Jobs, Justice, Climate....Put People First!
Tuesday, 31 March 2009
The old joke about protest marches is that the organisers usually claim a million people turned up, the police say it was nearer a dozen and the truth lies somewhere in between. So when “the police estimated the crowd at about 35,000”* on Saturday’s Put People First march and rally in London, it would be fair to assume that a lot of people turned up. Steve, Gill & Billy from Take the Red Pill spent a day down south, marching, whistling, shouting, listening, dreaming of a new revolution and then hoping that the coach was coming soon ‘cos it was bloody cold......
There aren’t many places where you can meet – among many others - a bunch of people dressed as bananas, some masked anarchists, an adult male with a megaphone on a BMX bike, a very angry comedian, a load of European trade unionists in matching jackets, a lady who was going shopping but got diverted onto a protest march and the lead singer of the Kooks. All at an event hosted by an actor who used to play the role of a very, very silly man who smelled of poo. This is the story of our day in London which someone might have described as being “a very cunning plan.”
I was attracted to the event by the sheer diversity of the people and groups who were backing it. Yes, I was 100% behind the message of the protest but I was even more excited by the idea of a new coalition ready to flex its muscles against the relentless onslaught of unfettered capitalism. I wasn’t expecting the march itself to bring about a change in government policies, but I was hoping that the various groups and individuals present might start to get excited about power being wielded from the bottom up. People who might start to think that governments should be afraid of the people rather than the other way round.
A *%?! OF DAILY MAIL READERS
It was difficult to dream about changing the world when we boarded a sparsely-populated coach in Northampton on a day when the sun hadn’t even bothered to get up. We were welcomed by Kev, a shop steward with UNISON, the union which had organised our coach along with many others which were bringing protesters from all around the country. Kev was just one of the great people we met during the day, a guy who works for the Borough’s youth offenders unit which, like most public services, appears to be seriously short of resources. His only realistic chance of fame will come if something goes drastically wrong and he is lynched by a mob of Daily Mail readers** who can’t understand that it is the men in suits at the top and the privatisation fetishists who are to blame for overstretched public services. Kev seemed like a genuinely good guy who wanted to serve his community but was offered relatively little reward for his efforts. Personally I think his parenting classes and individual case work are at least a million times more important than any work done by people like commodity brokers and investment bankers – and that’s before they were bankrupting the country. This society has a weird sense of value.
Sitting at the back of the coach, we prepared ourselves for battle (just an expression, officer) with a copy of the Guardian, a vegetarian packed lunch (wind power is the future, boys and girls) and an ipod playing King Blues anthems like The Streets Are Ours. We were dropped off near Parliament Square at about 11am and made our way along the embankment to the starting point for the march near Temple tube station. We stopped outside Embankment and this was where we met the fair trade bananas, trade unionists from at least four European countries, Jamie Jazz from the King Blues and the wonderful Noreen. Noreen is an ordinary woman from High Wycombe and I use the word ordinary as a compliment. This revolution will be brought in by ordinary people. Noreen was on her way to do some shopping at Morrison’s when she popped in to say goodbye to her husband. He was watching some news item about the march and Noreen suddenly decided that it was time for her to take some action. So she jumped on a train and came down to London. Good for you, Noreen. We lost track of her on the march but she left a great impression on us and hopefully she’ll keep in touch.
A NEW AND EXCITING ALLIANCE
The event was supported by development charities (ActionAid, CAFOD, Christian Aid, Fairtrade Foundation, Jubilee Debt Campaign, Oxfam, War on Want, World Development Movement), faith groups, environmental campaigners (Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, Stop Climate Chaos, WWF), trade unions (FBU, NUT, UNISON, UNITE), women’s groups, children’s charities, anti-war activists and a host of other groups. Despite the breadth of different interests across the groups, there was a still a strong sense of unity and it was more than just negative unity. The organisers had gathered people around the simple message, aimed at the G20 leaders gathering in London later in the week, of put people first (pretty much ‘people before profit’). There were three strands to the message: jobs (decent jobs and public services for all), justice (end global poverty and inequality) and climate (build a green economy).
The march set out shortly after midday, heading along Victoria Embankment, back round Whitehall, along Piccadilly and up Park Lane to Hyde Park. At times the marchers were disappointingly quiet but this may have been because so many were protest virgins or we may have been too far ahead of the anarchists. One guy with a trusty megaphone kept us chanting, “bail out the people, not the bankers” and we made good use of our whistles and the neat little hooter I’d got hold of earlier in the day. As we went past Downing Street, Dave came into his element. He told me he’d travelled down from Liverpool and he was scooting along on a BMX bike with his lunch hanging on the handlebars and a megaphone in his hand (he confided excitedly that he’d got new batteries for it just before the event). It would be fair to say that Dave isn’t Gordon Brown’s number one fan and for a few minutes we were treated to one man’s very honest and quite funny opinion about the Prime Minister.
while politicians were choosing which bank to save, some mothers in the developing world had to choose which child to feed and which one would be allowed to die
WHO ARE THE REAL TROUBLEMAKERS?
Although we’d seen loads of police vans in side roads, it was fair to say that the coppers kept a pretty low profile on our part of the march and at the rally. This was contrary to disturbing things we’d read in the newspaper that morning with one senior police officer seeming to promise that there would be violence. Presumably he got nicked for incitement under a tenuous anti-terrorism clause hidden away in some legislation about public libraries, thus missing the march and saving everyone a lot of bother. A disappointing attitude, especially in a week when an all party parliamentary committee had criticised the police for over aggressive handling of demonstrations. We wait to see what the rest of the week brings but have little faith in the police representing the lawful protesters rather than the powers that be. Dixon of Downing Street, anyone?
The rally in Hyde Park was compered by actor Tony Robinson and one speaker after another reinforced the put people first message. One brought the issue home by reminding us that while politicians were choosing which bank to save, some mothers in the developing world had to choose which child to feed and which one would be allowed to die. Sobering words which you’d hope might break through the grey indifference of the G20 leaders. The crowd braved the cold and the hail and we were treated to a fine performance by comedian, activist and all round South Londoner Mark Thomas. It wasn’t his usual comedy-laced message but a hard-hitting attack on the evils of capitalism. His passion blazed through the crappy weather and we wished for a few more politicians who could articulate our dissatisfaction quite so succinctly. Mark Thomas against Brown and Cameron – bring it on!
We got back on the coach at about 5pm and were home in good time for Earth Hour. It was an almost perfect finish to a great day. Except for all that candle wax going down the back of the radiator and not being able to see exactly what it was our kids had brought back from the chippy. Our youngest son Josh expressed surprise that another house in our street had one of its lights on until we explained that Earth Hour wasn’t compulsory. In reality, lights off may become a reality rather than a luxury gesture.
The Put People First website summed the day up well when it wrote, “an exciting alliance has been borne today. We will keep up the pressure on world leaders and the UK government to address our demands and put people first.” It wasn’t about what was achieved by one protest and one rally on one day in one city. It was about something being birthed. Something colourful and lively among the dismal grey. Raise your glasses, ladies and gentlemen, to the new arrival. The coalition of those who say, “ya basta!” – “enough is enough!” Noreen’s army is on the march........
*BBC online news 28 March 2009. It was also reported that 15,000 marched in Berlin and 6,500 in Vienna. France has been having huge anti-government protests and strikes, and it’d probably be easier to count those who didn’t take part.......
**We’d love to hear readers’ suggestions for a collective noun to describe Daily Mail readers......
LINKS
LINKED ARTICLES ON TAKE THE RED PILL
Gaza – the Fury & the Football
