Activists with Global Justice Cambridge contributed to the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty campaign day of action on 16 November with a stall in the Market Square, at which we brandished placards, distributed leaflets, gathered signatures for the petition, and sang.
The placards read
END THE FOSSIL FUEL ERA
and
WE DEMAND A FOSSIL FUEL TREATY
One bus driver asked: “You’re not going to block my road with those, are you?”
We were honestly able to reply: “No — stall outside the Guildhall.” He let them on.
The bus driver for the journey home, after the action, was more cautious: didn’t want placards aboard his bus in case they poked somebody’s eye out. So we had to make that trip by taxi.
We don’t know how many leaflets we pumped out to passers by. We took around 200 to the event, and came away with many fewer than that.
The number of signatures we collected, on sheets we’ve since dispatched to Global Justice Now headquarters in London, will have been around 50-60. Not bad for ninety minutes’ work.
And this is what we sang:
The Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Song
(tune ‘Plaisir d’amour’ https://easysheetmusic.altervista.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Plaisir-damour.gif )
A treaty calling for amended rules
to end the new production of fossil fuels.
Give oil, gas and coal exploration what it deserves,
one worldwide moratorium on new reserves.
A treaty calling for a touch of care
that phase-out of existing stockpiles is fair,
support and subsidies shifted from oil, gas, coal.
Safer sustainability on a roll.
A treaty calling for the world to speed
the switch to fossil-free energy we all need
that’s fair to makers of all kinds of energy,
fair to us users of electricity.
A treaty calling. We are calling too.
COP Twenty-nine — the best thing you can do!
Aidan Baker
CC BY
(written in support of the campaign by Global Justice Now https://bit.ly/3I7nkrh )
“CC BY” is code for a Creative Commons licence. It means you can use the words any way you like, provided you give due attribution.
