Report of Public Meeting 16 July - Entering into civil resistance and the consequences of taking on the British state

Our guest speaker for July was Daniel Shaw, who was imprisoned for his part in a Zoom call organising a Just Stop Oil protest. This meeting was recorded and is on our YouTube channel, Dan's presentation is available here.
He started his presentation by remembering the thousands of people who have died because of the June 2026 heatwaves.

Apologies: Alexina Cassidy, Roy Hawkesford
Present: Clare Slater, David Garlick, Emma Kendall, Harry Mellor, Ian Bates, James Hadfield, Jane Wood, John Hunt, Karen, Maria Lee, Martin Coombs, Michael Leggett, Mick Lorkins, Mike Longman, Rachel Tighe, Rupert Knowles, Susan Ball, Victoria Lynch-Staunton

Background and Awakening

Dan’s career was as a caseworker in Adult Social Services. He was involved in some environmental campaigning, had a deep attachment to nature and had visited the Amazon.
In February 2019 he saw people sunbathing in Abington Park and knew it was wrong. In April 2019 there was a protest to force the government to declare climate emergency, and the BBC screened a David Attenborough documentary, Climate Change of Facts. Attenborough stated that 3°C of warming above pre-industrial levels will cause the Amazon to collapse into grassland. Dan decided he had to do more, got involved with the local Green Party and joined Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth. Then he went to a local Extinction Rebellion (XR) group.

Becoming more active

Dan learned more about the humanitarian consequences of climate change and started studying the history of non-violent protest campaigns and direct action. Disruptive tactics, though unpopular, can be very effective at shifting the dial on public opinion. And where public opinion goes, politicians often follow.
This was when he moved away from traditional protest methods to a more radical approach, getting arrested for the first time at XR's October Rebellion in 2019, blocking roads around the Houses of Parliament. Police told them they would be arrested if they entered the road. In fact the police melted away; they didn't have enough manpower to arrest everyone. Institutions that seem powerful can become weak quickly if challenged in the right way.
His second arrest was at Barclaycard in Northampton. Barclays are a major investor in fossil fuels. Prior to this XR Northampton were largely ignored by the local media; afterwards they were more widely reported, and any climate-related story required a comment from XR’s Northampton spokesperson.
After this Dan was subject to an HR investigation at work. No action was taken, but he decided to stick to actions outside Northampton.

Disillusion with XR and joining Insulate Britain

Then the COVID-19 pandemic made organising large-scale protests very difficult. It also gave Dan time to reflect; he had become disillusioned with XR; he felt there was too much autonomy and not enough strategic focus, the flat hierarchy caused issues with decision making, and rapid expansion led to deradicalisation. He eventually joined Insulate Britain (IB). IB’s aim was for the government to insulate and retrofit all housing in the UK. They planned to block the M25 in the run-up to COP26 in Glasgow.
Dan started to prepare for going to prison. He was arrested six times during the COP26 campaign but it became clear the government weren't going to imprison anyone during COP so the campaign ended. It was very effective at generating headlines and creating publicity.
After that, Insulate Britain rebranded as Just Stop Oil (JSO), which wanted the government to stop issuing new consents for oil and gas licenses in the UK. Initially JSO targeted fossil fuel infrastructure, blockading oil depots to cause fuel shortages and create pressure on the government to take action on climate.
This protest was effective; at one point, most of the petrol pumps in southeast England ran dry. But the national press didn’t cover it – why is not clear, perhaps due to government interference and fear of panic buying. Eventually JSO lacked the numbers to keep the protest going.  
They then reverted to public disruption and sporting and cultural actions such as throwing soup at the Sunflowers painting.
Then a headline in the Chronicle & Echo named Dan among Insulate Britain protesters arrested, which resulted in him being suspended from work on full pay in May 2022. He had worked for the council for almost 10 years and was well thought of but became a pariah in a matter of moments. He resigned in September 2022. During this period Dan became a full-time activist involved in the organisation of local meetings and training.

M25 protests, arrest and imprisonment

Later in 2022, Dan helped organise a protest climbing gantries above the M25. As part of this, he facilitated a Zoom recruitment call which was infiltrated by a Sun journalist, who passed a recording of the call to the police. Dan was arrested in November 2022.
So many journalists were attempting to infiltrate groups like JSO that the police didn't have to use undercover officers to do it; an example of different areas of the establishment coordinating to target activists.
Note, the Sun is owned by Rupert Murdoch who has been on the board of an oil and gas company and is a known climate change denier.
The protest went ahead and 40+ people climbed gantries over the M25. During the protest Dan was in a police cell and then remanded to custody.
Dan spent almost 4 months on remand, moving around different prisons as he had several ongoing court cases. His experience confirmed that most prisons are dilapidated and short on money. Remand prisoners are locked away for about 23 hours per day. The main challenge is dealing with a severely underfunded prison system. Like a lot of British infrastructure prisons weren’t built with climate change in  mind, and unventilated cells can get very hot in the summer.
After 4 months, Dan was released with an ankle tag, a curfew, and various bail conditions.

Ramping up of state oppression

New legislation, the Police Crime Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 and the Public Order Act 2023, made JSO’s protest tactics illegal and ramped up sentences. There were limitations placed on what people could say in court, with defences previously open to activists removed. Defendants were no longer allowed to talk about their motives or use a defence that they were acting out of necessity to save human life, arguments which made it more likely a jury would return a not guilty verdict.
Policy Exchange, a think tank that has taken money from the fossil fuel industry, was involved in drafting the Police Crime Sentencing and Courts bill. Rishi Sunak went to a garden party hosted by Policy Exchange and thanked them for their work. Again, coordination of elements of the establishment to target protesters and suppress opposition to a government enabling mass death through issuing new oil licenses.

Trial and imprisonment

Dan and his four fellow defendants knew a guilty verdict was virtually guaranteed, so they used their trial to highlight the absurdity and injustice of the court system. The judge ruled out their defences, didn't allow them to use scientific reports as part of their defence and placed strict limits on what they could say about their motivation, on the basis that it was irrelevant to the case.
Ignoring the judge’s directions resulted in repeated arrests in the courtroom and being dragged out of the courtroom.
They were eventually remanded to prison because of non-cooperation with proceedings and were found guilty. Roger Hallam (founder of XR) was given a sentence of five years in prison and the others four years. At the time, these were described as the longest sentences for peaceful protest in modern British history.
The CPS took their side to some extent and agreed to certain facts being submitted as part of the agreed facts of the case:

• On 17 December 2020, HM Treasury published the Net Zero Interim Report, which states: “Climate change is an existential threat to humanity. Without global action to limit greenhouse gas emissions, the climate will change catastrophically with almost unimaginable consequences for societies across the world.” In recognition of the risks, the UK became, in 2019, the first major economy to implement a legally binding net zero target (for 2050).
• It was agreed there is an established scientific consensus that warming beyond 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels poses “catastrophic” and “irreversible” risks to humanity.
• Over the past five years, the global average temperature rise since pre-industrial times has averaged just under 1.3°C. For the 12 months to June 2024 [when the trial took place] it averaged 1.63°C and is estimated to top 1.5°C permanently before 2030.
• In October 2022 the UK government opened the 33^rd licensing round to allow oil and gas companies to explore for more fossil fuels in the North Sea.

The government's response to this existential threat is to make it worse, and people trying to make them do the right thing are sent to prison.

Following the trial, there was a lot of press coverage, much of it describing the activists as “eco-fanatics”. But the group were supported by Michel Forst, the UN Special Rapporteur for Environmental Defenders, who spoke out about the harshness of the sentences.
Supporters outside the court were also arrested on the orders of the judge.
Dan spent seven and a half months in prison as he’d already served time on remand. He was released with a tag under strict license conditions including being banned from seeing his girlfriend as she is a fellow activist. This was overturned on judicial challenge. The conditions also included not doing any campaigning and not associating with certain people or groups.
These conditions have now been relaxed, hence Dan is able to do this talk.
On first leaving prison, Dan had difficulty finding work and spent about a year working in a warehouse but now has a job in the charitable sector.

The impact of Just Stop Oil

In Dan’s view, protesting was the right thing to do in the face of a government effectively behaving in an evil way. After a year of campaigning, JSO had 92% name recognition and generated the equivalent of £2.1 billion worth of press coverage, with several hundred thousand press mentions.
In May 2023, Labour pledged to ban new oil and gas licensing in its manifesto and implemented this when it came to power in July 2024.
Since then the narrative has changed. Radical protest has been suppressed, making it difficult for anyone to do anything without being arrested, preventing activists from creating headlines. There's less concern about climate change in the press, and polls show the general public are less worried about the climate than about things like 'stopping the boats'. There is also gathering momentum around repealing Net Zero legislation.
This shows how effective these groups are – you don’t need to be popular to be effective and JSO weren’t trying to be popular.

Dan ended his talk by sharing details of a talk titled ‘4 Billion Dead’ – this has now happened but the basis for the title is a report by the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries in the UK (a professional body for actuaries). The risk matrix in the report included an estimated 4 billion deaths worldwide as a result of climate change under an Extreme scenario which they assess as Highly Likely by 2050 (page 28).  

Q&A

Did you try using the principle of jury equity in your defence, i.e. that jurors have an absolute right to acquit a defendant according to their conscience?
Yes, and supporters outside court were holding signs to that effect as well. Juries vary – some feel more empowered, some are hostile. We weren't trying for a not guilty verdict because the disruption caused by the protest had been significant and the evidence was damning. We tried to make points about jury equity (and others) to the jury but the judge often interrupted. Our tactics in court were disruptive, which somewhat annoyed the jury, but we were trying to highlight the absurdity of the British court system.
Jury equity is an effective tactic which has been used successfully in  other cases.

There were four cases recently of people who rescued beagles from MBR in Huntingdon [which breeds animals for use in research]. The defendants in one case were found not guilty, and those in the other three cases guilty, for the same offence, which shows how uneven the judicial system is.
You're much more likely to get acquitted by a jury for offences involving targeted criminal damage, it's a lot harder if you cause disruption to members of the public.

The protest movement have done a brilliant job to batter down the gates. Is there a different strategy that can be added to what you've already done? My approach is to try and educate. Is there room for both of those ways - educating the public on a big scale, along with civil resistance and protests?
Our campaign had some success, but the problem of getting the action that's needed hasn’t been solved. We're still facing a catastrophe and still have governments making things worse. There are unique challenges posed by climate change, because it's something in the future that doesn't seem like an immediate problem to a lot of people. Whatever we try, it's got to communicate with people on a visceral emotional level.
JSO talked less about science and more about human consequences, because people are more likely to resonate with that. We are running out of time.

Using celebrities is one way of getting to people, for example Chris Packham?
Celebrities have a lot of cultural power and influence, and many people relate to them. I would say some famous people have done a lot of good but perhaps public figures now need to cross the line into front line action.

Everybody here understands the gravity of the climate and nature crisis but we haven't chosen to go down the route that you did. What kept you on that path when at times it must have been very difficult?
The initial gateway was deep love for the natural world. It's quite empowering as well - most people in the climate movement are proud they stood up for their beliefs. I like to think that a lot of people, if they really connected with what was happening, would fight to protect things they truly love.
I'm quite rational; I’ve done a lot of research and made a calculated decision on a course of action. If the evidence had led somewhere else as the most effective course of action I'd have done that. I spent a lot of time mentally preparing for taking action. It took a few years to get there, with a lot of thinking as well as sorting my life out. For example I knew I probably wasn't going to keep my job so I made sure I had some money in the bank.

To what extent can you work with children? They are the ones that will motivate the parents and the grandparents.
We owe it to children to be honest with them but there could be concerns about scaring them. At what age do you start?
My gut reaction is that adults need to take responsibility for their behaviour, and I'm not willing to give people a free pass. We're dealing with very tight timescales, and we need to be targeting people in power. It's not entirely clear what the way forward is at the moment, but I think we still need to be doing what we can.

Do you think the Public Emergency Briefing film is effective?
I've heard it's worthwhile though I haven't seen it. I did see some of the National Emergency Briefing talks, and policymakers need to hear this stuff. The problem is that the people in power already know all this and they're choosing not to act.
It's all about us taking accountability. There are very serious climate scientists now saying we need to do geoengineering to get out of this. We need very dramatic change in a short period of time which requires a revolutionary approach. We know we're facing food shortages globally in the next year or two for various reasons, and that will lead to riots. Some kind of dramatic change is coming, whether we like it or not, and we have to accept that.

Date of next meeting: Thursday 17 September, guest speaker tbc.