Category: Community

Saturday December 1st

Meet on Castle Green at 11am for a Respectful, Peaceful, Inclusive day of action to launch Extinction Rebellion Hereford.

Please note that Extinction Rebellion is a totally Non-Violent Movement working with Determined Love for all life on Earth.

Themes:

– Wonder at the joy of our stunning world and everything we want to protect

– Mourning for what has already been lost and what will soon be lost

– Determination to change the course of climate destabilisation and mass extinction for the better

Aims of the Rally:

– To launch Extinction Rebellion Hereford

– To raise awareness that time is rapidly running out to avoid climate catastrophe and to slow the rate of species extinctions ….. this is a ‘wake-up’ call

– To portray a true representation of our predicament and to put Jesse Norman on notice that his constituents know what is happening and demand government action

– To get people on our side and grow our numbers because for this movement to succeed we need MASS participation

The Declaration

Ben has sent the Extinction Rebellion Declaration to Jesse Norman to put him on notice that change must happen. Jesse has been asked to respond with his perspective on the Declaration’s demands.
During the day people will sign copies of it which we will gather together when we get to the Shire Hall and later given to Jesse Norman.
Please see attachment for the Declaration wording.

Set up for the theatrical aspect of the day:
Dress code…
Children and some adults dressed as animals / trees / ‘life’ / cheerful / colourful / celebratory of life please…painted faces encouraged
Face paining will be possible on Castle Green…early attendance encouraged
Some adults completely in black as ‘mourners’ please…bring candles in jars if possible

4 or 6 adults totally in black with black net headdresses will be carrying a coffin representing our Earth and all life upon it.

Possible pallbearers so far are , Bella and Bryony.

Other mourners will walk with the coffin bearers in solemn dignity.
Children and other adults will be joyful.

There will be flags, banners and placards available but please make your own too. Please make them pertinent to the theme. If you use the extinction rebellion sign of an hour-glass inside a circle representing the Earth, please remember to keep the hour-glass upright 🙂

Bring cameras. John will be videoing but the more photos the better. Send them in to the Hereford Times and maybe we could get a page of lovely photos. Send them to the FB page too….. XR Hereford

We are all crew and need people to take on these roles please:

– EVERYONE please be aware of safety. We will have children with us who will be enjoying themselves rather than thinking about staying safe. We will have older people and less able people too. Please care for each-other and the other people using the town with respect. We are all in this together and we need love for all, to help us through. Thank you.

– People happy to talk to the public, explain what we are doing and why, invite them to join us, invite them to sign the Declaration that will be handed in at the Shire Hall. It would be good to also have a sheet of paper to collect email address of people wanting to join this list please…..please ask them to write clearly! If we can’t read it we lose that contact and we need to grow this movement as fast as possible..thanks.

– People to hand out leaflets

– A couple of people with a donation bucket asking for funds as we’re going to need money as this movement grows. If possible please make your bucket attractive…maybe decorate it with pictures of wild-life that we don’t want to lose.

Running order

Speeches on Castle Green
– Rick Guest will open the rally
– Rumy Salmon
– Ben Salmon
– Someone yet to be asked
– Cathy Monkley
– Richard Priestley
Speeches will be less than 5 mins each.

We might do a practice ‘die-in’.

During this time on Castle Green there will be face-painting and we get the chance to sign the Declaration .

Then we march and sing through Cathedral Close to stay and sing a while outside the Cathedral.

Then we’ll proceed down Broad St. into High Town.

At some point there will be a ‘die-in’ during which The Declaration will be read. The pallbearers will be still, with the other mourners gathered around them. Around them will be all the other adults and the children. There will be a double drum beat, or a bell and all except the mourners will fall to the ground and stay still.

The exact details of when and where the ‘die-in’ happens will be dictated a bit by the circumstances on the day. We might even do it in a couple of different places.

Then we sing and march our way to The Shire Hall to end the rally.

At the Shire Hall there will be a couple more short speeches probably from
– Pat Ronan from ‘Wye Ruin It’
– Rob Palgrave and
– Diana Toynbee both from The Green Party
and the signed Declaration sheets will be gathered together to be handed in to Jesse Norman.

Going with the flow!

This is a guide only and may be subject to alterations as weather / people / circumstances dictate but the rally will happen at the stated time and place provided Castle Green is not 3 foot under water!

Immediately After The Event

Please join us at De Koffie Pot, The Left Bank for a gathering to celebrate what we’ve done, decide what was good, what we won’t do again and what we need to learn for next time. A general de-brief and rally-goers friendship making session! This will give us a chance to set a date for our next meet-up.

Important Singing and Die-in Rehearsal

If you can, please join us on Friday 30th Nov to practice the songs and the bit of theatre.
Meet at ‘Clear Space’ which is above The Friends Meeting House in Broad St, in good time to start at 7pm. We have until 8:30pm to get in good voice and all excited about the following day.

Thanks

There are so many people to thank already and I am bound to miss people out who I am not aware of so please forgive me for that, but I’d like to thank:
Everyone for coming last night
Everyone who made that possible by looking after things at home
Nat for letting us have the room
Melodie and Friends of The Earth for funding
Rick, Toni, Ben, Nada, Petra, Paddy and David for doing so much organising
John for offering to video the rally
Kate for offering to bring clip-boards
Carrie for letting us borrow the coffin
Oscar and Sam for their enthusiasm about getting more young people involved
Bella for sourcing flag material
Everyone involved with banner, placard and flag production
Everyone who is happy to speak
Ben at The Rocket for being the leaflet distribution centre
Everyone who has taken leaflets around the shops and everyone who has agreed to put one up
Everyone who has invited family, friends or neighbours
Everyone who has talked about the rally / the issues with anyone
David England for that wonder picture ‘No Pomp’ on fb
And…everyone I’ve missed…thank you all.

Lastly

Please continue to invite people to join us in the family friendly event…Ta

Onwards to our better world
Cathy