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Dozens of stories on student demonstrators today against the war

Epimenedes | 05.03.2003 18:57 | Cambridge

Click link below to access dozens of stories about student protests around the world. Extracted from Google's selection is the story from the Cambridge Evening News

Dozens of stories on student demonstrators today against the war
Dozens of stories on student demonstrators today against the war


Click link below to access dozens of stories about student protests around the world. Extracted from Google's selection is the story from the Cambridge Evening News\

Bush and Blair are igniting a global social movement they will not be able to control. This is not Kosovo, this is not Afghanistan: a quick military victory will not stop this tidal wave. Time for the forces of darkness to retreat.:

 http://politics.guardian.co.uk/foreignaffairs/story/0,11538,908152,00.html

For the remarkable story of these 500 Cambridge teenagers, who staged a sit down protest at the police station until they were released:

 http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/news.asp?sec=1&id=527726

HUNDREDS of sixth formers today abandoned lessons and took to the streets of Cambridge to protest against the imminent war against Iraq, resulting in three arrests.


Around 300 students from Hills Road and Long Road sixth form colleges walked out of class shortly after 9am.

They protested in Hills Road at first, chanting "No War" and "Stop the War", to the backdrop of honking cars showing their support.

The anti-war banner-carrying crowd then walked the distance to the city centre heading for the Market Square for a "democratic debate".


Police who were on the scene to "ensure the students' safety" were at first obliging, but later tried to stop them marching into the city centre.

"We've been told we cannot go to the city centre," said Ed Cope, 14, of Hills Road Sixth Form College and one of the organisers.

"I think this is still a democratic country so they're not going to stop us."

Moments later three youngsters were arrested and taken to Parkside police station.

A police spokeswoman said two 16-year-old boys from Ely and Cambridge and a 17-year-old girl from Cambridge had been arrested for public order offences.

The students immediately resorted to an impromptu sit-in outside the police station.

Some 20 minutes later they were moved on and allowed to head for the Market Square.

Among the demonstrators was Katherine Connolley, 16, of Hills Road Sixth Form College.

She said: "We're marching out of school because we're disgusted that our Government thinks they can go ahead with a war against our wishes."

Asked if she wasn't too young to be protesting against a war, she added: "No. You're never too young to be involved in politics.

"Tony Blair, obviously, does not think Iraqi children are too young to be bombed, so how can we be too young to protest?"

She had her parents' support, she said, but conceded the school was less than pleased with their actions.

Frances Rayner, 16, of Long Road Sixth Form College, said: "We are completely against the war."

She did not consider herself too young to be protesting, either. "Young people have a reputation for being politically apathetic and we're here to show that's not true."

Simon Lake, 19, also of Long Road, said he was acting to stop the war so young Iraqis would not get killed.

Both colleges said they "respected" the strength of feeling among the students and their right to protest.

Epimenedes
- Homepage: http://www.news.google.com/news?q=Students+protest+war+in+US&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&sa=G&scoring=d


Comments

Hide the following 3 comments

FILMING SCHOOL KID'S

05.03.2003 22:45

FILMING SCHOOL KID'S
FILMING SCHOOL KID'S

i looked at the picture of the action om the guardian web-site, in back ground you can just make out 2 cops filming the protesters, something many of us are used by now. put simply, is this legal? filming kids and the age of criminal responsibility? i'm not sure, guess you could argue that they know what their doing (being at an antiwar demo and that). but still is it legal?

somebody


Acohol genes

06.03.2003 01:43

Did any student get pissed out of his mind afterwards and was caught lying face down on the pavement of a street?

Students scaring teachers


Work-Paid-Pissed!

24.06.2003 15:12

Ah yes,you can always count on somebody somewhere to miss the point and trivialise the actions of others.
Not all kids are mindless pissheads you know,sitting in front of their TVs playing video games and watching crap TV (and believing it all) - some of them even use their brains to do something to make a difference.
You should try it sometime.
And we're not all interested in being a part of the work-paid-pissed culture that you're upholding with comments like that either.
Respect to the schoolkids who did this - we should be PROUD of them,as they give us some hope for the future of this world by getting out there and making their voices heard,and saying that there's still some people who give a damn about the world they're inheriting!
An example to us all!

The Seamster


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