At 12:00 pm on Thursday the 1st of May, TEXAN COWBOYS AGAINST WAR staged a daring guerilla publicity event, involving an enormous banner drop from the roof of Bristol City Library, central Bristol.

The Cowboys were illustrating the fact that the war in Iraq is not over, that the suffering and bloodshed has only just begun. Two banners were dropped over the main entrance, one comparing the estimated civilian death rate of 4000 to the 'weapons of mass destruction' uncovered so far (0). The other was designed like a spread from the book series known as 'Horrible Histories', this one covering the war in Iraq.

The library was chosen for its visible position in central Bristol, and also as a reminder that all the main libraries in Iraq have been looted or torched, including one collection of 1000 year old Korans.

The event was generally well received, with HTV, the Evening Post and the Bristol Observer in attendance. While some cowboys rodeoed and fired off their guns on the roof, others distributed leaflets at the bottom.

OVER REACTION

The reaction of council management was quite astonishing. Once in place, the cowboys had informed the staff they would be there for two hours maximum, and that no damage or health and safety risks would be caused. The staff also had access to a mobile line to negotiate with the roof protestors, but did not use this at any time.

Instead of taking the easy and non-confrontational approach, it appears some anonymous bureaucrat in council management decided to up the aggro, first by locking the window and taking away the chair which had been used to climb out on the roof. Then, inexplicably, 'somebody' set off the fire alarm and the staff cleared the building. Fire engines were called (and just as quickly departed) while bulldog security staff (specially called in, wearing flak jackets!!) would not let anybody back in until the rooftop cowboys had agreed to come down AND the bulldogs had dismantled the banners. One uninvolved woman amongst the returnees was even arbitarily picked out by the heavy mob security boys and refused re-entry, accused of being 'part of the protest' and threatened with 'arrest'.

Yet despite such silly and Orwellian/ Kafkaesque heavy handedness by certain elements, the action was a tremendous success, and the cowboys will live to rodeo another day.

WATCH THIS SPACE FOR PICTURES...

Texan Cowboys Against War are a posse of non-party political, peaceful activists who are planning a number of events over coming weeks, targeting symbols of the Bush/Blair regime in Bristol with a series of precise, surgical strikes.