venus invited people to come together for a group hug on valentine day afternoon to celebrate in a non-commercial, real and meaningful way.

the statue of eros was adorned with red heart balloons, the steps were decorated with chalk drawings and beautiful thoughts, a stall was set up to supply cardboard and art materials for all to make their own valentine cards, the rhythms of resistance samba band entertained and drew the crowds, and venus roused us all with a beautiful speech before inviting everyone to take part in a mass group hug.

some cops (who refused to take part in the hug) tried to spoil things a little hassling members of the crowd for no apparent reason, but even they were beaten back by the power of love and slunk to the side-lines to observe. i've posted a quicktime movie of edited highlights of the afternoon - it's 12 Mb and just under three minutes long, if that's too much for you, there's some stills from the film on a previous posting at

 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/02/285361.html

peace

and love