We were at the UK’s largest ever climate change demonstration, The Wave, in London this weekend. Ian Sullivan reports.
As the bus headed into central London everyone was busy painting finger nails, drawing on faces and waving to the other blue people that we passed. My job for the day was to film The Wave climate change march.
When your job is to campaign, it’s always a great feeling when the strategies are decided, the coalitions organised and you can get away from your desk and do what it was that first got you excited about tackling the important issues, standing up for what you believe is right and being counted.
As my colleague Lucy showed in her blog last week, throughout our history it’s ordinary people who have forced many of the big changes – from ending slavery, to women getting the vote. So it’s always exciting to be part of that tradition and get out onto the streets with thousands of other passionate and excited people from all walks of life, coming together to let our leaders know that it’s time for action.
At Oxfam, we’re involved with climate change because we know that it’s already impacting on the poorest people’s lives. The irony is that they’ve done the least to cause it and often don’t get a say in the decisions that have life and death implications for them. For me, this is about justice.
So getting off the bus, we stepped into the throng of Grosvenor Square, packed with people ready to march. There were speeches to kick it off – including from Oxfam chief exec Barbara Stocking and Constance from Uganda. Then the sea of blue began flowing through London, accompanied by whistles, drums and even brass bands, ordinary people united in calling on our government to secure a fair and binding agreement at the UN Summit in Copenhagen.
As I ran backwards and forwards through the mass of blue people and placards I got to chat to virgin marchers, seasoned veterans, individuals, groups and families. Everyone had their own story, but I was amazed at how inclusive and broad a movement climate change has become. We all know that with climate change there is no second chance. Hopefully this message has got through to leaders. Hopefully Ed Miliband and Gordon Brown will remember this day when they sit down at the summit.
The work doesn’t stop here though; there’s plenty more campaigning to do before and after Copenhagen. As Tony Benn once said, (I’ll paraphrase): What we have to do is go away from here and continue to build a mass movement of many different people with many different ideas – that way we can’t be ignored and this issue won’t go away.
Or in other words – keep going until you’re blue in the face.
Follow the Copenhagen Summit: Copenhagen live
Tags: london, Stop Climate Chaos, The Wave
Nice blog Ian. V uplifting.
December 6th, 2009 at 3.50 pmThanks Oxfam for having me be a part of this. After helping to paint the faces of Oxfam supporters I discovered Ed Milliband doing an interview on ITN News and waited around to have a quick chat. i asked him to ensure that in Copenhagen a fair, binding but ambitious deal is made and he told me that he would do his ‘VERY BEST’… thanks Mr Milliband for being honest and for agreeing to try.
December 7th, 2009 at 11.07 amThanks for putting on the cycle rickshaws. I meant I could take part in the march instead of just watching it, as I have difficulties walking. Looking forward to seeing more pics. What a shame there’s been so much publicity about the stupid emails, and less about the march eg nothing in the Observer
December 7th, 2009 at 7.12 pm