burmese solidarity march today

rikki | 30.09.2007 22:08 | SOCPA | London

around a thousand people met in trafalgar square this morning, and at midday they set off on a march down whitehall, passing downing street and parliament square, and on through victoria to battersea park and the peace pagoda

protestors fill trafalgar square

the start of the march along whitehall

passing through parliament square

banners

long crowds in victoria

the current parliament square protest

the march had been self-organised on the facebook internet site and no-one had sought authorisation from the police. considering that the march crossed the socpa zone and involved so many people, the policing was unfathomably low-key with just one car assigned to the first part of the route and no police at all for much of it.

without wishing to cause offence, i feel like demanding equal rights with burmese protestors (in this country obviously)! this is what freedom could look like, and contrasts sharply with the hounding of peaceful anti-war protestors in parliament square documented at length on indymedia. it clearly showed how repression or tolerance is controlled in london on the basis of political whim, and drives a huge hole through the 'security concerns' supposedly behind the SOCPA law governing protest near parliament.

the marchers mainly comprised burmese exiles, some monks, and students, although there was quite a cross-section of people there as well. the small but noisy samba band, 'rhythms of resistance', were welcomed by the burmese and about half way along the route, they were asked to come to the front to help lead the procession.

the only sour brush with officialdom occurred as the protest arrived at battersea park. there, some over-enthusiastic parks 'police' demanded that all the banners were left at the park gates so as not to transgress bye-laws. they also banned any mainstream media from filming in the park. the peaceful crowd complied and gathered round the pagoda to offer prayers for the people of burma.

i don't know whether this was the first facebook-organised protest, but it was probably the biggest, and shows yet another powerful way in which people can self-organise and work together.

there is a constant presence in parliament square for now, and there are daily protests at lunchtime at the burmese embassy.

next week, parliament resumes on monday, and the 'stop the war coalition' is planning a march to parliament square (although at present it seems there may be a ban on this), there will also be a burmese protest that day, and 'justice not vengeance' are also holding a commemoration of the start of the afghanistan invasion.

rikki
e-mail: rikkiindymedia(AT)gmail(d0t)com
Homepage: http://www.socpa-movie.blogspot.com