Cameron Ford wants to work for a more effective climate protection policy – without ending up in prison. But that is exactly what climate activists are now threatening in Great Britain. Like others, the 32-year-old carpenter and his comrades-in-arms blocked main roads and highways last year and chained themselves to oil tankers. Others went much further, tunneling under major infrastructure projects, throwing soup at well-known works of art. The British government under Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has been wanting to crack down on climate protesters for a while.
Protest marches apparently go too far for the British government. That’s why she suggested banning slow walking to obstruct road traffic – and failed. The proposal was rejected in the House of Lords last year.
Now Britain’s Home Secretary Suella Braverman has brought another regulation through Parliament. The law has been in effect since April 28 and allows police officers to stop and search suspects. They are also allowed to exclude certain people from the climate protests. “Selfish protesters are disrupting the daily lives of people across the country and this needs to stop,” Braverman said in a statement. Activists who block important roads, airports or motorways can also face a prison sentence of up to almost a year. Chaining yourself is also a criminal offense punishable by a six-month prison sentence. Unlimited fines are also possible.
In the 2019 election program, with which the government received its mandate, there was nothing of all this. Civil rights activists warned months ago that the conservative government was leading the country towards authoritarianism. “It’s the kind of legislation you would expect in Russia, Iran, Egypt or China,” criticized journalist and environmentalist George Monbiot months before the law was approved in parliament.
It’s not the first time the government has cracked down on protests it deems disruptive. In 2022 the Police, Crime, Sentencing, and Courts Act (PCSC) was passed. Police officers can therefore set time and noise conditions for demonstrations, regardless of how many people take part.
When the proposals for the new law became public almost a year ago, Jodie Beck of the civil rights organization Liberty spoke of “extremely draconian measures”. The law has the potential to eliminate historic tactics used by the civilian resistance movement. “If we go against a certain tactic now, it will have a profound impact on our protests for the right as a whole, no matter what our cause is,” she told Time magazine.
Critical voices were also raised in Parliament. In a report, the Joint Committee on Human Rights in the British Parliament described the plans as “an unacceptable threat to the fundamental right to peaceful protest”. The British government could thus come into conflict with the European Convention on Human Rights.
The British Home Office reacted calmly. In a written response, a spokeswoman said the right to protest remains a “fundamental principle” of British democracy, but “the kind of activity we’ve seen lately is criminal activity and the selfish majority ours Preventing rescue services from their rescue duties and draining police resources must be appropriately punished.”
Scientists believe the new law is more likely to cause future protests to escalate. Stephen Reicher, a professor of social psychology at the University of St Andrews, studied the effects of different forms of policing when dealing with crowds back in the early 2000s.
“When the police prevent acts that everyone in the crowd sees as a fundamental right, they can unite even the most diverse and divided people against themselves,” the researcher writes in a guest article in the Guardian. The police could thus become a social enemy, and their mere presence could be enough “to arouse mistrust and resentment.” At the same time, Reicher fears that many people will be deterred from the protests if conflicts arise. Ultimately, only those “who feel comfortable in the fight” could take part in the actions. This would not only contradict the requirement that all members of a society should be able to take part in protests. Conflicts and arguments would be more likely.
Activist Cameron Ford thinks the new law is excessive. “The police have the authority to remove us from the streets and they did.” Ford has already been arrested six times for obstructing road traffic during demonstrations and thereby angering the public. He believes the government is less concerned with giving the police new powers than with making protesters “criminals in the eyes of the public.”
The plan could work. In a survey by the polling institute YouGov in November 2022, 62 percent of Britons rejected the methods of the Just Stop Oil movement. Most Britons would support the concerns of the activists. However, they do not agree with the actions.
Great Britain’s Premier Rishi Sunak apparently sees this as confirmed when he ranted against the climate activists in an interview with the “Sun on Sunday”: “The public wants us to put a stop to selfish saboteurs who are disrupting their lives – and I want that too .” The people of the country deserve “law-abiding citizens to be protected from a minority who want to ruin their lives.”
However, the government could also have been concerned with a royal event that should under no circumstances be overshadowed by protest actions. “The people of Britain have a glorious summer of celebration ahead of them,” Sunak said of the coronation of King Charles III. “With our new laws, we will take action in favor of the majority against the minority,” he announced.
However, this should not stop climate activists like Ford. “If [climate collapse] is what we face, I believe the only thing that would limit us is the death penalty, because the alternative to not standing up is death.”
Sources: British Parliament Report, House of Commons House of Lords Report, Time, The Guradian, The Sun on Sunday, British Government, Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, YouGov, Public Order Policing Study , with material from DPA
