in the 1930s in my hometown, berlin, books were burned by the nazis.

thomas mann said at this time, with some kind of fearful knowlodge of what was about to come:

"those, who burn books, will burn people."

they did.

now "we" start burning flags.

let us not become the evil that we are fighting against

(this is not against the anti-bush demo, i joined it today as well. but it is against some of the means of some of the people in this movement)

Those who respected flags sent people and books to the fire in Berlin. Set the flags on fire to let people and books bloom.

no gods no masters no flags
well er no national flags :)

but the point is serious

book = container of knowledge + information
flag = symbol of national state / political affiliation etc

which is worth more?

It's not illegal to film the filth when they are hassling /arresting people etc. Usual bullshit. Permission is only needed , I believe, if it's indoors. It's a good idea to film them particular when they are beating the shit out of people as there footage is usually 'non representative' :-).

I was one of those who had some concerns about burning flags, mainly because I was worried that it could be mis-interpreted as being an insult to people in or from the USA, many who are otherwise sympathetic to our cause. But paraphrasing one of the many who supported the idea, it's just a bit of cloth which those same people are told to pledge alleigance to for some reason, what's a bit of cloth compared to the deaths of tens of thousands of people?

Many thanks to all the Americans who have posted messages of support, and I hope this did not cause any offence (except to corrupt politicians, arms dealers etc).

i stand in solidarity with you all. As an American, I am sickened by my government and apologize to the world for our behaviour. An intact flag means nothing. But the ashes and flames of a flag challenge us all to remember what freedom really is. I applaud you.

We had a debate about burning the flag at our organising meeting in Swindon a couple of days earlier.

Flags are not just pieces of cloth they are symbols.

I remember being brought up as a child in Britain in the 1960s, and my parents saying something wise to me. They said some people call the British Flag the Union Jack, but it is really the "Butchers Apron" that has flown from slave ships, and has been carried by conquerers as they raped and pillaged the world.

The American flag has been carried by good men, it was the flag that Abraham Lincoln flew in a war to free the slaves. It was the flag of liberty when the American colonists threw off the yoke and declared a democratic republic.

But now it is seen as the flag of oppression. The flag of Coca-colonialism, of the iron heel of "full spectrum dominance". The flag of the CIA, and the people who bank-roll and arm the apartheid state of Israel. We burnt the flag to reject all that.

We are not anti-American. George Bush is as big an enemy to the ordinary folks of America as he is to the rest of us. We aren't burning books. We aren't burning people. We burnt a symbol that millions around the world associate with oppression.

We burnt the flag in solidarity with that other America, the America of Malcolm X, of Bobby Seale, Martin Luther King, John Brown, John Reed and Abbie Hoffman.

By the way, for those of you interested in such things there were about 100 people at the protest. We estimate a similar number of Swindon folks went to London.
BBC Radio Swindon on their eventing drive time show carried reasonably long and sympathetic radio interviews with both a Swindon protester in Trafalgar Square (ahh, mobile phones!) and with me at the Swindon protest.