Last month, 10 protesters were arrested on ‘suspicion of conspiracy to cause public nuisance’ outside the opening of Parliament. The protestors – most of them under the age of 25 – were captured by an air drone camera as they donned keffiyehs and held placards with the words “Stop Israel’s Gaza Genocide”, encircled by a ring of Metropolitan Police officers glowing in fluorescent hi-vis.
Those involved are part of a new organisation called Youth Demand – a youth-led, umbrella activist group which stemmed from the student branch of Just Stop Oil. The group is relatively new, having formed earlier this year, but in the past five months it has staged 25 major actions and, in April, captured national headlines when it placed rows of kids’ shoes outside Keir Starmer’s house to symbolise the massacre of children in Gaza.
On its website, Youth Demand claims that “young people aren’t stupid”. Its actions are provoked by a string of government failings – notably the continued supply of arms to Israel, even as this breaches international law, and a negligent response to the existential calamity of the climate crisis. At large, the group is the latest instalment in a sequence of protest movements that have manifested online and on the streets over the past decade, each spurred by individual moments of heightened racial, economic or environmental strife but united by one collective grievance: that a political system which prioritises profit over human life is fundamentally broken.
In the UK the current condition of protest is more fraught than ever, with the state introducing new draconian laws and handing out some of the harsher prison sentences in recent memory (last month, a 22-year-old student was sentenced to the longest prison sentence for peaceful resistance in the history of the UK for dialling into a zoom call). But Youth Demand is fighting back against this oppressive climate. The group is a firm antidote to the sentiment that young people are either naive or downtrodden by a paralysing political nihilism, and that the possibility of protest begins and ends with an infographic and a retweet.
To find out more about how Youth Demand operates and what it wants, I spoke to Olivia, a 22-year-old activist from Leeds who’s been arrested four times and has been campaigning with the group since its inception. Over Zoom, she spoke to me about why the group holds their heads high towards the future whilst their feet remain – quite literally – cemented to the ground.
What is Youth Demand and how did you form as an organisation?
Olivia Youth Demand: We were set up by a group of Just Stop Oil students and have since evolved into a wider revolutionary organisation based on the premise that there are loads of issues – not just climate breakdown – linked by the root problem of our political system being broken. We have two demands: a two-way arms embargo on Israel, and to revoke all of the oil and gas licences the Tories issued since 2021. Labour has committed to end new oil and gas licences, but essentially they’re locking the barn door after the horse has bolted, because they’re not cancelling the licences which the Tories already sanctioned. Inevitably, a revolution is coming down the line, because our system is not going to be able to handle the collapse that we’re going to see. We have to ensure this is a pro-social revolution rather than a descent into fascism.
Why do young people care about the climate crisis and the conflict in Palestine?
Olivia Youth Demand: It’s becoming incredibly clear to everyone across the country, but especially to young people, that the MPs who are supposed to represent us do not. They’re not doing what is morally the right thing to do, and they’re failing in their basic duty of care. This means that young people have to be in resistance against the system. We are a youth-led campaign but if older people want to be in resistance, no one’s going to turn them away. However, there is strength in the fact that – especially around climate breakdown – we are the youth and this is our future. It is incredibly unjust that it’s largely older people who are making decisions that put profit over lives and who are sending us into the furnace without any representation of our views. So it’s important that the youth of this country have a voice, and we’re here to help get that out there.
How do you aim to achieve these demands? What are your methods?
Olivia Youth Demand: People have to come together and take material disruptive action that gives us genuine leverage to force politicians to meet our demands. That is where we take our power as people. This means sitting down on roads. This means blocking traffic. This means disrupting events. This means physically putting our bodies on the line to cause mass disruption that forces politicians to take the actions we know they wouldn’t do if left on their own. We have to get organised for mass civil resistance. Our meetings and workshops actively bring young people together and provide tangible, concrete pathways into effective action, because if we’re not the ones to do this it will be the fascists.
“The Labour Government is a fucking joke. I think they’re a disgrace to the people of this country. Any wins that we’ve had are not in the tiniest bit due to that party having any sort of moral backbone” – Olivia
Are you hopeful that the Labour government is taking sufficient steps to tackle these issues?
Olivia Youth Demand: Honestly, no. I think the Labour Government is a fucking joke. I think they’re a disgrace to the people of this country. Any wins that we’ve had – and where there have been marginal wins for the Palestine movement – are not in the tiniest bit due to Labour having any sort of moral backbone. These wins are a testament to the strength of people’s power: movements and people getting in the streets. We need ordinary people to take back power, because in these moments of crisis, politicians get busy making their friends rich. It doesn’t matter whether it’s the Tories or whether it’s Labour – it’s the system itself that is failing us. We’ve seen this so many times, especially if you look at what happened with COVID: it was normal people who came together to protect the most vulnerable while politicians handed out bullshit contracts to their friends and got richer. But that doesn‘t mean I don’t have faith. I have hope that the people of this country will come together and do what’s right.
We’ve recently seen some of the longest prison sentences for peaceful protest in the history of the UK. How do you feel about this and does it change your approach in any way?
Olivia Youth Demand: Firstly, for a lot of us and for myself – these are my friends. Cressie, who was sentenced to four years and George, who was just sentenced to two years – these are people who I hugely admire and who have been instrumental in creating and driving Youth Demand. It’s really sad, but does it change what we’re doing? No. If the government thinks that these insane sentences are going to frighten us out of action, they are completely misled: what they’re actually doing is affirming that non-violent direct action works. If you’re worth putting in prison, then you’re properly in resistance. The government is realising that its days are numbered, and that is why they’re desperately attempting to smother the fire wherever they see it starting. But what they’re really doing is fanning the flames and driving more people into resistance by revealing how outrageous their actions are.
What do you think of social media activism? Do you think posting can ever truly be an effective form of protest?
Olivia Youth Demand: Social media is an amazing tool. It’s how we get the word out there about what we’re doing. It’s how we get people to come and join us. But there is a danger in thinking that armchair activism is enough. If we want an arms embargo on Israel, we won’t get there by tweeting about it or posting on our Instagram stories. I invite everyone who shares anything about the pain and the suffering we’re seeing in Palestine to join me; to sit down in a row with me and refuse to leave when the police ask us to. Politicians don’t give a shit about our Instagram stories, but they do care if we’re causing the kind of material disruption that hits them where it hurts – which is their wallets. Social media is a tool to get us there, but it is not an end in itself.
“Politicians don’t give a shit about our Instagram stories, but they do care if we’re causing the kind of material disruption that hits them where it hurts – which is their wallets”
Do you think the sense of disillusionment amongst young people towards the government has inspired an increased incentive for disruptive action?
Olivia Youth Demand: I think we’ve seen a massive shift. The Palestine movement has been an enormous wake-up movement, especially for my generation, because with politicians, the masks are off. We’ve seen Keir Starmer justifying cutting off electricity, clean water and aid supplies to Palestinians. How can that not change the kind of action you think is necessary when it’s obvious our leaders will not do anything to help unless we force them into a situation where they need to? People have been going on these non-disruptive marches week after week and still seeing Israel escalate, still seeing the bombing of Rafah, still seeing things get worse and worse, and yet a large segment of our movement is not escalating alongside that.
What are your next steps moving forward as an organisation and how can more people get involved?
Olivia Youth Demand: We will be back in resistance in autumn and taking even more serious action. If people want to get involved whatever way they can, you can go to our website and sign up to be a part of our actions. If you can’t, then donate so that we can continue doing this work and support those who are getting in the streets.
