Brilliant pro Tibet protest ongoing in London today

comments called for as protesters steal the limelight

The parading of the Olympic Torch across London today has been totally hijacked by the "Free Tibet" movement....brilliant absolutely brilliant.I wonder how much the cost comes to for London council tax payers in terms of the police operation to escort this tainted Torch across the city.Disgraceful that the I.O.C. gave the games to Beijing.
China out of Tibet now.

josh dreamspirit

Additions

Video of the attempted Olympic flame grab!

06.04.2008 16:13

- video/avi 15M

Copied from liveleak, .AVI format.

Good job guys!

Mike

List of incidents along the route!

06.04.2008 17:21

WEMBLEY STADIUM
A number of arrests are made after protesters try to board the double-decker bus carrying the torch when it arrives at the stadium.

BAYSWATER
A protester rushes forward and tries to grab the flame from former Blue Peter presenter Konnie Huq.
She manages to keep hold of the torch and two people are arrested.

HOLLAND PARK
Two activists are taken away by police after attempting to put the torch out with fire extinguishers.
The men, Martin Wyness and Ashley Darby, say in a statement the relay is a propaganda campaign by China to cover its "appalling human rights record".

CHINATOWN
The Chinese Ambassador to London, Fu Ying, carries the flame through Chinatown in an unpublicised change to her route.
She had been due to run near the British Museum but there were fears her presence could be a flashpoint for protesters.

WHITEHALL
At least 1,000 protesters gather opposite Downing Street where former Olympic heptathlon champion Denise Lewis takes the flame.
Several demonstrators attempt to run towards the torch, some trying to jump the barriers which line the pavement.
Many are bundled to the floor by police, who were out on foot, on bicycles and mounted on horseback.
The crowd reacts noisily, booing and whistling and shouting their protests.

FLEET STREET
Police decide the torch should travel along Fleet Street to St Paul's Cathedral by bus, rather than held by a runner, after it is surrounded by a group of 100 protesters.

BBCS NEWS website 18.21 today

IOCWEMBLEY STADIUM
Homepage: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7333552.stm

Lotsa pictures here and a video

06.04.2008 17:44

You can see from the picture gallery how popular the torch is, running through London in the hands of sporting heroes barely visible behind walls of cops and weird looking Olympic security guards in blue tracksuits. Well done all.

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/04/06/london.torch/index.html

IOC
Homepage: http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/04/06/london.torch/index.html

Police violence

06.04.2008 18:23

At Trafalgar Square the crowds were mostly pro-Chinese flag wavers. Just a few pro-Tibet.

I saw police violence towards a cyclist in Parliament Street Whitehall. I was standing there thinking the torch would pass all the way down towards Parliament Square, but didn't see it so amybe it was taken down some side street - does anyone know? I couldn't get anywhere to see Downing Street due to the massive crowd of demonstrators. I saw this cyclist approaching where I was - nowhere near where the torch would have been and moving away from Downing Street - so he was obviously no threat to anything including the torch. Not even sure if he was demonstrating. A police ran straight into this cyclist and pushing him right over - I would be surprised if he wasn't injured in some way. Totally out of proportion and no consideration for possible injury that could have been caused. Attacking cyclists is not democracy in action.

Brian B

Comments

Hide the following 20 comments

Olympic torch protest

06.04.2008 14:40

agree with you- heard SIR Steven Redgrave's excuse for taking part - lame - taking part gives succour to the regime in Beijing no matter how much you try to pretend sport and politics do not mix

Martin
mail e-mail: martinb216@yahoo.co.uk

Brilliant work, guys

06.04.2008 14:54

I've been watching the BBC coverage all day and the journalists are mentioning the protests as much as the actual passage of the torch. There is the usual crap about protestors not being able to fully disrupt the procession etc, but this is amazing publicity and a massive coup against the Chinese government. Congratulations and solidarity.

Anon

The blue track suits

06.04.2008 15:08

are CSIS agents.get their pics

Mr me

weak arguements put forward by torch bearers

06.04.2008 15:29

Yes martin you are right the arguments put forward by the torch bearers border on the naive and the absurd.The idea that somehow China with all its economic and military might will end its illegal 49 year occupation of Tibet as a gesture of goodwill towards the international community and as a thank you for granting them the Games which is basically what Redgrave and others have said today in order somehow to justify their participation demonstrates how limited their understanding of the situation is.
The British government could have told the I.O.C. 7 years ago when Beijing was granted the games that they would not allow the torch to be paraded through the streets of London.
No British government Minister or official should attend the games but of course we all know this will not happen.

josh dreamspirit

CIA op in London today!

06.04.2008 15:42

A fantastic publicity coup for all at the Company.

intravenous in furs
Homepage: http://postmanpatel.blogspot.com/2008/03/olympic-tibetan-freedom-torch-relay.html

Olympic Games

06.04.2008 16:52

Wonderful news about the olympic torch relay of disruption, good on all those arrested for making a stand for the rest of us.

What do the modern olympics have to do with the Olympic Ideal? Why are council tax payers footing the bill for a bunch of over paid, steroid abusing cheats to come to London in 2012 or have their publicity, for China, in London today? Anyone who thinks this shambles has anything to do with sport has their hand firmly in the IOCs till

PRoS II

anyome got a pic

06.04.2008 17:21

of the olympic rings as handcuffs.I want to print a tee shirt

Publicist

Intergalactic award4 who stops it, intel services always try2manipulate protest

06.04.2008 17:26

Wahey intergalactic little brotheraward for whoever stops it,
Nice one with the fire extinguisher, damn shame more people didnt do the same with loads of buckets, oh well heres to the next stage.
Intelligence services always try manipulate protests what new there then?. China"middle kingdom" has an amazing culture 5,000 yrs of written language, a pretty green agro system fertilised naturally with properly treated nighsoil,humanure that has maintained soil structure,humus & a health system that respects scientific holistic therapy as well as surgery.
Unfortunately its often in the hands of power hungry people, just like the west

green syndicalist

the handcuff logo...

06.04.2008 17:50

... can be downloaded in hi res at Reporters Without Borders:

www.rsf.org

angelo

2012

06.04.2008 17:54

Olympic protests to get China out of Tibet.
Previously Olympic protests to get the Soviet Union out of Afganistan.
I look forward to the Olympic protests to get the UK out of Afganistan, Iraq, Malvinas, Gibraltar, Ireland and all the rest...
Great to see the protests today - sorry I couldn't make it.

thanks

06.04.2008 19:38

angelo

publicist

A New Olympic Sport

06.04.2008 20:12

The games themselves will be boring compared to the torch run, which really should become an official olympic individual and team sport.

Bronze - grab the tourch
Silver - put out the flame
And a Gold Medal if you can rob it.

Harold Hamlet

london watch

06.04.2008 21:24

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOfoeca-_yA

lifelines
mail e-mail: lifelines@email.cz

Let us compare

07.04.2008 00:00

this event and the wall of sound against Tony Blair.

The protests against China received massive mainstream coverage.

The wall of sound against Tony Blair none.

On Indymedia, two topics only about the wall of sound, many for the protests against China.

And FYI, Tony Blair ordered the invasion and destruction of Iraq, which did yeld at least one million deaths, several millions displaced, etc.. whereas the Chinese repressed quite mildly a bunch of looters, arsonists and murderers whose "uprising" has certainly been masterminded by western intelligence agencies with a view to destabilise China.

LOOOOL.

skunk

**

07.04.2008 00:45

'repressed quite mildly a bunch of looters, arsonists and murderers'

excuse me

and which side are you on?

@skunk

07.04.2008 08:20

Good point but a biased way of making it.

No one has to "choose sides"

I was astounded by the BBC's brazen hypocrisy in their report on Beijinger's being kept in the dark about the protests by the PRC media. Yes, indeed ---- where was all the rolling coverage of the recent protests against the West's wars huh? None of them could have subverted an event as intrinsically Spectaclular as the "running of the olympic torch", thus hijacking it's coverage, because of our own forms of totalitarianism..

Would the Met have dealt with this anti-Chinese protest more severely if it had been against the British govt.? And if so isn't their leniency a good reason to suspect that pro-Tibet campaigns are partly run or facilitated by Western intelligence?

anonymous

Neither London nor Beijing, but...

07.04.2008 10:21

I can't believe that after all these years our movement still struggles to grasp principles this basic. Opposing our government's war crimes doesn't mean you have to support Chinese imperialism. Opposing the Chinese ruling class doesn't make you an MI5 agent. Is that really so difficult to grasp?

Internationalist

lost johnny speaks josh dreamspirit replies

07.04.2008 10:44

lost johnny wrote
The Tibetans are right to protest, but the IOC has given the games to yet another country which involves itself in wars of aggression-- ie UK. Over a million have died in Irag and the country is destroyed-- all because of the US greed.

Will the protectors be out again in London in the next Olympics or can they only see the faults of other countries? Shame on the IOC?

Tibet is not China, nor do Afghanistan and Iraq belong to the US and allies.

josh dreamspirit replies

i am not trying to downgrade the destruction that US and GB have caused in Iraq and Afghanistan and yes protests should take place if Iraq is still occupied come 2012 London games.Today its about Tibet another day it will be about Zimbabwe another time Pakistan.Its about weak willed corrupt western politicians who do nothing on the one hand and charge in with all guns blazing on the other who do not adhere to an ethical foreign policy despite all the rhetoric.

josh dreamspirit

Yeah maybe

07.04.2008 11:54

but IMO we must not become pawns in a global destabilization game that's going to hurt so much more if it succeeds.

It's like those who still argue on this wire sometimes that it was a good thing to remove Saddam.

And I'm saying : Really ?

skunk

@ Yeah maybe

08.04.2008 17:09

"It's like those who still argue on this wire sometimes that it was a good thing to remove Saddam."

It was - in the same way that removing a ruptured appendix is good.

They just tried to do it without anesthetic and using blue-tac to put the patient back together!

MonkeyBot 5000