On Black Friday 2024, two rebels poured about a hundred liters of “oil” into the entrance of Primark in The Hague. The oil was meant to show customers that fast fashion is a dirty business: more and more clothing is made from polyester (oil!). Fast fashion is the largest fossil fuel industry after oil, coal, gas and meat: it accounts for 8% of all CO₂ emissions, comparable to the combined emissions of all European Union countries, and almost twice as much as the emissions of all ships and airplanes worldwide put together.

That action marked the beginning of Just Stop Fast Fashion (JSFF). What followed were protests across the country. Not only at the biggest polluters and human rights violators like Primark and Inditex, but also at Dutch companies like The Sting and Bestseller, whose wares contribute as much to the extinction of all life on earth. In addition to the “oil” actions, JSFF also started to use chalk spray and graffiti on sidewalks and windows in shopping streets to point out how much fast fashion ruins the streetscape.

The name was chosen as a reference to the British activist group Just Stop Oil, known for small, highly disruptive actions using “ecotage”—disrupting business operations with economic damage as the means. Similar to their British comrades, JSFF aim to be prosecuted with every action, issuing a clear statement on how and why the activists did what they did. JSFF endeavor to use the courtroom as a platform for their message, and they keep challenging fast-fashion companies to file charges.

The demand JSFF make to shops, corporations, the industry and governments is as simple as the name of the group: Just Stop Fast Fashion. It simply has to stop, because there’s no possible way to do fast fashion ethically. Fast fashion is accelerating human extinction due to its significant contribution to climate change, its existence is only possible due to an excess of human rights violations, and the overproduction serves no purpose: clothing is made to be thrown away.

The “oil” JSFF use is harmless—the recipe is: 1 teaspoon of pond dye and 1 tablespoon of xanthan gum per 1 liter of water. The substance is easily washed off with water, even from white fabrics, and it’s biodegradable. It’s even edible—gluten-free and vegan—but it doesn’t really taste of anything. To date, none of JSFF’s targets have reported any damage to their property.