I have already submitted a post about my April 2019 Extinction Rebellion (XR) experience, my first protest.
In that post I said that I ended my three days like this:
‘By Wednesday lunchtime, literally everyone around me had been arrested so I was alone at the southern end of Waterloo Bridge, on the pavement next to the Odeon IMAX roundabout. I was standing right up against the traffic in the position that I thought would be the most terrifying when I saw people there on Monday, but there was no-one else left so I figured it was my turn. I had my XR flag on a long pole over my shoulder and 10 police vans behind me, and many people wanted to take my photo.’
When I went for three days to the October 2019 protests (booking the days off work and organising public transport and places to stay), it was so different. When I tried to stand on the pavement, waving my flag (because I am not a natural in such environments eg protests, and I wasn’t sure how else I could help), I was told that I would be arrested. It was very hard for me to understand that the police had the powers to arrest anyone who was standing or walking anywhere in London, if they believed they were part of the XR protest.
It had never occurred to me that I would not be allowed to stand on the edge of a pavement (out of everyone’s way), say nothing but wave my flag, and I would still be arrested – so I did finally move on.
The other things that were different in October, compared to April:
1. The attempts by people like me to show the world that it wasn’t only hippies who were concerned about the UN report saying we only have a few years left before there will be irreversible weather patterns, some people came in a suit to make this point.
2. I volunteered for the arrestee support midnight-6am slot and stood outside a central London police station waiting for people to be released from the cells – the police were really nice to us but apparently that was because we were at a station that hadn’t been used much – and I gave tea and biscuits at 4am to (a) a vicar, (b) a posh young man who lived on a houseboat, and (3) a systems engineer from Brighton.
3. My 23 year old daughter was with me on the third day and we spent the morning singing nearby while a large group of 70 year old were arrested (they looked like librarians), my daughter was sobbing uncontrollably.
The whole thing was horrific and although I agree that the best thing in the world would be if the scientists were wrong, all I can think is that maybe they are right and so we really do need to do something if we are ever to look future generations in the eye.