A Summer of Protest

As the first year of the Make Poverty History campaign draws to a close, Rachel Cavill describes some of her experiences of protest

Photo: Rachel Cavill

makepovertyhistory

Edinburgh, Saturday 2nd July

And so my summer starts, with a sleepless night, a plane landing late and an afternoon with friends sunbathing on the Meadows. The lack of sleep on the plane and the hour stuck in Motherwell station on the way up, meant I wasn’t really in a fit state to do the march, but nevertheless it was an amazing way to set off on my summer’s campaigning journey.

Ecovillage

Stirling, Monday 4th July

Last night I arrived at the Ecovillage in Stirling, which is where all the ‘anarchists’ are camping during the protests about the G8. The camp has an amazing atmosphere, very ‘Christian’ in a strange kind of way, everyone helps out when things need doing and people are friendly and relaxed. Not seen too many police yet — I’m having fun!

Detention of Asylum Seekers

Some wood out in the middle of Scotland, Tuesday 5th July

We arrived a little late to this protest, ’cos the police shut all the roads bar one into the place, this meant we had to drive an extra 20 miles or so to get there. Eventually we arrive, in, well, in the middle of nowhere actually. We park up at the end of a very long line of cars and set off on foot from our minibus. After a while we reach some police, they try to search us all (unfortunately they ran out of women officers for searching the girls in our group and just gave up and let us through — what a shame!), then a bit further on we have to walk through long tunnels of policemen who just seem to stare at us as we walk past, finally we reach the end of the (empty) detention centre’s drive, all the way up the drive there are police vans parked, cautiously we head on up to the demo, eventually arriving in a car park, next to an old building with barbed wire around it. It’s horrific to think that our government uses places like these ‘out of sight, out of mind’ to lock up traumatized asylum seeking children. I just don’t see how Christians can live silently in the face of these places — the Bible seems to me to be quite clear about our duty to look after the ‘alien’ among us and so what do we do with them? — deny them their freedom and increase their suffering. Once we reach the car park, we realise that the police have us fully surrounded on 3 sides, and our only exit is back down past the hundreds of police we passed on the way up — it didn’t feel like they were there for our safety and protection, and they certainly didn’t help us fight our common enemy — the midges!

Illegitimacy of the G8

Auchterader, Gleneagles, Wednesday 6th July

Today we set off in little groups from our camp, towards the G8 summit, to try to tell them that we believe it’s illegitimate that these 8 men hold the power over 6 billion people across the world, many of whom didn’t even have a chance to vote and elect them! All day we’re being told by everyone we meet that the march has been cancelled, that it’s full, that the trains aren’t running, the roads are blocked… and still we keep on travelling. Around lunch time we happen to bump into a coach load of European protesters dressed as clowns, being searched, by the side of the main road. We decide to hang around and watch (having independent observers often helps in these situations) and have a service together. So we settle down on the grass verge for a service and a picnic. After a few minutes, we have 150 cops for about 30 clowns and the 4 of us. We are being videoed (whilst doing our service), by police evidence gatherers and generally intimidated. It really is quite hard to pray and sing Taize chants, when every time you open your eyes you find a police video camera pointing directly in your face! However we persisted, eventually the police started to ease off on us, and when they finished searching the clowns, they even arranged us a lift on the clowns’ coach onwards to Auchterader!

Auchterader itself is a very very long thin village — we were parked down the bottom and so had to walk a few miles up the hill to find the demo. When we got there, it was clear this wasn’t your average demo. I’ve never yet been on another demo with Chinook helicopters circling low overhead, a row of riot cops down one side of the road, and a field with protesters and riot cops on the other side. It seemed like something from fantasy fiction, or at the very least another country far, far away. Despite the scariness we managed to find some of our other friends, who’d all managed to get there by very different (and strange) routes, and we stuck together and stayed safe.

Ecovillage

Stirling, Thursday 7th July

The police have blockaded us in today. Our camp is surrounded by a fast running river on three sides, and now the police on the fourth one. However, we’re making the best of it, we have a supply of sun tan lotion, some vegan ice cream, some beer and some beautiful views across to Stirling castle. So, if I could choose to be imprisoned anywhere in the world, this has to come close to a perfect place, sunning myself with new friends and old, enjoying a nice summer holiday! This unexpected turn of events has also given the group more time for prayer and to get to know the others in the camp. We got involved in a memorial action for those who had died throughout the world that day (in the London bombings and elsewhere) and generally made useful connections with other faith groups within the camp.

Photo: Rachel Cavill

Glasgow

Friday 8th July

Off home today, but as we were walking across a square in Glasgow to meet a friend for lunch, police swooped — full search done, and lots and lots of questions asked — which I handled really, really badly! I wish I could have remembered how Jesus tackled questions when he was interrogated by Pilate — suddenly ‘no comment’ seems like an amazing answer to the WWJD question for that situation.

Dalek

York, August

Since Stirling, some of us have been spending our summer making the ultimate campaigns prop, a full size Dalek — It can “Exterminate Poverty”, declare “Daleks against state killing” (E.g. The shoot to kill policy) and “Evil alien killing machines against the war!” Whilst it has taken us a lot of time and effort, it has been great fun, and well worth the effort! Also spent summer Saturday afternoons doing makepovertyhistory stalls in Parliament Street. Generally things have gone well, but much quieter than before the G8.

World White Band Day

York, September 10th

Our Dalek made its first official appearance in York today. We covered the trees in Parliament Street in white bands and also put a giant white band round All Saints Pavement Church. Altogether a really good day, which got us 130 votes for trade justice and a lot more publicity in the city. The Christian Aid Action Group, did a lot of the planning and organising and have been a great source of inspiration, as they try to involve Christians from across the city (and even North Yorkshire) in the campaign.

World’s Largest Arms Fair

Docklands, London, September 13th

Today I arrived in London for the protests aimed at the DSEI, the world’s largest arms fair. We went first to the convergence centre, a squat in Tower Hamlets. But don’t get the wrong impression here — it was a really nice building and it really is a shame that this community facility has fallen into disuse. We have a good kitchen, a dance studio as our sleeping area and a couple of meeting rooms, a crèche and a living room to boot. We started our protest by going along to a candle lit march and vigil outside the exhibition centre.

September 14th

Today was fairly ineffective, I went out with a kids block (a group of children and parents wanting to blockade the event.), they did do a fairly effective block atop the bridge at the station where the delegates get off the train. But after that was cleared, we had an afternoon of getting to know the area, while a little way away a large march was going past.

September 15th

Walked out of convergence centre this morning, straight into a line of police — most of my friends were thoroughly searched and questioned, I however had an argument with a policeman about whether the three empty Pringles tubes we were carrying were offensive weapons (!!!), once we’d conceded that we weren’t going to win the argument, and let them throw the things away, they lost interest in myself and my friend, so I yet again escaped being searched! Spent much of the morning travelling on the trains which the delegates were getting to the conference and trying to sell them our small plastic guns instead of the big ones at the arms fair. We had two major selling points — “ours were cheaper and had the added advantage that they couldn’t kill anyone”. It was good fun engaging with people in a nonthreatening way. There was also a very successful critical mass bike ride today, which we joined up with for a while. About 100 riders rode from the centre of London out to the arms fair, with samba and other music accompanying them.

Reflection

September 16th

So now my summer is coming to a close, I’ve been to all sorts of protests, using different tactics to get across different points. I’ve learnt a lot about my own boundaries and shattered many a media stereotype. I’ve discovered that protest is not just something that comes along when the pop stars call for it, but, like Christianity, it can be a way of life — so as my journey through my summer of protest comes to an end, a new journey begins — one of a lifetime of protest.

Rachel Cavill