Just Stop Oil (JSO) co-founder Roger Hallam – alongside defendants Cressida Gethin, Louise Lancaster, Daniel Shaw, and Lucia Whittaker-De-Abreu – have been found guilty of “conspiracy to cause a public nuisance”.
Shockingly, Hallam was sentenced for five years in prison, and the other co-defendants for four years. This is the longest sentence for peaceful protest in British history.
Their ‘crime’? Trying to enlist other activists to block the M25 motorway in protest against the climate crisis.
Disgracefully, further arrests were made during the trial, with protesters outside of the court building charged with alleged contempt, for holding signs reading “jurors have the right to hear the whole truth”. Clearly, in the eyes of the British state, they don’t have that right.
These arrests followed a declaration made by Judge Hehir that climate change could play no part in the defendants’ defence.
No doubt the judge was aware that juries have previously acquitted protesters from other activist groups like Extinction Rebellion, Insulate Britain, Palestine Action, and Black Lives Matter on the grounds that the defendants were acting to prevent greater crimes.
Failing to comply with the judge’s absurd declaration, the defendants were arrested again, during their own trial, and dragged back to their cells.
Political prisoners
Let’s be clear: these are political activists – now political prisoners – who have been jailed for their beliefs.
This is unchanged by the fact that the judge deemed their motivation to be ‘irrelevant’ to the case. This is yet more evidence of the British state attempting to further repress peaceful political protest.
This is a truly desperate precedent to set. The state clearly intends to make an example of these activists, as a warning to others.
Labour’s justice secretary recently indicated that the government would reduce the length of sentences to deal with prison overcrowding. The fact that these harsh sentences were handed down despite this shows that this punishment is intended as a threat to the wider movement.
The message from Starmer’s government is clear: do not undertake any action that disrupts the status quo and the interests of the ruling class.
If the state is allowed to get away with this, it will only be a matter of time before further protests are criminalised and more activists are repressed, as part of a broader attack on democratic rights and freedoms.
We say: an injury to one is an injury to all!
Hypocrisy
When passing down this sentence, the judge stated:
“I acknowledge that at least some of the concerns are shared by many. But the plain fact is that each of you has some time ago crossed the line from concerned campaigner to fanatic.”
No doubt the senseless killing of tens of thousands in Gaza, and the estimated 250,000 deaths caused by climate change every year – both of which are justified to maintain the profits of a handful of capitalist parasites – does not strike ‘His Honour’ as fanatical.
This rank hypocrisy comes as no surprise. The whole bourgeois state, including its statutes and its courts, is a tool designed to defend the property and position of the ruling class. The state privileges the interests of the minority at the top, above the democratic rights of the majority.
Labour’s response
The JSO activists were convicted under the Police, Crime, Sentencing, and Courts Act, introduced in 2022. This, alongside additional legislation such as the Public Order Act, has vastly expanded police powers and undermined the right to protest.
The trial itself was a complete stitch-up. The attorney general had previously removed the defence of proportionality and lawful excuse. This means that the defendants could no longer explain their motives to a jury.
Many hoped that the repealing of these draconian laws, passed by the previous Tory government, would be top of the agenda for ex-human rights lawyer Keir Starmer. Yet Labour has remained silent.
Starmer’s party was largely silent on the right to protest during the recent general election campaign, with no mention of it in the party’s manifesto.
Labour has purposefully prevaricated over this issue, with Starmer and co. avoiding the question because they don’t want to be seen as soft on ‘law and order’ questions.
A Labour party worth its salt should have committed to scrapping Tory anti-protest laws from day one. But a Labour party led by ‘Sir’ Keir Starmer – former Director of Public Prosecutions and head of the Crown Prosecution Service, and loyal servant of the British establishment – has other interests and concerns to attend to.
Furthermore, home secretary Yvtette Cooper is currently weighing up whether to continue with an appeal against a landmark ruling that found anti-protest legislation unlawful.
If she proceeds, this means that this Labour government would end up defending anti-protest laws in court!
Minimum service levels legislation was also introduced by the Tory government, effectively denying thousands of workers their right to strike.
Labour’s ‘New Deal for Working People’ pledges to repeal this. But with no plans to strike off other anti-protest laws from the statute book, workers will see little overall difference between the Tories and Starmer’s government when it comes to democratic rights and freedoms, and will still be in a far worse position than they were in 2010.
Starmer and his clique are clearly aware of the potential utility of these draconian laws. Given the onslaught that is being prepared for workers by the ‘fiscally responsible’ (read: pro-austerity) Labour government, these repressive pieces of legislation could prove to be valuable weapons for the capitalist establishment and its representatives to yield in the coming class battles.
Trade unions’ responses
The workers’ movement has experienced a long history of repression by the state.
The Tolpuddle Martyrs were sentenced to transportation and hard labour for forming a trade union. The Shrewsbury 24 and Pentonville Five were all convicted for leading and participating in pickets. And there are countless other examples that could be mentioned.
The right to strike and protest is an existential question for the trade union movement. If the union leaders show that they are happy to roll over and take a beating, this will only invite further repression.
So what are the trade unions doing? While they were happy to be photographed at the Tolpuddle Martyrs Festival over the weekend, as they paid lip service to the movement’s traditions of solidarity and militancy, the union tops have remained silent on this JSO case.
And over the past year, the TUC leaders mounted a feeble opposition to the Tories’ minimum service levels laws, culminating with a small protest and rally in Cheltenham back in January, which went by completely unnoticed.
The Tories’ anti-protest laws were met with strong words of condemnation. But the union leaders have completely failed to offer any concrete proposals on how to mobilise and fight back.
Time to fight back!
Unfortunately for the ruling class, none of these anti-protest laws and repressive threats will stop workers and youth from mobilising.
The new Labour government may want to appear as the party of ‘law and order’, and a safe pair of hands for the establishment. But their inability to deal with the crisis, and their further attacks on the working class, will continue to propel people onto the streets and picket lines.
Protests are only going to increase – over the climate crisis, the slaughter in Gaza, and many other questions.
As the explosive events in Harehills, Leeds, last weekend showed us, any injustice could provoke huge social eruptions in the coming period, given the volume of seething anger that is bubbling beneath the surface.
It is therefore up to the organised working class to mobilise in defence of our democratic rights.
The workers’ movement should call for a mass campaign to secure the immediate release and acquittal of these JSO activists, as well as to repeal all repressive anti-protest laws.
Importantly, however, we must wage this battle on the basis of our own class interests and with our own class-struggle methods – not by grovelling before a big-business Labour government, or with hand-wringing appeals to the capitalist courts.
The working class must therefore be prepared to fight. What’s needed is a determined political force that can link together the attacks on the right to protest, the climate crisis, and the plethora of issues that the working class faces under capitalism.
To safeguard the interests and freedoms of our class, we must sweep away the real criminals: the bosses, the bankers, and their political representatives.
That is the role that the Revolutionary Communist Party is striving to play. We invite you to join us in this task!
