Cost of Living Crisis and Climate Crisis: The Same Crisis

Enough is enough. When did we decide to just sit there and be OK with people in the fifth richest country in the world having to choose between food and heating? When did that happen? When did we decide that we are just going to sit there and let civilisation as we know it to collapse because the government is refusing to cut carbon emissions in line with the cries of the world's most renowned climate scientists. When did that happen?

People have woken up to the fact that there is only one crisis – the crisis of an elite which cares no more about old people dying of the cold than it does about young people dying of hunger before they get to middle age. Know one thing for sure – this is murder, plain and simple. And they will carry on unless we stop them. No one is coming to save us – not the politicians, not the NGOs, not the entrepreneurs – the only way things will change now is through People Power. It has been the case throughout our history, and so it is today.

We All Want to Just Stop Oil is bringing together the wider environmental and progressive labour movements, faith communities, charities, people from social institutions and famous people – along with thousands of ordinary people who have never before been involved in anything like this – to create mass civil resistance. This is how we will overcome entrenched power – ongoing organised peaceful civil disobedience – slow marches, sit downs, blockades, etc., week after week. They may arrest people but we will not be afraid. We will be courageous, and our contagious courage will spread. They may imprison people but that will make us even more determined to show our solidarity. Their time is up. Our time is now.

On 23 July we are gathering to connect and build. Then, thousands of us will mobilise around the country to prepare for an Autumn of popular mass action – like Extinction Rebellion did in April 2019, forcing the government to respond by occupying central London. But this time involving many more people from a wide coalition of groups, building a deeper, more powerful movement.

What do we want?

We are making demands – specific, concrete, and winnable. We are not going through the motions. The coalition will only stop this campaign when the government comes to its senses and acts. The demands lay out first step, common sense solutions to the big crisis of our time. We demand the government ends new fossil fuel licensing and production. We owe it to our young people to stop fossil fuels. We owe it to our workers to guarantee good jobs in a zero carbon economy. We owe our old people dignity. To do this, we need the money and we know who has got it. Shell recently reported quarterly profits of $9 billion. £91 billion was reported lost in tax avoidance in the UK in 2021, and that's just what was accounted for...

We demand that the government properly tax fossil fuel companies, the super richs and big business to force them to pay their fair share. We demand cheap, green public transport so people are less reliant on their cars. And the biggest no-brainer: we demand the insulation of all our homes, starting with the poorest – that way we can reduce energy bills and CO2 while creating hundreds of thousands of good, unionised jobs. There is a lot more to do than this but you have to start somewhere. This is what we all want apart. The only people that don’t are the oil companies and the super rich. We must all get together, support each other, and crack on with the job. We owe it to our kids and what could be more important than that?

So what's the plan?

Organisers from many organisations and movements are putting on a march – but with a big difference. Instead of anA to B thing, we will have dozens of swarming groups of people, setting off from various meeting points, meandering into central London and bringing the city to a standstill. They will converge on Parliament Square and there will be a symbolic mass sit down - to give the government a small taste of things to come if they refuse to act. Then everyone will go to the nearest large park and have a picnic in small discussion groups. There will be questions to discuss, each person speaking in turn so everyone gets their voice heard. There will be a bunch of things to do, and everyone will have the opportunity to share their expertise, skills, connections, etc. and how these can be used to help us build something special together. This is not a go home after the march thing. 23 July is all about making connections and mobilising. People will be able to join recruiting teams in their communities – going to events and groups, leafleting, door knocking, speaking, and more. This is the future of getting things done and building a mass movement. This day is not about fine speeches from the great and good – it’s about getting together with each other, connecting, and empowering each other to step up. We know we need a lot of people involved to win, so let’s go and find them, and nurture the connections that we make.

Depending on how things develop, we will organise further similar swarming marches, mass sit downs and assembly days across the country – building up to the mass civil resistance in the Autumn.

This is going to be the big something we have all been waiting for. You don’t want to miss out.