What I hadn't noticed when I read the poster for the talk (because it was in the small print at the bottom) was that the talk had been organised by a group called Just Stop Oil, so it was a bit more specific in its scope than most of the audience were expecting.
Two very earnest young women gave the talk. One spoke about being inspired by the Freedom Riders of the American Civil Rights movement in the 1960s, and the other read out a statement from a young man who is on remand at the moment because of his part in previous protests, when oil refineries in the South of England were blockaded.
The aim of Just Stop Oil is very specific - it is to stop the government from granting any further licences for the extraction of fossil fuels, in the hope that this will have a knock on effect to preventing further extractions. They are committed to non-violence (training is given).
For the second half of the evening, the audience was divided up into two groups for discussions, and we went outside to sit under the trees. I don't know how the discussion went in the other group, but the group I joined was mostly made up of women who had been activists for years For instance, Sara described a protest in Ireland that she had been part of, to stop the building of a nuclear power plant, in which they rang up every musician in Ireland, from Van Morrison down, and asked them to come and play - and most of them came! The power plant was later built at Windscale.
Some women had been at Greenham Common, and a variety of other protests for different causes over the years, and there was some reminiscing about how long it took to organise things before the internet existed.
So they had a lot of advice to give the Just Stop Oil young women, including using the legal system rather than holding protests. one woman said that what was really needed were more solicitors and lawyers to take environmental cases to court - some groups have had success with that method.
They were also talking about more community based action that local people can take, such as getting involved with the Save the Wye campaign, or campaigning for better public transport - lots of things can be done locally to mitigate the effects of climate change.
Mike, the only man at our table, pointed out that community action and planting trees and so on was all very well, but the only thing that really matters is to reduce emissions, and that's not something local groups can make a dent in. If there isn't urgent action by all governments around the world to reduce emissions and to change the way humans use energy, then we are all in terrible trouble.
There are protests planned in London from 1st october, by a variety of different groups, including unions, all of which is designed to put the government under pressure and hopefully to make them change their policies to take climate change seriously and actually do something about it, as well as the various social justice issues like the cost of living crisis.
The young ladies are giving their presentation again on Sunday evening at 7pm, and are holding a follow up meeting on 17th August at the Globe at 7pm.
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