It seems nearly everyone in the active supporter group has dressed up at some time during the year! We started the year dressed up as Star Wars stormtroopers as a parody of the VW advert which ‘starred’ a tiny Darth Vader. This was a continuation of the 2011 campaign asking VW to produce leaner greener cars and to stop lobbying against EU climate change emissions. The weather was generally very cold and the stormtrooper uniform is not the best thing to wear on a frozen day at Kimberley farmers market!
The warmer weather saw us at the Green Festival – this time disguised as Eric the Orang Utan asking the lovely people there to join our campaign to stop Kentucky Fried Chicken from using pulp from Indonesian Rainforest timber to make their disposable cartons. With no leaflets and only a white board and orang utan suit we did very well and we sent all the photos to the Chief Exec in his hidey hole in the soft south. This was a visible part of an internet campaign and it was very successful because we later learned that KFC in the UK and Ireland have moved their position and are now sourcing their packaging to use non-rainforest timber pulp. Success!
And then there was Shell. Even before the Green Festival we had word that Shell wanted to drill for oil in the Artic Ocean and that something was going to happen. It turned out that Greenpeace New Zealand occupied a drilling rig that Shell had hired to take up to the Arctic. At very short notice we stood outside a Shell garage with our leaflets to inform the garage management and the public what was happening. Then for the rest of the year we found ourselves outside various garages in Nottingham (well, only 3 to start off with because we are rather short of Shell garages here). We had two very successful Shell Days which we promoted on our web page, only to find Nottinghamshire Constabulary there to greet us. It’s good to know they read our web page.
At the same time we were part of the Save the Arctic campaign (launched in June at the Rio summit) to get the Arctic designated as a global sanctuary so that no oil drilling or industrial fishing could take place there at all. Ever. We got a massive banner and a polar bear suit to use in the campaign. Summer – a really good time to dress up in a furry suit! But we dressed up and went to the Big Wheel Big Day Out, Nottingham Pride, Brinsley animal rescue open day and Market Square. We asked the portfolio holder for the environment in Nottingham City Council to sign the petition to Save the Arctic on behalf of the Council and he did. Then towards the end of the year we went to the Broadway Cinema at the showing of the fantastic film Chasing Ice.
And we also managed to fit in some campaigning against Waitrose for their totally daft idea of joining forces with Shell to have mini supermarkets on some of Shell’s forecourts. A massive internet campaign linked up with protests outside their stores forced them to change their minds quite quickly. In fact we were probably the last group of activists to actually stand outside a Waitrose store. Our friends in Sheffield didn’t get the chance as Waitrose caved in so quickly.
So here’s hoping for some more dressing up in an equally busy and successful 2013. We seem to have got a taste for it now.
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