Thousands of people were today expected to take part in a series of
demonstrations up and down Britain to protest against military action on
Iraq.
The Stop the War
umbrella group was hoping for "the largest protest of direct action and
disobedience there has been in Britain for decades", with mini-protests,
sit-downs and occupations "from Beccles to Bournemouth, Canterbury to
Aberdeen".
The spark for today's day of action came from comments made by Tony
Benn last summer.
In a departure from his normal aversion to civil disobedience as a
form of protest, the former Labour cabinet minister said: "Non-violent
resistance to the government will show they cannot do this in our name.
We should stop the buses, stop the trains, stop the schools."
Following last month's Stop the War march in London, attended by up
to 400,000 protesters, the group has called on supporters to organize
their own local acts of civil disobedience. It advocates three forms of
protest:
· Meetings in or near the workplace with anti-war speakers,
perhaps with a local march
•: College occupations and teach-ins
· Evening protests in town centers, where demonstrators are
urged by Stop the War to sit down and block traffic.
In London, protesters will rally at Parliament Square, as MPs leave
the Commons for their constituencies at the end of the parliamentary
working week.
Stop the War has called for all protests to be peaceful and urged
demonstrators to bring banners, whistles, drums and candles.
London
11am:
Occupation of Goldsmiths
college
Occupation of the School of Oriental and African Studies
12pm:
Kings College Strand site Stop the War meeting
12.30pm:
Protest outside Camberwell Art College followed by
march into Peckham to join council workers protest
Southgate College
(Enfield) StW meeting
1pm
Kings College (Guys site) StW rally in central
square
Elephant & Castle roundabout, students from Southbank and
London College of Printing converge
LSE Student Union meeting - vote
on occupation
Wimbledon Art College StW meeting
Queen Mary
University student union meeting - vote on occupation
Middlesex
University, Tottenham campus, StW conga starts
Greenwich University
StW meeting
University of North London - protest outside Tower
building
Westminster University StW meeting
Paul Foot, campaigner
and journalist, holds public meeting at the Stephen Lacey gallery,
Crawford Passage, EC1
2pm
LSE occupation begins
4pm
Rally in main square at UCL, followed by march down to
LSE
5pm
All London students assemble at LSE for march down
Embankment to parliament
Not all the capital's events are student-initiated. In Brixton there
is a rally at noon outside the town hall, followed by a march and
possible attempt to stop traffic outside the Ritzy cinema at 5pm. There
are similar rallies in Wandsworth and Peckham, Dulwich and Croydon and
the East End.
Other major cities
· Manchester: Don't Attack Iraq Protest, All Saints Park,
Oxford Road 6pm
· Nottingham: "day of general mayhem", Market
Square, 5pm onwards
· Plymouth: march, rally and vigil, Pier
Approach 5.30pm
· Sheffield: mass rally, followed by other
action at 6pm, Town Hall steps - from 4.30pm
· Leeds: Pedal
for Peace, Briggate city Centre, 3pm
· Birmingham: mass die
in - and fall over, Waterstones bookshop, New Street 5pm
·
Liverpool: protest and non-violent disobedience, St George's Plateau
(opposite Lime Street station), 6pm
· Newcastle: march
through city, Monument 6pm
· Middlesbrough: "noisy vigil",
Forces Recruitment Office, Borough Road 6pm
· Bournemouth
rally: speakers & candlelit vigil at the war memorial in the middle
gardens 6pm
© Guardian Newspapers Limited
2002