A New Resistance Rises
from the Ashes: Just Stop
Oil’s Next Steps in Civil Resistance
Oil’s Next Steps in Civil Resistance
After hanging up their hi-vis,
JSO spokesperson,
Pia, discusses their next wave of anti-capitalist
action in its last attempt to prevent inevitable
societal collapse, and how you should
get involved.
Pia, discusses their next wave of anti-capitalist
action in its last attempt to prevent inevitable
societal collapse, and how you should
get involved.
Image above : Oz Magazine Cover created by Ava Lenihan
and Olivia FortMuller
When we think of societal collapse and the end of the world, I’m sure a lot of us are infiltrated by fictional images churned out from Hollywood. The robots are ruling the earth and the human species are at war with a domineering population of infected zombies. Just Stop Oil activist and spokesperson, Pia, warns us of what a societal collapse could actually look like if we do not react urgently to the climate crisis. She warns us that the apocalyptic images that our imagination fabricates are not too far from the realm of our future reality.
Ultimately, if civil resistance deflates and we lose hope in radical environmentalism, she stresses we are heading towards “the breakdown of organised society as we know it”, a dead supply of food, water and electricity, empty supermarket shelves and a collapse of law and continuous civil unrest. Due to the rising temperatures, the earth would be crammed with inhabitable hot areas, causing mass migration: “if some people already have an issue with refugees coming over to these shores, because we fucked up their country in the first place, just they wait...”
From M25 traffic jams to soup splattered Van Gough sunflowers, these are but a few examples of the public protests, environmental activist group, Just Stop Oil, made front page headlines with. After using their campaigns to keep 4.4 billion barrels of oil in the ground and push courts to rule new oil and gas licences unlawful, they have officially put down their protest plaque’s and have promised “A new resistance is coming.” Pia tells us that they are currently in the process of regrouping and must nurture a period of rest and resilience before announcing their new strategy and campaign name.
What she does reveal, however, is the common denominator between the multitude of crisis’s we currently face and the soul motivator for their next movement: capitalism. It is the root evil of society, from the rich getting filthy richer, to the rise of fascism and “inciting division and hatred” of marginalised communities. With a handful of Pia’s friends being sentenced to prison for up to 5 years due to the new protest laws, she explains that these laws were preliminarily drafted by Exxon Mobil (the largest US oil and gas corporation) and later adopted by the Tories in 2022. “The climate crisis is intrinsically linked to a crisis of greed, which feeds a crisis of inequality”. Our governments work in the interest of large corporations that favour economic growth over social and environmental progress: the same companies that are responsible for mass environmental destruction, the death of children, oil spills and mass displacement from homes. Nature Climate Changes 2025 study reveals the richest 10% are responsible for 65% of the 0.61C increase in global average temperatures between 1990-2020.
Now, capitalist’s largest minions and puppeteers churn out greenwashed nonsense. Let’s take Earth Day for example. It has become another large corporate holiday where companies are given an opportunity to urge us to “Buy this product like a good citizen and save the planet!” The marketing tac tic that links our purchasing behaviour with morality and good citizenship, is simply a capitalist distraction technique that prevents the big dogs from being held accountable. For a lot of us, it’s our default setting to blame the influencers who post a £500+ Shein bikini haul just in time for their gifted private jet experience to the Maldives, but simultaneously post a picture of them in the ocean, captioned “I’m so in love with the beauty of this Earth #EarthDay” blissfully unaware that they are murdering it. We must break the habit of demonising those close to us and point our anger towards those above and the corporations they lie with.
For those overwhelmed with where to start in their journey to overthrow a system that is so strongly weaved into the fabric of society, Pia advises to start small and join a local climate group. One being the Just Stop Oil’s Seeds for Revolution upcoming Summer programme that helps those wanting to organise their own campaign, or get involved in civil resistance. It’s easy to slip into a habit of doom-scrolling and a feel an urgency of guilt that you are not doing enough as an individual, but it is collective action that is far more productive. During a time of increased AI surveillance and protestor profiling, she urges everyone to practice digital hygiene with encrypted messaging platforms, and to stash your tech away in a safe place in case of a house raid. “We must not give the government any more information than they already have.”
Pia urges that the government must tax the rich and stop privatising institutions whose executives make billions in profit, whilst there are over 4 million starving children in the UK. “If the State were to implement a 5% tax on the wealthy (that is, those with assets over £10 million), it would bring £100 billion per year, and we could reach Net Zero by 2030.” She suggests the money should be reinvested into community-led projects, repairing the countries that have been exploited and renewables instead.
Just Stop Oil may be taking a hiatus, but they shall return with a new and stronger wave of resistance to overthrow the capitalist system before us, and they urge you to wake up and take that first step of action. “We are only profitable to the State and the fossil fuel companies if we remain ignorant and under their yoke.”