LONDON, July 1 () –
Supporters of the Just Stop Oil environmental activism platform have broken up the London Pride march in protest against the parade organizers for accepting sponsorship from “highly polluting industries”.
The Metropolitan Police have confirmed that protesters sat down in the middle of the street in Piccadilly at around 1:30 p.m. this afternoon, causing the parade to come to a momentary standstill. Seven people have been arrested for crimes of disturbance of public order, according to a statement from the MET, published on its Twitter account.
Just Stop Oil had previously warned it would take action during a petition to big event organizers to ban “highly polluting” sponsor floats and condemn new oil, gas and coal.
In a statement, the LGBT+ members of the group have lamented that these sponsorships “shame the community at a time when much of the cultural world rejects ties to these toxic industries” before assuring that LGBT+ people are the ones who “suffer first accelerated social disintegration caused by climate change.
“It speaks to how far we’ve come as a community,” the organization said, “that highly polluting industries and the banks that finance them now see Pride as a useful vehicle to clean up their reputations, waving rainbow flags from one hand. while accelerating social collapse with the other,” they add in their note, collected by The Press Association.
