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OIL KILLS:DISRUPTING THE AVIATION INDUSTRY  
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Alexandria Shaner
September 18, 2024
The Bullet
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_ First, the obvious answer: oil kills. And the air travel industry
is very, very oily. Aviation is by far the mode of transport with the
biggest climate impact. If aviation was a country, it would be one of
the top 10 emitters. _

,

 

A new international coalition is disrupting airports to make one
demand: the adoption of a treaty to end fossil fuels by 2030
[[link removed]].

Under the banner “Oil Kills,” small groups of activists have
occupied airport departure lounges, plane cabins, terminals, tarmacs,
and roads across three continents – and they aren’t done yet. Here
are the numbers so far
[[link removed]]: 500 people, 31
airports, 22 groups, 144 arrests, 42 people on remand in prison –
all in support of their one demand.

The coalition formed when members of Extinction Rebellion
[[link removed]], the A22 Network
[[link removed]], and Stay Grounded
[[link removed]] began reaching out to other groups
globally. What resulted was an unprecedented alliance of civil
resistance groups focused on the sustained disruption of airports
[[link removed]] – a key
pillar of the fossil fuel economy.

Unifying Aims, Collective Strategy, and Diverse Tactics

All Oil Kills participants are committed to nonviolent direct action
and to the central demand, but from there, individual creativity and
context has led to an array of actions
[[link removed]].
The resulting structure is a decentralized yet cohesive power bloc
with unified aims that becomes more than the sum of its parts, rather
than a lowest common denominator coalition.

Each participating group has adopted the central demand
[[link removed]] that governments must work together
to establish a legally binding treaty [[link removed]]
to stop extracting and burning oil, gas, and coal by 2030, as well as
supporting and financing poorer countries to make a fast, fair, and
just transition. But each local group also brings its own unique
knowledge and demands which are in turn supported by the coalition
[[link removed]]. Futuro Vegetal
[[link removed]] in Spain, for
example, focuses on the imperative to adopt a plant-based agri-food
system while Students Against EACOP
[[link removed]] in Uganda demand
a stop to the East African Crude Oil Pipeline – and all stand in
solidarity with one another.

Each group also brings its own creative tactics
[[link removed]],
from airport glue-ins, to plane occupations, to spray-painting
terminals, to street marches. “The airports don’t know what to
expect because we don’t even know exactly what to expect from each
other – it’s beautiful and effective,” said a coalition member
who requested to remain anonymous for legal reasons.

After the initial whirlwind of actions in July
[[link removed]],
with 37 arrests over the first two days alone, disruptions have
continued steadily across three continents, with especially relentless
activity in Germany
[[link removed]] where Letzte
Generation [[link removed]] has held several actions
[[link removed]] in multiple
airports.

On Aug. 9, Students Against EACOP in Uganda
[[link removed]] joined the Oil
Kills campaign, planning a peaceful march to the parliament in Kampala
and the delivery of a petition demanding an end to the East African
Crude Oil Pipeline [[link removed]], and for their
government to sign the treaty to end fossil fuels.

But the police mounted roadblocks to stop the march from starting, and
arrested 45 student activists
[[link removed]] on public
buses and their three bus drivers on arrival. Two students managed to
slip away and regrouped
[[link removed]], reaching the
parliament building with petition in hand before also being violently
arrested [[link removed]].

Kamya Carlos, a student at Kyambogo University and spokesperson for
Students Against EACOP, connects the inequitable and ecocidal nature
of today’s airline industry to its origins in neocolonial
extractivism. “New oil, gas, and coal infrastructure continues to
exacerbate the climate crisis. As the global temperatures hit their
tipping points it is clear that projects such as the East African
Crude Oil Pipeline should never be constructed in the first place,”
he said. “These projects, which end up being used almost exclusively
by rich people and polluting the atmosphere, should never be allowed
by right thinking members of society. We demand the government to sign
a fossil free treaty and call an end to EACOP.”

Even though police repression represents a major threat, on Aug. 27,
20 climate activists
[[link removed]] and persons
affected by the oil pipeline came back out in another peaceful march
to petition Uganda’s Ministry of Energy. They were again violently
dragged from the street
[[link removed]] by police in
fatigues and held on remand until Sept. 6, when the court finally
granted their release on bail. All 20 have been ordered to appear for
a hearing on Nov. 12.

“The resilience under extreme repression shown by Students Against
EACOP is an inspiration and metaphor for the Oil Kills movement,”
said Jamie McGonagill, an Oil Kills member from XR Boston. “We
refuse to die.
[[link removed]]”

You Can’t Arrest a Rising Sea

As of this writing, 22 Oil Kills activists remain in custody in
Uganda, six in Germany, and 14 in the U.K. Speaking to the increasing
criminalization of dissent, McGonagill explained that “draconian
responses that imprison nonviolent climate activists
[[link removed]],
especially as we’ve seen lately in the U.K.
[[link removed]] and in Uganda
[[link removed]], show that the
authorities misunderstand us. They will not stop us. We will just get
more and more creative.”

Oil Kills is not alone in facing repression. On Aug. 8 in New York
City, a 63-year-old grandfather and professional cellist, John Mark
Rozendaal, was arrested and hit with a criminal contempt charge,
carrying a maximum sentence of seven years in jail, for performing
Bach’s “Suites for Cello” at Citibank’s headquarters.
Rozendaal was participating in the Summer of Heat
[[link removed]] campaign to pressure Citibank to divest
from fossil fuels through sustained nonviolent civil disobedience.
Connecting this case to the burgeoning international movement, U.N.
Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders Mary Lawlor, in following
Rozendaal’s case, has expressed
[[link removed]]
her “strong concern” at the severity of the charges.

In a disturbing trend
[[link removed]] that has become
the new normal in Italy, peaceful eco-activists are being branded a
“danger to security and public order,” served with specious
charges, banned from cities without trial, and criminalized under
anti-terrorist laws intended to prosecute the Mafia.

Last week in the U.K., several high profile journalists and activists
affiliated with the movement for Palestinian liberation were arrested
in a sweep [[link removed]]
by counter-terrorism police for their opposition to genocide. They
have been held under Section 12 of the U.K.’s Terrorism Act, which
outlaws support for a “proscribed organization.” Such an
application of the law
[[link removed]]
would mean that you can go to jail for 14 years for expressing an
opinion.

XR NYC organizer Meg Starr, a long-time Puerto Rican solidarity
activist and coordinator of the XR Allies sub-circle, noted that the
links between genocide and ecocide – in Palestine and elsewhere –
are becoming clearer and more important to emphasize. “Our targeting
of Citibank,” Starr commented, “included a focus on Citi’s major
support of the Israeli military as part of their role as the world’s
leading financier of oil and gas expansion.”

Roger Hallam, co-founder of Extinction Rebellion and Just Stop Oil,
was recently sentenced to five years in prison
[[link removed]] for making a speech over
Zoom in what is being called a “grotesque sham-trial
[[link removed]].”

“Repression is not a gradual process, it leaps out at you and takes
you off guard,” he warned from his prison cell. “Do you remember
the Solidarity leaders in Poland? They were invited into talks with
the Polish government but when they got to the meeting, they were
arrested in one fell swoop and imprisoned for years. You don’t think
it will happen to you and then it does.”

Hallam’s message is that we can expect more repression, but that
authorities must also expect more resistance. “You can’t negotiate
with physics, with a thousand peer-reviewed articles,” he wrote.
“Just Stop Oil reminds us what resistance, that far-off folk memory
relegated to Netflix, actually looks like in the present moment.
Thousands of arrests, hundreds of imprisonments, and a five-year
sentence for making a speech.”

In a statement announcing a pause
[[link removed]]
in international actions to allow politicians to consider their
demands, Oil Kills echoed the realism of Hallam’s framing. “The
facts are clear; we are flying toward the obliteration of everything
we know and love. Continuing to extract and burn oil, gas, and coal is
an act of war against humanity. …To know these facts and yet to have
no plan to end the extraction and burning of oil, gas, and coal is
reckless and immoral.”

They point out that while activists sounding the alarm and demanding
change are increasingly criminalized, our politicians are actually the
ones who are complicit in the greatest crime in human history.
“Whether those in charge realize that they are engaging in genocide
is not the question. For this is how it will be seen by the next
generation and all future generations,” Oil Kills warned. “For
now, we are taking a pause, but governments must take heed: you cannot
arrest your way out of this, just as you cannot imprison a flood or
serve injunctions on a wildfire.”

Oppose Oil Injustice, Propose Mobility Justice

Stay Grounded
[[link removed]] is a network
of individuals, local airport opposition and climate justice groups,
NGOs, trade unions, initiatives fostering alternatives to aviation
like night trains and organizations supporting communities that
struggle against offsets or projects to develop so-called
“sustainable aviation fuels.” Importantly, Stay Grounded goes
beyond affirming the conclusion that business as usual is not an
option, and stands for a 13-step program
[[link removed]] to transform
transport, society, and the economy to be just and environmentally
sound.

“Flying is the fastest way to fry the planet, so it’s key to start
by cutting pointless and unfair flights like private jets or short
haul flights,” said Inês Teles, a spokesperson for Stay Grounded
and an Oil Kills member. “Our actions disrupting airports should be
a shock to the system that is driving us toward climate
catastrophe.”

In summary, Stay Grounded’s program begins with a positive vision
for justice. It includes advice for achieving a just transition,
shifting to other modes of transportation, developing economies of
short distances, and changed modes of living, as well as strong
political commitments for land rights, human rights, and climate
justice.

Their program then details what must be avoided – obvious yet
important items like growing the harmful air travel industry,
including infrastructure expansion, loopholes and privileges for
aviation, and common greenwashing pitfalls like carbon offsetting,
biofuels, and illusory technocentric fixes.

Though Stay Grounded’s aims are more specific to the air travel
industry than Oil Kills’ unifying demand for a treaty to end fossil
fuels by 2030, coalition members are able to build on these positive
aims, utilizing leadership from frontline communities affected by the
air travel industry. Sharing and even cross-pollinating pro-social and
ecologically healthy programs, in addition to opposing destructive
practices, has been an effective way of galvanizing and sustaining
support across diverse movements and communities.

Covering Activism Isn’t Activist

The choice to focus on disrupting the air travel industry in order to
pressure governments to adopt a fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty
is as bold as the demand itself. Much of the media’s reaction so far
has been unsurprisingly harsh, condemning the disruptions as “not
the right way to do it.” Very little critical analysis has been
audible above the din, but that doesn’t mean critical analysis
isn’t happening.

It turns out, if you actually listen to them, that Oil Kills activists
take strategy extremely seriously – after all, they’re knowingly
putting their own freedom on the line through their actions. That is
not a decision to be taken lightly, especially in today’s legal
context. While news coverage of their “stunts” has circulated
widely, what about the reasons behind their actions and assessments of
their impact?

Covering climate activism well is a critical part of getting the
climate story right. Too often journalism focuses on protesters’
tactics and not the problems they’re drawing attention to or the
arguments they’re making. In a recent roundtable discussion
[[link removed]],
author, journalist, and activist Bill McKibben urged fellow
journalists to consider that “we can serve our audiences better,
treating activists as the newsmakers they are, rigorously evaluating
their arguments as we would a public official.”

Journalists often shy away from foregrounding activists as sources of
information and analysis for fear of being perceived to be more
“activist” than “objective.” This framing is entirely
misleading, however, and can more accurately be explained as the
pressure to avoid platforming those seeking to change the system in
deference to those whose position exists to maintain the system. Why
is a politician or a business owner an appropriate subject but not an
activist? There is no objectivity in this, but there are salaries and
awards.

The myth that journalism must keep activism at arm’s length also
misses the point that many of these ordinary people taking action are
some of the best informed on the biggest news story of our time: the
climate and ecological emergency. Activists have been speaking on
climate science and policy for decades, many have even been personally
affected by ecological disaster, but they have been almost exclusively
ignored by the mainstream press. After decades of fossil fuel industry
gaslighting, it turns out the activists have been right all along.
It’s past time to hear these people out as legitimate subjects and
newsmakers, able and deserving to speak about their work and their
areas of expertise.

Why Target Air Travel?

First, the obvious answer: oil kills. And the air travel industry is
very, very oily. Aviation is by far the mode of transport with the
biggest climate impact. If aviation was a country, it would be one of
the top 10 emitters
[[link removed]].

Emissions from aviation are rising more rapidly than any other sector
of the economy. The number of aircraft and the number of
passenger-miles flown is expected to double
[[link removed]]
over the next 20 years. If left unchecked, they could consume a full
quarter of the available carbon budget for limiting temperature rise
to 1.5 C.

Second, oil isn’t extracted equitably
[[link removed]], burned
equitably, and neither does it kill equitably
[[link removed]].
At the turn of the millennium, less than 5 percent
[[link removed]] of the world’s population had
ever sat in an aircraft. But it is mostly non-flyers who bear the
brunt of the climate crisis and the negative effects of airport
expansion like land grabbing, noise, particle pollution, and health
issues. Communities in the Global South that have barely contributed
to the crisis are affected most. Indeed, well before the repression of
the Oil Kills coalition, climate activists – especially in Latin
America – have faced what is being termed “ecopoliticide
[[link removed]]”:
the targeted and strategic murder of those who dare take action.

Stephen Okwai, a project affected person
[[link removed]]
who has joined the movement to stop the EACOP pipeline in Uganda,
feels there is now greater risk in inaction than in protesting. A
project affected person, or PAP, is a legal term for the people
directly affected by land acquisition for a project through loss of
part or all of their assets including land, houses, other structures,
businesses, crops/trees, and other components of livelihoods. They are
legally owed compensation, but in the case of Okwai and others
affected by EACOP, there has been no such justice.

“Currently most of us in western Uganda are being disturbed,” he
explained. “You cannot know when the rain is going to start and when
it will stop, yet most of these people are farmers. The effect of this
oil project has greatly impacted on the people.”

After he was arrested during the Aug. 27 march in Kampala, Robert
Pitua, a member of Oil Kills, Students Against EACOP, and a PAP, said
that, “Livelihood restoration programs [have been] insufficient, and
now we cannot manage to restore the initial livelihoods we had. Most
people are given unfair and inadequate compensation.” This
structural and planned destruction of hundreds of communities has left
PAPs no choice but to resist, and is the source of a common refrain in
Students Against EACOP’s demonstrations: “We refuse to die.”

This leads to the third reason to target aviation. The Oil Kills
uprising is highlighting that the problem of aviation is part of a
bigger story of injustice – it is, in fact, a pillar helping to hold
up a system of injustice. The air travel industry is contrary to the
need to eliminate fossil fuel use; it is tied to the
military-industrial complex; and it is connected with the undue
influence of big business on public policy, including trade, economic
development, and climate.

Aviation remains fossil fuel dependent, yet the industry promotes
false solutions
[[link removed]]
such as new aircraft technologies, which do not yet exist, in order to
continue to pollute for profit. Offsets
[[link removed]]
and biofuels [[link removed]]
fail to reduce emissions while endangering food supplies
[[link removed]],
biodiversity, and human rights
[[link removed]].

“Not only is the air travel industry a cornerstone of globalized
fossil capitalism, but it is also a symbol of inequity,” Jamie
McGonagill said. “By disrupting a major column of the system, we aim
to disrupt the system itself.”

Rather than plentiful data and common-sense reasoning, it is more
often a powerful underlying consciousness that has spurred many to
action. When asked why it was necessary to disrupt air travel across
Europe and North America, Just Stop Oil [[link removed]]
spokespeople replied, “because governments and fossil fuel producers
are waging war on humanity. Even so-called climate leaders have
continued to approve new oil, gas, and coal projects pushing the world
closer to global catastrophe and condemning hundreds of millions to
death.”

The Oil Kills coalition has rallied around reality with the
seriousness it deserves, refusing dystopia by disrupting it, and
demanding a clear and urgent path toward repair. “Our leaders from
wealthier countries must seek a negotiating mandate for an emergency
Fossil Fuel Treaty,” said coalition members in an Aug. 14 statement.
“They also need to immediately finance and support poorer countries
to make a fast, fair, and just transition.”

Assessing Impact

If increased media attention on the climate and ecological emergency
is any indicator of success, and it is, the Oil Kills uprising is
punching well above its weight. “Oil Kills” was mentioned over
2,900 times in the press
[[link removed]]
during the first week of the campaign. The Fossil Fuel
Non-Proliferation Treaty initiative [[link removed]]
has also never attracted so much media attention worldwide, with an
increase of over 1,000 percent in mentions from the week prior to the
campaign’s launch. Oil Kills actions drew comments from politicians,
government officials, and from the vice president of Norwegian oil
giant Equinor [[link removed]].
For only 500 people spread out over three continents, they have indeed
been hard to ignore.

It is true, not all publicity is created equal – but pleasing the
general public is not always the priority. In a recent article
[[link removed]],
Mark Engler and Paul Engler, coauthors of “This is an Uprising
[[link removed]],” discussed why protests work even
when not everyone likes them. They explain that a very common result
is that, when asked about a demonstration that makes news headlines,
respondents will report sympathy for the protesters’ demands, but
they will express distaste for the tactics deployed. They will see the
activists themselves as too noisy, impatient, and discourteous.

The coauthors, both experienced activists and resistance scholars,
point out that this is actually an age-old dynamic, and one addressed
eloquently by Martin Luther King Jr. in his renowned 1963 “Letter
from a Birmingham Jail
[[link removed]].”
They explain that, “this letter was written not as a response to
racist opponents of the movement, but rather to people who professed
support for the cause while criticizing demonstrations as
‘untimely’ and deriding direct action methods. ‘Frankly I have
yet to engage in a direct action campaign that was ‘well timed’ in
the view of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of
segregation,’ King quipped. But confronting these criticisms, he
made the case for why the movement’s campaigns were both necessary
and effective.”

In a similar vein, Oil Kills participants, like medical student Regina
Stephan who recently took action at the Berlin airport with Letzte
Generation, feel they have no choice but to act: “Just yesterday,
the state of Lower Saxony gave the green light for new gas drilling
off Borkum,” Stephan said. “That can’t be true! As long as our
decision-makers work hand in hand with the fossil fuel companies and
put profit before human life, I’m standing here – on the tarmac
– and I can’t help it!”

Joining in this sentiment, Anja Windl, who took action at Stuttgart
airport. said very succinctly, “As long as our livelihoods are being
systematically destroyed, our protests will not stop.”

Importantly, Oil Kills participants are not demanding that everyone
utilize the same tactics. Rather, these activists are urging others to
join the climate justice movement in diverse ways. Anja continued,
“If you also want to campaign for an end to fossil fuels, you
don’t have to sit on an airfield like I did: just come to a
Disobedient Assembly
[[link removed]]
near you!”

In recent years, there has been considerable research published that
attempts to measure radical flank effects and track the polarizing
effects of movements
[[link removed]]. Mark Engler and
Paul Englers’ analysis cautions that, “while there are limits to
how much protest impacts can be precisely quantified, the cumulative
result of such research, in the words of one literature review
[[link removed]],
is to point to ‘strong evidence that protests or protest movements
can be effective in achieving their desired outcomes,’ and that they
can produce ‘positive effects on public opinion, public discourse,
and voting behavior.’” They conclude that both the historical
experience of organizers and recent studies provide backing
[[link removed]]
for the idea that “support for a movement’s issue can grow, even
when a majority of people do not particularly like the tactics being
used.”

Finally, success cannot be fully measured by public opinion,
especially when the strategy is to trouble public consensus. Oil Kills
has been very clear that they are not acting in order to sooth or
please anyone – they are intentionally sounding the alarm as a way
of empowering people to act. By treating the climate crisis as a
crisis, and reacting accordingly, activists are, in a sense, giving
other people permission to do the same and showing them how. It’s
like when someone is real with you and that makes you feel like you
can be real too – and we all need to get real, real fast. The spell
of complacency is like the tranquilizer that helps walk a cow to
slaughter. Oil Kills is shouting, “Wake up and live!”

In a debrief by the Oil Kills campaign
[[link removed]]
on Aug. 16, they addressed the public: “It is time to face reality:
no one is coming to save us. There is no free pass, no shelter from
the coming storm. Our best chance of survival is to resist. To join
the growing numbers of ordinary, everyday people from across the globe
who are refusing to stand by while hundreds of millions of innocent
people are murdered.”

Offering a pathway forward out of doom, Oil Kill’s messaging has
remained crystal clear: “The climate crisis will not end until every
single country has phased out fossil fuels, [and] those who bear the
greatest responsibility and have the greatest capacity must do the
most … In this time of crisis, we expect our governments to work
collaboratively, as we have done, and negotiate a Fossil Fuel Treaty
to end the war on humanity before we lose everything.”

The Next Rebellion Is Coming

Coming back down from the hugeness of our crisis and into ourselves as
individuals often causes a feeling of paralysis, especially for the
majority of people not yet interconnected within communities of
resistance and solidarity. But there have been actions where small
groups or even lone activists
[[link removed]]
have held up an Oil Kills banner and received media coverage and
support because they are part of a global campaign which can’t be
ignored. Every single contribution adds to that.

In a Sept. 6 letter to climate activist prisoners of conscience, Naomi
Klein wrote, “In a world that was right-side up, you would be
celebrated as the ones who helped break the spell that is setting our
world on fire. In truth, your actions could still do that, if enough
people know about them.”

It continues to be an urgent and essential task to ensure that more
and more people do know about Oil Kills and other manifestations of
resistance, but it is also evident that the world’s elites already
understand the threat that these actions represent – the threat of
mass uprising. That threat is precisely why nonviolent direct action
in defense of planetary life is being criminalized so viciously.

Klein continued, “Movements against climate arson are already
converging with movements against genocide and unfettered greed. The
next wave of rebellion is coming. Along with the tankers, I see it
clearly on the horizon.”

The Oil Kills uprising and fellow movements around the world have
placed their bodies between those tankers and our shared future to
say, “Here, and no further.” If enough of us line up behind them,
their actions could very well lead the way to an adoption of a treaty
to end fossil fuels by 2030 – that remains to be won. What is for
certain is that their actions are troubling the autopilot system,
disrupting the mechanics of fossil-capital’s death march, and
creating desperately needed space to pursue alternate routes. Whatever
else lies on the horizon, their contributions are already impacting
the world in ways we cannot yet know but will be unlikely to forget.
•

This article is co-published with ZNetwork.org
[[link removed]],
Waging Nonviolence
[[link removed]],
and the International Peace Research Association.

Alexandria Shaner is a sailor, writer
[[link removed]], organizer, and teacher. She
is a staff member of ZNetwork.org [[link removed]], and active
with Extinction Rebellion [[link removed]], and
the Women's Rights and Empowerment Network
[[link removed]].

* Environmental Protests
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* Oil
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* Aviation
[[link removed]]

*
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