I missed Day 1 of the protest so I was keen to take part in Day 2.
We met other protesters from Greenpeace South London groups at East Croydon and made our way to Purley.
After a short debrief at a local pub we headed to the Shell station nearby, which was already ‘guarded’ by six policemen who made us aware of the injunction that prevented any of us from entering the forecourt; it was all done in the most amicable way and all policemen were lovely, chatted with all of us throughout the day and shared quite a few jokes (we even had a group hug).
We had quite a good turnout and we got organised with banners, leaflets and posters on the pavement in front of the forecourt and on the other side of the road.
Although there were not many people walking by we had really good support from the passing traffic, cars and trucks honking and people waving as they drove past the Shell station.
Then our polar bear arrived dancing along the pavement and patting everyone on the head; the presence of the bear definitely increased our popularity (especially with children). Later Maria, the leader of our Richmond & Kingston group, arrived donning a snow-white furry arctic fox costume complete with white-painted face… Our protest was teeming with arctic animals.
It was also a very effective strategy for different groups to join forces as the sight of 20-25 people donning Greenpeace T-shirts (plus bear and arctic fox) did make quite an impact.
We also set up a table with leaflets and more information.
At 16, my daughter was the youngest but I was struck by the broad age range of the protesters and by the fact that everyone seemed to enjoy themselves so much and it was all done in such good mood.
It was so nice to get to know everyone and so great to see that there are plenty of people out there who care about our planet and are convinced that the actions of the single individual do count.
It is also important not to be lulled into a false sense of security by Shell’s suspension of drilling for this year; this is undoubtedly a great victory but Shell is not likely to give up and there are other “oil monsters” such as Gazprom that see the tragedy that is the shrinking of the ice in the Arctic as an opportunity to savage and exploit this region.
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