THURS 2 NOV
There are three spiders I have come to greet every morning hoping they are still there and alive. On the outside of the bathroom window a dew laden web holds the weighty body of Araneus diadematus, or the garden spider, described by the Woodland Trust as ‘a patient predator and web-spinner extraordinaire.’ The days of navigating the multiple extraordinary webs criss-crossing the garden are over but these three hang on in there as winds rise and temperatures drop. The other is outside the kitchen window - tensile web obscuring my lens as I film squirrel action on the pile of sunflower heads strategically placed to get the best squirrel shot. The third is inside which is not where a garden spider should be. It must have arrived on the sunflowers recently harvested from The Grange up the road where their now brown bending forms were not welcome and it’s set up home above my head as I write - fine silk linking printer and lamp.
I look across to the mind map surrounding POWER STATION - complex webs and connections of work and people and place. Weaving ideas and resources together. There is a lot of that work at the moment - assessing where we are, what we’ve done and refining and plotting out the next steps of the story.
The web weaving metaphor is perhaps overused but I recall the story of Arachne. She was transformed into a spider by Athena the goddess of war, handicraft and practical reason for weaving a tapestry that instead of glorifying the virtues of the Gods dared to challenge their supremacy and reveal their corruption - and doing it with superior skill and acumen. I think of those using their craft and voice to reveal truth now - journalists dead and breaking down with the burden of exposing and exposed to such violence. I think of those arguing in the name of practical reason and war that ceasefire is naïve.
The world wide web live streams the truths that dismantle the spin of war and politicking. There is a lot of talk of complexity. Talk destroyed by author Ta Nehisi Coates (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_df_u7yJj3k) when he eloquently, passionately articulates just how uncomplicated it actually is. That a state that calls itself a democracy but imposes segregation, where the basic rights of some are negated is “actually not that hard to understand. It’s actually quite familiar to us with a familiarity to African American history” He speaks of the ethics of nonviolence. Of how violence itself is corrupting. Of the rage of oppression and subjugation. He talks about his congressman being asked what number of people should die before he says that’s enough? and the congressman couldn’t say. “That man has been corrupted, that man has lost himself, he’s lost himself in humiliation, he’s lost himself in revenge, he has lost himself in violence.” He questions the constant repetition of ‘the right to self-defence’ with ‘What about the right to dignity? What about the right to morality? What about the right to be able to sleep at night? Because what I know is that if I was complicit (and I am complicit) in dropping bombs on children, and dropping bombs on refugee camps, no matter who’s there. It would give me trouble sleeping at night, and I worry for the souls of people who can do this and can sleep at night. “
I attempt to imagine insomniac politicians but a vision of Jacob Rees Moggs, Kier Starmer, Suella Braverman and Rishi Sunak dormant but wakeful in a scene straight from the Walking Dead invades.
Meanwhile the right to self defence is twisted in the courts of the UK. Co-founder of Extinction Rebellion Gail Bradbrook is sentenced today and as I write Dan sends me news that Sam our friend from Just Stop Oil has just been remanded in custody for 28 days - charged under new anti-protest laws. At the end of his trial he took off his jumper to reveal a t shirt saying ‘investigate the real criminals’ and in Gail Bradbrook’s speech outside court she states “what does it tell us when there is no accountability for those causing damage on a national and planetary scale….but that a mother taking action, according to the scientific evidence, to protect her children, is treated as a criminal. Trust in a system that reaches such inhuman conclusions can’t last…. Law and justice are not the same thing.“
She was threatened with contempt of court and trial without jury for attempting to speak about the reasons for her action but the real contempt lies in the crackdown on free speech and protest, the contempt for the lives of others and for life on earth. This contempt fuels our media, taints our language and souls and patrols our actions. Slow walks. Sit ins. Prayer. When Jewish people peacefully protesting with prayers for a ceasefire are arrested and their actions are reported as a threat to British Jews, when retired social workers standing on a pavement holding up a piece of the law on a sign “Juries have an absolute right to acquit a defendant according to their conscience” await trial, law and justice are at war.
Returning to webs. This is all intricately connected. There is no climate justice without justice for all. Key organisers of major sit ins in London stations calling for a ceasefire, Sisters Uncut were asked “Why does a feminist group care about Gaza? What has bombs and genocide got to do with women and feminism?” Their response: We care about Gaza because we care about women. And we care about women because we care about humanity.”
Networks of care. For people. For planet. For peace.
Just Stop Oil. Just Stop Genocide.
