State Visit - Bush Not Welcome!
IMC UK | 11.11.2003 23:10 | Bush 2003 | Anti-militarism | Globalisation | London
UPDATES
14th Nov: "Chasing Bush" SMS Text Tracking Website for the State Visit Launches
14th Nov: Sedgefield Welcoming Committee Protest Announced
14th Nov: Vietnam Vet Ron Kovic will now lead a delegation of STOP BU$H protestors to Downing Street at 11am on Monday 17th where they will hand in a 100,000 signature petition demanding that Bush's visit be called off.
13th Nov: National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice briefs journos + State Visit Timetable Announced
13th Nov: Stop the War Coalition Considers Legal Action
11th Nov: With less than one week to go before the State Visit of US President Bush to the uk, discussions and arguments around high security versus the rights to demonstrate have hit fever pitch, with widespread coverage on TV and in the newspapers. Stories have centred on US demands to close down large areas of central London with figures like London Mayor Ken Livingstone saying that this must not happen.
While the Stop the War Coalition and Muslim Association of Britain - the main organisers of the largest march - have said police will not allow the route of their march to pass parliament or along Whitehall, the police have however said those areas will remain open, althought they have also said that daily road closures at short notice are to be expected.
While the main focus of protests will be in London, other demonstrations are also happening in Sheffield, Manchester, Cambridge, Bristol, Oxford, and many other towns and cities. In London, several days of protests will see a range of actions from mass civil disobedience to street parties.
Listings of planned protests:
see London Listing | ResistBush.org | Stop The War Coalition Muslim Association of Britain (national day of fasting) | Bristol and Swindon | Cambridge | Chester | Sheffield | Oxford | Sedgefield | York | Aylesbury | Exeter | Leeds | Bradford | Manchester | Glasgow | Edinburgh [1,2] | Menwith Hill | more to follow... |
Also See:
Bare your Bum at Bush 1 | Bare your Bum at Bush 2 | Scrap-Bush Women's Collective | NOT WELCOME Pretzel Campaign | Main Online Petition Against Bush Visit (7000+) | Petition 2 | Street Party Against Bush | Stencils and Stickers | SMS Text Tracking System for Bush visit | Virtual March on US Embassy (20th Nov)
Recent Actions:
Bush Statue Toppled by West Yorkshire Peace Campaigners
Cambridge: Activist on Bridge urges Commuters to STOP BUSH
Legal Advice:
ResistBush info (includes 'Sessional Orders')
| Section 44 Terrorism Act info (authorised for use) | Liberty Section 44 Search Monitoring Form (pdf - includes police powers info) | Section 60 Powers | Info from Irish Gluaiseacht | Activist Legal Resource
FTAA
After tea with Tony and the Queen, George will pack his suitcase and head to Miami, where he will be taking part in the fifth Summit of the Americas on the 20-21st of November - for more on the FTAA see here
14th Nov: "Chasing Bush" SMS Text Tracking Website for the State Visit Launches
14th Nov: Sedgefield Welcoming Committee Protest Announced
14th Nov: Vietnam Vet Ron Kovic will now lead a delegation of STOP BU$H protestors to Downing Street at 11am on Monday 17th where they will hand in a 100,000 signature petition demanding that Bush's visit be called off.
13th Nov: National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice briefs journos + State Visit Timetable Announced
13th Nov: Stop the War Coalition Considers Legal Action
11th Nov: With less than one week to go before the State Visit of US President Bush to the uk, discussions and arguments around high security versus the rights to demonstrate have hit fever pitch, with widespread coverage on TV and in the newspapers. Stories have centred on US demands to close down large areas of central London with figures like London Mayor Ken Livingstone saying that this must not happen.
While the Stop the War Coalition and Muslim Association of Britain - the main organisers of the largest march - have said police will not allow the route of their march to pass parliament or along Whitehall, the police have however said those areas will remain open, althought they have also said that daily road closures at short notice are to be expected.
While the main focus of protests will be in London, other demonstrations are also happening in Sheffield, Manchester, Cambridge, Bristol, Oxford, and many other towns and cities. In London, several days of protests will see a range of actions from mass civil disobedience to street parties.
Listings of planned protests:
see London Listing | ResistBush.org | Stop The War Coalition Muslim Association of Britain (national day of fasting) | Bristol and Swindon | Cambridge | Chester | Sheffield | Oxford | Sedgefield | York | Aylesbury | Exeter | Leeds | Bradford | Manchester | Glasgow | Edinburgh [1,2] | Menwith Hill | more to follow... |
Also See:
Bare your Bum at Bush 1 | Bare your Bum at Bush 2 | Scrap-Bush Women's Collective | NOT WELCOME Pretzel Campaign | Main Online Petition Against Bush Visit (7000+) | Petition 2 | Street Party Against Bush | Stencils and Stickers | SMS Text Tracking System for Bush visit | Virtual March on US Embassy (20th Nov)
Recent Actions:
Bush Statue Toppled by West Yorkshire Peace Campaigners
Cambridge: Activist on Bridge urges Commuters to STOP BUSH
Legal Advice:
ResistBush info (includes 'Sessional Orders')
| Section 44 Terrorism Act info (authorised for use) | Liberty Section 44 Search Monitoring Form (pdf - includes police powers info) | Section 60 Powers | Info from Irish Gluaiseacht | Activist Legal Resource
FTAA
After tea with Tony and the Queen, George will pack his suitcase and head to Miami, where he will be taking part in the fifth Summit of the Americas on the 20-21st of November - for more on the FTAA see here
The summit process is an attempt to overrule democracy in the western hemisphere by signing an agreement implementing a "Free Trade Area of the Americas." The FTAA is a bill of rights for the rich, and allows corporations to sue local and national governments for putting up "barriers to trade" - things like labour, safety, and environmental regulations. During the third summit of the Americas in Quebec City in 2001, George was greeted by hundreds of corporate executives, tens of thousands of protesters, widespread streetfighting, and the smell of corporate 'democracy' wafting from the 5148 canisters of tear gas used by police on demonstrators and local residents.
In Quito, Ecuador, during the fourth Summit of the Americas in 2002, demonstrators broke through the security cordon into the negotiating rooms and roundly told off Bob Zoellick, the head U.S. trade negotiator, for his nation's destructive trade policies. With the recent defeat of the U.S. and European Union at the recent World Trade Organization summit in Cancun, Mexico, the fifth Summit of the Americas is shaping up to be quite an interesting political event. As George's heavily militarized police force prepares to confront the thousands of demonstrators who are now converging on the city, there are mixed signals coming from the governments of Brazil and Venezuela as to whether they will sign on to the FTAA, and the governments of Argentina and Bolivia have been crippled by major political instability stemming largely from neoliberal economic reforms. A second major collapse in trade negotiations in only three months would be devastating for the corporate agenda which George enthusiastically represents, and a major victory for the forces of global civil society.
In Quito, Ecuador, during the fourth Summit of the Americas in 2002, demonstrators broke through the security cordon into the negotiating rooms and roundly told off Bob Zoellick, the head U.S. trade negotiator, for his nation's destructive trade policies. With the recent defeat of the U.S. and European Union at the recent World Trade Organization summit in Cancun, Mexico, the fifth Summit of the Americas is shaping up to be quite an interesting political event. As George's heavily militarized police force prepares to confront the thousands of demonstrators who are now converging on the city, there are mixed signals coming from the governments of Brazil and Venezuela as to whether they will sign on to the FTAA, and the governments of Argentina and Bolivia have been crippled by major political instability stemming largely from neoliberal economic reforms. A second major collapse in trade negotiations in only three months would be devastating for the corporate agenda which George enthusiastically represents, and a major victory for the forces of global civil society.
IMC UK
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