A Journey of Single Steps

It is in the nature of my profession to think about why people choose to stand up, to put their head above the parapet, to stop moaning about the state of the world and actually do something about it.

It’s a question I’ve asked of people 100’s of time, rarely get the answer I’m looking for, and if I could figure out a panacea to inspire even 5% of the population to take action, then I think we might start seeing more of the change society needs to survive.

I have of course asked that question of myself, and it’s difficult to pin down the exact answer, as I never really planned to be where I am today. I can imagine several steps on the journey, events and actions that persuaded me that this is what I want to do, that I can make a difference, and if not me, if not now, then who and when?

My memories of the J18 protests the Carnival against Capitalism, are muddled, by age, by excitement and by cheap cider. It was, I think, my first big protest, and whereas many younger activists look to the Stop the War demonstration as their moment of empowerment, then for me in hindsight J18 must have been one of those steps.

I was working as a Sales and Marketing manager for a distribution company, so I must have taken a day off my capitalist career to go protest against the system. I was with a friend, a recently (and temporarily) unemployed broker, so we were hardly the crazed anarchists the Daily Mail made headlines out of.

To an extent I think I’d come expecting a festival, or a Reclaim the Streets party. The punk band PAIN (Propaganda And Information Network) were playing, and everything else started as simply an interesting interlude.

The meeting at Liverpool Street station was intense, crowded and full of police, who seemed to take objection to people wearing coloured masks. The walk through the streets of London, felt more lemming like, but by now I was on the cider so you’ll have to pardon some vagaries. In the quest for more cider, I’m sure we ducked into a pub, to chat with the locals about the end of the capitalist conspiracy. Well to the extent we weren't taking the piss.

The lemming like procession led into Aldgate station, and then out the other side, which was either a clever ruse, or the act of a leaderless mob. The convergence on the LIFFE put the wind up my mate, who fully expected to work their one day, and he buggered off. I ended up dancing away in the sun, and the rain of a fire hydrant, to the sound system that had somehow got through the police lines and of course to a wee bit of punk, i.e. PAIN. As the cider kicked in, I recall falling asleep sleep under a hedge, and somehow missing the resultant (and alleged) riots. Not exactly the act of a hard core troublemaker

So what was it that made the event special, not simply as an activist event, as one could look to events like Seattle as being very much inspired by J18, but as the effects that it had on me as an individual.

There’s something about coming together with lots of like minded people, there’s the (not to be underestimated) effect of protest music, and then there’s the punk warcry “Oh my god we’re doing it, we’re fucking doing it” which might well define the essence. The realisation that these things don’t just happen on TV, I can do this too. Oh and the cider.