A family doctor has been sentenced to one year in prison for taking action with climate crisiscampaign group Just Stop Oil.
Another Just Stop Oil activist sentenced
Dr Patrick Hart took action in August 2022 to demand an end to new licences and consents for oil and gas projects in the UK, something which has subsequently become government policy.
Hart appeared before Judge Mills at Chelmsford Crown Court on Tuesday 7 January after being found guilty in October 2024 of Criminal Damage. He had been disabling petrol pumps at Esso Thurrock Services on the M25 on 24 August 2022.
Esso is a subsidiary of the Oil giant Exxon Mobil which infamously concealed the alarming findings of its own scientists, which showed that fossil fuels caused global warming. Exxon subsequently ploughed millions into a disinformation campaign which initially sewed doubt and later confusion around the emerging climate science.
The law is an ass
In his closing statement at Chelmsford Crown Court during his trial, Hart said:
I disrupted people as an act of care. I damaged the petrol pump screens as an act of care, because in times of great peril, a caring person has to stand up for what is right. My actions have already cost me greatly.
I have been handed a suspended prison sentence, and thousands of pounds in costs through a civil injunction for this exact same action. I have been penalised at work and stand to be suspended or lose my licence to practise as a doctor.
But I regret nothing. Because to not do it, would have been to give up on caring, and that would be worse.
In the face of the permanent collapse of our climate, our economy, our society and life on Earth, the only thing that keeps me going is our continued capacity as people to care, regardless of what happens. Yes, I fear prison, but I am ready to go if I must
Hart has already faced civil charges for this action and been fined, as the Thurrock Esso petrol station is subject to a private injunction. He will also face a tribunal after being referred for a disciplinary hearing by his professional regulator, the General Medical Council (GMC).
Just Stop Oil will continue
In the last 12 months, the GMC has suspended two doctors from the medical register following their convictions for non-violent climate protest. As such Hart stands to be penalised three times for the same action.
Before sentencing, Hart said:
Right now, the greatest health threat to all of us is the unfolding climate catastrophe. It is the greatest health threat we have ever faced. All healthcare workers have a responsibility to protect the health of their patients.
If we do not stand up to the oil and gas executives who are wreaking havoc on our climate and the politicians who enable them, if we do not end the burning of fossil fuels, then we will have failed as a profession and the health systems that we have developed over centuries will collapse.
I will continue to fight against the death sentence of fossil fuels for as long as I have strength in me. I have no greater duty as a doctor at this moment in history.
Today’s sentencing comes after a jury found three Just Stop Oil supporters ‘not guilty’ in June of 2024 for disabling petrol pumps in the same manner as Hart.
Just Stop Oil will be stepping into action again in 2025. To join a talk or sign up for action register at juststopoil.org
The following article is a comment piece by 16 imprisoned activists. You can read more on their stories here.
We are some of the Lord Walney 16 – the sixteen peaceful people imprisoned for a combined 41 years for refusing to be bystanders to the most horrific crimes. We should have been 17. Xavi Gonzalez-Trimmer, our beloved friend, should have been with us. He will always be with us.
Our sentences will be reviewed by the Court of Appeal on 29 and 30 January.
Lord Walney: subverting free speech and the right to protest
We were jailed after former Labour Party MP John Woodcock (‘Lord’ Walney) – lobbyist for the arms and oil industry – called for those resisting genocide, whether from carbon emissions or Israeli bombs, to face the harshest response from the government, the police and the judicial system.
The brutal sentences that followed his report were aimed at ‘deterrence’. They were designed to make us give up.
To be locked up in Britain’s cruel prison system, witnessing the violence and harm undertaken by the state against its own citizens is harrowing. But our resistance is not like the addiction to fossil fuels – a habit to be broken. It is the consequence of a profound commitment to nonviolence and the refusal to be complicit in the destruction of our fellow human beings and the poisoning of life on earth.
We can never give up. The state sponsored assault on our living planet gives us no choice. We will never give up.
And we call on you – all of you who know that what is happening is so wrong – to join us in refusing to be bystanders.
When and where: the Royal Courts of Justice, London, 29-30 January
You can find out more information and sign up to attend here.
Signed:
Anna Holland
Cressida Gethin
Daniel Shaw
Gaie Delap
Dr Larch Maxey
Louise Lancaster
Lucia Whittaker De Abreu
Paul Bell
Paul Sousek
Phoebe Plummer
Roger Hallam
Activists from Shut The System sabotaged telecommunications cables leading to far-right lobbyists’ headquarters at 55 Tufton Street on Saturday 4 January. They aimed to cut off telephone and internet services in order to cause financial losses and disrupt the lobbyists’ malignant work undermining democracy.
The non-violent underground climate group cut through fibre optic cables that carry data to the headquarters of lobbyists including the UK’s primary climate science denial group, the Global Warming Policy Foundation.
The activists left a statement under the front door explaining their actions. It began:
The greed-fuelled climate denialists and racists in this building are silencing warnings about the lethal risks of climate change while sewing hatred and division across our communities, all to prop up their wealthy, corporate friends and funders.
Shut The System does not tolerate murder and racism. We have cut off your Wi-Fi in defiance against the millions of deaths on your hands.
The Global Warming Policy Foundation’s charitable status was challenged by more than 70 climate scientists, including a former chief scientific adviser, Sir David King, in an open letter sent to the Charity Commission in 2021.
Tufton Street’s personnel include Richard Tice, a co-founder of Leave.EU and the longest-serving leader of the far-right political party, Reform UK. The multi-millionaire property tycoon has relentlessly exploited anti-immigrant sentiment to pursue an end to the inheritance tax.
Telecommunications sabotage introduces a new tactic to Shut The System’s campaign of non-violent direct action against the financial establishments and corporations supporting fossil fuel expansion.
Shut it down
The nascent group has already achieved several wins with their signature tactic of covert, multi-site direct action. The group helped pressure Barclays to introduce new climate pledges and convinced the insurer, Probitas, to rule out support for the East African Crude Oil Pipeline and West Cumbria Coal mine.
They targeted more than 20 Barclays branches in collaboration with Palestine Action on 9 June 2024, calling on the bank to divest from fossil fuel expansion and successfully forced it to divest from Israel’s principal arms supplier, Elbit Systems.
A spokesperson from Shut The System said:
This is just the start. We are driven by justified rage and frustration at the rampant greed of those intent at accumulating wealth at the expense of life on Earth. We will not stop till justice is done.
Police in Manchester were called to the Chinese consulate over the weekend after staff started an altercation with a Radio Free Asia journalist who filmed them cleaning up Hong Kong protest graffiti on the street outside.
Four members of staff surrounded RFA Cantonese Service reporter Matthew Leung on Saturday afternoon after he started taking photos of them scrubbing away slogans in white paint daubed on the sidewalk outside the Chinese consulate on Manchester’s Denison Road.
The slogans read “F— PRC!” [People’s Republic of China] “Independence for Hong Kong!” and “Long Live the Republic of China!” the official name for democratic Taiwan, according to photos shared on the messaging app Telegram on the afternoon of Dec. 28. There was also an epithet referring to China by a highly offensive historical slur, which has been used by Hong Kongers in protest slogans before.
A staff member from the Chinese consulate in Manchester, center, tells an RFA reporter they can’t take photos on the street outside the building, Dec. 28, 2024.(Matthew Leung/RFA)
A Telegram user said they had painted the slogans, “because they are communists.”
Staff moved quickly to scrub the graffiti away, but threatened RFA reporters who arrived and started taking photos at the scene.
“We know your name, we know your address,” one warned RFA’s reporter. “I know our rights — if you take photos of us, we have image rights.”
“We don’t want any photos or videos to appear on the Internet. If you publish them, we will notify the police,” one staff member said.
The Chinese Consulate in the northern British city made headlines in 2022 after Consul General Zheng Xiyuan assaulted a Hong Kong protester inside the Chinese consulate in Manchester.
Anti-Communist Party slogans outside the Chinese Consulate in Manchester, Dec. 28, 2024.(Social Media)
There are also growing concerns over Chinese Communist Party infiltration of all aspects of British life, and warnings from Hong Kongers in exile over growing acts of violence by Beijing’s supporters and officials alike.
Another staff member, who spoke accented Cantonese, said: “Stop shooting; we’re calling the police now,” while another staff member repeated the demand in English.
One staff member tried to gain access to the digital touchscreen of the camera, despite a verbal complaint from the RFA journalist, but was eventually pulled away by colleagues.
Staff also demanded that the RFA journalist identify themselves, which the reporter did, showing an official National Union of Journalists press accreditation.
Workers clean the boundary walls of the Chinese consulate in Manchester after they were daubed with Hong Kong protest graffiti, Dec. 28, 2024.(Matthew Leung/RFA)
“This is the Consulate General,” said one of the men, to which the reporter replied that he was standing on a public footpath.
“If you want to shoot, you have to get our permission,” the man retorted, citing “diplomatic privileges under the Vienna Convention.”
When the police arrived after being called both by the RFA reporter and consulate staff, they took away a bag of evidence, and reminded consular staff that journalists have a right to film in public places.
They questioned everyone at the scene, including asking the RFA reporter if they saw who painted the slogans, then left.
They initially told RFA Cantonese they would investigate the graffiti as a “hate crime,” but later said that they wouldn’t be pursuing an investigation because consular staff at “refused to cooperate.”
Greater Manchester Police officers at the Chinese consulate, Dec. 28, 2024.(Matthew Leung/RFA)
Simon Cheng, founder and chairperson of the advocacy group Hongkongers in Britain, said the move appeared to be a bid to control media activities on British soil.
“At the very least, it can be said that the consular staff have no sense of their own legal rights or boundaries,” Cheng said. “More importantly, if they start applying China’s method of restricting media freedom and blocking filming in the UK, that’s definitely a form of transnational repression.”
Hong Kong exile groups in the United Kingdom have hit out at alleged transnational repression by the Chinese Communist Party on British soil after a church in the southern British town of Guildford canceled a children’s workshop on justice, civil liberties and human rights in 2023.
Cheng said the staff appeared to have toned down their approach following an incident in 2022, which saw six Chinese diplomats including the Consul General withdrawn after an attack on Hong Kong protester Bob Chan.
“There are slight differences in the way they handled it … they appeared to be de-escalating and threatening to call the police, but that doesn’t mean they had any legal grounds or justification for doing so,” Cheng said.
He said the graffiti expressed simmering anger among Hongkongers in the U.K. at China’s ongoing crackdown on public dissent and political opposition in Hong Kong, but called on protesters to “express their demands in a legal manner.”
Translated by Luisetta Mudie.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Matthew Leung and Jasmine Man for RFA Cantonese.
When leaders of Florida’s most populous county met in September to pick a site for what could become the nation’s largest trash incinerator, so many people went to the government center to protest that overflow seating spilled into the building’s atrium.
“MIRAMAR SAYS NO TO INCINERATOR! NOT IN OUR BACKYARD,” read green T-shirts donned by some attendees who wanted to stop the new industrial waste facility — capable of burning up to 4,000 tons of garbage a day — from being built near their homes.
Residents feared the site would not only sink their property values and threaten the environment, but also potentially harm people’s health.
Even more, the locations appeared to have been selected in a way that worried civil rights and environmental advocacy groups. All four sites considered that day were in, or near, some of the region’s most diverse communities, and the state is arguing in federal court that race should not be a consideration in permitting industries that pollute the environment.
“Historically, communities of color have suffered the impacts of toxic plants near our cities, affecting our health and well-being,” Elisha Moultrie, a 30-year Miramar resident and committee leader with the Miami-Dade NAACP, told the county commissioners.
It’s “environmental injustice and racial injustice,” she said.
Residents of Miramar, Florida, gather in Miami on September 17 to voice their opposition to Miami-Dade County’s plan to build a trash incinerator capable of burning up to 4,000 tons of garbage a day near their community.
Daniel Chang / KFF Health News
Miami-Dade leaders see a different challenge: the need to effectively manage trash. The county produces nearly double the national average per person of garbage, in part due to one of the region’s major industries: tourism.
Yet, throughout 2024, Miami-Dade’s elected officials delayed a decision on where to build the planned $1.5 billion incinerator, as the county mayor and commissioners wrestled with politics. County leaders are scheduled to vote on a new site in February.
“There is no perfect place,” Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said in a recent memo to county leaders.
The conundrum unfolding in South Florida is indicative of what some see as a broader trend in the national fight for environmental justice, which calls for a clean and healthy environment for all, including low-wealth and minority communities. Too often land inhabited by Black and Hispanic people is unfairly overburdened with air pollution and other emissions from trash incinerators, chemical plants, and oil refineries that harm their health, said Mike Ewall, director of Energy Justice Network, a nonprofit that advocates for clean energy and maps municipal solid waste incinerators.
“All the places that they would consider putting something no one wants are in communities of color,” he said.
More than 60 municipal solid waste incinerators operate nationwide, according to data from Energy Justice. Even though more than 60 percent of incinerators are in majority-white communities, those in communities of color have more people living nearby, burn more trash, and emit more pollutants, Ewall said.
And in Florida, six of the nine existing incinerators are in places where the percentages of people of color are higher than the statewide average of 46 percent, according to data from the Environmental Protection Agency’s EJScreen, an online tool for measuring environmental and socioeconomic information for specific areas.
Before Miami-Dade County’s old trash incinerator burned down in February 2023, the county sent nearly half of its waste to the facility. Now, the county is burying much of its trash in a local landfill or trucking it to a central Florida facility — an unsustainable solution.
Joe Kilsheimer, executive director of the Florida Waste-to-Energy Coalition, a nonprofit that advocates for owners and operators of trash incinerators, acknowledges that choosing a location is hard. Companies decide based on industry-accepted parameters, he said, and local governments must identify strategies to manage waste in ways that are both safe and efficient.
“We have an industrial-scale economy that produces waste on an industrial scale,” Kilsheimer said, “and we have to manage it on an industrial scale.”
Florida burns more trash than any other state, and at least three counties besides Miami-Dade are considering plans to build new facilities. Managing the politics of where to place the incinerator has especially been a challenge for Miami-Dade’s elected officials.
In late November, commissioners in South Florida considered rebuilding the incinerator where it had been for nearly 40 years — in Doral, a predominantly Hispanic community that also is home to Trump National Doral, a golf resort owned by the president-elect less than 3 miles from the old site. But facing new opposition from the Trump family, the county mayor requested delaying a vote that had been scheduled for December 3.
President Joe Biden created a national council to address inequities about where toxic facilities are built and issued executive orders mandating that the Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Justice address these issues.
Asked if Trump would carry on Biden’s executive orders, Karoline Leavitt, the incoming White House press secretary, said in an email that Trump “advanced conservation and environmental stewardship” while reducing carbon emissions in his first term.
“In his second term, President Trump will once again deliver clean air and water for American families while Making America Wealthy Again,” Leavitt said.
However, during his presidency, Trump proposed drastic reductions to the EPA’s budget and staff, and rolled back rules on clean air and water, including the reversal of regulations on air pollution and emissions from power plants, cars, and trucks.
That’s a big concern for minority neighborhoods, especially in states such as Florida, said Dominique Burkhardt, an attorney with the nonprofit legal aid group Earthjustice, which filed a complaint against Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection in March 2022.
The complaint, on behalf of Florida Rising, a nonprofit voting rights group, alleges that Florida’s environmental regulator violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by failing to translate into Spanish documents and public notices related to the permitting of incinerators in Miami and Tampa, and by refusing to consider the impact of the facilities on nearby minority communities.
“They’re not in any way taking into account who’s actually impacted by air pollution,” Burkhardt said of the state agency. The EPA is now investigating the complaint.
Conservative lawmakers and state regulators have been hostile to laws and regulations that center on the rights of people of color, Burkhardt said. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a Republican, has signed into law bills limiting race education in public schools and banning public colleges and universities from spending money on diversity, equity, and inclusion programs.
“They want to be race-neutral,” Burkhardt said. But that ignores “the very real history in our country of racism and entrenched systemic discrimination.”
Historical racism like segregation and redlining, combined with poor access to health care and exposure to pollution, has a lasting impact on health, said Keisha Ray, a bioethicist with the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.
Studies have found that neighborhoods with more low-income and minority residents tend to have higher exposure to cancer-causing pollutants. Communities with large numbers of industrial facilities also have stark racial disparities in health outcomes.
Incinerators emit pollutants such as carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, and fine particulate matter, which have been associated with heart disease, respiratory problems, and cancer. People living near them often don’t have the political power to push the industries out, Ray said.
Ignoring the disparate impact sends a clear message to residents who live there, she said.
“What you’re saying is, ‘Those people don’t matter.’”
Florida is one of 23 states that have petitioned the courts to nullify key protections under the Civil Rights Act. The protections prohibit racial discrimination by organizations receiving federal funding and prevent polluting industries from overburdening communities of color.
Those rules ask the states “to engage in racial engineering,” argued Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody in an April 2024 letter to the EPA, co-signed by attorneys general for 22 other states. A federal court in Louisiana, which sued the EPA in May 2023, has since stopped the agency from enforcing the rules against companies doing business in that state.
Miami-Dade’s incinerator, built west of the airport in 1982, was receiving nearly half the county’s garbage when it burned down in February 2023. Though the facility had pollution control devices, those measures did not always protect nearby residents from the odor, smoke, and ash that the incinerator emitted, said Cheryl Holder, an internal medicine physician who moved into the neighborhood in 1989.
A fire at a municipal trash incinerator in Miami-Dade County, Florida, burned for nearly three weeks in February 2023, releasing smoke and pollution into the surrounding community. Miami-Dade Fire Rescue
Holder said every morning her car would be covered in ash. Residents persuaded the county, which owned the facility, to install “scrubbers” that trapped the ash in the smokestack. But the odor persisted, she said, describing it as “a strange chemical — faint bleach/vinegar mixed with garbage dump smell” — that often occurred in the late evening and early morning.
Holder still started a family in the community, but by 2000 they moved, out of concern that pollution from the incinerator was affecting their health.
“My son ended up with asthma … and nobody in my family has asthma,” said Holder, who in 2018 helped found Florida Clinicians for Climate Action, a group focused on the health harms of climate change. Though she cannot prove that incinerator pollution caused her son’s illness — the freeways, airport, and landfill nearby also emit toxic substances — she remains convinced it was at least a contributing factor.
Many South Florida residents are concerned about the health effects of burning trash, despite assurances from Miami-Dade Mayor Cava and the county’s environmental consultants that modern incinerators are safe.
Cava’s office did not respond to KFF Health News’ inquiries about the incinerator. She has said in public meetings and a September memo to county commissioners that the health and ecological danger from the new incinerator would be minimal. She cited an environmental consultant’s assessment that the health risk is “below the risk posed by simply walking down the street and breathing air that includes car exhaust.”
But some environmental health experts say it’s not only a facility’s day-to-day operations that are cause for concern. Unplanned events, such as the fire that destroyed Miami-Dade’s incinerator, can cause environmental catastrophes.
“It might not be part of their regular operations,” said Amy Stuart, a professor of environmental and occupational health at the University of South Florida’s College of Public Health. “But it happens every once in a while. And it hasn’t been that well regulated.”
In addition to Miami-Dade’s planned incinerator, three other facilities have been proposed elsewhere in the state, according to Energy Justice Network and news reports.
State lawmakers adopted a law in 2022 that awards grants for expansions of existing trash incinerators and financial help for waste management companies losing revenue on the sale of the electricity their facilities generate.
A bill filed in the Florida Legislature by Democrats this year would have required an assessment of a facility’s impact on minority communities before the state provided financial incentives. The legislation died in committee.
As local governments in Florida and elsewhere turn to incineration to manage waste, the industry has argued that burning trash is better than burying it in a landfill.
Kilsheimer, whose group represents the incinerator industry, said Miami-Dade has no room to build another landfill, though the toxic ash left behind from burning trash must be disposed of in a landfill somewhere.
“This is the best solution we have for the conditions that we have to operate in,” he said.
But University of South Florida’s Stuart said that burning trash isn’t the only option and that the government should not ignore historical and environmental racism. The antidote cannot be to put more incinerators and other polluting facilities in majority-white neighborhoods, she said.
The focus of public money instead should be on reducing waste altogether to eliminate the need for incinerators and landfills, Stuart said, by reducing communities’ consumption and increasing recycling, repurposing, and composting of refuse.
KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF — the independent source for health policy research, polling, and journalism.
The following article is a column from Nick Ballard, head organiser and founder of the ACORN Union
There’s little scarier than a knock at the door from bailiffs at Christmas time — but that’s the reality facing tens of thousands of people right across the country right now.
The reality is more and more people are struggling with household finances.
People have been slammed by the cost of living crisis – rising energy bills, increasing food costs, runaway rent increases, the list goes on. For too many, it’s a choice between heating and eating, which utilities are most needed and which bills most urgently need paying.
So it’s no surprise that council tax arrears are also growing.
Councils are using bailiffs more and more for council tax arrears
As of March 2023 (the most recent data available – it’s likely to have risen since), the total amount of council tax arrears in England alone was £5.5 billion, up £513 million from the previous year.
And more councils are turning to enforcement agents, aka bailiffs, and more often. Between April 2021 and June 2023, more than 3 million people were taken to court for council tax debt – that’s an average of 4,500 per day – staggering numbers!
If a payment is missed, in many cases residents become liable for the entire year’s council tax bill in one go. And if you can’t pay this, a knock at the door from bailiffs looking to take away your belongings often follows.
A visit from bailiffs is distressing for anyone, especially for those who are already in debt, and who are vulnerable.
Mental health and debt are mutually reinforcing: mental health issues can disrupt people’s lives and lead them into debt, while being indebted and harassed by bailiffs can create or worsen mental health issues. Half of people in debt have mental health problems.
But it’s also clear that aggressive bailiff visits have a huge effect on people’s wellbeing; with fear, stress and anxiety the most immediate.
Making matters worse
A recent report found that council tax debt collectors significantly harm the health of those struggling to pay.
Bailiff visits also push people further into debt, as bailiff and court fees add an average £310 additional debt.
Not only does the use of bailiffs fail to generate more income for councils, it can actually make the problem worse, ultimately costing local and national government more in extra health, social care, employment and housing support (£9.7 billion more, to be precise).
A few years age one of our members in Manchester, Viv, had a bailiffs at her door threatening to take away her children’s toy, and to arrest. She worked as a childminder, and was looking after children at her home.
But it doesn’t have to be this way.
Making change happen
Some councils have made the move away from bailiff use and Hammersmith and Fulham Council have entirely ended the use of bailiffs.
Instead of beating on their residents’ doors at 6am, the council intervenes early when people start to fall behind, and helps them to access all the support and advice available to them. Their ethical debt collection policy has led to an increase in council tax collection rates.
Ahead of the general election in July ACORN members decided to make the issue of bailiff use a key priority for the union, and throughout 2024 our branches have shown that local campaigns can build the power needed to force councils to change.
In January, Manchester City Council announced that residents in council tax debt won’t have bailiffs knocking at their door if they are eligible for council tax support, with £1 million in support pledged for struggling families. This was the result of a long running campaign by ACORN Manchester and Debt Justice, ranging from outreach to occupations of council meetings:
Manchester ACORN
And in October, our Brighton branch declared victory in their year-long ‘Boot the Bailiffs’ campaign, meaning people on benefits in council tax debt will no longer be referred to bailiffs, with an additional £2.2 million pledged by the council to support the most vulnerable residents in the city!
And the fight continues in Birmingham, Haringey, and Leeds:
But we know our communities across the country are suffering due to bailiff visits, which is why we want to expand our campaigns in 2025.
Council use of bailiffs can end in 2025
We recently launched our Christmas appeal, a fundraiser to get the resources we need to launch new campaigns on this issue across the country, building a national movement to end the practice for good.
Please consider donating, sharing and supporting this fundraiser and our future campaigns on this issue – together we can make 2025 the year we turn the tide on council bailiff use and end this cruel and outdated practise for good.
77-year-old grandmother Gaie Delap has been recalled to prison as her wrists are too small to fit an electronic monitoring tag. She took action in 2022 to demand the government end all new licenses and consents for oil and gas projects – something which is now government policy.
Gaie Delap: an outrageous miscarriage of justice
Yesterday evening, police arrived at her home in Bristol, to escort Gaie to HMP Eastwood Park, which has the highest rates of self harm of any women’s prison in England and Wales. She will now spend Christmas in prison and is understandably terrified after her experiences during her last period of incarceration.
Gaie was sentenced, alongside four co-defendants, to 20 months imprisonment in August 2024 for her part in an action on the M25 in November 2022. Four (including Gaie) were released early, three of whom have been successfully tagged.
She was released on 18 November on a home detention curfew (7pm to 7am) with a tag. EMS was unable to fit a tag to Gaie’s ankle due to a health condition, so attempted to fit a tag to her wrist, but failed. This resulted in a warrant for her arrest being issued on 5 December, despite Gaie being fully compliant with the terms of her release.
Gaie has met all the conditions of her curfew since her early release on 18 November and maintained regular contact with her probation officer.
She suffers from numerous health conditions and suffered a stroke in the runup to her trial in August of this year. She experienced significant mistreatment in prison, suffering wrist problems after being handcuffed to a bed in hospital. The warrant for her arrest was issued whilst she was receiving treatment in hospital.
Gaie took action in 2022 after the government announced that it would issue over 100 new oil and gas licenses. This was despite summer temperatures climbing above 40C, railways buckling in the heat, harvests being decimated, and the London Fire Brigade experiencing the most calls since WWII. There were 61,000 excess deaths from the heat in Europe that year. Gaie took this brave action out of a deep sense of duty to protect her children, grandchildren and indeed all of us.
Meanwhile those causing real disruption- the fossil fuel executives, the water company bosses, the corrupt politicians who profited over dodgy PPE contracts, all walk free.
Friends and family of Gaie Delap issued a statement in which they said:
We are outraged by her recall to prison. We know this is cruel, and totally unnecessary. We know there are alternatives to the tag. We know that if she had been a man, a tag would have been available to EMS.
Because of medical conditions, Gaie requires a wrist tag, or some equivalent. And we know from our own investigations and enquiries there are many out there.
Moreover, Gaie is absolutely no threat to the community. This recall to prison is a ridiculous waste of resources and money. It will cost the taxpayer £12000 to keep Gaie in prison. We cannot believe that there is not an electronic monitoring device that can be fitted at a fraction of the cost.
We want common sense to prevail.
Labour must act
Serco were stripped of their tagging contract in 2019, and fined £23m after it was accused of charging the Government for the electronic monitoring of people who were dead, in jail, or had left the country. It lost its contract in 2013 and was fined £70m and £4m costs for the same reason. It only got the contract back in May 2024.
Gaie was imprisoned under the Public Order Act, – legislation that was written with the aid of the oil company funded think-tank, the Policy Exchange.
The Public Order Act has subsequently been found to be unlawful by the High Court, after the Home Secretary at the time used ‘subordinate secondary legislation’, a Henry VIII power, to circumvent the will of parliament and force it onto the statute books. The legislation remains in place whilst the government appeals this decision.
Gaie’s family are calling on supporters to contact the Secretary of State for Justice, Shabana Mahmood, who is the only person who now has the discretion to reverse the decision to recall her.
Two Palestine Action activists have been acquitted of conspiracy to commit criminal damage charges in a trial at Leicester Crown Court for an action against a Leicester drone factory complicit in Israel’s Genocide in Gaza. The trial commenced on 2 December, concluding yesterday.
Palestine Action: not guilty
The activists were arrested less than a month into the Genocide, on 18 October 2023, after a dynamic action which shut down the UAV Tactical Systems factory operated by Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest weapons company The action took place less than 12 hours after at least 500 wounded, starving, and displaced Palestinians were massacred at Gaza’s Al-Ahli Arabi Baptist Hospital in a targeted missile strike.
A van was driven through the barriers of the factory, positioned so the gates could not be closed. The activists then took to the roof of the vehicle, lighting flares, and unfurling banners and Palestinian flags. The factory entrance was covered in blood-red paint, while the activists shouted,/ the war criminals are in that factory. Elbit Systems is guilty of war crimes. And exclaiming “Sunak is the real criminal”.
During the action, the main gate was damaged and security hub, as well as a number of Elbit and security vehicles. While the factory was shut down, one of the Actionists said:
We need to be as determined as the Palestinian people, who never stop digging through the rubble to find survivors…Thousands of people are dying, what else are we supposed to do? We have to act now.
Her comrade said:
Israel has stolen 1,700 children’s lives in the last 7 days. If you condemn the Holocaust, where are you now? ‘Ethnic cleansing’ is too clean of a word for what Israel is doing.
Shutting down Israel’s weapons supply chain again
Owned jointly by Elbit Systems, Israel’s biggest weapons manufacturer, and French arms company, Thales, the UAV Tactical Systems plant exports ‘ML10’-category arms, meaning military drones, to Israel – of the type used to decimate Gaza. In total £5 Million of yearly exports are sent from the plant to the Israeli military. Elbit supplies 85% of Israel’s drone fleet, and 85% of its land-based military equipment.
Both defendants gave powerful evidence in their defence, arguing that they acted to prevent Elbit’s crimes, and save lives in Palestine. The Jury, on Friday, acquitted the activists of Conspiracy to Cause Criminal Damage.
This resounding victory follows on from another Jury decision in Leicester, in May 2024, when two other Palestine Action activists were also found Not Guilty of Criminal Damage charges, following a four-day occupation of the roof of the same factory, UAV Tactical Systems, in May 2021.
A spokesperson for Palestine Action said:
The actionists who shut down Israel’s drone plant in Leicester did so because it is the morally necessary thing to do.
Their jury agreed – that is why the government is launching attacks on trial-by-jury, because the people cannot abide complicity in Israel’s crimes.
Reporting on political killings in Pakistan, the Guardian (11/27/24) makes clear who is accused of violence and who the victims are said to be.
Islamabad was roiled by a days-long protest in the last week of November. Supporters of political prisoner and former Prime Minister Imran Khan, and of his Pakistan Movement for Justice party, marched into the city, demanding Khan’s release and the resignation of the military-backed Sharif government of Shehbaz Sharif.
Pakistan’s political crisis has Washington’s fingerprints all over it. However, readers of the New York Times and the Washington Post would be forgiven if they thought the protests were a purely domestic issue. Missing from the protest coverage in leading US papers was the ongoing support the Pakistani government has received from the Biden administration, continuing a pattern of obscuring US actions and interests in Pakistani political affairs.
Khan is a former celebrity cricketer who turned to politics in the 1990s. The PTI (as the party is known by its Urdu acronym) grew in power, culminating in Khan’s 2018 election as prime minister on a platform of change and anti-corruption (BBC, 7/26/18). Since August 2023, he has been continuously locked up on over 180 charges levied by the current Pakistani government (Al Jazeera, 10/24/24), accused of crimes ranging from unlawful marriage to treason (New York Times, 7/13/24).
As protesters descended upon Islamabad’s Democracy Chowk, a public square often used for political rallies, Pakistani security forces unleashed brutal repression on the movement (BBC, 11/26/24). Some protesters were shot with live ammunition, with one doctor telling BBC Urdu (11/29/24) “he had never done so many surgeries for gunshot wounds in a single night.” A man’s prayers were interrupted when paramilitary forces pushed him off a three-story stack of shipping containers (BBC, 11/27/24).
The Guardian (11/27/24) witnessed “at least five patients with bullet wounds in one hospital,” and reported that, per anonymous officials, army and paramilitary forces shot and killed 17 protesters. Independent Urdu (11/30/24) spoke to doctors and officials at two Islamabad hospitals, where over 100 protesters with gunshot wounds were admitted. Geo Fact Check (11/30/24) and Al Jazeera (12/4/24) have independently confirmed some of the deaths.
A source within the Pakistan Army later exposed to Drop Site (12/10/24) that the crackdown was premeditated by the government, and included orders to fire at a deliberately disoriented crowd.
Running cover
The New York Times (11/26/24) framed violence as a “clash” between protesters and police, and depicted the shooting of demonstrators as an effort “to defend government buildings with gunfire if needed.”
To the New York Times, the journalistic responsibility to investigate the repression of protesters by a US-supported regime went only as far as reprinting government denials. The first story (11/26/24), published 13 hours after the government crackdown, initially made no mention of murdered protesters, before later being stealth-edited to reflect that “hospital officials told local news media that at least four civilians had died from bullet wounds.” (The original version is archived here.) The possibility of government violence was framed as a defensive necessity: “Soldiers were ordered to defend government buildings with gunfire if needed,” the subhead read.
The next story (11/27/24) used similarly passive, obfuscatory language, writing that local media reported “four civilians were killed by gunfire in the unrest.” Further down, the Times reported that PTI “accused security forces of killing dozens of protesters, a claim that could not be independently verified and was repeatedly denied by officials.”
In neither story did the Times attribute the bullets to any actor; meanwhile, it did reprint comment from Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar and Islamabad top cop Ali Nasir Rizvi, in addition to twice citing unnamed “officials,” all of whom claimed that security forces did not shoot protesters.
A third Times report (11/27/24) on the protests said that PTI “claimed that several of its workers were killed or injured during the protest…by the authorities,” without mentioning that protesters had in fact died; it quickly followed up that the Information Minister Tarar denied officers shot at protesters. Besides that brief mention, the story bizarrely focused on the inconvenience that protests have created for residents of Islamabad.
The headline of Washington Post’s only story (11/27/24) on the affair mentions “violent clashes,” but the outlet failed to report that anyone had died, much less been killed by security forces. Whenever “alleged” abuses were mentioned in the story, they were followed with government denials.
In all, the Times and the Post responded to brutal government repression of a mass protest by relaying government denials and reporting on bullet wounds with no apparent source.
What’s perhaps more troubling is the failure of either outlet to report that the government carrying out this repression is one well-supported by the Biden administration, even over the objection of his own party’s congresspeople. The omission of Biden’s support for the ruling government, led by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN) is glaring, but not new.
‘All will be forgiven’
The document that has the Biden State Department telling Pakistan that “all will be forgiven in Washington” if it removed its prime minister (Intercept, 8/9/23) was not quoted by the New York Times or Washington Post.
Corporate media also did their best to obscure the circumstances of Khan’s fall from power and PTI’s recent election loss. Imran Khan lost power in 2022 in the form of a no-confidence vote orchestrated by the military establishment (Foreign Affairs, 6/16/23; Dawn, 2/15/24). That move came after a March 2022 meeting between US State Department officials and the Pakistani ambassador to the United States.
Under Khan, Pakistan had increasingly charted a foreign policy course independent from US interests (Nation, 7/5/21; BBC, 6/21/21). The Biden administration’s appetite for Khan’s leadership had begun to wane, especially with regards to Afghanistan and Russia.
According to a leaked Pakistani diplomatic cable (Intercept, 8/9/23), President Joe Biden’s Assistant Secretary of State Donald Lu informed the ambassador that “if the no-confidence vote against the prime minister succeeds, all will be forgiven in Washington”—a reference to Pakistan’s posture on the Russia/Ukraine war, which Lu reportedly termed “aggressively neutral.” If not, Khan and his government would be further isolated. One month later, Khan was removed in a parliamentary vote of no-confidence.
Despite maintaining that the cable does not entail US meddling in Pakistan’s domestic affairs, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has confirmed its authenticity (Intercept, 8/16/23). US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller stated the cable’s description of the meeting with Lu were “close-ish” in accuracy (News International, 8/10/23).
Only after Khan’s removal of power did the United States intervene to help Pakistan secure a much-needed loan from the International Monetary Fund (Intercept, 9/17/23). The conditions of the loan included forcing austerity measures on the Pakistani population and, notably, a weapons sale to Ukraine (via Global Ordnance, a controversial arms dealer).
While the Times and the Post did report on Khan’s allegation of US interference in his ouster, even reporting Khan’s claim of a secret diplomatic communique (e.g., New YorkTimes, 4/2/22, 4/9/22; Washington Post, 4/10/22, 4/13/22), they were silent when the Intercept published the cable itself in August 2023.
Slow-walking a rigged election
A confession to vote fraud was treated by the New York Times (2/18/24) as “appear[ing] to lend weight to accusations” of vote fraud.
The next popular election took place in February 2024. (The elections were scheduled for 2023, but the military managed to delay them for another year.) It was clear that the PMLN-led government and the military were conspiring to undermine PTI at every turn, including by jailing Khan and tampering with the military-controlled national election software (Intercept, 2/7/24).
PTI candidates who were winning their elections during live vote-counting were shocked when the official results showed their constituencies had been lost by tens of thousands of votes. Far from Trumpesque fraud claims that attempt to stop vote counting while a candidate holds a tenuous lead, PTI candidates saw tens of thousands of votes erased from their vote totals between live counting and official results (Intercept, 2/9/24). The election was clearly rigged, foreign media observers concurred (Le Monde, 3/1/24; Economist, 3/14/24).
For two outlets that are ostensibly so anxious about the state of democracy in the United States, the New York Times and Washington Post were more staid in their concerns for Pakistani democracy. The Times (2/18/24), reporting on a confession by a senior Pakistani official of rigging votes, only went as far as to say that the admission “appeared to lend weight to accusations” by PTI of election-rigging.
The Post, while initially entertaining the possibility of a rigged election (e.g., 2/11/24), fell short of actually reporting that PMLN and the military stole the election. The Post didn’t report on the Pakistani official’s confession of election-rigging.
The tone struck was highly conservative compared to, say, the Times and Post coverage of the 2018 elections in Bolivia (FAIR.org, 3/5/20, 7/8/20). In that instance, US media didn’t hesitate to pounce on allegations of electoral fraud against left-wing president Evo Morales, even though the election was later found to be fair (only after a right-wing interim government was able to take power). Could it be that US media treats electoral fraud claims more seriously when they’re against official enemies?
Congressional dissent
“A growing chorus of voices in the US government is demanding accountability for Pakistan’s military junta over its attacks on political dissent, imprisonment of opponents, and the rigging of an election earlier this year,” Drop Site (10/23/24) reported—but readers of the leading US papers aren’t hearing about it.
Once it was clear that PTI didn’t have enough seats to form a governing bloc (despite the surprising popular surge behind the party and against the political-military establishment), 31 US lawmakers led by Rep. Greg Casar (D.–Texas) demanded the Biden administration withhold recognition of the Pakistani ruling government until a “thorough, transparent and credible” investigation of the election could be carried out (Intercept, 2/28/24). This letter is part of a pattern of objections by congressmembers to Biden’s acceptance of an authoritarian Pakistani government—so long as they align with US foreign policy interests (Intercept, 11/17/23).
A State Department press release (2/9/24) immediately after the election condemned abrogations of the rights of Pakistani citizens, and further said “claims of interference or fraud should be fully investigated.” The same statement, however, assured that “the United States is prepared to work with the next Pakistani government, regardless of political party.”
Less than two months later, Biden sent a letter (Times of India, 3/30/24) to Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif of the PMLN, “assuring him that his administration will fully back his government in addressing critical global and regional challenges.”
As recently as the past few months, two more letters have been submitted by US lawmakers urging the Biden administration to reevaluate its relationship with Pakistan’s government, which lawmakers say has been violating the human rights of the Pakistani people (Drop Site, 10/23/24; Dawn, 10/24/24; Times of India, 11/17/24).
Coverage of congressional dissent from Biden’s Pakistan policy has been absent from both the Times and the Post. Absent from the pages of leading papers were any stories about lawmaker concerns over human rights, free elections and authoritarian governance.
Continuing omissions
This New York Times article (11/27/24) presented protests against political repression in Pakistan as a big nuisance.
These trends continued in recent reporting. Two of the New York Times stories (11/25/24, 11/26/24) on the protests mentioned the rigged election only as an allegation by Khan and his supporters, countered with government denials and offering readers no sense of which side might be telling the truth. The other three stories (11/26/24, 11/27/24, 11/27/24) don’t discuss election-rigging at all. None of the stories touched on the US involvement in Khan’s fall from power, nor the Biden administration’s continued support of an authoritarian ruling government.
The Washington Post’s single story (11/27/24) also limited itself to critiquing the ruling government, without mentioning the rigged election, US intervention in Khan’s expulsion, or continuing US support for a government that is killing its own citizens.
Reporting on protests in Pakistan without mentioning US involvement in domestic politics creates a perception that Pakistani chaos is a concern mostly for Pakistani people, and readers in the United States need not examine the role of their own government in a national political crisis.
While the other six arrestees, forming the Barclay’s 7, were released on bail, Francesca was remanded in custody. At two subsequent hearings bail was again refused, despite the fact the Barclays 7 trial is not scheduled until March 2025.
Teledyne Defence & Space at Shipley, in Bradford, West Yorkshire, manufacture key components for Israel’s deadly missiles, including the MGM-Harpoon, AIM-120AMRAM, and MGM-Hellfire missiles used to decimate the civilian population of Gaza, and to lay waste to its infrastructure. Teledyne have been targeted again and again by Palestine Action, because they are up to their necks in blood, having played a key part in the Gaza Genocide.
In October 2023, after a year-long campaign of actions, such as the one in Leeds, Barclay’s announced it was divesting from Israel’s biggest arms manufacturer, Elbit Systems.
Palestine Action members being acquitted
Francesca Nadin has now been held, without being convicted, in New Hall Prison, for almost six months, the equivalent of a one year sentence. She was brought before Leeds Crown Court on Tuesday 17 December, where her barrister argued that, by March, Francesca will have served the equivalent to a prison sentence of 16 months, 22 days.
Even if she is not acquitted at trial, like other actionists who jury members have refused to convict, the sentence imposed is unlikely to be anything like this, particularly since, Francesca, who is 38, has no prior criminal convictions. According to her barrister, there would be a “strong possibility of a suspended sentence.”
The prosecution argued that they had not been able to find an earlier trial date, though there was no evidence to support this, and the defence did not accept that this was so.
The judge remarked that the “cutting back of sitting days” was adding to the problem of there being insufficient opportunities for the early trials, defendants should be able to expect. The case was adjourned to give the prosecution time to find evidence to support their position of continuing to deny Francesca bail.
At Friday’s hearing, which took place via videolink before a different judge, there was a lengthy legal discussion, before bail was refused. The system is overcrowded and “creaking”, so with insufficient ‘slots’ for a trial, Francisca has to stay in jail.
The campaign will not stop
Supposedly, ‘Justice delayed, is justice denied’.
That is certainly the case with Francesca Nadine, one of Palestine Action’s 22 political prisoners, almost all of whom, like Francesca, are unconvicted. Imprisoning these activists without trial, often after raids on their homes, and interrogating them under supposed ‘ant-terror’ legislation, is part of the British state’s attempt to intimidate those prepared to take direct action to end this country’s complicity in the Gaza Genocide.
Palestine Action said:
We are determined that these draconian tactics will not succeed, and remain committed to ridding Britain of companies who facilitate, and profit from, the Israeli slaughter of the Palestinian people.
Their scare tactics will not work. In fact, they are a rallying call.
We must fight back with everything we’ve got and not just for Palestine, but for our own rights to free speech and protest. We must speak out against injustice everywhere.
Palestine supporters will be marching through central Bristol this Saturday 21 December to draw attention to the links between Palestine and Christmas.
Palestine protest: ‘Jesus was a Palestinian’
Bristol Palestine Alliance (BPA) are calling for people to join the protest this Saturday 21 December at 12pm on College Green.
The group has previously organised twenty major demonstrations in Bristol, together with a large number of rallies, meetings and fundraisers for Gaza. Alongside these, it has coordinated five major rallies outside the new Elbit Israeli arms factory in north Bristol.
Protesters will lead the march with a banner reading: “JESUS WAS A PALESTINIAN?”
BPA rally organisers aim to draw attention to the connections between the Christmas story and Palestine. The group said that:
Jesus is respected in the Abrahamic religions and the Christmas story is well known in Britain. But surprising few people realise Bethlehem exists outside the Christmas story and is a real city in Palestine!
The history of the Holy Land is inevitably complex. But it’s not unreasonable to claim that according to modern geopolitics Jesus was a Palestinian!
The Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem in the West Bank is the oldest site continuously used as a place of worship in Christianity. The floor of crypt is marked with a silver star which is reputed to be the actual birthplace of Jesus.
One thing is certain – if Jesus was born now he would undeniably be Palestinian.
However, they also highlighted that:
Unfortunately, the odds of him surviving today in Palestine might not be very good.
Nativity scene not like you know it…
As part of the procession there will be a float depicting a ‘2024 Palestinian Nativity Scene’. This will include the following elements:
Bethlehem – surrounded by massive concrete 9 metre (30 ft) ‘apartheid wall’.
The Three Kings stranded OUTSIDE the wall as they have not been allowed through the main checkpoint to Bethlehem.
The Shepherds have arrived but their sheep and the other animals have been killed by settlers.
The olive groves for which Palestine is famous and are a well-known symbol of peace are being uprooted.
The stable where Jesus would be born is being bulldozed. The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) has documented well over a thousand domestic and agricultural buildings demolished last year alone. JCB is one of the well known companies selling bull-dozers to Israel. Israel is using these for demolitions, so the company is the target of an international boycott campaign
Above the holy couple is the well known “SCAR of Bethlehem” in the shape of a bullet hole on the wall by Bristol artist – BANKSY.
Joseph is portrayed blindfolded and handcuffed. He represents the large number of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons Israeli human rights group BTSELEM has reported that nearly 10,000 Palestinians are currently held in prison. Many report systemic abuse and torture while in jail.
Mary is portrayed in the cross-hairs of a sniper rifle. Israeli officers have been proudly wearing army t-shirts depicting a pregnant women in the cross-hairs of a sniper’s sight with the legend “1 shot 2 kills”.
Christ would be born in the rubble of Gaza
Although the genocide in Gaza is well reported, by contrast, the West Bank receives much less attention.
Nearly two hundred children have been killed by settlers and the Israeli army in just over a year in the West Bank. Amnesty International reported that a hundred people were being killed every month.
Supporters on the demonstration will be carrying placards linking Christmas and Palestine. Alongside these, they will march with a selection of Banksy murals which have been painted on walls in Bethlehem.
The Apartheid Wall, built predominately from the early 2000s onwards, is a 9 metre high concrete wall surrounding urban areas such as Bethlehem. The International Court of Justice has declared the route of the wall illegal and that it should be removed.
Early in the 2000s Banksy was one of the first artists to use the Wall as a canvas for his work.
In December 2023 the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem “cancelled Christmas” in response to the genocide unleashed on Gaza and built a nativity scene on a pile of rubble.
Reverend Munther Isaac, Palestinian Christian pastor and theologian said:
If Christ were to be born today, he would be born under the rubble and Israeli shelling.
This year, the Vatican has built a nativity scene showing baby Jesus wrapped in a Palestinian Keffiyeh scarf.
Meanwhile, the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem has also produced a similar nativity scene with baby Jesus wrapped in Palestinian Keffiyeh scarf.
Join the rally!
A spokesperson for Bristol Palestine Alliance said:
While many will be spending time with loved ones, in our warm homes enjoying our Christmas holiday, Palestine – the land that Christians believe to be Christ’s birthplace – is being bombed and its people the victims of an ongoing genocide.
For more than a year, Gazans have been subjected to constant bombing, starvation, dehumanisation, ethnic cleansing, mass murder on horrific scale – most of which have been women and children. Medics, journalists, emergency aid workers, charity workers, UN peace keepers and children are deliberately targeted and it is all being live streamed on our phones.
This Saturday, whilst our Palestinian brothers, sisters and children, are suffering, we will gather to reflect and grieve and show them we are with them.
Speakers at the event will include:
Dr Diana Slim of Lebanese heritage
Rev Sue Parfitt
Farook Siddique – community activist and columnist
Moosa – 9 year old activist
Rachael Bee – co-founder of two local refugee organisations
Bahirah Malak – masters of law student
Muneera Pilgrim – poet
Soraya – who will speak on the role of Palantir in the privatising of the NHS
A local choir is also joining the demonstration.
At 12.30pm there will be a rally with speakers. Following this, at 1pm the march departs and circuits Broadmead Shopping Centre before returning to College Green for the closing rally.
A new disabled-led project, the Disability Action Research Kollective, is working on “reclaiming disabled history” to help centre ableism across the breadth of today’s “liberatory political movements”.
Through a series of novel zines, it uplifts the hidden disabled identities “struck from the record” of prominent civil rights activists. It offers a powerful new testimony to disabled people’s central role in social justice successes of the past century.
Most importantly, by putting disabled people back into the narrative, it shows how the fight against threats marginalised communities face today are intrinsically tied to disability justice and liberation.
In a little less than a year, the project has already put out ten publications, online and in print across four countries.
The ‘Disability Action Research Kollective (DARK)’
The Disability Action Research Kollective (DARK) is a new research community. In particular, the group is dedicated to distributing material that equips people with vital knowledge on disabled people’s suppressed history. It describes itself as:
a disabled-led group working to make disability perspectives, history, and research more accessible to a general audience.
Ostensibly then, DARK is distilling a broad catalogue of disability stories that are vital for understanding the appalling situation for disabled rights today. Primarily, the group’s work centres round producing free zines to help disseminate this information to a wider audience.
The Canary spoke to founder Richard about the project. He explained that DARK is about:
gathering together disabled and non-disabled activists, writers, researchers, and academics to publish things for free on various topics. We organise online, are flexible in when and where people write their contributions and we work with people from all over the world.
While anyone can get involved, importantly, the project is “disabled-led”. It’s a volunteer-run initiative, and makes its zines free to be an accessible resource for as many people as possible.
To maximise their reach, Richard expressed that a crucial component to the project is that DARK produces these in print. Specifically, the project hopes to circumvent the way in which social media is stifling the voices of disabled communities. He said that:
Social media algorithms actively suppress and limit content mentioning disability so our output had to include something physical and offline. We also have distributors in the UK, USA, Canada, and Australia, but anyone can access, print, or distribute our zines.
Centring disabled histories via the Disability Action Research Kollective
Over the course of 2024, Disability Action Research Kollective has put out ten zines on a diverse range of topics. In each, there’s a powerful centring of disabled people’s lives and broader disability histories.
What’s clear from many, is how the sidelining of disabled people’s identities, and past forms of social marginalisation have contributed to ongoing forms of oppression today.
In ‘Why the gap?’ for instance, DARK explores the history of rail systems. It looks at how past decision-making contexts still have ramifications for disabled rail access now. Specifically, it delves into the lack of level boarding across the railway network for wheelchair-users and other disabled passengers.
It starts by introducing readers to the socio-political deprioritisation and discrimination against disabled people when the rail systems were initially built. From there, it shows how this ableist origin has set up for the non-standardised, disjointed services that still persists in the modern rail network.
In doing so, it also draws attention to the disgraceful failure of successive governments to address this glaring transport access inequality. It’s a perturbing reminder that equity and inclusivity for disabled people in many aspects of social life has little changed in decades, if not in some cases, hundreds of years.
And this is a big part of what DARK wants to demonstrate through its zines too.
Ableism ‘overlooked’ in ‘radical and inclusive spaces’
There’s a concerted focus in DARK’s work on how liberatory movements intersect, now and in the past. Richard told the Canary that:
The goal of DARK is to help people understand disability as a fluid political category, not a concrete medical one. While sexism, racism, homophobia and transphobia are generally discussed within liberatory political movements, ableism is often widely overlooked even in supposedly radical and inclusive spaces. But there are valuable perspectives here, and understanding how it is intertwined and underlies many of the others is fundamental to addressing any of them, you can’t understand oppression in isolation.
In short, the story of disabled people’s oppression is inextricably linked to the stories of other marginalised groups’ oppressions. He listed a few pertinent examples of this:
Ableism was used against women trying to get the vote, by imputations of mental inferiority, similarly, it was used as an excuse to perpetuate slavery, homosexuality was officially categorised as a mental illness till recently and that imputation is currently being fought by trans people.
The very foundation of immigration controls was initially justified on the grounds of eugenics, to prevent potentially mentally or physically inferior immigrants, which at the time included broader categories like Jews and Eastern Europeans. This can all be read about in more detail in the essay ‘Disability and the Justification of Inequality in American History’ by Douglas Baynton.
Notably, Richard drove home the connection between the history of disabled people’s oppression and anti-immigrant bigotry through one dangerous social ideology:
Eugenics was not something that ended with the fall of the Nazis. All of the systems that incentivise it are still with us today. The state of disability rights is much further behind than most people realise. In the USA and EU and many other countries, it is still legal to sterilise disabled people without their consent.
During the lockdowns, the UK government knowingly sent infected people into care homes, didn’t provide them with PPE and then added do-not-resuscitate orders to disabled people’s medical files without their knowledge or consent.
People with learning disabilities died at incredibly high rates despite not having any form of underlying medical condition that would have made them physically vulnerable to the virus. The British Medical Journal, an organisation not particularly known for its radical views, called it “social murder”. But even before the pandemic, the UN found that the UK was involved in “grave and systemic” abuses of disabled people’s human rights.
This is not a left or right-wing issue as even the incoming Labour government has dropped its pledge of integrating UN human rights protections for disabled people into UK law. More detail on these can be found in the books Crippled and The Department, which I highly recommend.
The Canaryhas also consistently highlighted how all these contemporary events have their roots in eugenicist thinking. Essentially, modern governments have continue to operate on the basis that disabled people’s lives are inherently of less value. Effectively, it’s the ongoing tale of how the capitalist bent for perpetual productivity and profit has rendered disabled people expendable.
Now, the Disability Action Research Kollective project is shedding much-needed light on the background history to all this.
‘Reclaiming disabled history’
Richard was inspired to start the project because his experience as both an academic and activist had:
starkly highlighted how little disability was understood as a political category in either world.
Therefore, he had felt compelled to address this. He told the Canary that:
This project started when I decided to try to reach more people by simplifying my own academic work to make it easier to read and understand. I started collaborating with others and as more people joined, the project soon took on a life of its own. Our early work was about reclaiming disabled history. There are also a lot of famous historical figures who have had disabilities struck from the record to avoid tarnishing their reputations. This strips away the full humanity of these figures and reinforces disability as a stigmatising characteristic.
Disability was a lot more widespread in the past but was likely significantly less stigmatising than it is under modern capitalism, where productive capacity is directly linked to individual personhood, belonging, inclusion, respect and value. People have a general idea that because of technology disabled people have never had it so good, but there have been many societies that were significantly more accepting of disabled people and fully integrated them into society, like in ancient Egypt, a civilisation which lasted for 5000 years.
So far, Richard and fellow volunteers have put out zines on disabled anarchists and communists, feminists, and other left-wing radicals. They’re a whistlestop tour through the disabled lives of the likes of Che Guevera, Frida Kahlo, Fannie Lou Hammer, Audre Lorde, and many more.
Helping disabled people find ‘pride, joy, community, and hope’
Richard explained that he feels that:
There has never been a more important time for a disability-focused political education
In particular, he referenced the increasing rates of long Covid as a crucial reason for this. As the Canarypreviously reported, official long Covid rates passed two million. However, we underscored how this is likely a significant underestimate anyway.
For one, as Richard highlighted, as Covid continues to reinfect people uncurbed:
a lot of people are likely to become disabled.
So, the Disability Action Research Kollective is also about bringing disabled history to newly disabled individuals too. Richard told the Canary that:
While we write for everyone, even non-disabled people. I hope some of it reaches people who have recently become disabled, to help shape their sense of self and find pride, joy, community and hope.
And part of achieving this, is welcoming people into DARK to have fun uncovering and celebrating disabled history. For that reason, Richard told the Canary that he was particularly proud of one project that brought DARK members and others together for the group’s first cultural critique. This was the zine ‘Star Trek and Disability‘ which he said:
spawned an online watch and discussion group which has been great fun.
He expressed to the Canary that:
Most science fiction futures erase disabled people entirely, but in the Trek universe the eugenicists lost the war and so there is a degree of representation. Interestingly the frequency and the quality of the representations broadly got worse over time, while representation for all other groups has improved.
More to come from the Disability Action Research Kollective
Naturally, there’s also plenty more to come as well. Richard teased the group’s upcoming work:
Currently, the cultural critique group is working on part two and expanding to how the disability representations of Batman villains have changed over time. I think a lot of people not specifically interested in disability might be more open to enjoying things they already like from a new perspective.
Needless to say, the Disability Action Research Kollective will undoubtedly prove an invaluable community and educational resource for disabled people, and fellow oppressed communities alike taking action against the latest tide of dehumanisation and discrimination.
And of course, the project is always looking for new volunteers to bring their important skills and insights into the fold.
You can find a catalogue of DARK’s online zines and links to its social media accounts here. If you’d like to contact DARK to get involved, you can reach out to the group via email to: disabilityarkmedia@gmail.com
A group of student loan borrowers aged 50 and up traveled from around the country to Washington, D.C. on December 11, setting up rocking chairs outside the Department of Education. Dressed in ponchos and beanies to protect against the frigid rain, they passed out cross-stitch kits and signs reading, “Knit-In for Debt Cancellation,” sharing their personal debt stories amidst chants of “Biden…
Musician, historian, and activist Lowkey joined crowds of people outside a prison to show solidarity with Palestine Action activists being detained on trumped-up charges inside. They’re there because, once again, Palestine Action significantly disrupted the operations of a weapons manufacturer – directly impacting Israel’s supply of weapons that it’s currently using to commit genocide in Gaza.
Lowkey joins Palestine Action
On Saturday 14 December, over a hundred people attended a demonstration and at HMP Bronzefield:
It saw rappers Lowkey, Workrate, and others bring a DIY performance in solidarity with the people of Palestine, and in solidarity with the 11 Palestine Action political prisoners currently being detained in HMP Bronzefield.
Lowkey, an ardent campaigner for a free Palestine, has regularly turned out in solidarity with those unjustly detained for actions against genocide.
He stated during the performance:
Those people behind those walls are all of us.
Other speakers included family members of Filton political prisoners, and Dr Asim Qureshi, a Director at CAGE International, who stated that:
Solidarity is not a word, it is a practice and an action – we have to cut off every single supply line that keeps the settler Zionist colonial state in its place… the only organisation doing that on a daily basis is Palestine Action.
The solidarity demonstration was called in response to the repressive raid, arrest and interrogation tactics deployed by the British state against those resisting complicity in genocide.
Disrupting Israel’s supply chain
In August, activists disrupted Israeli weapons production at the Filton, Bristol research hub of Elbit Systems Israel’s largest arms firm.
This brand new £35m research and development hub of Israel’s biggest weapons firm opened in June 2023, and was attended by the UK-Israeli Ambassador Hotevely, and Elbit’s CEO Bezhalel Machlis – who has frequently boasted of the company’s central role in Israel’s military, during the ongoing Gaza genocide.
An initial seven people were detained under police abuse of ‘Counter Terror’ powers. More police raids and arrests followed in the months since, most recently in November. A total of 18 people now arrested, detained, and held under ‘Counter Terror’ powers – despite being charged with criminal charges – before a trial in November 2025.
Many had their homes and property damaged and some of their families and loved ones were also subjected to police violence, while conditions for those inside prison include arbitrary and repressive restrictions.
There are currently 21 Palestine Action political prisoners, all supposedly linked to actions taken against Elbit Systems, it’s suppliers and subsidiaries. 19 have been detained without trial, and 11 are held in Bronzefield.
On Thursday 12 December, campaigners from Fossil Free London staged a demonstration outside the Norwegian embassy in Belgravia, condemning Norway and its government’s role in developing the controversial Rosebank oil field, which will see millions flow towards Israeli fuel giant, Delek Group, blacklisted by the UN for human rights violations. It’s all tied to Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza and its apartheid and human rights abuses across the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
Norway: complicit in Israel’s genocide
The demonstrators waved placards with slogans such as “Norway! Stand with Palestine for human rights and our climate” and “Shame on Norway, listen to the UN”. They chanted “Stop Rosebank, Free Palestine” as embassy workers entered the building:
Equinor, majority owned by the Norwegian Government, and Ithaca Energy share ownership of the controversial Rosebank oil field, which will see £250 million flow towards Ithaca’s controlling shareholder – Delek Group. The Israeli fuel giant operates in illegal settlements and provides fuel to the IDF:
The demonstration coincides with Greenpeace Norway filing a complaint against Equinor for failure to conduct due diligence over its links to Ithaca and Delek under the 2022 Transparency Act.
Joanna Warrington, campaigner with Fossil Free London, said:
Today, we gather outside the Norwegian embassy to shine a light on a toxic alliance driving both human rights abuses and climate devastation.
The Norwegian government, through Equinor, is pushing forward with the Rosebank oil field even though it will generate profit to fund the oppression and occupation of Palestinian people, who are already suffering at the hands of a brutal genocide.
Norway must choose people over profit, justice over violence, and stop Rosebank.
Featured image and additional images via Fossil Free London
Three Just Stop Oil supporters appeared in court on Friday 13 December after taking action at Stonehenge to demand that the UK government commit to working with other governments to agree an equitable plan to end the extraction and burning of oil, gas and coal by 2030. Of course, the fact that the three activists are in court is probably in no small part down to Keir Starmer’s previous intervention.
Just Stop Oil: The Stonehenge Three
Niamh Lynch, 22, a student from Oxford and Rajan Naidu, 73, from Birmingham appeared at Salisbury Magistrates court charged with ‘destroying or damaging an ancient protected monument’, and ‘intentionally or recklessly causing a public nuisance’.
The pair sprayed orange cornstarch powder over the 5,000-year-old landmark to draw attention to the urgent need for a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty to phase out fossil fuels and to support dependent economies, workers and communities to move away from oil, gas and coal.
Luke Watson, 35, of Manuden, Bishop’s Stortford, will also appear, charged with one count of ‘aiding and abetting destruction or damage to an ancient protected monument’, and one count of ‘aiding, abetting the causing of a public nuisance’.
The English Heritage chief executive, Nick Merriman, told BBC Radio 4 after the action that there appeared to be “no visible damage” to Stonehenge.
But on 19 June the now-prime minister, Starmer, then leader of the opposition, posted on Twitter that “the damage done to Stonehenge is outrageous. Just Stop Oil are pathetic. Those responsible must face the full force of the law.”
A preposterous case
Niamh Lynch said:
I was born in 2002. When I was a few days old the global average temperature was 0.56 degrees C above pre industrial levels. Today, the global average temperature has shot past the safe limit of 1.5 degrees, which is triggering irreversible tipping points that threaten social collapse in my lifetime. We are seeing irreversible and permanent damage on an absolutely immeasurable scale.
I’m a conservationist and an ecologist. Everything I do is about protecting our home and the species we share with it. I had no intention of causing any damage to the stones (hence the use of cornstarch, not paint) or of causing any upset to the public. I simply wanted to draw attention to the crisis we are all facing.
The prosecution in the case maintains that an ‘orange substance of a chemical nature’ has harmed the stones and that widespread public shock and upset at seeing social media posts justifies the public nuisance charge.
Today’s court appearance comes after 95,000 UK homes experienced power cuts after Storm Darragh caused havoc to UK infrastructure. Climate scientists warn that severity of storms will increase as climate breakdown accelerates.
The case has been adjourned until 29 January and will be heard at Salisbury Crown Court.
Just Stop Oil will be stepping into action again in the new year. To join a talk or sign up for action register at juststopoil.org.
Palestine Action have shut down the factory of Leonardo, a company directly complicit in Israel’s genocide in Gaza. But also, by default the Scottish government also has a hand in this – as it funded the corporation to the tune of millions.
Palestine Action: shutting down Leonardo
Palestine Action returned to the Edinburgh premises of weapons firm Leonardo on Tuesday 10 December – using vans to blockade the weapons factory and halt its contributions to Israel’s genocide in Gaza:
Scottish activists were secured to each other on top of the vehicles, closing both entry gates to the plant and preventing the manufacture of parts for Israel’s F-35 Fighter Jets:
In a previous action on Tuesday 28 May, activists from Palestine Action opened the box of cables, cut the internet wires, sprayed expanding foam inside the box and spray painted ‘Stop Arming Israel’ on the lid. At the front of the factory, others sprayed the fighter jet display with paint to symbolise the company’s role in spilling Palestinian blood.
The Italian-owned company, Leonardo, is one of the world’s biggest arms manufacturers, with extensive ties to the Israeli state. Since 2015, the Edinburgh plant has manufactured the laser-targeting systems for F-35 fighter jets, the model used by Israel to drop 2,000lb bombs on the Palestinian population of Gaza. Additionally, Leonardo makes parts for Israel’s Apache helicopters, while also maintaining deep partnership with Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest weapons company, for the purposes of supplying the Israeli Air Force.
SNP: complicit in genocide
Between 2016 and 2020, Leonardo received £7 million from the SNP-led Scottish government. Specifically, it got £786,125 from Scottish Enterprise in 2023, rendering the Scottish government itself complicit in Israel’s mass-murder of Palestinians.
In closing down the Leonardo factory, Palestine Action has sent a clear message to the British and Scottish governments – that we will not stand idly by as the war industry of Britain fuels and profits from Israel’s atrocities.
Palestine Action have struck at the Edinburgh Leonardo plant on numerous occasions since October 2023, including through occupations, blockades, and acts of sabotage.
A spokesperson for Palestine Action said:
While the British and Scottish governments continue to support the Israeli war industry, Palestine Action refuse to permit complicity. By shutting down Leonardo, Edinburgh, these activists are preventing the production of Palestinian slaughter.
Tensions over executions and plans for petrol price rise and hijab law add to reversals in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria
The fall of Bashar al-Assad in Syria, the latest in a string of foreign policy reversals for Iran including the weakening of its allies in Lebanon and Gaza, has coincided with growing domestic frustration over rising executions, planned increases in the price of petrol and a proposed law that imposes heavy fines and loss of access to public services to any woman not wearing the hijab.
The confluence of events is putting unprecedented pressure on Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, to demonstrate what reforms he has introduced since being elected in June. He is viewed domestically as a consensual figure and faces a conservative parliament, but his supporters are impatient for changes that will lift the economy.
After two trials this week in Manchester, two Palestine Action activists remain steadfast in their resistance to complicity in genocide, despite having been handed ‘Guilty’ verdicts on criminal damage charges – all other charges against them having been dropped.
Palestine Action: trial number one in Manchester
On Monday 2 and Tuesday 3 December at Manchester Magistrates Court, Palestine Action activist Drew faced charges of aggravated trespass and criminal damage after a November 2023 occupation on the overhang of the Deansgate offices of Fisher German.
The action saw the site closed, the overhang occupied, Palestinian flags unfurled, and the building affixed with posters highlighting Fisher German’s complicity. At the time of the action, Fisher German were landlords for Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest arms firm. Fisher German leased Elbit the premises for their ‘UAV Engines’ drone factory – used to manufacture parts for Israel’s fleet of killer drones. A month after the action, the company announced they were cutting all ties with Elbit. The action reportedly cost Fisher German £40,000
In court, Drew gave testimony of the war crimes and Genocide being committed by Israel with Elbit weaponry, with his actions seeking to protect life by halting their supply of arms. Drew stated his belief that if Fisher German dropped Elbit Systems, this could save at least one life, and prevent the destruction of at least some homes, schools and hospitals.
He told of how workers inside the building had reacted positively to his protest, waving, and giving ‘thumbs-up’ signs. The judge eventually refused to accept that the action was necessary or reasonable in relation “to the events in Israel”, ruling that the damage, including Sellotape marks to windows, was ‘more than trivial’.
He found Drew guilty of Criminal Damage, and issued a £40 fine, with a further £700 in compensation and court costs. The Aggravated Trespass charge was dismissed earlier in the trial.
After the verdict, Drew stated:
I walked into court today not guilty, and will leave Friday, not guilty, regardless of the judge’s decision. As long as we are shutting down Israeli arms factories, and their partners, WE WILL NEVER BE GUILTY.
Trial number two
From Wednesday 4 December to Friday 6, Drew entered Minshull Street Crown Court, charged, along with co-Defendant Adam, with Criminal Damage, in relation to an action at Elbit Systems Ferranti factory in Oldham in February 2021.
After a relentless direct action campaign by Palestine Action, the Ferranti factory, which previously manufactured imaging technology for Israel’s killer drones, was shut down in 2022.
Despite their actions seeking, successfully, to halt Elbit’s production of weapons for genocide, the judge in the case had ruled before the trial commenced that the defendants would not be able to rely on any defences whatsoever.
Without defences, they could not introduce any evidence on the Gaza Genocide, Palestine, Elbit Systems, or indeed any of the reasons which led to them having to take action. The activists self-represented in their trial, and despite having no defences they entered Court “as the accusers, not the accused”.
The Court heard from Elbit’s former Safety and Security Co-ordinator at the site, who, from behind a screen, claimed to know little about either the company, or its work, but conceded they manufactured military drones.
In his evidence, Drew said that they had taken action after a long campaign of letters, petitions, and vigils. He said, “We had tried all avenues available to us.” Adam explained how they arrived at the site before any workers, so as to avoid harm or inconvenience to them. He said that the damage caused was not reckless, and that they were careful not to risk injuring anyone.
The Jury in the case were not able to reach a unanimous verdict, but returned a majority verdict finding the Defendants guilty of criminal damage on Friday afternoon. Their sentencing hearing is set for 31 January 2025
Palestine Action: their actions are necessary
These prosecutions took place at a time when the British state, hand-in hand with the Israeli government, and their arms manufacturers, are targeting activists trying to stop British complicity in the Gaza Genocide, by abusing terrorist legislation against those resisting Israel’s state terror regime.
Palestine Action currently has 22 political prisoners locked-up in British prisons, most of whom have not been convicted of any offence, with further prisoners incarcerated overseas.
A spokesperson for Palestine Action has stated:
These actions helped to see the end of Elbit in Oldham, and saw their Shenstone landlords cut ties. In the context of genocide in Gaza, fuelled with Elbit weaponry, the necessity of these actions is self-evident.
On Wednesday 4 December, Extinction Rebellion occupied the headquarters of an international law firm that is playing a leading role in oiling the legal wheels of the deadly fossil fuel machine setting our planet on fire.
Extinction Rebellion: back at A&O Shearman
Activists targeted the City of London offices of A&O Shearman – whose lawyers facilitated more than $285 billion in fossil fuel transactions between 2019 and 2023, the second highest amount for any legal firm in the world – demanding they ‘Cut The Ties With Fossil Fuels’:
Rebels entered the building and occupied the lobby, while others sprayed the outside of the building with fake oil:
An oil derrick was outside the entrance, on which a Grim Reaper figure sat holding a scythe and a set of scales, with a burning planet in one pan and a pile of oily cash in the other:
The air filled with smoke and the sound of drums, and activists used a megaphone to spell out A&O Shearman’s crimes against the planet:
Police made a number of arrests:
Propping up climate breakdown
A&O Shearman’s record as an enabler of climate breakdown is wrecking its reputation amongst up-and-coming legal talent. Prior to their merger, Allen & Overy and Shearman Sterling were both individually given the worst rating ‘F’ in the Law Students for Climate Accountability 2024 scorecard.
A&O Shearman advises clients across the oil and gas industry, from exploration and production, pipelines, refining. It acts for governments, energy companies such as Saudi Aramco, Chevron, oil field services companies and investors on some of the world’s largest oil and gas transactions. These companies are significantly expanding oil and gas production, even as mounting levels of greenhouse gas emissions threaten to trip irreversible climate tipping points, making the planet unrecognisable and accelerating mass extinctions.
A&O Shearman has been silent in the face of mounting criticism from campaign group Lawyers are Responsible over their complicity in the climate emergency.
Today’s action is an escalation from last week, when Lawyers are Responsible, along with doctors and scientists, targeted five law firms including A&O Shearman, who are collectively responsible for over £285 billion of fossil fuel transactions.
At the protest was Dr Sara Melly from Hampshire, who said:
We demand A&O Shearman cut their ties with the fossil fuel industry immediately, for existing A&O Shearman employees to refuse to work for fossil fuel clients or leave, and for new legal talent to go and find work elsewhere. The future is in renewable energy and in prosecuting Big Oil for knowingly causing death and destruction from global heating and climate change.
Marcus Bailie, an activist who travelled up from the South Wales Valleys, said:
Many will have seen the flooded houses and businesses featured in national news. That’s all people are talking about in Pontpridd and everybody knows the cause. It is outrageous that A&O Shearman and other major law firms are still enabling fossil fuel extraction even as the signs of current warming are plain and obvious to see. Carbon dioxide lasts 100 years in the upper atmosphere, so the damage they do now will cause a century of harm, they are enabling an existential threat. Lawyers are going to have to choose what’s more important to their reputation – profit at any cost or saying no to work that is destroying communities.
Extinction Rebellion will be back
Melanie Strickland from Lawyers are Responsible said:
It is disgraceful that A&O Shearman is facilitating and profiting from climate and ecological collapse. Lawyers are Responsible have written to Allen & Overy twice to demand they stop enabling the fossil fuel industry, and we staged a climate crisis exhibition outside the merged firm A&O Shearman in November 2024. Yet A&O Shearman make no comment.
Lawyers work in a public profession. As lawyers, we are granted professional status on behalf of the public. It is a privilege, and it entails the responsibility to uphold the public interest. A&O Shearman is aggressively pursuing the interests of its clients, such as ADNOC, at the expense of life on Earth, and its lawyers are massively lining their own pockets in doing so. Lawyers are Responsible believes that it is possible for lawyers to be part of the solution, and we want our fellow professionals in these firms to be part of the solution.
Speaking at the G20 Summit last month UN Secretary-General António Guterres said “Our climate is at a breaking point. Unless we limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius, spiralling disasters will devastate every economy” and “investing in new fossil fuel infrastructure is moral and economic madness”.
Yet fossil fuel emissions continue to rise and the current 12 month average temperature increase stands at 1.64º Celsius, already breaching the Paris Agreement’s safe limit. As the Lancet reported “the science is unequivocal; a global increase of 1.5°C above the pre-industrial average and the continued loss of biodiversity risk catastrophic harm to health that will be impossible to reverse”.
Extinction Rebellion demands:
1. A&O Shearman cut their ties with the fossil fuel industry immediately.
2. All existing A&O Shearman employees to refuse to work for their fossil fuel clients or leave.
3. Any new legal talent to go and find work elsewhere.
Featured image and additional images via Extinction Rebellion
Campaigners from Fossil Free London disrupted the opening night of Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake at Sadler’s Wells Theatre, demanding the venue sever ties with Barclays over the bank’s funding of fossil fuels and arms.
Swan Lake
During the Swan Lake interval, protesters staged a dramatic lobby demonstration, pouring oil on two campaigners dressed in Swan Lake costumes while others chanted, “Sadler’s Wells, drop Barclays”. Their banner read, “Cut Ties with Barclays”:
Security escorted them out of the building.
The disruption followed an earlier protest outside the theatre, where 10 campaigners in Swan Lake costumes staged a “die-in” next to a banner that read, “Barclays Funds Bombs and Big Oil”. Leaflets explaining the protest were handed out to theatre goers:
Sadler’s Wells has a close relationship with Barclays, which is one of the theatre’s main sponsors. Additionally, Nigel Higgins, the chair of the Sadler’s Wells Board of Trustees, also serves as the chairman of Barclays. So, protesters made the Swan Lake audience aware:
Barclays: wrecking the planet
By February 2024, Barclays had £2bn in shares in eight of the nine companies providing military equipment to Israel.
This included £2.7m in Elbit Systems. Elbit provides 85% of Israel’s military drone fleet and land-based equipment. Alongside this, it supplies bombs, missiles, and other weaponry. It markets these as “battle-tested” after bombardments in occupied Palestine.
Barclays has provided over £6.1bn in loans and underwriting to the arms and military technology companies Israel has violently deployed against Palestinians. These include arms firms like BAE Systems, Boeing, and Raytheon.
Meanwhile, Barclays is also making a killing bankrolling the climate crisis. Between 2016 and the end of 2023, Barclays has poured US $235.2bn into fossil fuels. This is according to the latest ‘Banking on Climate Chaos’ report, which placed Barclays among its ‘Dirty Dozen’ – the top twelve worst banks for financing the polluting sector.
Moreover, it has invested over US $190bn in fossil fuels since the Paris Agreement. Whilst Barclays committed to stop financing new oil & gas expansion ‘projects’ in a renewed energy policy in February, this restricts just 10% of their fossil fuel funding.
Swan Lake is dancing around the issue
Joanna Warrington, campaigner with Fossil Free London, said of the Swan Lake protest:
It’s time for Sadler’s Wells to stop dancing around the issue.
By continuing to partner with Barclays, a bank that fuels climate breakdown and genocide, Sadler’s Wells is complicit in global suffering and the destruction of our future. This sponsorship lets Barclays hide behind a veil of corporate responsibility, while it continues business as usual, bankrolling the industries driving environmental devastation and violence across the world.
Art holds immense power to inspire change and shape our world for the better, but it’s meaningless if we don’t act to protect the future it imagines. Sadler’s Wells must choose: uphold the values of art and humanity, or remain complicit in the destruction and greed that threatens us all.
Featured image and additional images via Talia Woodin
Over three-quarters of UK universities have pledged to exclude fossil fuel companies from their investment portfolios, following Birmingham City University, Glasgow School of Art, Royal Northern College of Music, and the University of Bradford all incorporating fossil fuel industry exclusions into their Ethical Investment Policies.
Universities: divesting from fossil fuels en-masse
People & Planet have announced that over three-quarters of UK universities have pledged to exclude fossil fuel companies from their investment portfolios. This follows Birmingham City University, Glasgow School of Art, Royal Northern College of Music and the University of Bradford incorporating fossil fuel industry exclusions into their Ethical Investment Policies.
115 (out of 149) UK universities have now publicly committed to divest from fossil fuels, representing 77% of the UK Higher Education sector and £17.7bn worth of endowments now out of reach for fossil fuel industry investment.
These four Fossil Free victories were uncovered by 2024 People & Planet University League research. The People & Planet University League ranks UK universities by their ethical and environmental performance. The full 2024 dataset is due to be launched imminently.
This campaign milestone has been achieved through relentless student campaigning for Fossil Free over the course of more than a decade, often with support from university staff.
Fossil free, finally
Launched in 2013 the Fossil Free campaign demands the exclusion of fossil fuel extractor companies from university investments in solidarity with the Indigenous and frontline communities experiencing both the impacts of the global climate crisis and fossil fuel extraction projects.
These extraction projects include the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (‘EACOP’). Consisting of 1,443km of pipeline, TotalEnergies and CNOOC intend to use it to transport crude oil from the Lake Albert region of Uganda to the Port of Tanga, Tanzania. The pipeline is being built in spite of local community opposition and resistance, with protests and critics often being met with state violence.
This includes the alleged abduction and beating of Stephen Kwikiriza in June 2024, a worker for a non-profit organisation who had been documenting alleged human rights abuses. Hundreds of student organisers have been involved in the struggle against its construction, supported by Stop EACOP Uganda. Scores of students have been arrested for their defiance.
Student campaigners intend to maintain pressure on the 34 UK universities yet to go Fossil Free, by highlighting their minority status in the university sector. Institutions under pressure include the University of Strathclyde in Scotland, where student campaigners have been demanding divestment for over five years.
Still more to be done
Laura Clayson, Campaign Manager for Climate Justice at People & Planet, said:
Over three-quarters of UK universities excluding fossil fuels from their investments would have been unimaginable just a decade ago. That we can celebrate this today is down to the generations of students and staff that have fought for justice in solidarity with impacted communities. The days of UK universities profiteering from investments in this neo-colonial industry are over. In solidarity with frontline communities, such as those resisting the building of EACOP, we look forward to announcing the sector’s stragglers as Fossil Free very soon.
Ntambazi Imuran Java, lead coordinator and Stop EACOP Uganda, said:
We appreciate and celebrate the efforts of all stakeholders who have campaigned to end fossil fuel investments, in support of those who have worked tirelessly to stop deadly extraction projects like EACOP. Efforts are emerging and results at this moment are witnessed. Regardless of the arrests and violations on the activists, students’ activists and communities, we continue to demand for the Uganda authorities to stop the project and instead invest in renewables.
To us the activists We continue to assert and commit to our principles of non-violence to challenge the EACOP project. We therefore call for your urgent intervention and support to aid us to continue putting pressure to the Ugandan government and shareholders of EACOP.
In Manchester, two Palestine Action trials take place this week for defendants who have plead ‘not guilty’ for their actions at the sites of Israel’s arms trade and their facilitators. They appear in court to state that Israel’s largest arms firm, Elbit Systems, is guilty: those resisting genocide are not.
Palestine Action: in the dock for saving lives
On Monday 2 and Tuesday 3 December, one Palestine Action activist will stand trial in Manchester Magistrates Court for a 2023 action in which they occupied the overhang of the Deansgate offices of Fisher German.
Fisher German were, at the time, landlords for the Elbit’s Staffordshire drone engine factory, UAV Engines – known to export arms components to Israel. Fisher German have since publicly cut ties with UAV Engines and Elbit after the months-long campaign of disruption.
As part of an ongoing campaign against those complicit in Elbit’s business-of-bloodshed, Palestine Action has targeted Fisher German dozens of times.
The real estate company was first targeted back in 2021 – with an occupation of the roof of their Birmingham offices (Vine Property Management in Harborne) which also saw the site covered in paint. Three activists were eventually found not guilty in court of the resulting charges.
These same offices were then hit with five covert actions over 2022, with activists breaking windows and dousing the property in red paint, marking it with a symbol of the blood shed by the company’s Israeli business partners:
Fisher German temporarily abandoned the Birmingham premises in August 2022.
Similar actions took place at Fisher German offices across the country throughout the two year campaign. Most recently in 2023, a single activist occupied the roof of the entrance to Fisher German’s Manchester offices, which had also been occupied by a coalition of trade unionists, who also demanded that Fisher German cut ties with Israel’s largest arms company:
It is this activist which is facing trial this week.
‘The accuser, not the accused’
Then, from Wednesday 4 to Friday 6 December, that same activist and one other will appear in Minshull Street Crown Court charged with criminal damage and aggravated trespass in relation to an action at the Elbit Systems ‘Ferranti’ factory in Oldham, Greater Manchester in February 2021.
As the Canary reported at the time, protesters from Palestine Action and Extinction Rebellion, armed with banners and red paint, said their early-morning raid on the Israeli-owned Elbit Ferranti factory in Oldham, Greater Manchester, is because they “will not accept an economy based on devastation, occupation and war”:
After relentless direct action at the site, the Elbit Ferranti factory – which formerly produced imaging technology for Israel’s drones – has been shut down for good since 2022.
The two activists facing trial at Minshull Street have had all defences ruled out by the judge – meaning that they will not be permitted to speak on Palestine, Elbit Systems, the genocide in Gaza, or any of the substantive reasons why their action proved necessary.
Regardless, Palestine Action said in a statement that:
they appear in the court as the accuser, not the accused, in the knowledge that Elbit System’s criminal enterprise will not last in Britain.
Featured image and additional images via Palestine Action
On Saturday 30 November the Great Court of the British Museum was taken over by the Climate Choir Movement flash mob when around two hundred visitors at the British Museum café stood up and broke into three-part harmony to sing: ‘It’s time to drop BP! Don’t take their dirty money!’:
The singers, including members of Bristol Climate Choir, then processed to the entrance of the British Museum Great Court, the largest covered public square in Europe, and performed the classical hit Also Sprach Zarathustra by Richard Strauss, complete with new anti-BP words:
With this performance, the UK-based environmental choir network had pulled off their most dramatic stunt yet.
Three masked actors, representing museum director Nicholas Cullinan, BP boss Murray Auchincloss and chair of museum trustees George Osborne, paraded with the choir:
A second banner declared ‘Human Culture from the Beginning to the End: The British Museum with British Petroleum’:
Their message was clear. It was time for the British Museum to drop its controversial financial deal with BP.
British Museum: taking dirty money from BP
Last year it was announced that the British Museum’s exhibitions would no longer be BP-branded after its existing five-year sponsorship wasn’t renewed. However, the Museum has continued working with the oil giant in a different way – by controversially accepting £50m from BP towards its 10-year redevelopment plan. Critics of the deal have also pointed out the conflict of interest in the Chair of the Museum and former Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne having multiple links with BP.
The highly controversial decision to take BP’s dirty money has only added to the ongoing debate about ethical fundraising and sponsorship in the culture sector, with it initially causing concern among trustees and appearing to lead to Muriel Gray’s resignation from the Board. In June this year, the director of Tate, Maria Balshaw, spoke out about BP’s sponsorship deal, saying that “the public has moved to a position where they think it is inappropriate”.
Profiting from wrecking the planet
Climate Choir Movement musical director Kai Honey, who arranged the songs, said:
The British Museum showcases objects from cultures and countries across the world. By slashing their renewable energy division, BP is contributing to the collapse of the world’s stable climate, out of which human cultures arose. BP is not giving money to the British Museum out of the goodness of its heart.
This is a strategic decision to look like a responsible company, to gain social consent for continued oil and gas exploration.
Bristol resident and Climate Choir co-founder Jo Flanagan added:
We now know, due to recently unearthed documents, that major oil companies including BP were alerted to the planet-warming effects of fossil fuels as early as 1954, that the product they profited from could pose a threat to the stability of the Earth’s climate.
Now, shockingevidence shows they were denying, dismissing, and downplaying the risk of burning fossil fuels during really early attempts to crack down on sources of pollution. At the same time, they spent millions to boost their public image as a responsible partner in the search for climate or clean air solutions.
This is a carbon copy – pun intended – of exactly what the tobacco industry did when they knew their products caused cancers, and then used cultural sponsorship to deflect attention from failure to act on the damage they caused.
British Museum: BP or not BP?
A spokesperson for BP or not BP? which has campaigned against BP sponsorship of the British Museum said:
The British Museum’s director, Nicholas Cullinan, is still trying to defend the museum’s indefensible decision to accept BP’s dirty money. In an interview with the Sunday Times he was asked ‘will accepting it cause us reputational damage?’ and the answer is a resounding ‘yes’.
For over 10 years, we have joined with allies from across the arts, the climate movement and with communities directly impacted by BP, in opposing this toxic partnership. By continuing its cosy relationship with BP, Cullinan and the Board of Trustees are choosing to collude with one of the planet’s biggest fossil fuel villains and failing in their legal duty to protect the Museum’s reputation.
Featured image and additional images via Andrea Domeniconi
It was confirmed on Saturday 30 November that the Court of Appeal will conduct an extraordinary mass hearing of 16 Just Stop Oil political prisoners, arising from four separate cases, who received combined prison sentences of over 41 years for peaceful protest. The hearing has been listed for 29 and 30 January 2025 at the Royal Courts of Justice in London.
The Whole Truth Five – Roger Hallam (5yrs), Cressida Gethin (4yrs), Louise Lancaster (4yrs), Daniel Shaw (4yrs), and Lucia Whittaker De Abreu (4yrs) received record breaking prison sentences for planning nonviolent disruption on the M25, to stop the granting of new oil and gas licences:
M25 Gantries – George Simonson (2yrs), Theresa Higginson (2yrs), Paul Bell (22 months), Gaie Delap (20 months), and Paul Sousek (20 months) participated in that same action, by climbing onto gantries over the M25.
Navigator Tunnellers – Larch Maxey (3yrs), Chris Bennett (18 months), Samuel Johnson (18 months), and Joe Howlett (15 months) occupied tunnels dug under the road leading to the Navigator Oil Terminal in Thurrock, Essex.
Sunflowers – Phoebe Plummer (2yrs) and Anna Holland (20 months) threw soup on the glass protecting Van Gogh’s Sunflowers painting:
While the actions in these cases are markedly different from one another, they are united by being nonviolent and taken in an attempt to save lives, as well as by the disproportionate sentences imposed.
Where’s Walney?
These came after disgraced John Woodcock (‘Lord Walney’), an oil and arms industry lobbyist falsely presented to the public as an ‘independent’ Government adviser, called for groups such as Just Stop Oil and Palestine Action to be treated as equivalent to serious organised criminals.
Since then an unprecedented sentencing inflation has taken hold, despite Britain’s prisons crisis, with multiple peaceful protestors jailed for longer than if they had committed violent or sexual offences. The practice is at odds with Britain’s history and international practice and has been condemned by the United Nations and other international observers [7].
The appeals against all four sets of jail sentences will be heard by a full session of the Court of Appeal, led by Lady Justice Carr (the Lady Chief Justice).
Points of appeal will include whether a conscientious motivation should be treated as mitigation, and whether throwing soup on glass should be sentenced as an act of violence, if it caused some damage to the frame.
The outcome will be a defining moment for the right to protest in Britain, with far reaching consequences for our basic democratic rights and freedoms.
Just Stop Oil sentences violate basic human rights, says UN
Lex Korte, spokesperson for the Free Political Prisoners campaign, said:
A subset of judges have responded all too eagerly to the call from the disgraced Lord Walney, the arms and oil industry lobbyist, to jail peaceful climate campaigners for longer than if they’d committed serious crimes of sexual violence.
This would be insane at any time, let alone in the midst of climate breakdown and Britain’s prisons crisis. It is corruption designed to shield from accountability the fossil fuel industry, which has systematically suppressed from the public the scientific evidence about the catastrophic impacts of their deadly businesses.
As the UN has made clear, these sentences violate basic principles of human rights, democratic freedoms and international law. What’s at stake in this hearing is not just the freedom of some courageous individuals. It’s the credibility of the British legal system and the lifeblood of democracy itself.
The demands of the Free Political Prisoners campaign are:
To put a stop to the role of arms and oil industry lobbyists, such as Lord Walney, in drafting laws that criminalise those who expose the violence and lies of those industries.
To ensure that everyone who has taken reasonable and proportionate measures to prevent mass loss of life has the opportunity to properly present that as a defence to criminal charges
To end the jailing of people for taking peaceful action to protect life and to uphold international law.
A ‘chilling response to legitimate protest’
James Skeet, spokesperson for Just Stop Oil, noted:
We’ve passed the 1.5 degree threshold that was supposed to keep us safe, as governments continue to serve the oil and gas lobby, whilst locking up young people for trying to preserve their chance of a future. In years to come, people will question the priorities of our judiciary, and will ask ‘who were actually the real criminals’?
Tim Lancaster, political prisoner family member, said:
Prison is a poor solution for most problems but it is a chilling response to legitimate protest. Good people should not be imprisoned for raising the alarm about climate change. Organising and participating in peaceful protest, when Sunak broke the law by selling oil licences, should not result in lengthy prison sentence. I welcome the decision to hear these appeals together and the opportunity it provides to right this wrong and to treat these brave, principled people with kindness and respect.
An unusual roadside protest in Hastings has gone viral, attracting over three million views worldwide and sparking similar actions in towns and cities across Europe. It was over Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza and apartheid across the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
Hastings: going viral over Palestine
The simple drive-by action of people holding placards on the side of the A21 spelled out a powerful message that resonated across the world:
It read: “In the Last Year. Israel has killed. 16,000 children in Gaza. There are 16,00 children. In Hasting. Imagine. This town. With no children. Stand up. Speak out. Stop the genocide”:
The one minute video, filmed from a passing car and set to the track ‘Where do the children play?’ by seventies folk musician Cat Stevens – now known as Yusuf Islam – was picked up and shared on all the major social media platforms including Instagram, TikTok and X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook with thousands of comments remarking on the moving post, heaping praise on the people of Hastings and the “humanity” of its inhabitants.
And since it was first shared on 9 November the same action has been replicated in Wales, Ireland, Oslo, and in towns and cities like Hitchin and Ealing.
One X account in the name of Rania had over 1.6 million views alone with over 550 comments. The video was also shared on the Instagram account of political analyst Yousef Alhelou, attracting 832,000 views, 87,000 likes and hundreds of supportive comments such as “Powerful and thought-provoking activism. Well done Hastings”, “Love to the people of Hastings. It gives us all hope in humanity”, and “Thank you Hastings. Great action. Tears are running over my face”.
On X, @Karen_commited said:
Every town could/should do this. Such an effective way of drawing people’s attention to the ongoing genocide.
@Hirubaig1 wrote:
Good people of Hastings, thank you!
And @zeenatroomanev said:
Thank you Hastings for showing the world that humanity is still alive. Your efforts won’t go unnoticed.
As the video continues to be shared and reposted, the number of views now totals over 3 million.
Raising awareness of Israel’s genocide
Israel’s 13-month assault on Gaza has so far resulted in over 44,000 Palestinian deaths including over 17,500 children.
I was brought up on images from WW2 and taught that such a genocide mustn’t happen again. But it is happening again, just as the International Court of Justice said was plausibly happening as far back as January, as did UN experts and genocide scholars.
Today, Gaza has been turned into a modern-day extermination camp, our government is actively involved and yet no one is sounding the alarm. Journalists that do speak out are now being harassed and arrested under draconian anti-Terrorism laws. It is shameful beyond belief. But we the people must not stay silent or, because it’s just too awful, pretend it is somehow not happening. We must stand up and speak out and demand action from our representatives. I’m so proud that in Hastings we are doing exactly that.
Supporters of Youth Demand have taken part in mass co-ordinated actions that saw disruption across the West End before a mass blockade of Piccadilly Circus by 200 people and eight groups total. They are demanding a two-way arms embargo on Israel, and for the UK government to halt all new oil and gas licences granted since 2021. The action came after the group’s week of swarming across the UK – which was also highlighting our government’s complicity in multiple crises.
Youth Demand: shutting down the heart of Black Friday capitalism
At 6pm on Friday 29 November, a group of 30 people blocked traffic on the junction of Oxford Street and Orchard Street, holding Palestine flags:
Simultaneously, allied supporters of the following groups were staging disruption at other locations – including the Disney Store and the Apple Store – in the West End: Palestine Pulse, XR for Palestine, Ealing Friends of Palestine, Prayers4Gaza, Thanet For Palestine, Prayers4Gaza, Seeds of Gaza, and Fight Racism Fight Imperialism:
Ella Taylor, a 20 year old student from London, was one of those who took action. She said:
A week ago the ICC issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu. The same court that has stated there is a ‘plausible’ case of genocide in Gaza. And yet our government continues to licence F-35 fighter jet parts to Israel. What more evidence do we need? What are we waiting for? Our country is arming a genocide, so we have a responsibility to disrupt the business-as-usual that facilitates this.
At 7:30pm, all of the groups joined together to blockade Piccadilly Circus, with hundreds of supporters blocking the roads and causing disruption to Central London. Red, green, black, and white flares were lit and supporters held placards and banners reading ‘YOUTH DEMAND’, ‘BOYCOTT ISRAEL’, and ‘NO MORE BUSINESS AS USUAL- NO MORE SHOPPING – A GENOCIDE IS HAPPENING – GAZA – SUDAN -CONGO – UHYGUR’:
One Youth Demand supporter was arrested.
Disney and Black Friday: fuelling genocide
A spokesperson from Palestine Pulse said:
While Disney donates to Israeli organisations, tens of thousands of innocent children have been massacred by the Zionist military gang. Disney has not uttered a word in support of Palestinian children whilst marketing its propaganda and products as child friendly with moral lessons. If Disney truly had morals it would choose the to condemn the mass slaughter of children at the hands of the Zionist state and would support relief for Gazan children. Please donate to the Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund
Youth Demand said that “Young people will not accept our politicians supporting the murder of innocent people. This week, young people are taking action in cities all around the country. Join us for our Winter Gathering and fundraiser event on 7 December in East London”.
You can find out more about Youth Demand, and support future actions, here.
Featured image and additional images via Youth Demand
