Explained: Why are ‘Just Stop Oil’ climate activists gluing themselves to artworks?

There have been a series of such instances at art venues across the UK over the last ten days, apart from other disruptions by the group, which include invading the track at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone last week, and entering the pitches during Premier League football matches in March.

Today, four Just Stop Oil supporters sprayed paint inside the Royal Academy and glued their hands onto the frame of The Last Supper.
Watch it happening here: https://t.co/j8fm3TJvss

— JustStopOil (@JustStop_Oil) July 5, 2022

Who is behind the group Just Stop Oil?

Launched earlier this year, Just Stop Oil describes itself as “a coalition of groups working together to ensure the government commits to halting new fossil fuel licensing and production”.

Led by organisers from climate groups Extinction Rebellion and Insulate Britain and funded through donations, the group propagates “Non-Violent Direct Action” and asserts non-violent civil resistance as a way to “demand their rights, freedom and justice… use tactics such as strikes, boycotts, mass protests and disruption to withdraw their cooperation from the state”.

What protests have they led so far?

In order to make themselves heard, the group has led several protests during the year, including a red-carpet appearance at the BAFTAS (The British Academy Film Awards) in March, where activists chanted and banged drums, wearing T-shirts that read ‘Just Stop Oil’ and ‘Just Look Up’.

Later that month, members of the group attempted to tie themselves to goalposts at the Premier League matches, including games between Everton and Newcastle, and Tottenham Hotspur vs West Ham.

More recently, members of the group have been making appeals at art institutions, gluing themselves to prominent artworks across the UK.

The incident at the Royal Academy in London comes days after another group of campaigners glued themselves to The Hay Wain by John Constable at the National Gallery in London.

Last week, three other paintings, including Vincent van Gogh’s Peach Trees in Blossom, were targeted at galleries in London, Manchester and Glasgow. While in every incident the protestors have been arrested, the campaign has continued.

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What are the group’s demands?

The group wants the government to “immediately halt all future licensing and consents for the exploration, development and production of fossil fuels in the UK”.

Describing the “extraction of new oil and gas resources in the UK” as “an obscene and genocidal policy”, the group’s website puts the blame on the government for “actively enabling the fossil fuel industry through obscene subsidies and tax breaks for new fossil fuel extraction…There has been no rapid and sweeping social change, no widespread adoption of low carbon technology, no war-style mobilisation”.

It further states: “In eight years, we need to end our reliance on fossil fuels completely. The transition will require massive investment in clean technology, renewables and energy storage but it cannot be done at current levels of energy consumption. We need to cut energy demand by insulating Britain and rethinking how we travel including providing free public transport everywhere. This starts by switching government subsidies from dirty fossil fuels towards clean energy, transport and insulation.”