolution is going to protect us from the coming storms'.

Some claim that Just Stop Oil have been forced to shut down due to effective policing and prosecution of their activists.

3,300 people have been arrested for taking part in its protests since 2022, with more than 180 having served jail time.

Currently, 11 people are in prison after working with the group, and at least five more are expected to be jailed next month.

A source within Just Stop Oil insisted the campaign would continue to exist 'in the courts and in the prisons'.

In a statement, Just Stop Oil said: “Just Stop Oil was intended to be a campaign to prove the effectiveness of disruptive tactics in bringing about necessary change, and we have been incredibly successful in that aim, but it’s now time to change.”

Co-director of Greenpeace UK, Will McCallum, explained: “Just Stop Oil paid a heavy price for raising their voices at a time when politicians and corporations are trying to silence peaceful protesters – in the streets and in the courts.

"We must not allow our hard-won right to protest to be stripped away, because it is the right that all other rights depend upon.

“Greenpeace and many others will continue to defend this proud tradition of taking action on issues that matter to make change possible.”