More paint, less oil: a Gramscian analysis of the Just Stop Oil movement
Mathilde Palanque, BSc International Social and Public Policy with Politics
Through a daring mobilization which echoes the disruptive spirit of Antonio Gramsci’s theories, the English social and environmental collective, Just Stop Oil (JSO), is taking on the challenge of breaking the fossil fuel industry. By combining Gramsci's political thought with research I've carried out into the motivations and experiences of young JSO activists, this piece will explore the modus operandi of the movement and its innovative value in mobilising change.
On the 7th of November, two climate activists from the JSO movement made headlines by striking the glasses protecting Velazquez’s masterpiece, “The Toilet of Venus”, at the London National Gallery. The painting reveals a striking metaphor. Venus, languidly lying down and observing herself in a mirror, symbolizes humanity unable to detach from its reflection, blind to the impending catastrophe. The mirror is thus a tool of realization, as one of the activists declared: "Politics is failing us”. This is the message conveyed by JSO to the public highlighting the harmful actions perpetrated by states and companies. This audacious performance is therefore more than a mere act of vandalism: it serves as a strong symbolic and political action.
Why do these young climate activists choose the radical path over other forms of engagement? I interviewed four young activists who are part of the movement. From their moving testimonies, the main motivational sources that emerged include cognitive (contact to climate and scientific knowledge), interpersonal (familial upbringings and strong emotions driving a desire for community), social (environmental justice being social justice), and practical (perception of JSO’s effectiveness in bringing about change).
Building on this empirical data, I wish to look at the movement through the lens of Gramsci’s Prison Notebook, in which the concepts of mobilisation and critical thinking are central. Gramsci’s notion of cultural hegemony contends that the dominant class rules society not only through the actions of economic and political institutions – coercion – but also through the shaping of cultural beliefs and values of society – consent.
JSO can precisely be seen as challenging the current cultural hegemony. For the past decades, despite the Paris Agreement’s goal requiring a rapid change to renewable energies, the dominant class still advocates for the fossil fuels status quo, their overextraction and overconsumption. In coercing the primacy of the latter, political and economic leaders access money, power, and influence. By breaking the window of Venus, and splattering Van Gogh’s yellow flowers with tomato soup just over a year ago, JSO’s reckless activists seek to disrupt the dominant narrative which portrays oil as a sine qua non-resources. Their message is clear: they “Just want to Stop Oil”, and by doing so challenge the current cultural hegemony. Firstly, the directness and disruptiveness JSO employs towards their goals was indeed a significant finding of my research. Interviewees expressed deep feelings of despair and powerlessness, and voting green or signing petitions simply appeared not enough given the urgency and size of the issue. Secondly, the four activists emphasised how environmental justice is social justice, and currently, the Western political hegemony fosters a dynamic of domination – namely on countries of the ‘Global South’ and marginalised populations. Therefore, by joining JSO’s struggle, young people are seeking to break that cycle of extraction and bring humanity back into the discourse.
As disruptive as JSO’s actions may be in the eyes of society, young activists are claiming back a form of agency and breaking the current political hegemony surrounding climate change.
Image: Jiatong Jin
Nonetheless, JSO contradicts Gramsci’s theory on leadership. The thinker puts an emphasis on ‘traditional intellectuals’ driving the masses in the development of their critical capabilities, but the JSO movement operates a horizontal leadership. Within the organization, there are no driving intellectuals nor organizing captains. The boat is in the hands of a wide collective, a feature that perhaps explains the infatuation around it. The four activists all decided to join because they were in search of a community with whom they would share their most thrilling joys as much as their deepest turmoil. By fostering an alternative, nonhierarchical mode of operation as well as a powerful sense of solidarity, the movement is redrawing the contours of activism.
While this disrupting form of activism brings significant benefits to its followers, it has nevertheless fuelled a number of debates about its effectiveness and its reception by the public. To face these barriers, The Global Atlas of Environmental Justice database analysed the efficiency of civil disobedience climate groups just like JSO in curbing fossil-fuel projects, by listing hundreds of actions around the world. Empirical evidence shows that over a quarter of the projects encountering group resistance have been either cancelled, suspended, or delayed. Therefore, in order to ease the contention between civil disobedience activists and local populations, a dialogue should be maintained so that each group hears and understands the concerns and needs of the other.
By performing disruptive actions, activists are thus breaking what the philosopher designates as the ‘common sense’, steering the narrative through energetic, conscious, and deeply human social actions. In the words of Gramsci, “everyone is a philosopher”; for Just Stop Oil, everyone is an activist.