At this time 98 British servicement have lost their lives. Why wait to demonstrate until the number inevitably reaches 100!
On Saturday Stop the War Coalition draped Nottingham's Armed Forces Recruitment Centre with coffin-shaped placards naming the members of the British Forces killed in Iraq.
At this time 98 British servicement have lost their lives. Why wait to demonstrate until the number inevitably reaches 100!
The Recruitment Centre, just by the Victoria Centre Clocktower, closed while we were there.
They had prepared the placards, edged in black, mounted on a line, and naming each of the 98 dead, in preparation for a wave of protests to be mounted across the country should they let the death toll reach 100. But why wait?
They set up a stall, and banner outside the Centre and gave out all of our 1,000 leaflets urging Blair to end the occupation before the death toll reaches 100, and urging prospective recruits to stay out of the forces. Passers by took a great interest in our stall, badges and leaflets, and put over £20 in our collecting bucket.
They started off stringing the placards along the temporary railings round the pavement repair site, but then realised we could climb up and loop one end over the National Westminster Bank's sign so that they dangled diagonally across the front of the Armed Forces Recruitment Centre window. It looked impressive in the sunshine. The local ITV camera crew did not broadcast their footage, but plenty of people took pictures. If we have got our act together, there's a photo with this report.
At the end of the demo, they finished in time to get down to CND's (also very successful) Vigil for hostage Norman Kember in the Market Square, and the local BBC camera crew down there did broadcast their footage that evening.
Nottingham Stop the War
http://www.nottmagainstwar.org.uk email:
contact@nottmagainstwar.org.uk *******
PS
While at the event, I took a series of videos on my mobile phone.
These can be seen at:
http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=IndyNotts&page=2 ____________________________________________
ALAN LODGE
Photographer - Media: One Eye on the Road. Nottingham. UK
Email:
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"It is not enough to curse the darkness.
It is also necessary to light a lamp!!"
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What an 'anti-war' protest would look like if Blair himself arranged it
26.01.2006 01:16
1) " I'm against a war, but I am for the butchers that fight that war because THEY are MY people"- this sentiment is the greatest form of racist obscenity that it is possible to express.
2) When figures are quoted for the numbers of humans exterminated in Iraq (except by me), the men and women in uniform that attempted to protect their homeland are ALWAYS excluded. Why? Because the FIRST propaganda tactic in ANY aggressive war is to label the defenders of the attacked nation as so less than human, that they don't even deserve to have their deaths counted.
3) The people that willingly join aggressive armies actually consider the possibility of death as one of the main attractions. The talk of 'british' dead in Iraq is actually a positive recruiting tool.
Therefore, from a psychological point of view, this so-called protest aided Blair far more than it hurt him. It celebrated the british terrorists. It dehumanised the Iraqi victims. It avoided ANY imagery that would illustrate the extent of Blair's war crimes in Iraq. The slogans used are DESIGNED to have no power whatsoever.
Please remember, weak protests, or counter-productive protests are the consequence of the security services actually doing their job, ie., successfully infiltrating the group and dominating the suggestions that are used to arrange the protest. Just as the general principles of a STRONG advertising campaign are well understood, so are the mistakes that typify a WEAK advertising campaign. The purpose of infiltration is to ensure that ANY attempt to create a powerful protest are sabotaged, and instead the protest employs techniques known to be ineffective, or actually promote the very opposite of the aims of the honest protestors.
Anyone following recent protest events will have noticed a co-ordinated 'crack-down' on animal rights protests that showed graphic illustrations of the horrific experimentation procedures. Likewise, the imprisonment of the muslim in Scotland for showing another adult, with warning and within an appropriate conversation, images from atrocities in Iraq. Of course, this 'program' was put in place by Blair, and his NeoCons Straw, Goldsmith, and Mandelson, so that the anti-war movement would become reluctant (with internal persuasion from MI5/Special Branch agents) to use its most powerful weapon, graphic imagery showing the full bestial extent of Blair's war crimes.
ANY SO-CALLED ANTI-WAR PROTEST THAT DOES NOT SHOW CLEAR PICTURES OF THE CHILDREN, WOMEN, AND MEN BUTCHERED BY BLAIR IS NO KIND OF PROTEST AT ALL.
Some advice- go to
don't worry, this is merely a site offering free software for printing very LARGE versions of normal digital images, by creating a poster from many individual printouts from any printer. Find a picture denoting the true horror in Iraq. Give the picture a slogan like "Tony Blair, Filthy Child Murdering War Criminal", and then protest with the resulting poster.
As a side effect, notice who in the protest group complains about striking this hard. Some of them will just be brain-washed idiots. However, amongst that group will likely be your local Blair agent. With a little work, you'll be able to clean out Blair's boys and girls, or render these agents ineffective.
Blair wants badges with 'bliar', 'bollocks to blair', and 'pensions not war'. Indeed, I have no doubt that such worthless words originated in the offices of MI5. Blair DOES NOT want badges with words like "blair murders muslims", "blair murders democracy", "blair murders nations', 'blair murders human rights' 'blair intends to murder iran' etc., etc.
Think about the powerful films you have seen, powerful books you have read, powerful advertising campaigns. Now try to recall how many powerful anti-blair protests you have witnessed. Beyond the Country-Side-Alliance and Fathers-For-Justice, it is unlikely you will recall many. The anti-war movement boasts the passive support of the vast majority of people within the UK (as proven by the massive anti-invasion demo in London). However, there has not been ONE effective anti-war protest, or even one protest that came even close to being effective. Do not be suprised. The vast majority of effort expended by Blair's goons in the various security services has been aimed at ensuring this.
When Blair invaded Iraq, he knew exactly what to expect from the British public, and exactly how far he would have to go to eliminate ANY effective opposition. Billions have been spent neutralising US. The only way to fight back is to fully accept the extent to which Blair's people are working to eliminate EFFECTIVE protest, and to learn or relearn that form of protest that they fear the most, and ensure that the ONLY type of protest that occurs is EFFECTIVE. MAKE THE PICTURES HARD, THEN MAKE THEM HARDER, THEN MAKE THEN AS EXPLICIT AND HORRIFYING AS POSSIBLE. MAKE THE WORDS SO HARSH AND HONEST THAT YOU CAN'T BELIEVE YOU WROTE THEM, AND THEN REVISE THEM TO MAKE THEM AS HARSH AND HONEST AS IS HUMANLY POSSIBLE.
A nation of people daily refering to Blair as the monster he is will destroy him. A nation of people saying at worst 'bliar', and 'bring back the troops' will magnify Blair's power until he has the confidence to genocide Iran and begin WW3. It's your life, so it is YOUR choice!
twilight
So MI5 organaised it?
26.01.2006 09:45
Arthur
twilight's really well-balanced isn't he?
26.01.2006 10:50
Looked like a good show to me, well done Notts Stop the War folks. All out for March 18th!
Mr Spoon
How Lame
26.01.2006 11:53
...
great action!
27.01.2006 02:25
great action people! let's keep the ball rolling
xxsean
sean
Discussions about anti-war Respect party.
27.01.2006 17:15
Auntie Josephine