WHILE British prisons are now so full that offenders are being released early, non-violent environmental protesters are increasingly being given multi-year custodial sentences, criticised as “draconian” by Amnesty International UK.
On 11 July, five Just Stop Oil activists were convicted at Southwark Crown Court of conspiracy to cause a public nuisance — a crime that carries a maximum term of ten years — when they disrupted the M25 by climbing motorway gantries, in a protest calling for an end to new oil and gas licensing.
The court heard that the action resulted in chaos on the M25 over a four-day period, causing nearly 51,000 hours of driver delays. Parts of the motorway were closed in four counties. People missed flights, medical appointments, and exams. Two lorries collided, and a police motorcyclist came off his bike during one of the protests on 9 November 2022 while trying to bring traffic to a halt in a “rolling road block”.
Prosecutors alleged that the protests cost the economy at least £765,000, and the Metropolitan Police more than £1.1 million
The sentences are believed to be the longest ever given for peaceful protest: five years for the group’s founder, Roger Hallam, and four years for the others. Judge Hehir, sentencing, told the protesters that they were fanatics who had “appointed yourselves as the sole arbiters of what should be done about climate change, bound by neither the principles of democracy or the rule of law”.
FOR a number of Christian climate-change campaigners, including Church of England clerics, these sentences mark a significant development. The Revd Sue Parfitt, 82, one of the first women to be ordained priest in the Church of England in 1994, has been arrested nearly 30 times (News, 20 September). She says that the recent prison sentences won’t put her off direct activism.
“I am shocked by the draconian sentences given to peaceful, committed, loving people who are only trying to enable life on earth to continue, especially as they contrast so starkly with those much lesser sentences being delivered to people who rioted so violently [recently], with only hatred and the desire to harm others in their hearts,” Ms Parfitt says.
“Though I have not personally been imprisoned yet, I look forward to that as a new adventure in faith and love, for which I am certain I shall be given the strength to endure by God’s loving presence with me.”
She says that, being 82, and with no dependants, she has the freedom to take part in protests that she feels called to. “It is an honour to still have a meaningful role to fulfil, and a part to play in showing love in action towards my fellow human beings.”
For Ms Parfitt, environmental activism “enables me to tread the way of the cross more directly and more literally than any other activity I can think of”. And, she says, by participating in non-violent civil disobedience, she learns and grows spiritually through working with others committed to the same endeavour. “So, I am enriched and helped in the practice of my faith by the faith of others and by their insights, solidarity, and mutual care.”
THIS concept is the basis of the group Third Act, set up by the Methodist environmental campaigner Bill McKibben, and made up of over-60s using their experience and freedom to take action on climate change.
The Revd Bill White, a retired priest in Macclesfield, became involved in environmental activism about three years ago, after attending a talk about the climate crisis. Since then, he been imprisoned for a week, on two separate occasions, for protesting outside an oil depot.
Just Stop Oil(Left to right) the Revd Bill White, the Revd Mark Coleman, and the Revd Tim Hewes, from Oxfordshire, being released from HM Prison Birmingham in September 2022. They had broken the injunction forbidding protest outside the Kingsbury Oil terminal
“Not since being a teenager has a police officer even had reason to notice me, except for when our church hosted the Chief Constable’s carol service. I’d never even had a parking ticket. However, the science seemed to make sense; I had to do something. I made two resolutions. The first involved enrolling on a part-time Environmental Studies degree with Open University. The second was to join Christian Climate Action, so as to hear how other Christians responded to the crisis.”
Mr White is motivated, he says, by what kind of future his four grandchildren will inherit, and the injustice of the world’s most vulnerable people suffering the most from an environmental crisis that they did not cause. He says that his fear for both now outweighs any fear of what might happen to him.
“It was fear that held me back: an imaginary line in the sand I could not cross. The first experience of arrest was liberating, the slam of the cell door a confirmation of a calling. Jesus was an activist, and went far further than, I imagine, I will be called,” he says.
In response to the recent sentences, he says: “I’d love to say it’ll make no difference. The reality is more complex. I coped fine with my two one-week incarcerations; I struggle to imagine what five years would be like. I fear at my age and health, and my knowledge of the inhumanity of our prison system, a five-year stretch would be a life sentence. However, given the right protest, I hope I’d step up.”
THE Revd Mark Coleman, who is 65, can tally 18 arrests calling for action on climate change, including a five-week sentence in HM Prison Thameside, and a week on remand at HM Prison Birmingham.
He says: “You don’t need to be ‘an activist’. Nor do you need to be a climate scientist, or an expert, or especially brave. I’m not brave. I’ve had my wobbles. But together, in community, we can resist those forces that destroy, with non-violent love. We can all come together, shocked and angry at the terrible situation. Christians know that we are made in God’s image, and that all life is precious. It is a joy to stand up and be counted.”
He is appalled at the increasingly hard stance being taken towards environmental protesters. “It breaks my heart. Recently, I attended a bail hearing in Manchester, and a plea hearing, and each time there was a video link to young people in prison. There’s a young man, aptly called Noah, who’s 19 years old, who will spend six months in prison on remand before a trial. I met this young man’s dad. He had travelled all the way up from Norfolk in the hope that his son would be released on bail and he could take him home.”
Mr Coleman says that he was recently preaching on the Epistle of St James (1.22), which exhorts its readers to be doers of the word: “If we are to be [the] first fruits of God’s new creation, then we are called to get real about [the] science; resist the destruction of our common home by joining with others in civil resistance. Like the Suffragettes, let our motto be ‘Deeds not words’.” The new sentences, he says, will not deter him, and he is prepared to go to prison again.
THE Revd Hilary Bond, a mother-of-two pioneer priest who describes herself as “a quiet, peace-loving person who loves walks, crocheting, and tending her vegetable garden”, is another clergy campaigner who would normally be an unlikely candidate for prison.
She became involved with Christian Climate Action during the Extinction Rebellion protests in 2019, and has been arrested half a dozen times for “peacefully and prayerfully blocking roads, occupying buildings — including church buildings — and obstructing oil infrastructure”, she says.
Christian Climate Action Hilary Bond takes part in a protest outside the arms manufacturer BAE Systems, highlighting the company’s emissions, in November 2022.
Ms Bond takes inspiration from figures in the Bible who took part in civil disobedience to do what was right in the eyes of God. She refers to the Hebrew midwives in Exodus 1; Mordecai in Esther 3; and the apostles in Acts, as well Jesus himself, “who spoke truth to power and was executed because of it”, she says.
“I have been in police cells totally at peace, and experiencing a surprising level of freedom, because I knew that I was exactly where God wanted me to be.
“I have, on several occasions, been criticised because, as a Christian, what I should be doing is sharing Jesus with people who don’t know him. But I have had really deep conversations about Jesus and the Christian faith with people at protests who I have never met before, because they have been surprised to see someone there with a clergy collar. I don’t know if any of those people have come to faith, but certainly seeds have been planted on the streets.”
THE Revd Jonathan Herbert has been arrested several times campaigning with Christian Climate Action, Insulate Britain, and Just Stop Oil.
A grandfather of three, he lives in community at Hilfield Franciscan Friary, and works for the diocese of Salisbury as chaplain to Gypsies and Travellers.
“Being arrested, stripped of possessions, and locked in a cell I see as similar to the letting go and abandonment I try to practise as I enter the chapel early each morning at Hilfield, for our community silent meditation. I always find a police cell a good place to pray, as it’s free of distraction.”
At Hilfield, he helped to install some significant insulation projects, as well as a biomass system, sourcing timber from locally managed woodland. But, after prayer and reflection, he came to the conclusion that, for the rapid change needed, only decisive and urgent government action would work.
“Historically, non-violent direct action has led to change,” he said. “I would encourage people who feel resilient and well supported to prayerfully consider taking part in well planned, non-violent direct action.
“People who take action feel less paralysed and fearful about facing such an uncertain future. You’ll also meet some remarkable people, both Christian and of all faiths and none, and it’ll deepen your own sense of dependence on God.”
Faced with the prospect of a long prison term, he says: “We cannot give in to fear. I think harsh sentences may discourage people from acting, but more so the threat of injunctions and their hefty fines and the recovery of costs for wealthy corporate lawyers. But, as Christians, I think it’s important we find ways to resist in spite of threats.”
AMONG those who have criticised the sentencing of the Just Stop Oil protesters was the UN special rapporteur for environmental defenders, Michel Forst, who attended part of the trial and issued a statement afterwards.
Mr Forst told The Guardian that he was appalled by the sentencing of the Just Stop Oil protesters. He said: “We are really shocked by what’s happening in the UK. Even if we are talking about a disruptive form of protest, and there is no denying that, it is still entirely non-violent, and it should have been treated as such. For me, for my team, it’s not acceptable in a democracy like the UK.”
He warned that it was a dangerous ruling, because it would undermine the right to protest. He said: “We understand now that those who would like to go to the street to demonstrate, to organise a rally, they would consider twice before going out. That’s a deterrent for the right to protest in the UK.”
He has also criticised the bail conditions imposed on climate protesters, and the use of civil injunctions to ban protest in certain public areas, and has condemned the actions of judges who have forbidden defendants to explain to the jury their motivation for protesting, or to mention climate change at all.
Christian Climate ActionThe Revd Sue Parfitt is led away by police at the Extinction Rebellion protests in London in 2019
In a previous statement, he said: “It is very difficult to understand what could justify denying the jury the opportunity to hear the reason for the defendant’s action, and how a jury could reach a properly informed decision without hearing it, in particular at the time of environmental defenders’ peaceful but ever more urgent calls for the Government to take pressing action for the climate.”
In March, three judges of the Court of Appeal ruled out the so-called “consent” defence under the Criminal Damage Act 1971: that the defendant honestly believed that the owner of the property damaged would have consented if they had known the reasons for the action.
Lady Chief Justice Carr said that the court had to consider whether the circumstances of the damage included the merits, urgency, or importance of any matter about which a defendant was protesting. “The court holds that the circumstances of the damage have to be linked directly to the damage. They might include, for example, the time, place, and extent of the damage. In a protest case, they would include the fact that the damage was caused as part of a protest.
“But the circumstances would not include the political or philosophical beliefs of the person causing the damage. They would not include the reasoning or wider motivation of the defendant. Those matters are too remote from the damage. Evidence from the defendant about the facts or effects of climate change would be inadmissible.”
Despite the Prime Minister’s saying that he will not intervene to reduce the sentences, Ms Parfitt and others who share her concern for the state of the planet will not be deterred.
“What does it matter what happens to me, if just a fraction of a degree of global warming can be prevented by my action? Since climate scientists tell me that even a fraction of a degree can make a difference in reducing the rise in global temperatures, and therefore in sea-level rises, wildfires, and death by heat-stroke and drought. I do what I do, because it is the right thing to do in the horrific circumstances in which we live, at this critical time in our history.”
Joe Ware is Senior Climate Journalist at Christian Aid.
Just Stop Oil is hosting a petition calling for an end to the imprisonment of peaceful protesters: actionnetwork.org/petitions/no-prison-for-protest