Put People First March

It felt more like 1998, when we ringed the G8 Summit in Birmingham: whatever analyses the arm-chair commentators may make, we know the world is on a different course. Some speakers at the Rally tried a little rabble-rousing but the response was muted: people I spoke with were thoughtful and solemn for all the carnival atmosphere of fancy dress, brass bands and Mark Thomas.

This was more than the traditional protest march, a good-natured safety-valve with the police as cheerful on-lookers. It was more than a healthy democratic opportunity for everyone to press their own agendas, with a kaleidoscope of placards. The sum total was a recognition of the birth of a spiritual dynamic to replace neo-liberal capitalism. Let us pray that the G20 has the collective wisdom to heed this spirit. For, whatever a few hot-heads may attempt on 'Financial Fools Day', Jobs, Justice and Climate is a message of peace and re-construction.

35,000 protestors were reported, a respectable turn-out in these post-Iraq days. In reality, however, it was a march of representatives. Well, apart from Avaaz, who kitted-out supporters with green hard-hats, the large French contingent each carrying a colourful regional flag and Tearfund, whose multiple groups swept along with shoulder-to-shoulder placards. Otherwise, you had to remind yourself that these banners and placards, resolutely held aloft despite the wind, actually stood for thousands of committed supporters.

The reason that things will never be the same is Global Warming. Without that imperative, the best we could hope for from the G20 would be a return to 'business as usual' until increasingly scarce oil, water and other resources wrecked the world economy. Now, energy has to be decoupled from fossil fuels, the developing and least developed countries have to be empowered and generally people have to be put first. Operation Noah and the Climate Camp have got the message, Christian Aid, CAFOD and Friends of the Earth are well on the way. The politicians are 30 years behind – as well illustrated by the amusing but biting animations and short films screened at the Rally – but even they are waking up.

Amid all this, what was the message of the churches or, rather, of the Christian agencies? It was, it seemed to me, that we will work together and with all people of good-will globally in the pursuit of social justice, the common good and the protection of the environment. Perhaps as we humbly toil and suffer with our old and new friends through the coming decades, sustained by faith in God and faith in His power to redeem human nature, we will come to understand the Incarnation more profoundly. I just wish that there had been more of us braving the wind, hail and rain on Saturday.

Charles Jolly. Church and Society representative for the East Midlands Synod of the United Reformed Church, and a member of the Church’s working group on climate change.