Extinction Rebellion activists ‘The Worley Three’ have been given 320 hours of community service today for causing £6,000 in “damages” for their peaceful protest at the offices of multinational corporation Worley – involved in the controversial, planet-wrecking EACOP project.
EACOP: not as bad as some fake oil and chalk spray – if you’re the judiciary
The action involved decorating Worley’s Brentford offices with washable fake oil and chalk spray to spotlight the petroengineering company’s key role in constructing the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP), a project widely condemned for its devastating environmental and social impacts, and to demand the company sever its ties to the pipeline.
The sentencing comes on the day that senior figures in the UN climate talks publish an open letter saying that the COP process is no longer fit for purpose and two days after 15 university students in Uganda were remanded to a maximum security prison for peacefully protesting the pipeline outside the Ugandan Parliament.
Some of them were forced to appear shirtless in front of the magistrate, having lost access to their belongings. Another 20 peaceful Ugandan Stop EACOP demonstrators had their trial adjourned this week to 26 November, in what Human Rights Watch reports is an ongoing crackdown against the project’s critics by the Ugandan government. Meanwhile the beleaguered project has run into fresh funding challenges.
Sarah Hart, Tom Maidment, and Danielle McHallam were found guilty on 3 October after a chaotic jury trial at Isleworth Crown Court which left the defendants with little opportunity to properly prepare a defence.
Not fit for purpose
On the second day of the trial, Judge Hannah Duncan ruled out all defences. The judge then allowed the defendants to speak for ten minutes each before she brought back in the defence of ‘belief in consent’ the following morning.
Even before any construction has taken place EACOP has been responsible for gross human rights abuses. If it was ever built and operational it would be complicit in locking in irreversible climate change.
Marijn van de Geer, former company director from West London, and a spokesperson for Extinction Rebellion said:
Our legal system is clearly not fit for purpose if it thinks washable paint is more damaging than the displacement of 100,000 people and locking-in irreversible climate change.
Defendant Sarah Hart, mother of two, aged 42 of Farnborough said:
We stand in solidarity with the students who have been unjustly imprisoned this week. We undertook this action in support of the affected communities of East Africa who have suffered intimidation, arrest and police brutality for standing up for their rights to land and clean water and a liveable climate. And also because the climate change it would cause threatens us all.
The temporary damage we caused stands as nothing in comparison to the widespread and irreparable harm this project has already caused to local communities. Worley is complicit in these crimes. Why are the directors and shareholders of Worley not in the dock?
EACOP: a disaster in the making
In 2023 Human Rights Watch reported that tens of thousands of people have already lost their lands and livelihoods in preparation for the project. If the pipeline is ever completed, that number will rise to over 100,000 people across East Africa.
The European Union voted in a special resolution that condemned EACOP for its human rights abuses in Uganda and Tanzania, abuses that included death threats, intimidation and wrongful imprisonment.
The East African Crude Oil Pipeline, if completed, would increase global CO2 emissions by 379 million tonnes CO2e over its lifetime [8], making our Paris Agreement targets unachievable and making it likely we will pass critical tipping points in the climate system. As UN General Secretary, António Guterres said in 2022 “Investing in new fossil fuel infrastructure is moral and economic madness”.
Extinction Rebellion will continue to push back
Former government lawyer Tim Crosland of Defend Our Juries said:
Finally today there’s high level recognition of what has been obvious for years – the intergovernmental COP process, the formal mechanism for preventing climate catastrophe is failing and unfit for purpose. In the meantime people are being criminalised and penalised simply for refusing to accept death and disaster for themselves and the people they love.
How do the responsible judges feel about the abuse of the legal system to protect those causing the destruction and to repress those who resist it? Sure, they are ‘just doing their jobs’ and ‘following orders’. But at some level they must know they embody what Hannah Arendt termed ‘the banality of evil.
Stop EACOP Coalition Campaign Coordinator, Zaki Mamdoo, said:
We salute and applaud all the brave defenders who continue to challenge those who are driving our collective destruction and the exploitation and displacement of our communities. The criminalisation of activists fighting for the rights and freedoms of oppressed people across the globe is testament to the fact that the political elite remains married to global capital and continues to serve its interests dutifully. We extend our undying solidarity to the brave StopEACOP activists unjustly sentenced today.
Widespread opposition to EACOP has caused repeated delays and investment uncertainties since the project was initially proposed in 2013. EACOP was designed to transport Uganda’s oil reserves through Tanzania for export to the world market but under pressure from campaigners, 27 commercial banks and 29 major insurance companies have ruled out involvement in the project. As of now no building work has taken place.
Earlier this month, Extinction Rebellion targeted EACOP insurers Marsh McLennan as part of its Insure Our Survival week of action.
Featured image via Extinction Rebellion
