On Monday 31 October, London police arrested eight people. This was in response to environmental campaigners dousing four landmark buildings with orange paint in a Halloween protest.
Six were held after paint was sprayed on the interior ministry, the headquarters of MI5, and a subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch’s US media conglomerate News Corp, the Metropolitan Police said.
Officers from the City of London force arrested two others following a similar protest at the Bank of England in the capital’s financial district.
News Corp targeted
The Just Stop Oil group, which wants an end to new North Sea oil and gas exploration, said it was responsible. They also posted videos of the actions on social media:
🧯 Tez Burns, a 34-year-old bicycle mechanic from Swansea, on why they spray painted Thames House, home of MI5, orange this morning.
🛢 The United Nations and the International Energy Agency are clear — there can be no new oil and gas if we are to avert climate catastrophe. pic.twitter.com/asxhe4xjNm
— Just Stop Oil (@JustStop_Oil) October 31, 2022
👴🏻 Austen Espeut: “I don’t want to be doing this, I’d rather be on my allotment.”
🧯 Decades of marching, signing petitions & sending letters to MPs haven’t worked—Civil Resistance is the only option we have left to bring about the urgent change we need to survive
🎥 @cameraZoe pic.twitter.com/XDVLY7Q7B6
— Just Stop Oil (@JustStop_Oil) October 31, 2022
The activists said the buildings were chosen:
to represent the pillars that support and maintain the power of the fossil fuel economy — government, security, finance and media.
News Corp UK and Ireland Limited, the subsidiary of News Corp that was targeted, publishes titles that include the Times, the Sunday Times, and the Sun.
Its London headquarters, opposite The Shard tower, was targeted by Extinction Rebellion climate change protesters in July.
Urgent protests
At the weekend, protesters again blocked roads in the capital, provoking the wrath of drivers and pedestrians, some of whom were seen remonstrating with them and even trying to pull them away.
Just Stop Oil has, over the last month, mounted almost daily protests in opposition to the government’s plans to license more than 100 new oil and gas projects by 2025.
Action has included smearing chocolate cake on a waxwork figure of King Charles III at the Madame Tussauds museum and throwing tomato soup at Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers at the National Gallery.
The group said 637 protesters had been arrested over the last four weeks. They join more than 1,900 arrested since April.
