This march has been banned. Come out and call their bluff.
(Why not set one of these images as your profile picture on facebook? Bit of virtual flyposting, if loads of us do it it really creates an atmosphere of something big happening)
Anti-Bush demonstration banned from Whitehall.
The Stop the War Coalition has been informed by the Metropolitan Police that a proposed march, co-organised with CND and the British Muslim Initiative, to protest George Bush’s visit will not be allowed. The Coalition has organised scores of marches on this route, including during Bush’s last visit in 2003.
It seems that when George W Bush visits this country traditional rights of assembly are to be removed from the people. This would be unacceptable for the visit of any foreign leader, but for George Bush, a man many regard as a war criminal, it is particularly deplorable.
We are calling on those who care for our democratic rights to come to Parliament Square at 5.0 pm on Sunday 15 June. Some of those who signed statements accusing Bush of war crimes will be leading this protest.
Maybe we can do a Monbiot, not only staring down the threat of arrest (again) but see about arresting a genuine threat to society. After the protests that have greeted Bush pretty much every time his set foot in Europe, we can hardly let him down for his last trip, can we? Plus there’s the surprise formal colonisation of Iraq afoot, the 100th British soldier killed in Afghanistan, a possible renewal of the threat to attack Iran, in short, plenty of reasons to go and protest the war on terror…
…in spite of which I, for one, thought I would be too busy and too skint this weekend – but I will sure as hell make the effort now they’ve tried to ban it. It really baffles me that they do things like this, y’know. They talk about the antiwar movement in the past tense, as if it had become completely irrelevant, and then go and prove its relevance once and for all with this kind of stunt. Anyway, we really had better show em what for.
“George Bush has been dictating British foreign policy for many years. Now it appears his security services are determining our rights of protest. This is a disgrace and we will challenge the ban” – Lindsey German, Convenor Stop the War Coalition
“The ban on the Stop The War Coalition march in protest at the visit of President Bush to this country is a totalitarian act. In what is supposed to be a free country the Coalition has every right to express its views peacefully and openly. This ban is outrageous and makes the term ‘democracy’ laughable”. – Harold Pinter
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