by Sarah Harrison

Created on: March 09, 2009

I circled the train station looking for someone else that might be involved and that hopefully had some idea what was going on. Not a fascinator in sight. Outside policemen were lined up outside the Landmark Hotel opposite and more were arriving hunched in vans, bringing a slightly ominous feeling. On the far side of the hotel all seemed quiet. Then a guy on the corner asked "are you here for the Climate Rush?" Thankful to find I was actually in the right place I got to know the first of my comrades a little. A few more stragglers came in ones and twos, the purpose of each recognisable through their hesitating steps and enquiring glasses. No one was sure what the arrangements were.

Then two girls approached, after checking we were with The Climate Rush for the protest at the Coal Awards (a ceremony to recognise and celebrate the largest players in this destructive industry), they explained: the police had discovered about the protest and so were blocking entry for anyone they thought would be involved. As everyone was generally dressed to one extreme or the other; The Climate Rush invokes the spirit of the suffragette movement so people came in Edwardian cocktail finery (fascinators and hats included), others came with their usual dreads and piercings and woolly hats. We were an easy bunch to spot. However, all was not lost. There was someone inside we were told who would open a fire escape at the side of the building, avoiding the police, we'd be straight into the main Atrium of the hotel to make our voices heard. We were told to wander, not to look too obvious as a static growing group, and in five minutes the door would be open.

By the time the five minutes were up a group of a hundred or so protestors were gathered around the bottom corner of the hotel and had begun to move up to the fire exit. Everyone was extremely friendly and chatty, but calm. The atmosphere was one of excitement, hope and purpose but no rowdiness or anger. By this time the police had found us but did nothing to stop proceedings as we filed through the fire escape into the hotel, in fact they lined the route. Once in we were led through a rabbit warren of corridors in the hotels back of house and out onto a corridor, down some steps and into the atrium. By this time all were chanting "No New Coal! No New Coal!" Red sashes, copied from the suffragettes, adorned most in the group as we rested at the foot and all the way up the stairs. One or two at the front were slightly over keen and

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