Skip to main content
Work with the NEU
A splash of protest
Just Stop Oil activists aren’t out to destroy art, they are here to save us. We should thank them not jail them, argues LINDA PENTZ GUNTER
Just Stop Oil supporters sit on the floor after throwing soup over two of Vincent Van Gogh’s Sunflowers paintings at the National Gallery in London, September 27, 2024 [Just Stop Oil]

LUDI SIMPSON and I were at university together in the 1970s, connected by our involvement in left politics. Then we lost touch. In recent years we found each other again and were relieved to discover that, unlike a number of our contemporaries, we have not drifted to the political centre. Our radical roots remain firmly anchored.

Ludi’s, though, flowered in a more courageous way than mine. Last Friday, he was arrested, not for the first time, alongside two other Just Stop Oil activists, after throwing vegetable soup on two of Van Gogh’s sunflower paintings in the National Gallery. 

The paintings are being featured as part of the Poets and Lovers exhibition there. Just Stop Oil uses non-violent civil disobedience and direct action to achieve its objective — an end to oil, gas and coal by 2030.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
A street scene in Cuba
Features / 27 May 2026
27 May 2026

The real ‘humanitarian threat’ isn’t Cuba but the United States, where poverty, lack of healthcare and illiteracy abound, writes LINDA PENTZ GUNTER

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer during a visit to Panshanger Community Centre in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire. Picture date: Tuesday February 10, 2026
Politics / 13 February 2026
13 February 2026

The Carpathia isn’t coming to rescue this government still swimming in the mire, writes LINDA PENTZ GUNTER

SEIZED: Mohammed Ibrahim, whose welfare is of increasing concern. Photo: Zaher Ibrahim
Features / 27 November 2025
27 November 2025

Groups are urging the US government to secure the 16-year old’s release as his mental and physical health decline dramatically after nine months inside Ofer prison, writes LINDA PENTZ GUNTER

A protester dressed in a costume watches as Department of Homeland Security officers detain a protester outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility on Thursday, Oct. 2, 2025, in Portland, Ore
United States / 17 October 2025
17 October 2025

From terrifying the children of immigrants to pepper-spraying frogs, the US under Trump is rapidly descending into mayhem, writes Linda Pentz Gunter