No to the Provocation of Bush’s Visit!

Workers' Daily Internet Edition: Article Index :

No to the Provocation of Bush’s Visit!

Opposition to George Bush

Downing Street on Schedule for President Bush’s State Visit

Protests Planned as George Bush Visits Sedgefield

End Injustice At Guantanamo
End Imprisonment Without Trial

Tony Blair says this is exactly the right time for George Bush to pay a state visit to Britain. In fact, it can only be seen as a provocation against democratic working people who are opposed to aggression and desire a government which stands against war.

By insisting on pressing ahead with the visit in these circumstances, Tony Blair is emphasising once again that he will not submit to the will of the people and that he is determined that Britain should ally with the greatest warmonger in pursuit of the political interests of the rich of Britain and of the international financial oligarchy.

Whereas Bush is utilising the visit to boost his electoral prestige, Tony Blair is using the state visit to puff up his image as a world statesman within the reactionary and imperialist programme of "making Britain great again" and to bolster his role as the "historic bridge" between the US and Europe.

However, the visit is also coming at a time that the Anglo-US policy of occupation of Iraq in the name of "liberation" is in desperate crisis. It is a time when, far from convincing the British, Iraqi and world’s people that the US and Britain were the "liberators" of Iraq, the aggressive nature of the occupation is being ever further exposed and the base and deceitful character of the government which backed the US and took British troops into Iraq is revealed as the reality.

In his speech at the Guildhall, Tony Blair called for an end to the arguments over the war. But this is wishful thinking indeed and shows the depths to which Tony Blair is sinking. The opposition to Britain’s actions is growing and the visit of George W Bush will again become the focus for this opposition.

The demand of the people is for an anti-war government, one which is independent of the US in its foreign policy, and which is not subservient to the agenda of the European monopolies either. As the slogan goes, it is the people who are the new world’s superpower, and self-determination and emancipation is what they have inscribed on their banner.

No to Bush’s State Visit! Occupation Is Not Liberation! Extend the Resistance against the Governments of War and Deceit!

Wednesday 19th November

(http://www.fairfordcoachaction.org.uk/44/bush/)

Today, protesters will be barred from Whitehall (according to the Evening Standard 18 Nov, 2003).

ALL DAY - "Day of Nonviolent Civil Disobedience" - Throughout the day: demonstrations around London dependent upon the itinerary of George Bush)

10.00 Critical Mass of opposition to George Bush. Meet with bikes etc Under Waterloo Bridge 10.00 a.m. for a 10.30 set off will hook with other events throughout the day
http://cmlondon.enrager.net/information/index.htm (seems to be temporarily out)
http://www.urban75.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=fa75f60a88adba8891f58c3e21280d0d&threadid=60248

11.00: Alternative State Procession (Stop the War) Cavalcade with cyclists, taxi drivers, scooter clubs etc. following open carriage. Procession starting Jubilee Gardens (the park at the London Eye).
http://www.stopwar.org.uk/Resources/altstateproc.pdf

11.00 to 14.30: School students rally against Bush! A walkout for School Students outside Parliament on Parliament Square. 
All students from colleges, schools and Universities to walkout against the murderer comming to town. All students to walkout at 10:30am to be present outside parliament at 11:00am
Organised by: Hayes school students SWP

12.00: Sambistas Street Party at Central London location. (Details TBA)

12.00: Street party, Malet St just outside the University of London Union. Bring costumes, agit-prop, bikes and fun, for a good old fashioned street party (c/o Young Greens)
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2003/11/280462.html

13.00: O-I-L Womens peace picnic. Top end of Trafalgar Sq.

15.00: Resist Bush Tea Party at Buckingham Palace.
Mass protest, and civil disobedience. Bring banners, placards, drums whistles, pots and pans and tea.... this event is NON-VIOLENT and open to all people and actions provided that they 'don't harm or degrade any human being'. Meet Victoria Station 3pm. http://www.resistbush.org

16.30: Picket outside ESSO building, on the Aldwych, near to the LSE (London School of Economics).

"Let the employees of ESSO and assembled media exactly why the ties between George Bush and big oil are so strong...and why ESSO is one of the powers behind the throne of an idiotic, dangerous President." Bush is Esso's puppet, its time to cut their strings!. (c/o Young Greens)

17.00 Film Showing of "Walker" Alex Cox introduces Walker, his film about Nicaragua.
Prince Charles Cinema, 7 Leicester Place, London WC2, nearest tube Leicester Square. Tickets are £7 each from the box office(1:30pm to 9pm): 0207 494 3654

18.30: STOP BUSH T-Shirt Competition (Judging by 7.15pm)
Location: Railings of Buckingham Palace* (see note below about substitute venues)

Prizes to be donated plus t-shirts being used as the centre of our press releases after the event plus the opportunity to travel with our judges in the Stop Bush rickshaw!

Design your own t-shirt to protest against human rights violations since Bush and Blair started the war on terrorism. Use words, embroidery, paint, photographs, or applique to design a t-shirt that tells George Bush he is not welcome. We advise you to dress warm, bring food and water, bring your camera, and keep your t-shirt protest under wraps till its time to party!

Speakers to include Jean Lambert (Green MEP), Dr Siddiqui (Campaign Against Criminalising Communities)

We hope to entertain you with the Rinky Dink & Band but MOST of all we look forward to seeing your t-shirt protests against Bush. Tel: Miranda on 07867 511383 or Mark 07967 054 289 on the 19th Nov for up to the minute info.

*If Buckingham Palace Railings are blocked off the t-shirt competition will take place outside the ICA, The Mall (1st substitute venue), Trafalgar Square (2nd substitute venue), or Parliament Square (3rd substitute venue).

 

20.00 Film Showing of "The Deal" and Ken Loach's "9/11"
Stephen Frears will attend the showing, his recent TV film about events surrounding Tony Blair’s rise to power. Ken Loach will then introduce his segment of 9/11 dealing with ‘the other September 11th’ - the coup against the democratically elected government of Chile in 1973.
Prince Charles Cinema, (see previous entry for details)

20.30 Tell me lies... An Evening of Poetry and Music
With: Adrian Mitchell, Mike Rosen, Saadi Yousef, Mark Steel and Tino Gonzales & band. Camden Centre, Bidborough Street (Opposite Kings X Station). Tickets cost £7 (concessions £5). To reserve a ticket call 0207 053 2153/4/5/6 or e=mail to: office@stopwar.org.uk

 

Publishing Date Tuesday 18 November 2003

The Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman has set out the arrangements for President Bush’s visit to the UK this week.

He said that the President and the First Lady would arrive this evening and would have a private welcome by the Queen at Buckingham Palace.

On Wednesday, there would be a formal welcoming ceremony at the Palace. Following the ceremonial welcome, the President would meet Michael Howard, followed by Charles Kennedy. Later in the day, around lunchtime, the President would make a speech at the Banqueting House on the trans-Atlantic alliance and his forward strategy for democracy. After the speech, he would meet with British families who lost loved ones on September 11, 2001. On Wednesday evening, he would attend a state banquet at Buckingham Palace.

On Thursday, the President would visit the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior, tour Westminster Abbey and meet with British soldiers who had fought in Afghanistan and Iraq, together with their families, as well as the bereaved families of those soldiers who had been killed in Iraq. He would also meet the families of British soldiers killed in Iraq. The President would then meet the Prime Minister at Number 10. This would be followed by a joint press conference in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office before lunch in Downing Street. The meal would be a menu designed by, and prepared under the supervision of, Nigella Lawson. Mrs Blair and the First Lady would have a separate lunch, having watched a children's performance of extracts from Shakespeare.

After lunch, the Prime Minister and the President would have a roundtable discussion on HIV/AIDS with a group of representatives from African countries, charities and leading NGOs in the field. The meeting would be an opportunity to underline the importance of fighting HIV/Aids and to underline UK/US efforts in this area. On Thursday evening, the President and the First Lady would host a reciprocal dinner for the Queen.

On Friday, the President and the First Lady would attend the Queen's official farewell and then depart London for Sedgefield. There, the President's schedule would include lunch with the Prime Minister and a group of his constituents.

The President and the First Lady would return to Washington on Friday evening.

George Bush and Tony Blair are due in the North East on Friday morning. Current expectations are for them to be at Sedgefield late morning and to have lunch there.

Sedgefield Stop the War Coalition have organised a demonstration at Sedgefield Village Green at 10am, when groups from across the region will meet. "George Bush has risked thousands of British and Iraqi lives in an aggressive war, is escalating the threat of terrorism worldwide, and continues to flout the Geneva Conventions in Guantanamo Bay. He will learn on Friday that the North East rejects war criminals," said Andrew Gray from the local Stop the War coalition.

Other groups are also organising public meetings and related events, including a Noam Chomsky film showing at the Side Cinema (Wednesday, 7pm) and a talk on Child Soldiers with Rachel Brett from Quaker United Nations Office in Geneva (Quaker Meeting House, Friday, 7:30pm). On Monday 24th November, George Galloway, MP, will lead a public meeting at St John's church hall, organised by the Morning Star (Grainger Street, 7:15pm). Other Stop Bush protests are expected.

A rally will be at Grey's Monument from 5:30pm, Wednesday November 19. Monica Frisch, from Tyne and Wear CND and a speaker at the evening's rally, says, "Tony Blair and George Bush used the possible development of nuclear weapons by Iraq as an excuse for military action. But all the time, they maintain their own vast arsenals of nuclear weapons, and are even making plans for the next generation of nuclear weapons development at Aldermaston. Meanwhile, they ignore and undermine the very international treaties that could help rid the world of these lethal weapons."

Also speaking at Wednesday's rally will be Claire Williams (UNISON Northern Convenor) and Phil Boyer (Muslim Association of Britain).

End Imprisonment Without Trial

Petition And Public Protest On Saturday 13 December

From Campaign Against Criminalising Communities (CAMPACC)

In the 'war on terror', many hundreds of people have been imprisoned without charge or trial by the US and UK governments - at Guantanamo Bay and in Afghanistan, Iraq, the United States and the United Kingdom.

These people can be held indefinitely without trial and have reportedly been kept in conditions amounting to torture. Most are not allowed access to families or lawyers. At Guantanamo they face a closed military tribunal with prosecution, defence and judge appointed by the US military. In the UK 16 detainees have been held without charge in Belmarsh Prison since December 2001. The rejection of recent appeals means that detainees now face indefinite detention. More generally, UK anti-terrorism legislation is being used to harass migrant and refugee communities and suppress dissent, fan the flames of racial hatred and restrict the right of free speech.

*** PETITION ***

We call on the UK and US governments
 - to abandon all forms of internment without trial.
 - to immediately release those imprisoned without trial or charge them and conduct a fair and transparent trial.

We call on the UK government
 - to secure the release of all nine British citizens and two British residents held in Guantanamo, for freedom or fair trial in Britain
 - to demand the freedom or fair trial of all prisoners at Guantanamo.
 - to end the use of anti-terrorism legislation to harass migrant and refugee communities and suppress dissent

Sign on-line at: http://www.petitiononline.com/campacc/petition.html

*** PUBLIC PROTEST ***

Public Rally: Saturday 13 December 2003
From 1-4pm, opposite Downing Street, London.

Speakers include: Azmat Begg (father of Moazzam Begg), Gareth Peirce,
Louise Christian (Haldane Society), Jasmine Kureshi (Association of Muslim Lawyers), Naima Bouteldja (Just Peace), Mark Jennings (representing Bishar Al-Raw"s family), Jean Lambert MEP, Jeremy Corbyn MP, Tim Gopsill (editor, The Journalist), Mike Marqusee, Bruce Kent, Hugo Charlton (Chair, Green Party & CAMPACC), Stewart Hemsley (Chair, Pax Christi), Liz Fekete (Campaign against Racism & Fascism), Paul Donovan (journalist), Jaffer Clarke (Muslim Parliament of Great Britain) & Mark Thomas.

A petition calling for an end to imprisonment without trial will be handed into Downing St.
Throughout the rally, a Guantanamo street action will be performed - if you are interested in taking part, please contact us.

****

This petition and protest are sponsored by: Campaign Against Criminalising Communities (CAMPACC), Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers, Peace and Justice in East London, Pax Christi, Voices UK, City Circle, JustPeace, The Muslim Parliament of Great Britain, Association of Muslim Lawyers, The Green Party of England and Wales, Peace and Progress

Contact: Campaign against Criminalising Communities, http://www.cacc.org.uk, 020 7250 1315

BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON INTERNMENT

"Secrecy has been chosen over due process and is a dangerous precedent for the future, not just for these detainees. Their arrest and continuing detention without due process marks the entry of this country into a new dark age of injustice."
From a statement made on behalf of detainees in the UK by solicitor Gareth Peirce, following the decisions made by SIAC, 29 October 2003.

At Guantanamo Bay, detainees are held indefinitely without prospect of a fair trial, since they face a military tribunal appointed by the US government, whose head, President Bush, has already publicly condemned them as guilty.

They have been interrogated continuously for almost two years, in conditions that amount to torture, without access to any lawyer. US-based Australian lawyer Richard Bourke, who represents some of the detainees, said that "the US military are engaging in good old-fashioned torture, as people would have understood it in the Dark Ages. One of the detainees had described being taken out and tied to a post and having rubber bullets fired at them. They were being made to kneel cruciform in the sun until they collapsed." (ABC News, 8 October 2003)

Trials, if they happen at all, will be based upon confessions obtained wholly unlawfully. International law prohibits interrogation of prisoners of war. The Third Geneva Convention calls for a properly constituted tribunal to decide whether persons captured during a conflict are prisoners of war, who must be treated humanely, or civilians taken in error, who must be released.

Of the nine British citizens held at Guantanamo, the British government has said there is nothing with which two of them - Feroz Abbasi and Moazzem Begg - could be charged with under British law.

British residents Bisher al-Rawi, an Iraqi resident in Britain for 19 years, and Jamil al Banna, a Jordanian granted refugee status in Britain, were arrested on a business trip to the Gambia and handed to CIA agents with the collaboration of the British High Commission. They were sent first to Bagram in Afghanistan and then to Guantanamo. No evidence has been produced against them except possession of an Argos battery charger, for which 'crime' the British authorities let them go after stopping them at Gatwick.
In Britain 16 people have been detained since December 2001 without trial for an indefinite period under the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act (ATCSA) 2001. Their appeals against detention are being heard by the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC), which uses evidence - some of it obtained under duress from Guantanamo Bay prisoners - which is kept secret even from the detainees.

Ten of the detainees lost their appeals against detention at SIAC on 29 October. Gareth Peirce, the solicitor acting for eight of the men, criticised the "deference" shown to the security services and the government. "The same political agenda that created weapons of mass destruction, and claimed there was an immediate threat to this country, has created a wish to find danger from the presence in this country of these appellants," she said. Amnesty International said that the judgement was a "perversion of justice". An Amnesty spokesperson said, "The shockingly low burden of proof, which the SlAC ruled that the Secretary of State had met, violates the right to the presumption of innocence."

23 political organisations in the Middle East, North Africa, Turkey, Kurdistan and Sri Lanka have been banned under the Terrorism Act 2000, including several never accused of any violent act on British soil and others not engaged in armed struggle anywhere. 'Terrorism' is being used as an excuse to detain, interrogate and intimidate migrant and refugee communities. These perversions of justice and violations of human rights are taking place despite the multiple powers the state already has to deal adequately with violent crime or its planning. Anti-terrorism laws are also being used to suppress political dissent and legal protest.

In the United States, Afghanistan and Iraq, the US and UK authorities are holding a large number of detainees without charge or trial under anti-terrorism legislation, or merely as "security detainees".