Written by a brave Swansea rebel, who decided to go through the court system by pleading not guilty to the charges brought against her in April.  Here's why:

"MY DAY IN COURT

This is the gist of what I said in court yesterday. Two other wonderful XR women were being tried too in the same courtroom.
I was very pleased with the evidence I gave. Despite being nervous as hell I managed to remember everything I wanted to say and more - all said with passion and emotion. My barrister was amazing, asking all the appropriate questions to draw out my answers.
People from the public gallery came to me after and said they were in tears listening to my testimony. One of the other defendant’s barristers also came to me after, took my hands in his and said that me giving evidence was the most impressive, powerful testimony he’d witnessed in all his years as a barrister! Gosh! Let’s hope the judge thought so too!  The case has been adjourned until December for the judge to read and analyse submissions brought by our three barristers.
If it will help any others from XR facing trial, here are the points I gave my barrister beforehand to draw from me whilst standing in the dock giving evidence ....

POINTS I WANT TO MAKE .....

I’ve been concerned about environmental issues since the late 70’s when I was in college, becoming a member of Greenpeace and FOE over the years, and more recently an activist with Greenpeace and XR.

As someone concerned about the environment, I have written letters and sent emails to my MP and met her on several occasions. I have emailed my local councillor. I have signed petitions. I’ve also organised petitions and taken part in campaigns for Greenpeace, even dressing up as a penguin in a Greenpeace campaign to protect the Antarctic. I have attended the protest marches. Last week I was invited with two other XR members from Swansea to Westminster by Swansea MP Gareth Davies to attend the Government Plan for Net Zero Emissions debate. It was so depressing. Business as usual...the Tories patting themselves on their backs for what they achieved so far.

The reality is that our worries and concerns are falling on the deaf ears of Government. We are heading full steam on the path to Extinction, whilst they tinker around the edges. We are on the brink, looking into the abyss. My barrister has a bundle including the IPCC report; the World Scientist Warning to Humanity; the UN report; the World Bank; the Guardian Science Correspondent report. Instead of taking this irrefutable scientific consensus on board, the government are actually going in the opposite direction and are giving the go ahead to the gas and oil industries to drill for new oil, continue to allow fracking for gas, last week giving the go ahead for Drax to install 4 new gas turbines in Nth Yorkshire overruling its planning inspectorate. Also, the go ahead for a new gas powered gas station in Swansea, breaching the Paris Agreement and climate targets. This Government has also given the thumbs up to the third runway at Heathrow.

But I think the most important influence on me becoming involved with environmental issues was in my mid twenties, when I played the part of a survivor of the Aberfan disaster in South Wales in 1966 in a play called ‘Lies In Your Hands’. The disaster had had a deep and profound effect on myself as a 10 year old and everyone in my South Wales community. But the true extent of the gross negligence and total failure of the powers that be in preventing this man made disaster was made obvious to me through the play....
For three years before the event, the worries and concerns of the villagers of Aberfan, the local waterworks engineer and some councillors regarding the safety of the slagheap perched on the hillside above the village were totally ignored by the local council and the National Coal Board Corporation. Letters were written, complaints were made, and in 1965 a petition was drawn up by the headmistress of the Pantglas Primary school along with the mothers from the school. To no avail. These concerns fell on deaf years and were totally ignored.

And so....at 9.15 on 21st October 1966 the slagheap positioned above the village collapsed, slid down the mountainside and engulfed the school and some houses, killing 116 children and 28 adults, burying them alive.

The National Coal Board Corporation who had a firm grip on central government and wielded a god like power at the time, denied any responsibility. Since the disaster, no one has been called to account, no one lost their jobs or faced punishment of any kind. I feel very strongly that parallels can be drawn here between the preventable man made disaster at Aberfan and the present man made Climate Crisis situation now.

We are in the midst of the sixth mass extinction. We can see the devastating effects of Climate Change happening right now, every day. It’s effect is immediate. People are losing their lives in floods, mudslides and forest fires. Doctors are saying that people are dying of asthma related issues caused by air pollution in this country; last weekend the typhoon in Japan with deaths in the 60’s; the hurricane in the Bahamas with 64 deaths and 1500 missing last month. Chennai in India, the 5th largest Indian city, without a water supply. Cape Town in South Africa the same.

The senior Police Commissioner MacMillan who placed a section 14 on Oxford Circus in April did so because he believed the assembly to be giving rise to serious disruption to the life of the community. Reports say one woman had complained to the police that she couldn’t get to Top Shop. I wonder how she’ll feel when she is sitting on top of the roof of her house due to flooding and can’t get to anywhere at all!
In April at Oxford Circus, I truly believe that I was acting to protect myself and others from a greater evil..... I was protesting peacefully, exercising my rights to freedom of expression and assembly. It was reasonable, necessary and proportionate in light of the severity of the immediate threat of climate change. Like those mothers from Pantglas school I feel very strongly that It is my job and my duty as a mother and grandmother to protect my children and grandchildren. And as a Conscientious Protector of the Earth, your children and your grandchildren and all life on earth. If a tiger were to charge towards my family, I would step out in front of it to protect them. Wouldn’t you? Well the Climate and Ecological crisis is that tiger. If not me, who? If not now, when?”

Yesterday, 2 wonderful rebels from our area were arrested in London whilst making it clear that the BBC's lack of reporting proportional to the climate & ecological crises is NOT acceptable! 

One of them refused bail resulting in an immediate court hearing - offering a guilty plea on charges of criminal damage (glued onto a door) and set to return in November for sentencing.

Another activist is due in court the day after tomorrow, after taking part in the blockades at the oil plant in Pembrokeshire - and there were 2 others alongside him that haven't informed us yet of their court dates.

Plus, we've heard from a solicitor that the cost of a "not guilty" plea, that was given by one of our rebels following their arrest in April could be, could be £3000-£4000!!

These are not the people that should have been arrested - they have broken the law only in order to prevent serious harm to others.  

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Love and Rage