At 1pm there was a minutes silence and much waving of white items (the trade mark colour of the campaign).

This was the first major event for the Trade Justice Movement since the Make Poverty History (MPH) rally and march the weekend beore the G8 Summit in scotland.

While many both inside and outside of the MPH coalition have criticised the campaign for being too simplistic, superficial and compromised by pop stars and politicians, the campaigning has to continue.

For two good perpectives on the MPH campaign post G8 see:
 http://www.redpepper.org.uk/global/x-nov05-hodkinson.htm
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4397936.stm

The mass organised lobby of MPs saw many politicians meeting constituants in their pre-arranged locations along the thames, in a repeat of the scenes seen in 2002 during the last mass lobby. It provided people the opportunity to talk openly about the issues and was certainly an interesting sight seing so many politicians on the street talking to people. "Democracy in action" commentated one old lady, although many younger campaigners were sceptical that the event would produce real results. It was also of course a great opportunity for the MPs to get some positive coverage and get their pictures taken along with campaigners.

Plenty of TV cameras and press photographers were out and about after the initial panic caused by Blunkett's resignation - as were several community video and radio groups recording the days events.

Other campaigners queued up outside parliament to go inside and lobby their MPs - when I left at 2pm the MP-omiter, measuring how many MPs had been lobbied was up to a count of 32. It's expected that that figure will reach into the hundreds by the end of the day.

People were lobbying their MP's to support the calls to stop pushing poor countries to open their economies through world trade talks and respect poor countries' right to decide on trade policies to help end poverty and protect their environment. Campaigners were also urging their MPs to sign the trade justice Early Day Motion 679 'Making Poverty History through Trade Justice'.

Similar lobby efforts were also happening in other countries and a european wide lobby will take place in Brussels on 21 November. In the UK, so far 600,000 people in the UK have already added their support to the Vote for Trade Justice campaign.

More info:

Trade Justice Network Mass Lobby Info:
 http://www.tjm.org.uk/lobby05/index.shtml
 http://www.waronwant.org/?lid=10729
 http://www.wdm.org.uk/news/events/masslobby/index.htm#photos

Indymedia Global Feature on forthcoming WTO ministerial in Hong Kong (11-18 Dec):
 http://www.indymedia.org/en/2005/10/826288.shtml

WTO to abandon "Development Round" of trade talks
19-20 October 2005
The World Trade Organisation is set to abandon the "Development Round" at its General Council meeting this week and return instead to a corporate agenda based on self-interest and power politics, according to proposals.
 http://www.waronwant.org/?lid=10842

2002 Trade Justice Mass Lobby - Report and Pics:
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2002/06/34226.html
(NB the 2002 one was much bigger attracting well over 10,00 people)