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Peaceful No Tesco Tea Party

Posted on June 21, 2011 | 16 comments

Well, the No Tesco Tea Party has to be one of the most fun, friendly, heart-filled

musical protests I have ever been on.

Here’s a delightful news item from ITV: over a minute of dancing protest.

But it was also possibly the most stressful because – post-riot – it wasn’t just a matter of ringing up our local bobby.

Instead, we were invited to respectful, professional meetings with Silver and Bronze commanders, who supported our right for a peaceful protest but were thinking worst-case scenarios, and asking: how would we deal with them?

I realised the police, like the medical profession, are (bless ’em) fear-driven.

So, for a few weeks leading up to the No Tesco Tea Party I felt the weight of responsibility. Dreamed of police on horseback bursting through my front door. Worried about upsetting local charities such as Relate and the Salvation Army who’d been damaged in the riots. Angsted about offending rock throwers, too.

(Rock throwing is not my style but anyone caught-up in those two crazy riot nights might need support so please contact BristolArresteeSupport@Riseup.net, mentioned in June’s edition of The Autonomist.

And anyone with unanswered questions about the Stokes Croft disturbances, please sign the petition asking Bristol City Council for a public inquiry.)

Our protest took place in front of Tesco in Stokes Croft. I was glad to talk with Tesco managers because this campaign is not against supermarket employees.

It’s against supermarkets destroying communities in their single-minded drive for market shares.

The truth is I am a communicator.

I find enemy positions deeply unhelpful. I would rather build bridges.

Listen, we are all victims of the same soulless system that puts profit before people. So let’s find our common humanity and work together for a better world.

When Monday 13 June dawned – bright sunshine after Sunday’s torrential rain – I felt confident. Our protest would be – as all our protests have always been – peaceful.

And it was.

I was moved by the joy and the dancing

and the homemade cakes

and cucumber sandwiches (note Princess Diana tea-tray)

and anti-Tesco knitting protestor.

I was moved by Mark who did not agree with our campaign but became a volunteer peace marshall because he supported our right to a peaceful protest.

For goodness sake, there is disagreement even when you are on “the same side”. So, shaking hands with Richard whom I had met online when our political views clashed made me happy: this is what community is all about.

The No Tesco in Mill Road campaigners had come all the way from Cambridge to join our protest. Thank you!

Our Tea Party protest was to create awareness for our appeal for a judicial review.

Our appeal was heard on Wednesday 15 June in Cardiff.

And we won.

Thanks to People’s Republic of Stokes Croft, Jake and peace marshalls

and People’s Supermarket for donating free food.

O and here’s one of me, thanks to Nadia of GRO-FUN.

16 Comments

Posted in food, peak oil, producers, supermarkets, tea, Tesco on Stokes Croft

Tagged Bristol, No, People's Republic of Stokes Croft, Stokes Croft, Tesco

Navajo tea

Posted on August 13, 2010 | 14 comments

Back in the UK, sipping Navajo tea from the greenthread plant.

Crystal had told me about the tea – organic greenthread tea grown near Gallup.

I could not stay for Gallup’s farmers’ market to get some but, luckily, on our way back from the Navajo nation to Flagstaff, I found greenthread tea at a gas station on Route 66.

See the packet of Yanabah tea in the pic above, a shot taken on my first day back in the UK, plus homecoming flowers.

Tonight I sit at home sipping Yanabah tea.

I love the taste, reminds me of nettle tea. Like European nettles, greenthread grow wild, its strength-giving properties still intact.

The warmth and strength of Navajo tea sipped in England connects me to my summer in the US, and two conversations I don’t want to forget.

We visited Anna Rondon on the Navajo reservation in New Mexico with my sister and her husband. Several years ago they had made a film on depleted uranium featuring Anna Rondon, the chair of the Navajo Green Economy mission.

Bear with me while I explain about depleted uranium: a by-product of refining uranium ore, which has been mined in the Navajo nation, it causes radioactive hell for the people of Iraq, Afghanistan and the US and UK military.

A green economy provides the Navajo nation with alternative employment to cancer-causing uranium ore mining.

Back to my visit: So here I am in New Mexico for the first time in my life and I have been cooped up in a car or house since leaving Flagstaff that morning.

“I need to go out for a stroll,” I say.

Anna’s daughter, Crystal, gives me directions from the residential street to nearby open land on a rock.

I feel English and befuddled.

Crystal patiently explains: “Follow the trail.”

Then she adds: “Sometimes we make our own trail.”

On the rock, I feel like a child allowed out to play.

“Sometimes we make our own trail”. Stays in my mind.

I leave the stony path feeling brave. I only take a ten-minute detour but feels like the start of a good practice.

That was the first conversation I don’t want to forget.

The next day Anna Rondon takes us to a Sun Dance in the heart of the nation.

On the way she tells me more about her work building an eco-economy for the nation. New Mexico has the resources to make solar power work all the year round.

She does not use the word “sustainable” to describe her work. On purpose.

I rejoice – I have always disliked that word because a) it has too many syllables b) no one really knows what it means.

We both agree – “sustainable” has become a meaningless word co-opted by corporations to improve their image.

Instead Anna Rondon uses the Dine (Navajo) term to describe how to make a living in harmony with the earth: lifeways.

Native American lifeways have been inspiring the green movement for decades.

So, that is the second conversation I don’t want to forget.