Basically there's this loose coallition of activist groups and NGOs, calling themselves the Trade Justice Movement, who have come together to campaign against the unfairness of the global economy including the unfair rules that we help to perpetutate through our selfish use of our excessive bargaining power at the WTO (world trade organisation).

And they've organised what they're calling a "mass lobby" of parliament.

Anyone can turn up outside parliament and ask to speak to their MP. A "mass lobby" is when thousands of people all turn up to lobby their MPs at the same time.

People will have banners and there'll be shouting slogans for some of the time. So it's basically just an enormous protest outside parliament, but with the difference that the MPs are supposed to come out and talk to their consituents.

Yes, it's a work-within-the-system thing, no it's not a smash-this-capitalist-state thing. But it is a good cause and we should all go and offer our support and our solidarity.

Revolution of some description (be it anarchist or socialist or whatever) may be our ultimate aim, but there's no reason why we shouldn't in the shorter term aspire to ahieve smaller changes by (for example) putting pressure on the government.

I would urge everyone not to be so cynical as to dismiss entirely the suggestion that this kind of tactic can have a positive effect. MPs are human. The sight of thousands and thousands of their constituents all making a BIG fuss about our role in maintaining a system of global exploitation and inequalty, and demanding change... blatantly this will have an impact on them. And those who come out to talk to people will hear in detail exactly why we think unfair international trade policies are unacceptable.

Never underestimate the power of public pressure on the government. The MAI (multilateral agreement on investment) was defeated by popular pressure. This protest could help win the battle against GATS (the seriously dodgy "general agreement on trade in services").

Public pressure also managed to convince governments to apply sanctions on South Africa at the height of the apartheid era.

We may ultimately want to OVERTHROW the government. We may ultimately want to overthrow capitalism itself. But at least in the short term, the government is something we have to live with so we might as well do what we can to push it in at least a slightly better direction.

There's really not much difference between this protest and the Genoa one. But for some reason, the anti-capitalist movement embraced that protest with considerable enthusiasm, whereas so far we seem to have just been leaving the TJM to get on with this one, rather than joining in and doing our own thing - which we should do because we'll add diversity and make the event even bigger.

This movement has often given support and solidarity to groups who might not explicitly call themselves anti-capitalists. For example Palestinians, communities in Chiapas, and Palestinians and Kurds. Surely this is just as good a cause.

The kind of people who'll be there are... well some of them will be radical anti-capitalists, but many of them are basically what could be called "the other half of the movement" - all the other people you saw at Genoa / Prague / Gottenburg: everyone who wasn't dressed in black block or white overalls or pink and silver, or who wasn't carrying black and red flags or SWP banners and so on. People who work for charities and NGOs and so on. They may not all be as radical as us but they're still fighting against the injustice and general fuckupness of the global economy, and that's basically what we're about.

This is going to be an absolutely enormous protest - 10,000 people are predicted so far! We could make it even more if we decide to go :-)

But what's missing from the picture is significant involvement from this side of the anti-corporate-globalisation movement - ie radical anticapitalists.

Please please please consider going to this. Tell your mates and fellow activists about it.

Blatantly do what you want, there's other stuff going on on the day, including an anti-macdonalds protest.

But do have a look at the website. It's at:

www.tradejusticemovement.org.uk

It says you're supposed to "register", but blatantly just turn up. And if the style of protest they've organised doesn't suit you then make your own banners or whatever.. do your own thing.

This is a BIG protest about a BIG issue. Surely we're all against the way the rich west exploits the third world through unfair trade - be it the hypocrisy of our keeping our import tarrifs on their goods up whilst forcing them to slash their tarrigs on our goods... or be it the neo-liberal agenda of the WTO whose only purpose is to make the world economy even more "business-friendly" at the expense of the wellbeing of ordinary people (and the environment).

The Trade Justice Movement people have taken the initiative to organise this event and make it happen. But that doesn't mean that it has to be an exclusively TJM protest. The best protests are the ones that take on a life of their own - one group decides to have a protest and then all these other people they didn't know about decide to join in.

Let's make that happen with this one!

This is going to be the biggest mass political mobilisation since mayday. It would be a shame if we just stood back and didn't join in because we didn't feel that it was "our" protest. No matter who's organised it, when there's a good protest happening we should all join in :-)