I wish when people are angry at us, they could think. What do you think drives a 21-year-old to go: 'The most productive place I could be right now is prison’?
On Friday 14 October 2022, two activists from Just Stop Oil threw a can of soup over Vincent van Gogh’s 1888 painting Sunflowers at London’s National Gallery, causing an instant outcry and catapulting the group and its demands into the national headlines, where they have largely remained since. (The painting itself was protected behind glass.) Since then, Just Stop Oil have continued to disrupt sporting events, block roads with slow marches, shut down oil terminals, smash up petrol pumps, redecorate a variety of corporate headquarters in a fetching shade of orange, and been decried by political leaders, commentators, and the sort of people who get very angry when they call in to TV and radio shows. All the while, global temperature records shatter, extreme weather events including wildfires and flooding become alarmingly common, and public opinion inexorably swings in favour of Just Stop Oil’s demands.
More Or Less spoke with Phoebe Plummer, now 22 (who uses they/them pronouns), and Anna Holland, 21, about their experiences one year on from the Great Souping – their new lives as two of the most notorious activists in Britain, the highs (disrupting London’s Pride parade to highlight its reliance on money from “high-polluting industries”), the lows (a month in prison), the successes, the challenges, and how they plan to get what they want, one way or another – securing a future liveable planet for all of us. As Van Gogh himself once wrote, “What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?”
What were the reactions when the idea for the soup action was first proposed?
Anna Holland: This action had actually been brought to me by someone else who wanted to see it happen, but didn’t want to do it themselves. Then I told Phoebe, maybe two days before we did it. It all happened very quickly. I’d been in London for two weeks, we’d been blocking roads. I remember just thinking, “This can’t be how it’s done, this can’t be how this fight is won.” We were getting maybe five lines of attention in newspapers… I was desperate to do something big and outrageous that would really make people stop and pay attention. So, when the idea of throwing soup at Sunflowers was presented to me, I just knew it was perfect. I was so excited, and so honoured that I was going to be one of the people who got to do this action. Then they asked me if there was anyone else I knew who was a little bit crazy and willing to do this… I’d met Phoebe on a roadblock about a week before, and they had showed up covered in glitter, with their bright pink hair, and just covered in an obscene amount of joy. I was like, “Yeah, I know who it has to be.”
Phoebe Plummer: The roadblocks were great, and that one we did together was amazing because it was a fully queer roadblock, but it wasn’t enough. The first week I started taking action with Just Stop Oil, I got arrested three times in one week… so, I was ready to go in all guns blazing.
In the year following the soup action, which other actions have you been involved in that continued with the same spirit?
Anna Holland: I helped with a lot of the behind-the-scenes for the block we did at the London Pride parade. That has been my absolute favourite action since the soup action that I’ve been involved with. It continued that outrageousness of the soup action in such a beautiful way. It felt so creative and so different. Everyone involved was dressed up… They were walking rainbows, essentially. I had the absolute honour of writing the manifesto that we sent out for it. I was so emotional when writing, thinking the intersection between queer action and climate-related action is long overdue. I think our Pride parade block was the first step towards that intersection being built. I see a bright future of queer civil resistance as a result of that action.
Why do you think Pride lost its historical connection to civil resistance, and why do you want to try and relight that fire?
Anna Holland: I identify as queer, I’m non-binary and bisexual. I attended my first ever Pride parade last summer. I went down to London for it, and I’d read the books, watched the movies, and I was expecting this beautiful march where everyone was involved, loud and proud, unapologetically themselves. Sticking our middle fingers up to the establishment together.
Disappointing is not even a word that begins to cover what I felt. All there was was queer people standing on pavements and watching destructive companies and policing companies advertise, thinking if they put a rainbow over their logo that we’re going to forget that they sell weapons to countries that behead queer people. After that, I just thought, I never want to go to a Pride again.
I think queer people have such a strong history of civil resistance. We wouldn’t be able to exist today as queer people without the civil resistance of others… So, I think that’s why I was so excited about this action, because it started to remind the people in our community that there is more to us than just a rainbow flag.
Phoebe, is there another moment in the last year that has been particularly memorable or meaningful for you?
Phoebe Plummer: Last year, I spent a month in prison following the M25 gantry actions, and that was definitely a big personal moment – making the decision that I was willing to go to prison, mentally preparing for that and coming to terms with that. I guess I’m coming to terms with it again. I’ve got four crown court cases against me, so I expect that I will end up in prison again at some point.
What was your experience of a month in prison? Are you prepared to do that again?
Phoebe Plummer: I’m heartbroken that, aged 21, I felt like prison was where I had to be. I’ve left uni now, but I was at the point of saying “I’m supposed to be in a university lecture, but I feel like I am securing myself a better future by being in prison.” That’s insane. I’m not the only young person that feels like that. I wish when people are angry at us, they could think. What do you think drives a 21-year-old to go: “The most productive place I could be right now is prison”?
But in the grand scheme of things, prison was OK. I had shelter and meals three times a day. And clean clothes and blankets, and I had a book to read and a TV in my cell, and I shared a cell with somebody else from Just Stop Oil. So, even on the darkest days, I woke up and got to have shitty prison coffee with one of my best friends. We have the luxury in this country of pretending that the climate crisis isn’t happening yet, when around the world, people are living on the frontline of climate collapse. Every day, they have a struggle finding food and drinking water. They don’t have shelter. They are worrying about how to keep their kids safe and provide for their children. Being in prison, however unpleasant and occasionally scary, feels like quite a small sacrifice.
Just Stop Oil were on the front page of a tabloid last weekend… How has media coverage changed over this last year?
Anna Holland: I think the way the media perceives us can definitely be divided into “before the soup action” and “after the soup action”. Before the soup action, in April, we had actually stopped oil! We went to oil terminals and we stopped what I think was just over half of all oil in the southeast of England. It was incredible. But no one reported on it. Now, after the soup action, all we have to do is walk slowly down a road and everyone’s talking about us, and every single time they mention us in the news, they’re putting our demand into public consciousness.
How have these regular slow marches developed, and what strategic function do they play in the broader movement?
Phoebe Plummer: I think it’s a brilliant strategy for loads of reasons. It’s not just us that think that – [LBC presenter] James O’Brien said that we found the perfect way to protest, because we put the government in this real moral dilemma. By going out and coming back day after day, we force them into a position where they either need to engage with our demands, engage in discussion, or repress us. Now, we are seeing that they are veering towards the repression side of things, but we are in a win-win situation, because if you look at social science in the past, the more they repress us, the more it creates a backlash effect.
The Freedom Riders [1960s US civil rights activists] saw that when, at the height of their campaign, there were over 400 of them in some of the worst jails in the US, facing extreme physical abuse, that revealed their vulnerability and their humanity, and made people able to empathise with them.
I also work in the mobilising side of things and [marching] is a much more accessible way for people to get involved, because we have to recognise that we have a criminally unjust justice system. It is not possible or safe for everybody to put themselves in that position of potential arrest.
Politicians and commentators often say that there’s a risk of turning off the wider public with the disruptive actions Just Stop Oil takes.
Anna Holland: To them I just say, open a history book. Every single example of civil resistance in history has been unpopular. Martin Luther King was the most hated man in America while he was alive. People look back at them as heroes, and forget that in the day, those people who were just existing and living in resistance, they were hated for it. So, I never take it personally when people claim that Just Stop Oil turn people off of the movements, and such. Because our numbers are still growing.
The summer of 2023 was the hottest on record, according to scientists. There have been catastrophic floods, heatwaves all over the world. Government action remains lacking. How do you assess the impact that Just Stop Oil is having?
Phoebe Plummer: We’re seeing within the public much more support for our demands. We don’t expect everybody to suddenly start throwing soup but… After three weeks of our campaign last April, there were YouGov surveys done, which found an increase of 1.7 million people now more likely to speak to their family or friends about the climate crisis. The climate crisis is now the third biggest issue in public consciousness. It’s working, people are becoming aware, and there is increased public support for our demands. Even 66 percent of people are in favour of nonviolent direct action for the climate crisis.
Is it an under-discussed aspect that this is really a global movement, going by different names in different countries?
Anna Holland: Just Stop Oil is a part of the A22 network, which is an international network of climate movements. I think we have around 13 different movements around the world. There are departments, emergency funds, and it’s a very collaborative network. We have meet-ups where representatives from each movement will gather in a certain country, share their tactics, what works for them, and what successes they’ve had. We’ve already seen part of this A22 network, Last Generation Germany, have some massive successes, and in certain cities they’ve even stopped because they’ve met their demands in their city. Even though Just Stop Oil is making a lot of progress in regards to public support, our government is still nowhere near meeting our demands.
What would you say to people reading this, who might be supportive of the aims of Just Stop Oil, but don’t know where to start?
Anna Holland: Almost two-thirds of young people suffer from eco-anxiety now. To those people, I would say the best thing you can do for your mental health is take action. That doesn’t have to be action in the form of something as drastic as what Phoebe and I did, or serving prison time. But even going to a Just Stop Oil welcome talk, or joining in a slow march in London, or doing something to start a climate movement within your own community… That is taking action. The moment you take that step into the climate movement, it will turn your eco-anxiety around. I can say that happened with me the moment I joined Just Stop Oil.
The climate movement is one of the most beautiful and loving communities I’ve ever been
part of. I could travel anywhere in the country, and I know I’ve got a friend in a city or town or village. I know I’ve got somebody who’s willing to house me for a night, even if they’ve never met me before. I know that someone is willing to listen to me, and talk to me, and just be a friend if I need one. I joined JSO over a year ago, and this has been the best year of my life. So, if you are nervous about taking that step into action, or into the climate movement, just know you have one of the most beautiful communities waiting for you. You will find hope in action, whatever that action looks like for you.
Phoebe Plummer: We’re at a really unique moment in history. We’re at this critical point where we’re staring at the real possibility of climate and social collapse. We have, [in the words of the UN’s landmark 2022 climate report], “a brief but rapidly closing window to secure a liveable future”. We know some degree of climate breakdown is locked in. We’re locked in for 1.5º, and there’s a good chance that if we don’t make changes very soon, we’ll be locked in for 2º of warming.
As young people, that means we are set to possibly see things get really bad, and live through this. It may not be now, for us living in the UK, where we’re economically developed, and we can pretend that the climate crisis isn’t happening now. But at some point in 10 years’ time, 20 years’ time, 30 years’ time… there will come a point where somebody you love, somebody younger than you, will ask you what you did when it counted, when we actually could still make a change.
The fee for this article was donated to Just Stop Oil.
juststopoil.org
We went to oil terminals and we stopped what I think was just over half of all oil in the southeast of England. It was incredible. But no one reported on it. Now, after the soup action, all we have to do is walk slowly down a road and everyone is talking about us.
Just Stop Oil: Anna Holland, Phoebe Plummer, Alex De Koning, Chinyere, Lora Johnson, Ed Dickinson, Stephanie Golder, Ruth Kettle-Frisby + her 4 year-old, Janine Eagling, Zosia Lewis, Katharine Gibson, Grahame Buss, Ramon Salgado-Touzon, Chrissy Kelly. Makeup: Athena Paginton. Hair: Sophie Jane Anderson. Set design: Rachel Thomas. Photography Assistants: James Hobson, Emanuel Robert & Chloe Burgess. Makeup Assistant: Rachael Thomas. Set Assistants: Alice Rigby, Leanne Worsley. Production: Dominika Dekiert and Luciana Samaniego @ Mini Title. Photographed at Alva Studios