Ewa Jasiewicz

This audio clip is from a series of 100 life history interviews with environmental campaigners in the UK, 1970-2020. A quotation from this recording features in the book Voices for Change, published by UCL Press in November 2026 (available in print as well as a free PDF download). The full interview, along with the summaries, transcripts and recordings for this and the rest of the interview collection, is available at the British Library (Sound and Moving Image Collection, under the shelf-mark C2037). For more information, including educational materials and other resources, visit the Oral History of the Environmental Movement project website at www.royalholloway.ac.uk/ohemQuotation:Ewa Jasiewicz: it was the first time that I had done that sort of bad ass week-long action, you know. Getting on top of something. It gave me a lot to think about and it really inspired me, like around how it’s really good to get on the roof tops of things, of factories and places. It’s very hard to be policed up there. And you do feel a sense of power and it’s very confrontational. You’re shutting stuff down. And actually the sort of physical risk from police violence is really low because they don’t want to- They can’t really fight you on a roof. And they have to be very careful because you’re on a roof and that, that feels good, you know. And it feels, you’ve got a bit of an upper hand.British Library catalogue number: C2037/85 Project clip number: 80