I was there

The first campaign I remember (apart from collecting tin foil for Blue Peter), was Save the Whales. My first demo, actually. I can’t remember who organised it, or who it was aimed at.  But I was there.

Trafalgar Square. A big inflatable whale. Speakers. The excitement of a big crowd and making my first teenage trip to London with friends. More importantly, without a parent.  Of course, it was more about that than the whales at the time. But I had a “Stop the Bloody Whaling” sticker on the back of my bedroom door for years afterwards.  And I was there.

Other campaigns came and went. Getting the school kitchen to boycott South African oranges (short-lived, and a lesson in fact-checking – they already did).  Endless, nameless petitions. But looking back, what are the campaigns that stand out? The big ones that defined the times for sure. Anti-Apartheid, CND, Greenham Common, Stop the War, Make Poverty History.  Big issues, big values, a clear right and wrong (well, in my world view anyway).

But mostly, the moments that stand out are the more personal memories rather than the campaigns I was generally aware of. Being “kettled” during a sit-down on Westminster Bridge against student cuts. Watching LiveAid from Sudan, where I was a volunteer teacher at the time. Rattling a tin in fancy dress in Oxford for the first Red Nose Day. Downing revolting Nicaraguan coffee before FairTrade worked out that quality also mattered. And that inflatable whale, of course. Yep, sometimes embarrassing, but I was there, one way or another.

My kids take some of all this for granted now, fair trade and being green and so on. But they remember marching against the Iraq War in Washington DC with their cousins, and sitting on the bridge of Greenpeace’s ship Arctic Sunrise. They really do get upset about the whales.

What’s in all of this for campaigning for the future? Perhaps nothing more than remembering that the ease with which people can mobilise today, thousands of signatures generated at the click of a button, devalues the experience for those participating as much as it devalues the political impact on targets.  Isn’t the challenge for all campaigners to think about how their campaign makes a mark not just on those they are fighting, but on those who join in?

Is your campaign something people will look back and even remember? Will they ever say “I was there”?

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