Just Stop Oil zealots’ plot for ‘glorious revolution’ to bring down capitalism
ECO-ZEALOTS from Just Stop Oil say they are plotting a ‘political revolution’ to target the super rich and bring down capitalism – rather than tackling climate issues.
An undercover Mail on Sunday reporter attended a meeting last week in which the group revealed new plans to join forces with ultra-Left groups and pro-Palestinian protests against the war in Gaza.
Fired-up activists cited Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin as they pledged to break out of the ‘climate movement bubble’ and unite with other campaigners to fight the ‘ruling class’.
They announced plans to target the super rich, occupy banks and orchestrate huge rent-strikes where tenants refuse to pay landlords. They will also back candidates at the next general election and plan to start a new system of government to take over when the current one ‘fails’.
Last night, JSO critics said the group’s mask had slipped, and that it has been interested all along in rabble-rousing far-Left politics rather than tackling climate change. JSO’s attack on wealth comes despite most of their funding coming from Californian multi-millionaires.
The new plot – which they call ‘a glorious revolution’ – builds on plans exposed in recent weeks by The Mail on Sunday to ‘occupy’ the homes of MPs and target airports this summer to ruin holidays.
JSO senior member Mel Carrington told around 130 activists during a call this week: ‘What we’re really looking to do is expose the failings of neoliberal capitalism and start a conversation about a better way of organising it and the allocation of economic resources.’
She added: ‘In 2024, we will deepen our commitment to civil resistance, with coordinated radical actions that reach out and mobilise new people and capture the attention of the media across the world. And alongside civil resistance, we’re beginning a new project to build a national mass movement for political change.’
Plans include mass actions at key financial institutions, marching and road-blocking, rent strikes and occupations, mass non-payment of bills, as well as striking at the ‘billion-dollar owned Press’, she said.
‘The idea really is to reach out to new communities, to build proper coalitions and to extend our reach beyond the tiny bubble of the climate movement to ordinary people, so that we can all come together in this glorious revolution and replace the current system.’
Sarah Lunnon, co-founder of JSO, told the meeting: ‘It will be incredibly hard to dismantle the fossil fuel industry, end consumerism, eradicate billionaires, overhaul agriculture and strengthen our communities.
‘But if we don’t do these things we will die, in fact, we will be killed.’ JSO co-founder Indigo Rumbelow added: ‘We are going to be hitting the super-rich.
‘We all know it’s the super-rich who need to pay to sort this out.’
A series of slides displayed during the call highlighted this summer’s planned ‘cultural actions focused on the super-rich’.
One showed a luxury yacht with the caption: ‘Needs a paint job...?’
Veteran activist Roger Hallam outlined how JSO was expanding into a new organisation called Umbrella. This will also include a wing called Youth Demand, a political branch – Assemble – and a division for socio-economic issues called Robin Hood.
Assemble will set up a ‘People’s House’ – which the group promises will be an alternative to the
House of Commons. The activists have made clear they hope for a Labour victory in the general election – but also stressed that a Starmer government would be hit by a ‘big series of demonstrations and civil resistance’ that could last for five years.
Former English tutor and JSO activist Harley Brewer also promised ‘very, very exciting’ joint action between the JSO youth wing and pro-Palestinian groups, arguing the different causes were ‘two sides of the same coin.’
He compared their activism to that of Indian activist Mahatma Gandhi and quoted former Soviet Union leader Lenin.
JSO’s fight against capitalism comes despite the Mail revealing last year how a large part of their funding comes from the Climate Emergency Fund which is run by US multi-millionaires.
The Beverly Hills-based fund raises cash from its rich supporters and distributes it to ‘disruptive’ activists, including handing almost £1million to help JSO cause havoc in the UK.
Tory MP Nigel Mills said: ‘The mask has well and truly slipped. Just Stop Oil have proved to be a bunch of trouble-causers. They don’t care about the environmental cause. They want to disrupt people as much as possible. It’s Marxism. It’s an anti-capitalist agenda rather than protecting the planet.’
A Just Stop Oil spokesman said: ‘Most ordinary people can tell politics is failing us... All of us need to come together to decide what we are going to do about the multiple crises we face and begin to act like it’s the emergency it is.’
‘They’ve proved to be a bunch of trouble causers’