I went on my first protest at the ripe old age of 21. It was one of the thousands of anti-war marches that happened across the world six years ago. It is reckoned that globally over 10 million people took to the streets in the first few months of 2003 prior to the invasion of Iraq.  You wouldn’t have really known it, at my one. It was in the sleepy old town of Lower Hutt, New Zealand and as the 70 of us trundled along to the US ambassadors house we were an odd sight. An eclectic mix of hippies, veterans and protest virgins, our banners still wet with paint. Many of my family and friends on that day were marching at the slightly more powerful location of London, with 1 million others. But still, I felt fabulous with my rag tag bunch that morning; at peace with the world and at one with humanity!

It wasn’t until a couple of years later that I, along with a huge number of people who took part in those marches, asked the question “What was the point? If millions march and Iraq is still invaded, how can we kid ourselves that taking to the streets has any role in change at all?” Indeed, part of my job with Oxfam is to encourage people along to mass protests and I often get queried along these lines, with the anti-war marches being the most repeated source of discouragement.

A lot of work has been put into discovering what “went wrong” in 2003,  and the most compelling arguments suggest that actually, compared to the Vietnam protest movement, the Iraq marches lacked the wider, behind the scenes work needed to create policy change. The marches had people on the streets, but no “insider” subversion.  We also need to consider that movements involving mass protests that have seemed to work- think suffragettes and abolitionists - have often been processes that were decades long. It is effectively claimed that the most recent anti-war marches were too in their infancy to have an immediate impact, and we may well see the implications of the 2003 marches over the coming years.

Maybe it wasn’t the anti-war marches that went wrong,  but our own ideas about protesting. Perhaps we have come to see a single march as being a unit of change in itself.  We quietly hope that if we march on Saturday the change will come on Monday. We forget that we need to march on Saturday, blog on Sunday, present a petition on Monday, meet with our MP on Tuesday, write a letter to an editor on Wednesday, email the Prime Minister on Thursday and dance on Parliament Square on Friday, in order to see change on Monday. We don’t all have to be doing something every day but our march does have to be seen as one crucial prong of a multi-pronged movement. Or as Noam Chomsky puts it, a much needed spark in a series of sparks; 

 “The spirit of opposition remains alive and widespread, far more so than in the 1960s. And as then — or in the earlier civil rights movements, or the later women’s, environmental, anti-nuclear, solidarity, global justice movements and others — small sparks can ignite large-scale commitment that may seem dormant, but is just below the surface. That is how every achievement for justice and peace has been won in the past, and there is no reason to suppose that the future will be any different.”

Or one finger on the hand that will wave hello to change.

Ah, talking of waving, this Saturday will see tens of thousands of people descending on parliament to demand a climate change deal that is fair, ambitious and binding at an event called The Wave.  I will be there as I believe firmly that all the other work necessary for change to happen is also occurring. I know we have Oxfam gurus meeting regularly with decision makers to talk about the policy that needs to be implemented. I know we have had hearings all over the world so that no bureaucrat can deny the impact climate change is having in their country. I know that everyday for the last year Gordon Brown has received post demanding a global climate deal that is just. I know that on Saturday the negotiators embarking on their Copenhagen trip will be left with the impressive sight of the roads filled with diverse and passionate people calling for the change we need.

The role of street protest in bringin about social change isn’t splendidly clear cut, and it isn’t simple. But history tells us that it is an absolutely vital cog. The Wave will represent the millions of small actions that have happened throughout 2009; from the classes of school children who have successfully fought to become an eco school to the activist who stole down to the local station at midnight to chalk climate inspiration all over the platform.

So, this Saturday, 5 December, 11:45pm at South Molton Street, just by Grosvenor Square… It could just be the straw to break the camel’s back…“World, the time has come to galvanize!”.

Tags: activists, anti-war, Change, climate change, Copenhagen, does protest work, effective, march, movement, Oxfam, street protest, The Wave, why, why march

This entry was posted by Lucy Aitken-Read on December 4th, 2009 at 2.57 pm and is filed under Campaigns Blog, Campaigns News, Oxfam South East, You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.