The Caffeine-Fuelled Protest

This morning as I was about to depart at ridiculous o'clock, I kissed Stu goodbye as is customary. He eyed my outfit blearily.

"That doesn't make sense".

I looked down at myself. "What?"

"What you're wearing."

I guess I could see his point; I did have on camouflage trousers and a high-vis PCS jacket - a somewhat contradictory attire. Nevertheless, it was my choice, as I did feel as if preparing for battle today.

Today of course is June 30th, the day when the teaching unions NUT, ATL and UCU along with public sector union PCS are all out on strike against the government's draconian plans to cut pensions, pay, working conditions and jobs in... well, just about everywhere in the public sector. I was requested to capture this momentous day in the medium of video, focusing specifically on Newport.

Film and video being my thing of course, I gladly accepted and armed myself with my trusty Fujifilm FinePix S5800, a spare pack of batteries, two 2GB memory cards and my 5th Gen iPod Nano should I need a spare voice recorder and/or video camera. And a flask of very strong coffee.

A note about the coffee; it was my chief sustenance and stimulant throughout the morning as I barely ate anything (the exception being a tray of the greasiest chips ever from a Newport fish'n'chipperie... they just slid down before I even had time to chew them).

But it was a great morning and in my capacity of videographer I got to visit various different picket lines; the IPO/ONS, Nash College, DWP offices in the town centre, the Passport Office and University of Wales, Newport, City Campus. And I got a lot of footage - just as well I brought the spare memory card - and some great soundbites.

Then I hit a wall around 10.30 and seriously started flagging... time for more coffee. Luckily the City Campus of the University of Wales, Newport had a (sort of) canteen type place, where for £1 you were given a paper cup to fill up from a hot drinks dispenser. I wasn't arguing though - I needed the caffeine urgently.

A rally, organised by Newport Trades Council, began in John Frost Square at 12 and was reasonably well attended. But then this is Newport - a city that was once steeped in history, famous for the Chartist Rising of 1839, that now just seems dogged with depression and apathy. (And I lived there for 5 years - the most depressing and apathetic time of my life). The speakers however - from PCS, the teaching unions, local Labour councillors and the fabulous Pippa Bartolotti from the Green Party - made up vocally for the lack of enthusiasm from the locals.

I decided that an overhead shot from the window of Newport Library, overlooking the square, was needed. So I climbed the stairs to the top floor and got a nice dramatic shot of the scene below. Ooh look, there's a coffee machine up here too! Yet another £1 for a paper cupful but I was fading again by this time (plus the walk up the stairs had nearly finished me off). So I put the money in and chose 'freshly ground coffee'. Big mistake. I swear each individual bean was being roasted over a tea-light before being ground by mice in mittens, it took that long to produce. I was getting desperate and people around me were backing away, probably due to the sound of my grinding teeth and the sight of my bulging, reddening eyes - just like Arnold Schwarzennegar in Total Recall. Luckily, the cup was full of brown hot liquid before my head exploded Scanners style.

Coffee cravings notwithstanding, it was a great day and we all felt like we had achieved something. The Newport rally may have been small in comparison to those held in Bristol and Cardiff, but we did the best with what we had and I am proud to have been part of it.

The video footage I captured looks great (although the sound is lousy - note to self: get a proper dedicated video camera!) and I've got ideas on how best to edit it. May take a while but I do tend to fuss over these things. I meant to get straight down to editing when I got back to Cardiff. Instead I ended up face down in a microwaved chicken korma from Tesco. Guess I just can't hack early mornings anymore.