It was hectic and exhilarating to be on such a huge and high-spirited demo. But it was a lot of work! We handed out Strike Journals and a press release about a parliamentary resolution (EDM) from MP John McDonnell defending our picket and Brian Haw’s two-year 24-hour protest in Parliament Square. (They can budget £10m to protect an un-wanted-dead-or-alive non-president, but Brian can’t get police protection from physical assault.)
We join Brian for a Community Anti-war Picket and Open Mic every Wednesday and Thursday evening. And we sold ‘Invest in Caring Not Killing’ T-shirts.
Luckily we get a lot of practice with all this multi-tasking at our Parliament Square picket. We’re all old hands at the mic now, and grassroots people also get a chance to speak who don’t normally, including those who pay the highest price for war: women and men from Iraq, African, Asian and Latin America, Palestine, anti-Zionist Jewish people, asylum seekers, soldiers, conscientious objectors . . .
We marched in a women’s contingent with the Eritrean Women’s Group and the Iraqi Women’s League. The lead banner said “Women Say No War, No Occupation, No military/corporate takeover, Invest in Caring -- Not Killing". We had our PA with chants and music and invited people to say on the mic why they were there. A (male) priest pushed the trolley with the PA most of the way, and he spoke against government policies making asylum seekers destitute (the Eritrean women are asylum seekers). Women joined us, some with kids, including those from outside London who had made their way to us despite police cordons.
Everyone was especially delighted to see so many young people from schools and colleges taking time off classes. The atmosphere was lively, noisy and the placards imaginative. It was great to know that at the front were veterans, including Vietnam vet. Ron Kovic, who had spoken for the Strike in Los Angeles because he “supports the Strike 100%". Whoever is in front, it feels very different to be in a women’s contingent which ensures that women’s anti-war commitment and our caring work, which keeps the whole world alive, war or peace, is not hidden. One woman’s placard said, “Mothers of the World against the President of Death.”
We’ll continue protesting outside the House and to report on anti-war activities sent by our international network. Our PA, email and website are weapons against censorship – by the media or by the macho men AND women for whom demanding the military budget for the carers of the world first of all is not “really” anti-war!
Community picket and open mic
No to War, No to the Occupation of Iraq, Parliament Square. Every Weds and Thurs 5.30-7pm Info: 0207 482 2496
Luckily we get a lot of practice with all this multi-tasking at our Parliament Square picket. We’re all old hands at the mic now, and grassroots people also get a chance to speak who don’t normally, including those who pay the highest price for war: women and men from Iraq, African, Asian and Latin America, Palestine, anti-Zionist Jewish people, asylum seekers, soldiers, conscientious objectors . . .
We marched in a women’s contingent with the Eritrean Women’s Group and the Iraqi Women’s League. The lead banner said “Women Say No War, No Occupation, No military/corporate takeover, Invest in Caring -- Not Killing". We had our PA with chants and music and invited people to say on the mic why they were there. A (male) priest pushed the trolley with the PA most of the way, and he spoke against government policies making asylum seekers destitute (the Eritrean women are asylum seekers). Women joined us, some with kids, including those from outside London who had made their way to us despite police cordons.
Everyone was especially delighted to see so many young people from schools and colleges taking time off classes. The atmosphere was lively, noisy and the placards imaginative. It was great to know that at the front were veterans, including Vietnam vet. Ron Kovic, who had spoken for the Strike in Los Angeles because he “supports the Strike 100%". Whoever is in front, it feels very different to be in a women’s contingent which ensures that women’s anti-war commitment and our caring work, which keeps the whole world alive, war or peace, is not hidden. One woman’s placard said, “Mothers of the World against the President of Death.”
We’ll continue protesting outside the House and to report on anti-war activities sent by our international network. Our PA, email and website are weapons against censorship – by the media or by the macho men AND women for whom demanding the military budget for the carers of the world first of all is not “really” anti-war!
Community picket and open mic
No to War, No to the Occupation of Iraq, Parliament Square. Every Weds and Thurs 5.30-7pm Info: 0207 482 2496
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Comments
Hide the following 4 comments
The Bush protests were insulting and disresptful!
05.12.2003 17:10
Ashamed to be British
Disrespect
06.12.2003 07:49
In fact it was such a good idea that I eventually decided to march myself. There was a pretty big American contingent waiting when I arrived, organised by "Expats Against Bush", who donated placards:
This man deserves your anger and scorn, not your respect.
- He was voted against by a slim majority of the electorate on a low turnout, but got appointed by the Supreme Court on a divided vote, with the dissenting Justices sharply criticising the semi-legal maneuver employed.
- He almost single-handedly squandered the huge wave of sympathy we got from the world post-9/11, by hijacking the fight on terrorism to justify attacking a country that had nothing to do with 9/11: Iraq.
- He was repeatedly warned by his foreign policy experts that invading Iraq would increase the threat of terrorism, but chose to ignore this. These experts have been proven correct.
- He lied about the threat from Saddam, and pressed his subordinates into doing likewise.
- He refuses to ratify WMD treaties, like the Bioweapons Treaty and the Landmine Treaty, presumably on the grounds that we can be trusted with WMD but other countries cannot.
- He tore up the Kyoto Protocol, signed by the (elected) president that preceded him. This very modest climate treaty, really only useful as a first step to real change, was too expensive for his oil sponsors, so he simply weaseled out of it. This proves that for all his talk about the current war being about "stopping Saddam from undermining the authority of the UN and the will of the international community", Bush is happy to put two fingers up to the whole world if it'll make a buck for his corporate pals.
Etcetera. I don't really need to list here all the reasons that he's so deeply loathed by so many people at home and around the world, as these are well-documented enough. And the flood of positive comments and praise here from readers in the US also demonstrates that we recognise it's not "disrespectful to Americans" to be against giving a warm welcome and full state honors to a lying, deceiving, treaty-ripping warmonger like Bush, who is doing your country so much harm.
John
Not true
08.12.2003 17:27
Also who says Bush lied about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, the majority of Americans and British believe that Iraq did have those weapons and would use them or give them to terrorist groups to use. The majority of people also believe the decision to go to war with Iraq was the right one.
Ashamed to be British
Yes...
08.12.2003 20:49
Ray