Sam Donaldson reflects on the right, and wrong, time to take a stand. Photo: iStock.
Choosing the moment
Sam Donaldson reflects on the right, and wrong, time to take a stand.
In the run up to my twenty-seventh birthday, in June 2015, my sister, who was then living in London, had seen an advert for a protest against an arms fair there. It was called Defence and Security International (DSEI) and it would be taking place in September 2015. I was in Hull but she said she would happily buy me a train ticket down for my birthday, if I wanted to join her. Neither of us knew much about the arms fair but we both cared about peace and thought: ‘Why not? It should be a fun day out!’
We turned up on the Saturday of Stop the Arms Fair protests a bit wet behind the ears. We had been to a couple of big marches, but never to a protest like this. Little did we know that it would turn out to be one of the most fully human days of our year.
On arrival we found around 300 people gathered across the road leading into the ExCeL centre. Inside, all the weapons were being set up to be sold. A few people had laid themselves across the road, linking their arms together in thick tubing – I would later find out that these were a popular protest tool called ‘lock-ons’. Others stood and sat around them, surrounded by police.
The morning had a programme of activities, including meditation, singing, talks, and a Quaker Meeting for Worship. This helped create a deep spiritual atmosphere around our actions. In the afternoon, the police presence increased. Then, suddenly, while I was stood in the road, the police presence swelled and officers began to say that they would start to arrest anyone still stood on the road.
Out of the blue, life had presented me with a choice – one for which I was unprepared. Do I stay, and suffer the consequences? Or do I move, being pressured to back down on what I believe to be good and true and right?
After a few minutes of pondering, I decided this wasn’t the right time for me to make that stand. I moved to the side of the road, watching on as a group of people were ushered off the road. Those who were still lying ‘locked-on’ together were cut out and arrested.
Seeds, however, had been sown in me.
Sitting on the train as we left the protests, my sister and I looked at each other and knew we would be doing that again. From the calmness of the meditation and Quaker worship, to the creativity of the music, to the intensity of the arrests, the day had everything. I was grateful to have been a part of it.
A year later, we decided we would travel to Paris to support the Quaker-led Stop Fuelling War protests at the massive Eurosatory arms fair there.
And then in September 2017, I would return to DSEI. By this point I had learned that DSEI is one of the world’s biggest arms fairs, with a record of selling weapons to some of the worst human rights abusers in the world, and even selling torture equipment. Returning in 2017, I was now more prepared, both mentally and organisationally.
That September, I ended up hanging off a bridge [pictured below], along with three other people, to block the trucks bringing weapons to the ExCeL centre. We blocked the road for two hours until we were cut down. Others lay in the road, ‘locking-on’, while some sat in the road during the Meeting for Worship.
During the Stop the Arms Fair week of protests in September 2017, hundreds of people turned up and around 100 of those were arrested for blocking roads.
In January 2018, a group of Quakers who had been present in September 2017 got together to see how we could continue to grow the Stop the Arms Fair protests, so that we can shut down the DSEI arms fair, so that we can win!
We decided on a goal: to help mobilise a thousand Quakers to attend the protests, to hold a massive Meeting for Worship in the road. Roots of Resistance was born!
I will be down in London protesting on the road that leads to DSEI in September 2019, worshiping, singing, crafting and taking direct action alongside hundreds of (and maybe even a thousand!) Quakers. Will you be one of them?
Further information: https://rootsofresistance.org.uk
Comments
Sam, thank you for this, and yes I will be there all week. I was one Arms Fair behind you - there for 5 days in 2017 - and everything you say echoes my experience. My husband and I were part of the Quaker Meeting in the road on the Saturday, and like you two years earlier were given our final warning by a police officer. With the same mixed feelings, we moved. See you in September.
By suehampton@btinternet.com on 3rd February 2019 - 13:02
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