WORDS Devinder Bains
HEADER IMAGE Courtesy of Trans Kids Deserve Better
Content warning: suicide
“It was 6am and still dark, but as we headed to our planned position, we were spotted by two security guards. We rushed forward but one of the guards grabbed me, I managed to pull free and then get my hand into the lock on, we laid down on the cold floor in front of the building, we’d made it.”
This might sound like a scene from a spy thriller, but these are actually the words of a very polite, and often quite shy, copywriter from Pudsey in Yorkshire. Khajidah, then 25, is describing her first covert activity as part of Palestine Action, a protest network that uses direct action to disrupt and shut down arms companies that provide weapons parts to Israel. “There were three of us, we were connected by placing our hands in these large metal tubes, and we had chains around our wrists,” she explains of the ‘locking on’ method that has been used as a form of non-violent protest since as far back as the Suffragette movement. Locking on would make Khajidah and her fellow activists unmovable for hours, until specialist police arrived and were able to safely cut through the metal. By then, the building had been inaccessible to workers for half a day.
“Elbit Systems manufactures weaponry that supplies the Israeli forces,” she explains of the company whose building they were blocking in Bristol that morning. “The action I was taking directly affects the productivity of the company, disrupts the chain of supply, while also having an economic impact on the business.” The ongoing actions by Palestine Action have forced the company and its subsidiaries to spend hundreds of thousands of pounds on repairs and extra security across their sites – clearly displaying the impact of direct action.
When all other forms of protest seemingly aren’t enough or as effective as they should be, such as petitions, marches, writing to MPs – all of which are permitted by the law – the people resort to direct action.
Pia Bastide, Just Stop Oil
But what exactly is direct action? “When all other forms of protest seemingly aren’t enough or as effective as they should be, such as petitions, marches, writing to MPs – all of which are permitted by the law – the people resort to direct action,” explains Pia Bastide, a spokesperson for Just Stop Oil (JSO), arguably the most prolific non-violent civil resistance group the UK has seen in recent times. And despite ‘hanging up the hi vis’ jackets last month to concentrate on the many members currently facing legal action, JSO firmly supports direct action.. “We physically act by putting our bodies and our freedom on the line to achieve change. Direct action involves greater disruption, and at times breaking morally unjust laws.”
Khajidah, who describes herself as “a placid person who had never been in trouble with the police”, agrees that she turned to direct action after becoming disillusioned by other methods of protest. “I attended national protests, signed petitions, donated to charities, I wrote to my MP over and over about Gaza, but our government just wasn’t taking notice. In fact, they were vilifying peaceful protests. I was heartbroken, I had no choice but to try something else, and that’s when I saw Palestine Action on Instagram and decided to contact them.”
The group provides full training and always makes activists aware of the very real risk of arrest. “Being surrounded by 20 police officers while laying on the floor in the January rain, chanting for a free Palestine is scary, but I knew I what I was doing was justified,” tells Khajidah, who was arrested and charged with, amongst other offences, for locking-on and causing serious disruption, both of which became criminal offences in 2023 under the new Public Order Act – which is designed to make protesting more difficult. She spent around 12 hours in a police cell before release, with charges being dropped a few months later. Khajidah, who says the whole thing made her “feel empowered”, has taken further direct action and has been arrested again.
She is not alone – over the last year, a growing number of even younger people are turning to direct action. Pia, who has been part of numerous actions including road blocks, locking on and disrupting the BBC Proms, has been arrested nine times. Although she started supporting Greenpeace at age 16, she laughs that she came to direct action “quite late at 28”. Whereas now “we’re seeing young people who are 18 and 19 taking action.”
Revolutions have often been student-led – be it the Black Panther movement or May ’68 in France. I feel like the spotlight is now on the students and it’s proliferating the amount of young action-takers who are willing to put their freedom on the line.
Pia Bastide, Just Stop Oil
She explains that there’s been such a swell in the number of young people joining Just Stop Oil, the organisation set up its own student faction. “We have to shed this idea of the old retired hippy taking those risks. Activism, in general, feels quite young at the moment, which is incredible,” she says, explaining why the uptake has had a snowball effect. “If someone you know or someone who’s your age is doing this it can be inspiring, there’s an ‘I can do this too’ attitude. Revolutions have often been student-led – be it the Black Panther movement or May 68 in France. I feel like the spotlight is now on the students and it’s proliferating the amount of young action-takers who are willing to put their freedom on the line.” After all, young people have the most to lose when it comes to climate chaos. “We have arrived at the adapt or die point of climate breakdown, and young people feel that it’s their moral duty to demand the end of oil and gas growth by 2030. This is the fight of our lives, and if that’s not worth putting your time, money, body on the line for, then I don’t know what is.”
This surge in direct action is happening despite new draconian laws such as the aforementioned Public Order Act of 2023, and before that, The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 which gives the police, criminal justice, and sentencing more power against protestors. This has led to unprecedented prison sentences for non-violent protest, with JSO’s 22-year-old Cressida Gethin sentenced to four years for conspiracy to cause a public nuisance for coordinating direct action protests on the M25 and then just a few months later Phoebe Plummer, 23, was sentenced to two years, and Anna Holland, 22, to 20-months when they were charged with criminal damage for throwing tomato soup at Vincent Van Gogh’s Sunflowers – despite the painting being completely protected by a thick glass frame.
“It’s a fact that those anti-protest laws have been drafted by think tanks funded by dirty oil money,” explains Pia. “The sentencing Cressy got is absolutely outrageous, it feels profoundly unfair when, for example, the man who drove his car into the gates of Downing Street – who was then found to have indecent images of children on his phone – escaped prison with a suspended sentence. These draconian sentences clearly show that we are touching a nerve. If what we were doing was not disruptive or effective, we’d go unnoticed.”
So are these new lengthy sentences working as a deterrent to young activists? “No, I think it’s having entirely the opposite effect,” says 20-year-old Ella Taylor, who has been arrested six times for actions with Youth Demand, a direct action network of predominately 18 to 25-year-olds, which was borne from the JSO student faction by young activists who were also deeply affected by the death and destruction in Gaza. Youth Demand calls for a two-way arms embargo on Israel and a ‘make the rich pay’ strategy, demanding that the government raises £1 trillion—from the super rich and the fossil fuel elite—to compensate communities and countries who are most impacted by fossil fuel burning. “We’re at a point where we’re seeing young people like us being given insane sentences and it just highlights how scared and messed up the whole system is – and that just motivates us more,” explains Ella, from south London, who has been part of civil disobedience actions including spray painting the Labour Party HQ red, shutting down Oxford Circus, and she was accused of conspiracy to disrupt the state opening of Parliament before charges were dropped. The numbers back Ella up that the arrests are actually encouraging action: since Youth Demand’s first in April 2024, hundreds of young people have joined and taken action, with over 150 arrests and over 15,000 people signing up for their mailing list.
If prison doesn’t scare her, isn’t Ella worried about how a possible police record could affect her future career opportunities? “Obviously I’m scared about what this might mean. I’d love to be able to live a normal life, to have a career in a flourishing world, but that world doesn’t exist. It’s just going to get worse with the climate crisis,” she explains frankly. “I strongly feel that our futures have already been thrown away by the generations before us. We have nothing to lose, and whatever we stand to lose is nothing compared to what people in Gaza have already lost. So of course, we have to risk everything.”
Obviously, I’m scared about what this might mean. I’d love to be able to live a normal life, to have a career in a flourishing world, but that world doesn’t exist. It’s just going to get worse with the climate crisis.
Lily, Trans Kids Deserve Better
Someone else who is willing to risk everything is Lily*, who is just 17 and part of Trans Kids Deserve Better – a direct action network run by trans+ kids for trans+ kids, which currently has over 60 members UK-wide, aged from as young as 13 to 18. “I could just sit and watch as my rights get taken away, but I refuse to feel hopeless. We want to fight and say that ‘we are here, we’ve always been here, we’re not going away, and we are going to live as our authentic selves’,” they explain. “These actions aren’t for fun – for many of us, it is quite literally a matter of life or death.” Lily is referencing the spike in suicide rates among transgender youth on the NHS waiting list since 2020, when restrictions were placed on gender-affirming care for people under 16-years-old.
Lily, who is studying for their A-levels, first took part in an action last August – a week-long occupation at the Department of Education demanding better school guidance and protections for trans kids. “I’d done different forms of protests before but I was nervous about my first encounter with actual direct action,” remembers Lily. “And as I’m not out, it was something that quite scared me – like when the police came, or if there were people filming us – but I feel like the community that I found there made my desire to stay and fight to overpower any kind of fear.”
Since then, Lily has been part of actions including a group die-in at Victoria Station in London, designed to cause civil disobedience and raise awareness around the then renewal of a temporary ban of puberty blockers – which has since become a permanent ban. Lily has also been part of a multi-day occupation outside the offices of Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Wes Streeting and a long-running campaign called “Kids Are Dying”, where group members placed a “small paper coffin in front of Wes Streeting’s constituency office every day for over 100 days.”
The closest Lily has come to arrest was in October, when they released 6,000 live crickets at a conference being held by the controversial charity LGB Alliance. “We wanted to stop a speech they were holding on the “dangers” of medical transition.” Lily and three of the other activists, all aged 17 to 18, were detained by security, and then by police officers, for three hours before being released without charge. “I am prepared to be arrested if needed, it’s something that I’ve come to terms with,” says Lily, who is adamant they will continue to take actions undeterred.
Lily also has some insight into why young people are turning to direct action. “There’s been a rise in younger people finding out how to get involved, whether that’s while talking to other activists at the large protests, through physical posters and flyers, and of course through social media,” says the young activist. “The fact that you’re able to share information with such a large audience means people are becoming more aware of what’s going on with politics and legislation. And also, younger and younger people are actually willing to do more risky actions because we’re seeing our future – or what’s being left of it.”
The people that I’ve met through direct action are some of the most resilient people, they have been through so much and still keep fighting. That spurs me on and gives me strength to keep going before, during and after actions.
Lily, Trans Kids Deserve Better
They also point to intersectional activism. “I think that the genocide in Palestine has been a wake-up call for a lot of people, it has definitely caused an energy in people, because people are saying ‘this is wrong’ and then seeing that so many other things are wrong too,” Lily explains. “They’re seeing that there’s no ‘single struggle’, it’s all interconnected.”
But for all activists, there must be days when their goals seem unachievable. Lily sums things up: “The people that I’ve met through direct action are some of the most resilient people, they have been through so much and still keep fighting. That spurs me on and gives me strength to keep going before, during and after actions,” they explain. “While things seem exceptionally bleak right now, especially with the permanent puberty blocker ban, we aren’t going anywhere and we aren’t giving up. We want to see a world where we feel safe, where we don’t have to watch our existence being constantly debated and fight endlessly to receive basic healthcare, and we’re going to bring that about however we can.”
For more information visit: palestineaction.org, juststopoil.org, youthdemand.org and transkidsdeservebetter.org
*Name has been changed to protect identity for security reasons
Enjoyed this story? Help keep independent queer-led publishing alive and unlock the BRICKS Learner Platform, full of resources for emerging and aspiring creatives sent to you every week via newsletter. Start your 30-day free trial now.