A Just Stop Oil banquet was disrupted Sunday when counter-protesters staged a demonstration using personal safety alarms and helium balloons.
People representing “Just Stop Pissing Everyone Off” crashed Just Stop Oil’s “Beyond F***ed Banquet” and released safety alarms attached to helium balloons that quickly rose to the top of the event venue—an old church. Footage from the banquet shows members of Just Stop Oil using ladders to retrieve the balloons and silence the alarms, a process which took several minutes.
YouTubers Josh Pieters and Archie Manners organized the counter protest, in an expression of the British public’s growing frustration with the anti-climate change group. In a video posted to their YouTube channel detailing the behind-the-scenes planning of their counter-protest, Pieters and Manners said they weren’t against protesting climate change, but felt that Just Stop Oil protesters are going in the wrong direction with their demonstrations.
“With 64% of the public disapproving of Just Stop Oil, many are arguing that their tactics are putting people off the environmental cause, which is a problem given it’s 45º (Celsius) in Spain right now,” Pieters says in the video. “So, whether you care about the environment, the balance between the right to protest and the right to go about your daily life, or are just bored of posh people disrupting your day, perhaps it’s time to pitch our right to protest against theirs.”
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The two began their plans of counter-protest by sending one of the producers for their YouTube channel undercover as a Just Stop Oil protester to gain insider information. They also recruited volunteers who are fed up with the group’s tactics to participate in counter-protests. “Just Stop Pissing People Off” conducted its first counter protest a few days before the banquet by encircling Just Stop Oil protestors before they could execute a “slow march” in South London.
Just Stop Oil applauded the YouTubers’ prank on Twitter after the fact.
“We thoroughly enjoyed Josh & Archie’s prank yesterday. Great action design — nonviolent and ever so slightly disruptive,” the Tweet said. “Their faith in democracy is touching, but the climate crisis needs urgent action today — we simply don’t have time to wait for a new government.”
Just Stop Oil has grown in notoriety for its protesters’ dramatic demonstrations, often disruptive to the daily routines of citizens across the U.K. and U.S.
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