TTT's experience of the Climate march weekend in London and Paris - our personal responses

We'd like to share our responses to the Sunday 29th Climate Justice march in London, and to actions that replaced the banned march in Paris. 
And we'd like to share news of the Transition Network day in Paris on Saturday 28th.
All these events and more are urgently linked with the COP21 Climate talks in Paris which are running until December 13th.

We're sharing three blog posts: 

• this post on some of our personal reactions
• then a post about community-level responses
• and finally a post about the global view 

This is a snapshot of the experience we felt as participants....

What did taking part mean to us personally?

London

Hilary: It was hugely reassuring to see so many other people willing to give up a cold and windy day to marching

The march began, for us, at Tooting Bec Tube. We didn't know how many would come, after putting out the invitation via our blog. On the day, 7 of us met, with the world on one head and giant sign saying, "urgent".

We emerged in the centre of London and spotted one or two other likely groups - I guess this is how a march begins, with intentional meeting of friends and colleagues with a common cause. By the time we arrived at Park Lane, we realised that there were many common causes to put under the banner of "Climate March" - vegans, community energy, anti-oil, anti-fracking, save the polar bears, Greenpeace, revolutionaries, drummers, fundraisers and photographers...

We even had apples thrust until our palms from those campaigning against waste food! Delicious they were too.

TTT's experience of the Climate march weekend in London and Paris - a sense of community

Here's our second blog post in response to the Climate march weekend, COP21 and Transition's contribution

Some 'community-level' responses

London
We marched with the Transition bloc. Inherently local, it is affirming to feel part of a wider community form time to time. Sunday gave space for us all to talk to each other in a different context compared with many other occasions. This wasn't about delivering a project, although ultimately it is, but did give space for strengthening bonds that will bear fruit in the future.

The Transition gang, including friends from Lewes, Crystal Palace and Kingston

Transition Town Huddle by Deborah Mason

Paris

Transition France and Transition groups in Paris co-hosted a free workshop day on Saturday 28th. 
Here, we met in the huge (and unheated....) 'La Générale' space for an afternoon of sharing experience, eating and drinking, and then an evening conference.
 

Charles: "For 13 hours I was immersed in a sharing community coming together with powerful intentions. The community included the everyday diversity of Paris with its mix of north african and mediterranean faces....different from the diversity we recognise at Tooting Broadway. It was affirming to feel that I could simply approach anyone and talk about shared ideas, ask for support or get some feedback.

TTT's experience of the Climate march weekend in London and Paris - the global view

Our third post in response to the Climate march weekend, COP21 and Transition's contribution

Thinking about impact and action - the global view

Paris 
Charles: Another of the replacements for the banned Paris march was the 'human chain' - a line kilometres long where participants linked hands (for a short while...until the stewards said 'C'est fini' as the whole action was ad-hoc and not police-approved).

Here's some of Transition links in the chain. We're holding copies of the pages of '21 Histoires de Transition', strung like bunting.

All along a street with several Metro stations - just like Balham to Tooting Broadway - there were theme clusters in the chain, where you could pop out of the Metro and group around global issues such as Energy, or Justice, or Nature, or Solutions. 

There were other chains worldwide - including Brussels, just emerging from 4 days of public lock-down, and also replacing a banned march.
The chain was ephemeral but we still came together to witness what we wanted to express in the planned march...along with a few mexican waves.

People's March for Climate - This Sunday 29th November!

TTT will be joining the Transition Bloc at the march, join us :
11am at the entrance to Tooting Bec Underground Station on Sunday 29th November.

More information from organisers, including a route map is on the Campaign against Climate Change page here

This weekend marks the beginning of the 2 week International Climate Conference in Paris called COP21. As we all think about recent events in Paris and wish for peaceful resolution to conflicts the world over, the City hosts the World's major leaders with hope to gain Global agreement to cut carbon emissions and prevent run away climate change.

Our very own Jeni Walker at a similar march earlier this year

This is the largest scale of negotiation on Climate Change mitigation and, if successful, has the highest possible positive impact for the future of us humans on this Planet we call home. However, politics is a tricky business with competing motivations and historical contexts, not to mention very well funded lobbying from those businesses that don't want limits on carbon emissions.

We must let those politicians know that we, the people, care. 
Care that they go to the table with open minds, care they think about the long term, not the few years to the next General Election, care that they listen to the scientific evidence alongside the human suffering that comes from ever more frequent extreme weather events.

You can read about our experience at the march earlier this year here

And think about the reasons why you might want to march here

Hope to see you there, Richard and TTT gang.

Time to Act on Climate Change - 7th March

A group of a dozen of us from Tooting went to the Time to Act march on Saturday in London. 

Why march? To express yourself, to be counted, to meet friends and strangers, to witness change in the making, to represent others, simply to be there. 





 
Making and feeling the weight of your message in your hands - it's unusual, active, and personal. Totally unlike holding a phone. 

The sun was hot; the wind blew the banners so they tugged like sails.

 
At one point in the march, between The Savoy and 
Charing Cross, everyone sat down on the warm tarmac of the Strand. 

For me that was a good moment - not quite touching the wild earth, but certainly feeling in touch with London, and valuing it as a physical place that shelters us. 





 
None of us wants to be preached to, and I liked these diverse messages -  direct and also complex; creative and calling up so many associations.

Why march, why do what we do locally in Tooting?

Naomi Klein from the introduction to 'This Changes Everything':

"We know that if we continue on our current path of allowing emissions to rise year after year, climate change will change everything about our world. 

And we don't have to do anything to bring about this future.  

All we have to do is nothing"

- Charles