On Saturday May 5th Greenpeace held a stall in the Congressional Hall, Low Pavement. This was set to coincide with the arrival of the Nottingham Mayday March and Rally against the Coalition Government's spending cuts. The aim was to collect signatures on letters addressed to Shell demanding that they cease their Arctic oil exploration plans.
We had to avoid disturbing speakers at the rally whilst collecting signatures, but 80 letters were signed in all. We also witnessed an extremely heated standoff between one of the speakers and a minority of the demonstrators present. Alan Meale, Mansfield Labour MP, was scheduled to speak but the congregation began booing, whistling and hissing. Most repectfully quietened down when asked to do so by the Chair of the rally, but two individuals (a lady and a man) had stationed themselves in front of the speakers' podium. They held placards highlighting Meale's involvement in the MPs expenses scandal and refused to allow him to speak. Despite being shouted at by the whole congregation to stand down and stop their "anarchist censorship", these two refused to move and were even joined by other individuals supporting their action. In the end they moved aside when the order of the speakers was changed.
Despite this though, the day was very successful both for those involved in the March and Rally, and for Greenpeace Nottingham.
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