Protesters against live animal exports gathered in Redditch Town Centre on Saturday 30th January for a peaceful rally and march in rememberance of Jill Phipps, who was killed under the wheels of a livestock truck at Coventry Airport in 1995.
We arrived in Redditch at 11.30am to enable us to set up a stall with lots of leaflets, petitions and collecting tins. The coloured posters of Jill had been carefully mounted onto a bright purple and yellow background and two beautiful wreaths made from ivy and purple flowers placed at either end of the table. There were poems, rememberance cards and ribbon badges all made with love especially for the day. It was difficult to estimate beforehand just how many people would attend but the police were out in force as usual and being unusually co-operative!
The crowd began to increase and by 12.30 there were well over 200 people, it was good to see so many familiar dedicated faces. People had come from all over the country, from Shoreham, Dover, Liverpool, Yorkshire, London - the fact that so many people had made the effort to come and pay their respects to Jill was very touching and created a warmth in the atmosphere straight away.
I introduced the guest speakers by first mentioning Jill`s dream of ending live exports and of a more compassionate society for all animals. Juliet Gellatley of Viva was our first guest speaker and she was, true to form a wonderful speaker, full of enthusiasm and positivity, she spoke, amongst other things about Tony Blair being unimportant, it is the people who will eventually change things, by contiuing to campaign and stand up for what they believe. Philip Lymbery of CIWF assured us that his group would continue with their fight against live exports. Andrew Tyler of Animal Aid spoke very personally about the past history of CALEX, Barrett Jolley, and how he didn`t know Jill personally but had heard many people say that she was a lovely and kind person who welcomed newcomers and made them feel at ease. A very touching tribute.
John Curtin gave a very personal memory of Jill, he said she was bright and colourful and like the posters, all rainbows. He said that Jill`s gravestone in Coventry was the most beautiful gravestone anyone would ever see. Jill`s brother Zab, spoke about the tragic day Jill was killed and how it could have been avoided if the police had shown more care and foresight on the day. Prominent campaigner, Janet Cummings gave us all a day to remember with her personal views of the police, who were, I might add being extremely helpful. Infact, when a megaphone battery ran out, Sgt. Burchell ran to find us another megaphone(that has to be a first).
After the speakers we proceeded down Prospect Hill in a procession towards Stephen Wood`s lairage. As we marched past the shops we got some local support from a lady in an estate agents office wearing her purple ribbon, but Redditch was unusually quiet, as we passed the houses not a soul could be seen - the silence was quite eerie. The police had re-directed the traffic from the ring road so that Birmingham Road to Weights Lane was closed while we held our procession.
When we had all assembled near to the railway bridge, Barbara handed out a hymn which she had put her own words to, we sang this to the tune of Abide with Me. I then read out a poem and we all formed an enormous circle and held a one minute silence in memory of Jill and all the suffering animals. The silence was beautifully peaceful, there was no passing traffic or police helicopter hovering above us, the atmosphere was quite emotionally charged, a few of us were overcome and began to cry.
The Rememberance Day was, we felt, a great success. The police kept a low profile in spite of their numbers and were quite co-operative. Thankyou to everyone who attended and made the day so memorable.
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