A crowd of at least two thousand Liverpudlians and welcome guests flocked to the Catholic cathedral on Hope Street to protest against neo-Condi's gala gig at the Philharmonic. In a show of awesome potential power, we decked the steps in a sea of defiant humanity. The message was loud and clear: terrorists and torturers are NOT welcome on Merseyside! As one speaker yelled, "We're not havin' it"!
The rally began at 6pm, when the first of several short speeches began. After that, a minute's silence was held for the hundreds of thousands of Bush and Blair and Straw and Rice's victims in Iraq. To great cheering and applause some red balloons were released into the sky.
We all then marched behind a coffin - representing all those who have died in the 'war on terror' and the oil-fuelled adventures in Afghanistan and Iraq. Despite the symbolism, the mood was far from funereal. In fact, a great atmosphere soon built up as the chants started and grew in strength.
We stopped marching when we reached the police line on the corner of Hope Street/Hardman Street, but we didn't definitely didn't stop chanting! The air was charged with shouts and laughter. It became difficult to believe that this was the same city we trudge through every day.
Occasionally - as the 'great and good' Liverpool arselickers arrived at the Philharmonic - we all started booing. It didn't stop any of them going in, but it was fun all the same. As you'd expect, the biggest jeers of all were reserved for the biggest criminal of all - Condoleezza Rice - when she arrived at about 7.30pm.
It's exciting that we made this show of our opposition, but this has to be just the beginning if we are going to stop attacks on Iran and others. Condoleezza Rice is evil, but she is just an expression of the capitalist profit system. We have to resist attacks on the working class whether they come from bombers in planes or pension cutting politicans. We have to unite in our neighbourhoods and in our workplaces. We have to build grassroots alternatives, here and now, in this city.
Then maybe one day we won't need permission to stroll through our own streets. Imagine!
We all then marched behind a coffin - representing all those who have died in the 'war on terror' and the oil-fuelled adventures in Afghanistan and Iraq. Despite the symbolism, the mood was far from funereal. In fact, a great atmosphere soon built up as the chants started and grew in strength.
We stopped marching when we reached the police line on the corner of Hope Street/Hardman Street, but we didn't definitely didn't stop chanting! The air was charged with shouts and laughter. It became difficult to believe that this was the same city we trudge through every day.
Occasionally - as the 'great and good' Liverpool arselickers arrived at the Philharmonic - we all started booing. It didn't stop any of them going in, but it was fun all the same. As you'd expect, the biggest jeers of all were reserved for the biggest criminal of all - Condoleezza Rice - when she arrived at about 7.30pm.
It's exciting that we made this show of our opposition, but this has to be just the beginning if we are going to stop attacks on Iran and others. Condoleezza Rice is evil, but she is just an expression of the capitalist profit system. We have to resist attacks on the working class whether they come from bombers in planes or pension cutting politicans. We have to unite in our neighbourhoods and in our workplaces. We have to build grassroots alternatives, here and now, in this city.
Then maybe one day we won't need permission to stroll through our own streets. Imagine!
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