The eco-activists who turned Britain’s cultural and sporting calendar into a stage for climate theatre say they’re “hanging up the hi-vis” and ending their direct action protests. After three years, 3,300 arrests, 180 prison sentences, and numerous orange powder and soup stains, they claim victory. Their demand – no new oil and gas licences – has, in their words, become UK government policy.
Performance art protest
But this wasn’t just a protest. It was performance art. A meticulously orchestrated PR campaign executed with the ferocity of a punk gig. Snooker tables, national treasures, and traffic junctions became their billboards. Love them or loathe them, they made noise – because silence, in their eyes, was complicity.
The establishment, predictably, was rattled. Politicians frothed. Media scrambled. And the public, stuck in gridlock, often turned against them. But that was the point. Disruption was their currency. Headlines their capital.
Now, as they bow out of the limelight with one final Parliament Square swansong, the campaign’s legacy becomes less about the chaos and more about the craft.
JSO understood something most campaigners forget: visibility is the battleground. In an age of endless scroll, you need to shock, seduce, and sometimes irritate your way into relevance.
JSO will be back – in a different guise
Yet, even icons know when to leave the stage. With Labour’s current consultation process reflecting some of their demands, and media attention waning, JSO’s leaders are savvy enough to pivot. The show must go on, but maybe in a different form. “This is not the end of civil resistance,” they warn – just a costume change.
Their next act? Unknown. But rest assured, the brand is built. The martyrs are in prison. The images – Sunflowers, soup, and Stonehenge – are etched into the national memory.
The anger still burns
Today, on its website, JSO showed its ideological anger was undimmed after Prime Minister’s official spokesman said Britain would be using oil and gas “for decades to come.”
The group said: “Our politicians have no grasp of reality, of science and the consequences of their actions. Or if they do, they have decided to knowingly destroy society, the economy and to kill billions.”
Punchy stuff indeed. Watch this space.
