Anti-militarists from the Nottingham Stop the War Coalition held a street stall outside the Armed Forces Recruitment Centre, Milton Street from 12.00 until 14.00 on Saturday 21st March.

Displaying the slogan 'NATO Troops, Get Out of Afghanistan!', they are demanding that British forces are withdrawn from Afghanistan and Iraq. Also they were distributing anti-recruitment literature.

One of the objects of the day, was to advertise action on the NATO 60th anniversary summit in Strasbourg.

They say, since the end of the Cold War, NATO has reinvented itself as a tool for military action by the “international community”, including the promotion of the so-called “War on Terror”. In reality it is a vehicle for US-led use of force with military bases on all continents, bypassing the United Nations and the system of international law, accelerating militarisation and escalating arms expenditure.

Protests at NATO 60th anniversary summit in Strasbourg have been called by the Anti-Militarist Network, Stop The War and CND.

The Anti-Militarist Network mentioned on their website that the Stop the War Coalition and CND are organising coaches to go to Strasbourg for the anti-NATO demonstrations. Coaches leave London at 9.00 on Friday, 3rd. April.

Details are available and bookings can be made on the national Stop the War Coalition website:

 http://stopwar.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=0&Itemid=235

More locally, in Nottingham, a protest has been called by CND from 12.30 to 13.30 on Saturday, 4th. April. They will be demonstrating outside the Council House.

Notts Anti-militarists
 http://nottsantimilitarism.wordpress.com


>>>

anyway ......

it was all their fault!!

When I arrived, one of the folks on the stall said "look tash, you can see the reflection of the stop the war banner in the forces careers window. Coming over all arty, I thought what a good idea, and took photos of the reflection, juxtaposing the banner with the 'join here' message in the window.

about 20 seconds later, a sergeant in fatigues came to the door and shouted at me to stop taking pictures. I pointed out [as usual], that I was in a public place and was within my right to photograph there. He muttered sommat else about security, and he went back inside. I suspected that he had gone to call the police, and sure enough, 5 minutes latter PC 5568 saying "can we have a word sir".

This is something that happens really regularly, and it was because of the frequency that photographers meet police that question their activity, that the National Union of Journalist NUJ, had agreed a set of guidelines on police - media relations. Years later, I really don't meet that many policemen, that know their existence or provisions. [PCSO's are even worse of course]. We were promised at the time that they would be widely distributed within force, however, it does not seem to have been the case!

He was quite a polite constable and this time, it wasn't an unpleasant exchange. He agreed to go away and read up on them for the future. So, I set him some homework, and I'll be testing him again later. I include a sound clip of the interaction.

For those with interest in more depth on the photo issues, please check out:

NUJ Freelance - A Right to Report?
 http://www.londonfreelance.org/fl/r2r.html

I did of course report this exchange at:

NUJ Freelance - Policing incident reporting
 http://www.londonfreelance.org/policing

____________________________________________
ALAN LODGE
Photographer - Media: One Eye on the Road. Nottingham. UK
Email:  tash@indymedia.org
Member of the National Union of Journalists [No: 014345]
____________________________________________
"It is not enough to curse the darkness.
It is also necessary to light a lamp!!"
___________________________________________