The British climate protest group best known for defacing priceless works of art with canned soup will be “hanging up the high vis” after three years of disruptive activism.
“So it is the end of soup on Van Goghs, cornstarch on Stonehenge and slow marching in the streets,” Just Stop Oil proclaimed in a Thursday press release.
The organization, which described itself as “one of the most successful civil resistance campaigns in recent history,” will cease its high-profile stunts after achieving its initial goal of stopping the government from issuing new oil and gas licenses, it claims. The group will continue to offer legal support to its members who are being prosecuted for their activism and “call out the UK’s oppressive anti-protest laws.”
The controversial group emerged on the activist scene in 2022 and made headlines after two protestors glued themselves to the frame of Vincent van Gogh’s “Peach Trees in Blossom.” The activists staged several other gluing demonstrations before upping the ante in October by pouring canned soup on Vincent van Gogh’s ‘Sunflowers’ painting at the National Gallery in London.
In addition to their guerrilla art attacks, the group has obstructed traffic, interrupted theater productions, and even disrupted the wedding ceremony of the erstwhile Chancellor, George Osborne. Earlier this month, Just Stop Oil poured orange liquid latex over a robot at a Tesla store in London to demand that the government “phase out fossil fuel burning by 2030.”
The group isn’t planning on putting down its sword entirely, however. “As corporations and billionaires corrupt political systems across the world,” the group writes, “We are creating a new strategy, to face this reality and to carry our responsibilities at this time. Nothing short of a revolution is going to protect us from the coming storms.” Just Stop Oil will organize a final hurrah in Parliament Square on April 26, inviting all who wish to partake in “building the new resistance.”
The group’s new approach comes as the United Kingdom and other European countries have implemented new legislation to crack down on disruptive protests. Seven Just Stop Oil members are currently serving prison sentences of up to four years, eight are on reprimand, and sixteen are awaiting sentencing. Over the course of its three year stint, Just Stop Oil claims that its supporters were arrested 3,300 times and imprisoned 180 times. Recently, one of its founding members, Roger Hallam, was sentenced for five years in jail.
“I’m sure … plenty of members of the public will be happy to hear that they may be causing less disruption in the future,” Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s office told the press on Thursday. Mr. Starmer’s office denied that any policies they had implemented equated to handing the organization a “win.”
The form of protest has sparked heated debate within the art world. Some have expressed approval of the movement’s provocative tactics. Others claim that the vandalism only alienates the public and is thus an ineffective means of inspiring change.
The controversial tactic has been taken up by other social justice movements, including anti-Israel activists. In October, a group of protestors targeted a 1901 painting by Picasso entitled “Motherhood” at London on Wednesday to call for an arms embargo on Israel. As the tactic has become more widespread, museums and galleries have been forced to take up additional security precautions to deter future attackers.