On Tuesday night, Jeremy Corbyn, former leader of the Labour Party and MP for Islington North, and Chris Packham, perhaps the UK's most renowned wildlife expert - naturalist, television presenter, writer, photographer, conservationist, campaigner and filmmaker, will speak about the national emergency of 40°C in Britain - the destruction of our wildlife, our natural world, our society, and the legacy we will pass onto our children. Alongside speakers from a broad scope of our society, we will hear how everyone has to come together like never before to face this violation of our values, and fight for a fairer, brighter future collectively.

Last week our country passed a new terrifying threshold with the UK’s first-ever red weather warning issued for extreme heat. The August heatwave is expected to bring temperature highs in the mid 30's. This is the new norm. With thousands of recent heat-related deaths across Europe, train tracks expanding and signal towers melting, urban homes destroyed by wildfires, and the vast majority of vital UK infrastructure failing to cope with just two days of such heat, the penny is dropping on the reality of the impacts of climate change on human life in the UK and Global North. Firefighters in London and across the world are having to respond to unprecedented scenes. Postal workers are forced to do 30,000+ steps per day in extreme heat, with multiple deaths on the job in recent years. And it has already been devastating human life in the Global South for a long time - the latest UN IPCC report predicts that up to half of all people living in Africa will be forced to migrate by 2030 due to uninhabitable living environments. It’s more than safe to call this out as systemic racism.

Climate change is not some distant, abstract thing. It is here - on our doorsteps - and the reality is total societal collapse. This is what the climate movement has been saying for 30+ years. This is not some fringe “green” issue. We are talking about the rapid dismantling of thousands of years of social progress - everything we’ve built and created, everything we love and hold dear; everything we’ve fought so hard and sacrificed for. This is an international and national emergency beyond all other emergencies. This is about the agenda of a pathological corporate ruling class willing to allow mass societal collapse and the immense suffering of billions in order to maintain its private interests, profits and business as usual for one more decade. It is the greatest act of injustice in human history.

Everything is going up - emissions, temperatures, profits, inflation, energy bills, rent, the cost of food and living in general - except for one glaringly obvious thing - our pay - our share. The same system that exploits the planet for its finite resources exploits us for our labour and expects us to put up with shit wages while the 1% get rapidly richer.

We must come together and that’s why we have joined forces with Jeremy Corbyn’s Peace & Justice Project, Fuel Poverty Action, Insulate Britain, Animal Rebellion, Scientist Rebellion, and Wellbeing Economics to form ‘We All Want To Just Stop Oil’ (WAWTJSO) - bringing together environmental and progressive labour groups, faith communities, charities, and thousands of ordinary people from all walks of life. Our recent demo in London was also supported by People’s Assembly, Stop The War, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, Disabled People Against Cuts, BARACK UK, Blaksox, Global Women’s Strike, Women of Colour, Extinction Rebellion Trade Unionists and various XR community and local groups, etc. and we are consistently growing. We've been down on the picket lines supporting the rail workers, bin workers, bus drivers, postal workers, oil refinery workers, etc. and will continue to keep showing our support for people exploited by this system. Please see www.weallwanttojuststopoil.com.

When everything we value is violated, we all know what response is required. The bosses, politicians and entrepreneurs are not coming to save us. This should never have been our responsibility, but our so-called “leaders” have failed us, and will continue to do so, so here we find ourselves. We must declare rebellion against those who are willing to drive us to catastrophe.

In our present context that means mass civil resistance. Mass ongoing civil disobedience.

As throughout the history of real meaningful change, this has to be initiated by the leaders of our social institutions. That is what leadership means in a crisis. We must show strong leadership by telling the truth, confronting the reality of the situation, and mobilising/organising the masses in civil resistance. We owe it to ourselves, our families, children, friends, brothers and sisters across the world. When our children ask “what did you do?”, how will we respond? The trade union leaders are showing great leadership right now, and we call upon them to follow suit on this greatest threat. We must build a mass culture of authentic solidarity against our common enemy, put our differences aside (often manufactured by propaganda) and be there for each other in ALL battles against this enemy. We must co-ordinate our efforts and actions, to push on enough pressure points at the same time, in the same place, to cause enough of a dilemma for the system and ruling class. Courage is courageous and collectively, we can build the most powerful, unignorable force ever seen.

National Zoom Meeting for UK Civil Society Organisations and Networks

Join Jeremy Corbyn, Chantelle Lunt, Lee Jasper, Professor Bill McGuire, Zoe Cohen, Chris Packham and others yet TBC on the 2nd of August to hear about how Just Stop Oil, in collaboration with Jeremy's Peace & Justice Project and many other groups, is mobilising across the UK for mass civil resistance. This Autumn, thousands of people from all walks of life will be demanding change by undertaking civil disobedience. Will you join us? Will you support us?

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMudeCvrj0sHtVTElN_OFgHC9LNXqMxlWPx

Follow this link to register for this meeting on the 2nd of August at 7pm.

Speakers:

Jeremy Corbyn is the former leader of the UK Labour Party and long-serving MP for Islington North. He is the founder of the Peace & Justice Project, Vice President of Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, and a long-time campaigner on a whole host of social justice issues internationally.

Chantelle Lunt is a prominent anti-racist, feminist and human rights activist and educator, and co-founder of the Kill the Bill Coalition and Merseyside Black Lives Matter Alliance.

Lee Jasper is a London politician and race relations activist, co-founder of Operation Black Vote / BARAC UK / Blaksox, and former senior policy advisor to the Mayor of London.

Bill McGuire is a Professor Emeritus of Geophysical and Climate Hazards, University College London. He is a broadcaster, writer, and activist.

Zoe Cohen is a climate activist, educator and spokesperson, and has worked with Extinction Rebellion, Insulate Britain, and now Just Stop Oil.

Kerry Abel has worked in the trade union movement for twenty years and works on the Future of Rail project as an Organiser for TSSA to make the case for skilled workers for a well-funded, green future of public transport.

Chris Packham is a renowned naturalist, television presenter, writer, photographer, conservationist, campaigner and filmmaker, perhaps most famous for his presentation of BBC's Springwatch, Autumnwatch and Winterwatch series. Please share this event with your contacts and any followings you have. The Climate Crisis will have unimaginably severe impacts on everyone, and therefore we need everybody on board.