Phoebe Plummer
Phoebe Plummer | |
|---|---|
| Born | London |
| Education | St Mary's School Ascot Mander Portman Woodward University of Manchester School of Oriental & African Studies |
| Occupation | Climate activist |
Phoebe Plummer is a British climate activist associated with Just Stop Oil. They[a] first attracted attention for an October 2022 stunt at London's National Gallery in which they and Anna Holland threw tomato soup at a Vincent van Gogh painting, which caused worldwide outrage but empowered activists to carry out similar actions. Plummer was sentenced the month after for blocking the M25 motorway. In November 2023, they caused tailbacks on multiple roads in West London with a slow march protest, for which they faced the first jury trial under section 7 of the Public Order Act 2023. An attempt at a delivering letter to Emily Thornberry MP prompted them to be arrested, though a subsequent attempt at delivering a letter to Wes Streeting MP was unsuccessful.
Plummer was convicted of "interference with key national infrastructure" and criminal damage in May and July 2024, and was arrested for defacing departure boards at Heathrow Airport shortly after the latter. They was sentenced to three and 24 months in prison for their convictions two months later in spite of an open letter from more than a hundred artists, curators, and academics imploring the Judge not to, sparking criticism from George Monbiot, who compared their sentence with other violent crimes that had received suspended sentences.
Life and career
[edit]Early life and Sunflowers protest
[edit]Plummer was born in Chelsea, London and has two older brothers.[2] They are queer and non-binary[3] and use singular they pronouns.[1] They attended St Mary's School Ascot for three years[4] before obtaining A-levels in Chemistry, Computer Studies, and Maths at Mander Portman Woodward. In their late teens, they went vegan, stopped flying, and began buying only second-hand clothes. They also became interested in climate activism on the grounds that it would affect their future and began signing petitions, writing to members of parliament, and participating in marches.[2] In summer 2022, after temperatures reached 40 °C (104 °F) in some parts of England, they increased the intensity of their activism[3] and joined Just Stop Oil.[4] They spent a short period reading computer science at the University of Manchester before transferring to the School of Oriental & African Studies in London,[2] where they read social anthropology.[4]
"What is worth more, art or life? Is it worth more than food? Worth more than justice? Are you more concerned about the protection of a painting, or the protection of our planet and people? The cost-of-living crisis is part of the cost-of-oil crisis, fuel is unaffordable to millions of cold, hungry families. They can’t even afford to heat a tin of soup."[5]
Plummer on 14 October 2022
At around 11am on 14 October 2022,[5] Plummer and Anna Holland entered London's National Gallery and went to room 43.[6] After waiting for a space to clear in front of a Vincent van Gogh Sunflowers painting, the pair removed their jackets to reveal white shirts with Just Stop Oil slogans, threw Heinz tomato soup at the painting, glued themselves to the wall, and demanded to know whether art was worth more than life, food, and justice.[7] The stunt was Just Stop Oil's second protest at the National Gallery that year, following protesters gluing themselves to John Constable's The Hay Wain that July,[8] and had been filmed by a supporter for publicity purposes.[7]
Performed out of a desire to deliver something impactful,[4] their actions caused £10,000 worth of damage to the picture's frame[6] and caused worldwide outrage,[4] though some were assuaged by the fact that the painting was behind glass and was itself unharmed.[4] The pair received significant queerphobic abuse from social media and right-wing newspapers following the incident, though their actions inspired several subsequent climate activists to throw food at paintings around the world, including mashed potato in Germany at a Claude Monet painting and maple syrup in Canada[9] at an Emily Carr painting.[10] Both Plummer and Holland were arrested for the incident and were released on bail.[4]
Two weeks afterward, they and many other Just Stop Oil activists blocked the M25 motorway, causing four days of disruption, for which they was incarcerated at HM Prison Bronzefield. While there, they shared a cell with another Just Stop Oil member and regularly encountered other M25 protesters.[2] In an interview with Damian Whitworth of The Times published in July 2024, Plummer stated that they had felt "empowered" by the soup throwing incident, as they felt they was "seizing back power from the systems that are hell-bent on destroying us and destroying everything we know and love", and that they had received "hot food, shelter, clean clothes, [and] warm blankets" in prison, all of which "millions in the global south" had already lost to climate change.[4]
Later activity and slow march protest
[edit]Plummer later posed for Dazed in summer 2023, for which they had "Stop Oil" written on their chest, held a can of Heinz tomato soup, and wore a silk and cotton sweater by Loro Piana.[2] On 15 November 2023, Plummer, Chiara Sarti, and Daniel Hall mounted a slow march protest along Earls Court Road as part of a Just Stop Oil campaign that called for the government of the United Kingdom to stop issuing new licences for oil and gas exploitation. Their campaign caused long tailbacks which extended to Cromwell Road and the Hammersmith flyover, causing several hours of traffic disruption.[11] For this, Plummer and Sarti were held on remand for 18 and 19 days respectively.[12] In March 2024, Plummer was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to burgle and of sending malicious communication after attempting to deliver a letter to Emily Thornberry MP. Later that month, after attempting to deliver a letter to Wes Streeting MP, Streeting tweeted that they had not even got the right borough.[13]
In April 2024, while wearing an ankle tag, they gave an interview to Tipping Points, a podcast by a student at Imperial College London.[2] Plummer's November 2023 protest was litigated in front of a jury in May 2024, becoming the first such trial under section 7 of the Public Order Act 2023. Their trial, in which Plummer represented themself, took place during unusual heat in the courts, prompting the court to finish early on several days. They was convicted that month of "interference with key national infrastructure".[14] In July 2024, Plummer and Holland were convicted by Judge Christopher Hehir of causing criminal damage for their tomato soup protest and warned to expect prison. Plummer and another activist was arrested five days afterwards for spraying paint at departure boards at Heathrow Airport.[8]
In September 2024, more than a hundred artists, curators and academics signed an open letter coordinated by Greenpeace and Liberate Tate imploring him not to sentence them to prison.[15] In spite of this, Judge Christopher Hehir sentenced Plummer to two years for their tomato soup protest and three months for their slow march. Around an hour after sentencing, further activists performed an identical protest at the National Gallery.[6] Their sentence was criticised by George Monbiot, who pointed out that Hehir had given suspended sentences to many violent criminals and jail terms of four and five years to Just Stop Oil protesters for blocking the M25 two months earlier. He also pointed out that Huw Edwards and racist protesters in the 2024 United Kingdom riots had also been given suspended sentences.[16]
Notes
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ a b "Just Stop Oil Activists Sentenced for Attack on Van Gogh Painting". New York Times. Archived from the original on 2 October 2024. Retrieved 2 October 2024.
- ^ a b c d e f Norton, Jim (1 August 2024). "'My dad is a climate denier': The Just Stop Oil poster girl who went from private school to prison". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 26 September 2024. Retrieved 27 September 2024.
- ^ a b "Lessons From Civil Resistance With Phoebe Plummer". Communicating Climate Change. Archived from the original on 10 April 2023. Retrieved 3 October 2024.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Whitworth, Damian (29 July 2024). "'We're not criminals': what Just Stop Oil's poster girls told me". www.thetimes.com. Retrieved 1 October 2024.
- ^ a b Gayle, Damien (14 October 2022). "Just Stop Oil activists throw soup at Van Gogh's Sunflowers". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on 14 October 2022. Retrieved 2 October 2024.
- ^ a b c Gayle, Damien (27 September 2024). "Just Stop Oil activists throw soup at Van Gogh's Sunflowers after fellow protesters jailed". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2 October 2024.
- ^ a b Kirk, Tristan (27 September 2024). "Just Stop Oil eco-activists jailed for throwing soup at Van Gogh's Sunflowers". Evening Standard. Archived from the original on 28 September 2024. Retrieved 1 October 2024.
- ^ a b "Just Stop Oil protesters jailed for throwing soup on Sunflowers". BBC News. 27 September 2024. Archived from the original on 30 September 2024. Retrieved 2 October 2024.
- ^ Wakefield, Lily (29 December 2022). "Climate activist who threw soup at Van Gogh urges LGBTQ+ people to take stand". PinkNews | Latest lesbian, gay, bi and trans news | LGBTQ+ news. Archived from the original on 9 April 2024. Retrieved 2 October 2024.
- ^ "In soup vs. art, climate change protesters lose, says activist". CBC.ca. Archived from the original on 28 November 2023. Retrieved 2 October 2024.
- ^ Gayle, Damien (15 May 2024). "UK climate activists convicted in first trial of new anti-protest laws". The Guardian.
- ^ Gayle, Damien (8 May 2024). "First trial of Just Stop Oil activists under new anti-protest laws begins". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2 October 2024.
- ^ Barton, Alex (27 March 2024). "Just Stop Oil poster girl bungles letter stunt by failing to find Labour frontbencher's house". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Archived from the original on 14 July 2024. Retrieved 2 October 2024.
- ^ Gayle, Damien (15 May 2024). "UK climate activists convicted in first trial of new anti-protest laws". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2 October 2024.
- ^ Gayle, Damien (26 September 2024). "Artists plead for activists who threw soup on a Van Gogh to be spared jail". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2 October 2024.
- ^ Monbiot, George (1 October 2024). "As the waters rise, a two-year sentence for throwing soup. That's the farcical reality of British justice". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2 October 2024.