"MORE BEAUTIFUL ACTS OF DEFIANCE!
London Calling For the Right to Protest, 12 Noon, 14 August, Parliament Square
Urgent Call to Action!
"As you may be aware, the new Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 continues to make all protests without permission within 1km of the Houses of Parliament illegal. The present British government is an enemy of democracy as well as a potential war criminal and must be challenged.Darlings! Thanks to the success of last Sunday the 7th’s Mass Acts Protest (see video footage and reports at www.parliamentprotest.org.uk) Alice and the Cat have decided to hold Another Beautiful Fancy Dress Cosmic Mad Hatter Tea Party on the Green at the Square each and every Sunday of the month. You are therefore cordially invited to join us at our "Make Tea Not War and Terror" Protest, show your dismay at the Government’s unstinting support of the USA, enjoy some refreshments and give thanks to Brian Haw for keeping the light of protest – and hope - alive. A light hearted Tea Party in support of the right to associate freely - absurdly curtailed by our scarily incompetent New Labour government who seem to like War, Blood, Terror, Capitalism and George W Bush far more than they like animals, children, "we the people" or the planetary environment.
Please come as you are, or alternatively dress up as a revolutionary! Suffragette costumes especially welcome. Or if you please just wear a silly hat or a mask! Revolutionary tea will be provided, but if you are able to come please bring a contribution: fruit, flowers, biscuits, cucumber sandwiches, cakes, chocolates, pimms and lemonade, poems, songs, musical instruments and anything else you can think of! Clowns, children and peaceful anarcho-syndicalist commune artistic types especially welcome! We like absurdity.
Come along and please ask your friends too – in order to show your grievances, dance a little jig and yes! – as we did last week we will emulate the American Revolutionaries by throwing some more tea in the River Thames in support of the proposed "Tobin Tax" on International Currency Speculation as a means to help Make Poverty History. For more information and/or to support this idea see Early Day Motion EDM 500 at www.edmi.parliament.uk, www.tobintax.org.uk, www.globalnation.org.uk
No More Corporate Representation without International Taxation!
And perhaps this week we will take our Tea Party onto 10 Downing Street and/or Buckingham Palace for some more fun and games.
PLEASE JOIN US ON 14 AUGUST: If you are happy to risk arrest, please bring your banners, leaflets, placards and campaigns for peace, human rights, asylum rights, labour rights, animal rights, social justice, international solidarity, the environment etc. Yes, there is a risk of arrest at this meeting but the police do not appear willing to arrest more than a token number. Therefore we advise those who do not want to get arrested but nevertheless wish to show support to come along but not to get involved in any overtly "protesting" acts – such as carrying banners or shouting slogans.
This brought to you by The SPARC ATTAC Campaign www.globalnation.org.uk in connection with www.whatushoutinbout.blogspot.com"
Hello, i just want to send a message of support for this action and urge anyone who can to turn up to COME. This is an extremely important issue and the more people we can get down the better, it doesn't matter what your political beliefs are as long as you agree that are rights are being removed and this is simply NOT RIGHT.
Cheers
Matthew
Hello- me again. Just to say i thought todays tea party was very succesful despite the lowish turnout and to urge everyone to try and spread the word and encourage many more people to come down next sunday. i have posted the event on indymedia, any other ideas please tell me.
matthew1butcher@hotmail.com
Nice one. Good to hear it is to be a weekly event. I hope to get down soon, maybe representing the Agnostic Community.
Cheers
yes, please come to our picnic every Sunday 12 Noon behind Brian's spot in the Square. we are now devising ways in which everyone can feel welcome and relatively safe in the knowledge of the risk of arrest and how to minimise it. we aim for an alternative commons space where all voices can be heard and where democracy, and fun, can flourish. please come along and bring whatever games (anyone for cricket?) and other ideas4pleasant activities u feel moved to. ps my old email has been shut down so if u have any questions etc feel free 2contact me thru Email Spark option on globalnation website. hope to see more there next week - we can build this slowly and peacefully - and thanks for the posts Matthew. Hasta
People's Commons Minutes; 2:20pm Sunday 21 August
A meeting was held in Parliament Square about the future of the event.
Summary; the following points were agreed:
Universal positive messages on banners etc.
Creativity and irony with placards etc.
The banner making workshop.
Food Not Bombs involvement.
Further discussion next week on commonalities.
Raising profile of event - bring a new freind eack week.
Publicity.
There was a discussion about non-hierarchical decision making and consensus structures. Hand signals were suggested: raise hand if you want to speak, thumbs down to disagree, shake hands to agree.
A rotating facilitator was suggested.
It was felt that we were spending too much time on structure, and that the process should be more structureless; that simple courtesy dictates that people should not speak over others, it's about listening.
Later on it was suggested that farmyard animal noises replace hands up to indicate the desire to speak, as the latter seemed too much like school.
It was felt that we need to maximise the numbers of people coming to the event.
The idea of the line between a protest zone and a picnic zone was
discussed, and there were no objections to the line at this stage of the meeting. The line was seen as helpful in that it clearly demarcated the space so that those who do not wish to risk arrest need not do so.
Police tactics has been inconsistent though and they have threatened to arrest non-protesting picnicers in the past. So while we cannot guarantee participants won't be arrested, we should make it a feature of the publicity that people do have the choice to be part of something - the picnic - with a low risk of arrest.They can still participate in the event, and do not need to be intimidated by arrests which have so far occured.
One person felt that there should be no banners/placards, no protest; he did not agree with violence or breaking the law/rules.
It was pointed out that no one's talking violence and that when the government oversteps a line by making protest illegal, the law is not worth obeying. It was felt that it should be more than a picnic because a picnic alone, while fun, will not achieve the aim of overturning/repealing the Act.
There was general assent to the people's alternative commons concept. This could be made less insular with a large banner stating 'join the peace picnic/people's common'. There could also be workshops: on the history of free speech, democratic rights etc.
It was agreed that next picnic will include a banner making workshop! Everone is to bring what materials they can for this: pens, paints, sheets, etc.
We could be more creative and ironic with any placards/banners we do bring or make; info-boards stating that 'This is not a protest, protest is illegal here' for example. It was suggested that banners and placards should be positive statements that no one could disagree with: eg. PEACE and LOVE, Heal the World, so that protest is not marginalised and that any arresting officer would be made to look stupid arresting someone with such a positive message.
One person suggested we need a police liason and volunteered. It needn't be the same person every week.
At this stage some concern about the clear line between picnic and protest was expressed. She felt that protestors would then fear crossing the line for a cup of tea as that would put non-protesting picnicers at risk. As indicated above in earlier discussion, the police may simply lump all present in together as protestors.
The police don't really want to arrest people a lot for protesting; the arrests which have already occured are already clogging up the courts, so more protests would be good.
With the picnic we could contact London FoodNotBombs and get them involved. Also we would all bring food next time.
Publicity: we need to publicise the event more. Flyers have been prepared, people agreed to do posters. The event should be publicised on the mailing lists and perodical listings of big organisations, like CND and Stop the War Coalition. The info should go out anywhere and everywhere, to maximise the number of people who are aware of the event and raise it's profile.
One person argued that if the event does have a more radical edge, ie. defying the Act rather than just having a picnic, that will bring the press back in and bring more publicity.
It was suggested that people bring a friend to build numbers, one new person eack week, and that if you can't make it you should arrange substitutes to take your place that week.
We had a discussion of what we felt we have in common: it was agreed a basic desire for the right and freedom to protest was a simple and basic thing we could agree on.
One person felt that that statement was all we need as a basis for common association. Supporting Brian Haw in his protest was also something many felt they had in common. It was agreed that we would reflect on what we all feel about the event and bring that to next week, and future discussions on common points of agreement.
One person mentioned that the focus should reamin on making the Act unworkabable, and that we should think about procedures for dealing with police repression and non-violently preventing arrests.