A submarine grounded in Whitehall tries to highlight an illegal act.
Sarah Lasenby from Oxford took part and sends this entertaining report.
Sarah Lasenby from Oxford took part and sends this entertaining report.
It was October 11th 2004 and arriving in St James' Park before 8am felt
quite strange. To see a submarine quietly lying on the grass added to
this effect. It certainly seemed strange to the Royal Parks police who soon
came up and started saying we could not stay there. No one is allowed to
protest in the Royal Park they said and wanted us to move at once. They may
have thought we might be trying to camp there in these grey/black, arched
sections which looked a little like post modern benders. This wonderful
construction had been made by Theatre of War from Norwich who had come
with other members of Trident Ploughshares to take part in this protest.
More police came up and hassled us while we tried to plan what to do.
Fortunately moving nine sections of sub was not something the police seemed keen to
do themselves but they were very keen that we moved it out of the park.
We explained we were there to do some street theatre and needed to go
to a park where we would not upset them. Finally we decided to tell them we
would move off to Victoria Embankment Gardens though they warned us that the
City of Westminster would not be pleased.
All these debates allowed time for the rest of the crew of 18, all
willing to be arrested, to arrive. Then with grand delaying tactics we got into
the harnesses in pairs. Each pair had a separate section to carry but we
had to stand close together to form the submarine. By this time we were really
worried that we would not be allowed down Whitehall and thought we
might just have to block any road we could as we pretended to be trying to
reach the Embankment..
We set off at a shuffle along The Mall towards Admiralty Arch. Each
section was carefully guided across the first small road by our accompaniers
many of whom had their faces painted with radiation signs in yellow and black
grease paint. To our surprise there were no police with us. The sub only
fitted through the pedestrian arch without the supporters along side. They
rejoined us and we trotted on taking a sharp right down Whitehall only to find
that the antennae on the conning tower would not fit under the canopy of the
Whitehall farce Theatre without bobbing. As we approached the Horse
Guards we stilled the drums not wanting to scare the horses. Seeing a long
grey sub passing by with watery blue cloth below and black feet underneath was
enough for them to cope with.
The drums started up and the megaphone continued to shout out the vital
statistics of Trident missiles and what they could destroy. On we went
trying not to trip over the feet in front but keeping close enough to
make sure the sub was in one piece. Then suddenly we heard the signal, a
cymbal clashed and we all dropped to our knees and then on the next signal we
awkwardly sat down and the submarine was grounded right outside Downing
Street. It was quite tight inside each of the nine sections and we
practised locking on to the tube in each section to prevent the police from being
able to remove us without cutting us out. Other supporters came and locked
themselves on the sub outside.
To our surprise the Police did not try to break the sub apart. Instead
they let us sit there for nearly five hours thinking perhaps we would have
to let people out for the call of nature. But we were prepared for this sort
of eventuality and the time passed relatively quickly while TV crews came
and did interviews.
Our main aim was to deliver a letter to Tony Blair about the need for a
proper debate in House of Commons before the renewal of the Mutual Defence
Agreement with the US which if we sign will damage the vital Nuclear Non
Proliferation Treaty. The police would not allow anyone to go up to No
10 in person and eventually we came to an agreement that if they let us hand
in the letter for a police officer to deliver we would remove the
submarine. We crawled out pair by pair and arranged to take the sub back to East
Anglia. I am sure we will find a good opportunity to give it another and even
more dramatic airing soon.
All the time we were there Tourist Buses and other people were driving
by - what a strange sight they saw. The banner on the side of the sub read
Trident Britain's Weapons of Mass Destruction. Despite all the media
interest during the grounding there was absolutely no coverage of this
event in Britain. The FT printed a photo but with no information or context.
But Al Jazera had also done some interviews and I have a lovely image of
pictures of this little sub being flashed round the Middle East. I
wonder what their caption was ?
quite strange. To see a submarine quietly lying on the grass added to
this effect. It certainly seemed strange to the Royal Parks police who soon
came up and started saying we could not stay there. No one is allowed to
protest in the Royal Park they said and wanted us to move at once. They may
have thought we might be trying to camp there in these grey/black, arched
sections which looked a little like post modern benders. This wonderful
construction had been made by Theatre of War from Norwich who had come
with other members of Trident Ploughshares to take part in this protest.
More police came up and hassled us while we tried to plan what to do.
Fortunately moving nine sections of sub was not something the police seemed keen to
do themselves but they were very keen that we moved it out of the park.
We explained we were there to do some street theatre and needed to go
to a park where we would not upset them. Finally we decided to tell them we
would move off to Victoria Embankment Gardens though they warned us that the
City of Westminster would not be pleased.
All these debates allowed time for the rest of the crew of 18, all
willing to be arrested, to arrive. Then with grand delaying tactics we got into
the harnesses in pairs. Each pair had a separate section to carry but we
had to stand close together to form the submarine. By this time we were really
worried that we would not be allowed down Whitehall and thought we
might just have to block any road we could as we pretended to be trying to
reach the Embankment..
We set off at a shuffle along The Mall towards Admiralty Arch. Each
section was carefully guided across the first small road by our accompaniers
many of whom had their faces painted with radiation signs in yellow and black
grease paint. To our surprise there were no police with us. The sub only
fitted through the pedestrian arch without the supporters along side. They
rejoined us and we trotted on taking a sharp right down Whitehall only to find
that the antennae on the conning tower would not fit under the canopy of the
Whitehall farce Theatre without bobbing. As we approached the Horse
Guards we stilled the drums not wanting to scare the horses. Seeing a long
grey sub passing by with watery blue cloth below and black feet underneath was
enough for them to cope with.
The drums started up and the megaphone continued to shout out the vital
statistics of Trident missiles and what they could destroy. On we went
trying not to trip over the feet in front but keeping close enough to
make sure the sub was in one piece. Then suddenly we heard the signal, a
cymbal clashed and we all dropped to our knees and then on the next signal we
awkwardly sat down and the submarine was grounded right outside Downing
Street. It was quite tight inside each of the nine sections and we
practised locking on to the tube in each section to prevent the police from being
able to remove us without cutting us out. Other supporters came and locked
themselves on the sub outside.
To our surprise the Police did not try to break the sub apart. Instead
they let us sit there for nearly five hours thinking perhaps we would have
to let people out for the call of nature. But we were prepared for this sort
of eventuality and the time passed relatively quickly while TV crews came
and did interviews.
Our main aim was to deliver a letter to Tony Blair about the need for a
proper debate in House of Commons before the renewal of the Mutual Defence
Agreement with the US which if we sign will damage the vital Nuclear Non
Proliferation Treaty. The police would not allow anyone to go up to No
10 in person and eventually we came to an agreement that if they let us hand
in the letter for a police officer to deliver we would remove the
submarine. We crawled out pair by pair and arranged to take the sub back to East
Anglia. I am sure we will find a good opportunity to give it another and even
more dramatic airing soon.
All the time we were there Tourist Buses and other people were driving
by - what a strange sight they saw. The banner on the side of the sub read
Trident Britain's Weapons of Mass Destruction. Despite all the media
interest during the grounding there was absolutely no coverage of this
event in Britain. The FT printed a photo but with no information or context.
But Al Jazera had also done some interviews and I have a lovely image of
pictures of this little sub being flashed round the Middle East. I
wonder what their caption was ?