Assembly details for Gordon Brown Hustings Demonstration, June 10th

Dear friends,

The assembly details for the demonstration at Gordon Browns Hustings in Oxford this comming Sunday (June 10th) are as follows.

We will assemble at 11:30 a.m. outside the former Bar Med (now closed).
This is at the junction of Pembroke Street and St Ebbs (west end of Pembroke St). If the area is closed off by the police, we will assemble as close to that point as possible.

Tony Blair is going out in disgrace and this is your chance to tell Gordon Brown and his collegues that we want a change in government policy not just a cosmetic change in leadership.

In particular, we demand a break with Britain's blind allegance to the imperialist policies of the United States, an immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, and a commitment from Gordon Brown not to attack Iran. Recall that Brown recently refused to rule such an attack out.

Please bring your banners and signs and as many people as possible. The weather forecast for Sunday is good!

See you Sunday!

Mike
Oxford Stop the War Coalition

email:

oxford@stopwar.org.uk

Oxford Stop the War Coalition
e-mail: oxford@stopwar.org.uk

Additions

be there earlier!

08.06.2007 22:31

If we want to be effective at disrupting their cosy meeting, we should be arriving around 10-10:30 in order to be able to stop the politicians from getting into MAO.

We can shut them down if enough people turn up early enough!

local activist

Comments

Hide the following 11 comments

Photos from the demo.

10.06.2007 17:29

These were taken quite early on, and don't do justice - at its peak there were something like fifty to a hundred of us from a variety of groups - Respect, Green Party, Unison, Oxford Students Peace Group, Oxford Socialists, Reading Peace Group etc (apologies for any I've missed). The police had kept us quite a distance from the entrance - Brown arrived from the other end of the street and sneaked in, so he didn't have to go past us.

Gregory Beetle

Comments on the

11.06.2007 13:19

I think given what we were working with and the misinformation, both time and venue being spread arround we did quite well. Bristol STW had a similar problem and the Venue was switched at the last minute. At it's peak we counted about 60 people. We woulld liked to have seen more but...

It's a pity though that some people left early. Particularly the Greens who were gone by about 11:30. Others drifited away later. Only a few remained until the end when Gordon Brown left. By this time the police had become quite chatty with us and had no problem allowing us to move the line to into Pemboke St. We were quite close when he came out and made a good noise. Brown turned and stared at us for a good 15 secondes before getting into his car. If only everyone was still there!

Andy
Oxford Stop the War Coalition

Andy
mail e-mail: oxfordstopthewar@hotmail.com

Tatchell photo shoot

11.06.2007 14:51

There was a reasonable turnout at the lobby yesterday, with groups from as far afield from Cambridge present. It is a shame that the Green Party used this event cynically, for a photo shoot, interview and publicity for Peter Tatchell rather than staying for the event itself.

.

sweenaldo

Tatchell Photo Shoot

11.06.2007 20:25

Well aparently the Greens were sucessfull in their publicity stunt. The article in todays Oxford mail was almost completely dominated by Green this and that. A shame for all the people who put in the hard work to pull this off, namely Oxford Stop the War Coalition and the Students group

Phil

Green Party

12.06.2007 08:12

Hang on - we all stayed until Gordon Brown turned up and went into the venue. Most people didn't stay til the end, not just members of the Green Party.

Bloody hell, now we're getting attacked for *turning up* at demonstrations - and being effective at giving interviews.

Would you rather no-one turned up next time, so you can be completely pure?

Pissed off,

Matt

P.S. Knowing the Oxford Mail and its ways quite well, as I do, I guarantee you that if four local councillors and two Parliamentary candidates *hadn't* been there, the demo wouldn't have gotten as much media attention as it did. And its not as if the message that got through to the papers was in any way poor - opposition to the occupation, to privatisation, support for trade unions in Iraq, etc etc.

P.P.S. Also, you know full well that the Greens who were there have all been involved in local peace activities for years - Stop the War Coalition, CND, Oxford Network of Women for Peace, etc etc etc. Why are you attacking people who have worked with you week in and week out?

Matt S

A bit more

12.06.2007 10:50

Yes, the Greens were the only political party to bother to turn up (at least identifiably).

More than 50% of attendees left at the same time the Greens did, because it was clear that Brown was going to be inside for ages and unclear if he was going to come out into the open again.

No announcement was made by the STWC, either publicly or to the Greens personally, asking them to stay or to discuss their media strategy, only a posting on a bulletin board criticising them after the fact.

I thought the Greens were part of STWC, anyway.

These miserablist postings seem to me to be more about contested political space - ie claims about ownership of 'the cause', and other territorial nonsense.

Mrs Mole

Enough -

12.06.2007 12:54

we should all be working together to oppose Labour -

Everyone there was united in there opposition to the Iraq war, the renewal of Trident and the rest of Labour's disgraceful policies.

We should be showing solidarity rather than fighting and criticising each other.

Keith

True

12.06.2007 13:16

Keith is right of course - my apologies for firing off a reply while still annoyed.

Perhaps, next time, the organisers could have a quick chat at the event to anyone whose conduct they are irritated with and so on...I'm sure all of this could have been staved off before it happened, if we Greens had understood that the organisers felt strongly about people staying until Brown came out of the venue again. Much better to have a discussion at the time than an argument after the fact.

Best wishes,

Matt

Matt S

Greens etc

12.06.2007 14:14

Read what was actually written. 1st msg from Oxford STWC did not attack the greens. It simply said it was a shame they left so early, that's all that was said!

And re the comment that an announcement be made. There's nothing to resolve, you can't demand that people stay. Everyones free to come and go!

It seems that certain people are a bit sensitive these days

Phil

Phil

Enough!

13.06.2007 08:44

Phil says the 1st posting didn’t attack the Greens – but subsequent postings did!

The first message posted was actually the photos (taken “…early on..”) and it’s clear from the accompanying text that we weren’t the only political party there! How come no one from STWC ever attacks Respect for turning up with placards (and a stall)…. It was the media who focussed on Peter Tatchell (as they would if George Galloway had turned up) – Peter did not approach any press at the demo because it was not a Green Party demo – they approached him.

I was one of those Greens and most of us left nearer 12pm BUT we had been there since 10.15am. When we left other people had already begun to drift away as it was clear Brown and his cronies would not be coming out for quite some time.

Now, can we move beyond the childish sniping and try to work together…..
Elise

P.S. The Green Party is part of STWC as are Respect.

Elise
mail e-mail: elise@greenoxford.com

Re: Enough

13.06.2007 12:17

Just to set the record straight. OSTWC did not "attack" the Greens. OK?
Please address any complaints to the individuals who made them afterwards and not OSTWC.

Andy

Andy