[pagan-magik] [womenstrike8m at server101.com: [DAAW] FW: Demo, Mon 7 Feb, Right to Protest in Parliament Sq]

[Ian Gregory]

Greetings,

I am finding it difficult to get to London during the week these
days. I would like to get to this event but if I don't make it then
the least I can do is help publicise it:

----- Forwarded message from Global Women's Strike -----

We refuse to be silenced!

Defend the right to protest in Parliament Sq
Monday 7 February, 2-8pm, Parliament Sq.

Jointly called by: Action Against War, African Liberation Support Campaign,
Barnet Green Party, Camden Green Party, Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism!,
the Global Women?s Strike, Greater London Pensioners Association, the Green
Party, Legal Action for Women, Military Families Against War, Muslim
Parliament of Great Britain, Network for Economic and Political Democracy,
Orpington CND, Parliament Square Church, Payday, Peace and Human Rights
Trust, Peace & Progress, South Somerset Peace Group, SOS ? Save Our Speech:
Parliament Square supporters of Brian Haw, Voices in the Wilderness,
Wimbledon Disarmament Coalition/CND, Michael Culver, John McDonnell MP,
Tricia Goddard, Brian Haw, Corin Redgrave, Vanessa Redgrave, Tahrir Swift,
Amanda Ward.

The government wants to END THE RIGHT TO PROTEST in Parliament Square by
rushing through the Serious Organised Crime and Police Bill which will be
debated in the House of Commons on 7 February.

Anti-war protest is their first target: Brian Haw?s extraordinary and
visually impressive three-and-a-half-year, 24-hour-a-day peace campaign.
Also under threat is the two-year old Community Speakout of the Global Women
?s Strike.  ?Some Members do not like to be reminded of what they have done,
voting for war and death.?  John McDonnell MP.

They want to deny Mr Haw?s High court victory under the Human Rights Act, a
precedent establishing all of our right to protest.  Under the Bill:
*       Even a police constable would have the power to say, how many, how
loud, if and when we can protest. If the demonstration is judged ?illegal?
we can be jailed for a year.
We may all face arrest for ?spoiling the view? if we protest within a
kilometre of Parliament Square ? that?s as far as Trafalgar Square, Waterloo
Station or Buckingham Palace.

The government?s dismantling of fundamental rights ? detaining people
indefinitely without charge, the power to hold suspects incommunicado and
proposing house arrest for any one of us ? makes it urgent to act now,
before we wake up in a police State, compliments of Parliament.

Parliamentary opposition

?The majority of people in Wales oppose both the war in Iraq and the
continued occupation. Plaid Cymru MPs?give praise to Brian Haw and the
weekly Community Speakout for giving a voice to this opposition?.For those
of us inside the House who voted against the war, their visible presence is
vital, making clear to those in power that it is only inside Westminster
that they are the majority.?  Elfyn Llwyd MP (Plaid Cymru).

?There should be additional rights to demonstrate around Parliament, not
less. We should want people to demonstrate around here; the time to worry is
when no body can be bothered to do so? Alex Salmond MP (SNP).

Introducing legislation to outlaw [protest] is in itself a crime?. Lembit
Opik MP (Lib Dem).

?This legislation ? criminalizing protesters against everything from animal
cruelty to genocide ? is designed to stifle the real change we so
desperately need under New Labour?s increasingly authoritarian regime?
Caroline Lucas MEP (Green Party)

They ?want to create an antiseptic tourist attraction that has nothing to do
with democracy or participation.? Jeremy Corbyn MP (Labour).

For over 350 years, people have exercised their right to speak out in
Parliament Square: Chartists, Suffragettes, trade unionists, pensioners,
lesbian and gay rights activists, asylum seekers & refugees, anti-racist
campaigners, nurses, anti-poll tax campaigners, people with disabilities,
single mothers ? as well as the long-running picket for the extradition of
Chilean dictator Pinochet (shamefully freed by then Home Secretary Jack
Straw).

For more information: www.globalwomenstrike.net 020 7482 2496
 womenstrike8m at server101.com   www.parliament-square.org.uk

----- End forwarded message -----

-- 
Ian Gregory
http://www.zenatode.org.uk/ian/