What a full on day it was yesterday. Zoe and I set off from Knucklas to arrive at 10.15am outside the Community Centre in Knighton. We were greeted with smiles, flags, colourful t-shirts and lots of questions as we waited for the van and big CND symbol to arrive. Rowland and Tanja had left Bristol, loaded up with food and camping gear, the previous morning and driving to Ludlow had met up with Kim and spent the night there.
There were about 30 people gathered in Knighton, quietly chatting and getting to know each other when the red van towing the symbol arrived to a great cheer. We clustered around, Rowland and I spoke for a few minutes, pictures were taken and Zoe interviewed a few people about what they felt about the nuclear threats and counter threats going on amidst the war in Ukraine. Several local people were interviewed on film by Zoe who is making a film about the journey and the Fabb camp and then we were invited in for tea and coffee at the Community Centre. A little later we went back to Knucklas to pick up my camping gear and discovered the difficulties of driving a large van and trailer with heavy equipment and a 3 metre high CND symbol through narrow lanes on steep windy country roads! We could have picked a better route but unfortunately discovered too late that getting to Oswestry via Heyope was going to delay us. And there was almost nil mobile reception so our online navigation aids left us rather lost at times! Nevertheless, an hour and a half late, around 15 people were still patiently awaiting our arrival in the centre of Oswestry and they were pleased to meet us.
It had been a productive wait for them as the local peace group had not really known the XR group and they were able to exchange notes on the interrelationship between the nuclear and climate and biodiversity crises. Lots of passing cars hooted their support, reminding us once more that there is actually a majority of people wanting nuclear disarmament despite government and media propaganda that pretends otherwise. It was a short stop and then we were off again. This time we were held up in various traffic lockdowns. The roads were bigger and mobile reception great but an accident delayed us for over an hour. We reached Todmorden college only 15 minutes late having had not time to eat or rest. Around 20 of us gathered around and we immediately started on our talks. Zoe did a live stream of me and Roland speaking and the last hour or so was spent in a circle discussing our fears and feelings over the dysfunctional ‘democracy’ we live in, the autocratic, irrational leaders around the world, including our own, who are refusing to deal with the existential crises facing all of us. It was not all doom and gloom as we realised the power that we all have in our local communities to act compassionately and build from the ground up a better world and how to join with movements for social change in the wider world. It was obvious that all the different movements needed to work together more as everything is connected and that we had to reclaim our rights to protest as we wished. Cath took us all away for a great supper and at last a long sleep. It is now early morning on Wednesday 8th June. I have just woken up after a refreshing sleep at Cath’s family home in Todmorden where Kim, Tanja and I were staying. Rowland slept in his van and Zoe in hers. Zoe was to head back to Oxford to process all the footage she had taken of our trip here and to continue to work from home. Rowland will soon appear for breakfast.