It's not often that you see a protest in favour of maintaining the status quo, off the top of my head I personally can't think of a single example. Today though I had the pleasure of taking part in such a protest, one that was in favour of continued animal testing and specifically the building of a new animal lab in Oxford.

The lab in question has been the centre of attention for quite a while now. It is being built by the University of Oxford as a replacement building to allow the centralisation of animal research within the university within a purpose built environment. Since its conception though it has attracted attention from a number of animal rights groups, primarily Speak and the Animal Liberation Front (ALF). For the most part Speak has been involved in peaceful protest against the lab, members of the group can be found in the vicinity of the lab on most days though an injucntion taken out by the university prevents them from congregating directly in front of the building apart from on set times. The ALF on the otherhand represents a more extreme group, one that has been linked to more violent action such as the firebombing of a university boat house and a declaration that any member, sponsor or building of the university was considered, in their opinion, a valid target. For anybody interested in further details about the situation surrounding the building I'd suggest a quick search on any UK news site. The BBC, Guardian and Times have all carried a number of stories with regards it.

So, back to the march. Arriving into the centre of Oxford at around 11.20, before the appointed time of 11.30 I wasn't really surprised to see that a crowd had already started to gather in Broad Street. The police, as expected were present in fair numbers though at this point I was of the opinion that they had seriously overestimated the size of the gathering. Having a good look around I came to a guess of around 150-200 people, which to be honest was around that which I had expected. Also present were a number of reporters and photographers, ranging from the professional such as the BBC and amateurs scribbling notes down on pen and paper or speaking into MP3 players, obviously doubling up as dictaphones for the day. Over the course of the next twenty minutes the crowd expanded considerably, I found myself quickly engulfed by people of all ages. The report on the BBC gives a final number of up to 600 people though as with any protest this is difficult to gauge (The Sky News report gives a figure of 700 compared to 200 people for the Speak march). Throughout the march the consensus seemed to be a bit higher and the comment of just under 1000 was made repeatedly.

Before heading out on the arranged route there was the usual selected speakers, though unfortunately I was unable to hear the vast majority of what was said due to my position within the crowd. The atmosphere started to liven up once we were underway, people were relaxed and generally enjoying themselves while every so often sections of the crowd would start up one of the chants the organisers had been leading back at Broad Street. The favoured one was the simple

What do we want?
The Oxford Lab
When do we want it?
Now!

though several others were repeated throughout the march. Prior to the start I was worried about the potential clash between Speak and ourselves, especially given that Speak were conducting their own march and didn't appear to have a registered route (The Sky report linked above mentions this fact). Barring a few isolated individuals though we encountered no problems. Those that we did meet seemed to be content to stand on the pavement and shout at us, primarily questioning whether we had any morals.

Stopping opposite the building site there was another set of speakers, which having worked my way through the crowd I was in a position to hear more clearly. The message from each of them was fairly simple, primarily that we were tired of being the silent majority and that we were tired of the harassment that was encountered. Another theme that seemed to crop up repeatedly was the right to protest, with speakers reminding us that we respected the rights of Speak to protest against the lab but that didn't make them right. Particularly entertaining was the spontaneous boo that erupted from the crowd on mention of the ALF and their actions. Following the speakers the march reversed direction, heading down to the Radcliffe Camera for a final set of speakers before dispersing. One of the final surprises of the day was the issuing of a thanks to the police who had accompanied us on the route. Given the trouble that they've had with previous animal rights marches I thought this was a nice touch to a march that had been carried out without any troubles.

All in all the day was very enjoyable if a little cold. While students appeared to make up around half of the crowd the rest contained a good spectrum of ages though I have to wonder how many are directly associated with the University. As a final point it was nice to see the march take place without any problems, it was certainly the most relaxed protest that I have seen in a long time.

For those interested, some useful links:
The BBC article on the march
Another BBC article from today
Pro-Test, the organisers of the event
The Speak website
Comment made by Speak with regards the founder of Pro-Test. Personally I think this one highlights the mindset of the group particularly well.