Mark Thomas: ‘Some of what we’re doing is a tiny bit illegal…’
[prev] …do your homework, learn about the issue you’re working on, go through all the boring stuff like organising meetings and getting petitions together – all that kind of stuff is about building a campaign. When we used to try and get funding for a campaign, I used to say: let’s try and get £1 each from 1,000 people, rather than £1k from one person, because every time you get a pound, someone has engaged with your ideas. You have to be an ambassador for the change that you want.
I’ve read a lot about some quite hairy situations you’ve got yourself into – have you ever worried at any point that you’ve bitten off more than you can chew, and feared for your safety or freedom?
Um, yeah, there have been a few occasions like that!
‘I rung her and said: “We’re really in trouble!”‘
Care to elaborate?
Certainly when I was walking the length of the wall in the West Bank, I was arrested by the Israeli army and I thought we were going to be deported, or end up in jail. I was working with an Israeli fixer who helped foreign film crews working in the West Bank, and would negotiate with the Israeli army, so I rung her and said: ‘We’re really in trouble!’. And she just made a few phone calls, knew exactly what to say, which was essentially, to the authorities: ‘you don’t need the bother’.
Think of the paperwork!
It really was that! Anyway, she sprung us. Yes, there have been a few moments like that…
Mark Thomas: 100 Acts of Minor Dissent
Thursday, 13 March, 7.30 pm
The Key Theatre, Embankment Road, Peterborough
Box office: 01733 207239