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---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Sat, 21 Feb 1998 18:32:12 -0800 From: hugh <justice@easynet.co.uk> Press release Saturday February 21st 1998 Demonstrators outside Downing Street demand: NO BOMBING OF IRAQ! Tony Benn MP and Jeremy Corbyn MP were among those who addressed a crowd of around two thousand who this afternoon demonstrated outside Downing Street to demand an end to the government's war threats. To enthusiastic applause, both these MPs, who were among those who voted against the government's war policies last Thursday, outlined the danger of the government's policy, and called for determined protest action in the coming days. Harry Cohen MP, Neil Gerrard MP and John McDonnell MP also sent messages of support to the demonstration. Also participating were representatives of student organisations, including Jo Cardwell, Member of the NEC of the National Union Of Students (NUS). Another NUS NEC member, Anita Goldsmith, made a speech on behalf of the Student Coalition Against War in the Gulf. Students from many universities and colleges in London and from around the country were prominent among the demonstrators. A group of 11 students and young people came from Belgium. An English-Iraqi family in Manchester had collected 1000 signatures on a petition for peace, and the parents and their three children presented it to the door of Number 10 Downing Street. Hugh Stephens, the organiser of the demonstration, commented that the large size and strong feeling of the demonstration should give a foretaste to Blair and Cook of the wave of public anger they can expect to face if they go ahead with their threatened act of aggression. He called for a massive turnout for the Trafalgar Square rally next Saturday, February 28th, from 3 to 5 p.m., that has been called by the Emergency Committee on Iraq headed by George Galloway MP and Tam Dalyell MP, of which Hugh Stephens is a member. Twenty thousand leaflets were taken by students and other demonstrators for distribution in the coming week, giving details of the Trafalgar Square and other planned protests. The international media were represented at the demonstration by camera crews and journalists from the US, Japan, Spain and other countries. Actibvists from the National Peace Council, Campaign Against Nuclear Disarmament, and other organisations worked to ensure the success of the demonstration, prominent among these being activists from Essex Region CND. For further information, interviews with Hugh Stephens, etc., phone 0171 436 4636 The proposers of this initiative may be contacted by phone as follows: Felicity Arbuthnot, 0181 985 0058; David Polden, 0171 607 2302; Hugh Stephens, 0171 436 4636. Sponsors: Harry Cohen MP; Jeremy Corbyn MP; Bob Wareing MP; John McDonnell MP; Alf Lomas MEP; Philippa Winkler, editor of Hidden Casualties; Daniel Robicheau, Gulf War II Information Network; Essex Region CND; Chelmsford CND; Suffolk CND; Keith Bovey, President, Scottish CND; Coastal League Against Armaments; Musicians Against Nuclear Weapons; Jim Addington, RENEW UN; Anglican Pacifist Fellowship; Darvell Bruderhof and Beechgrove Bruderhof; Sister Marie McGuinn; Michael Stimson, Co-ordinator, Green Party Working Group on Iraq; John Platts Mills QC; John Hendy QC; Socialist Labour Party: Arthur Scargill, General Secretary, Frank Cave, President, Pat Sikorski, Vice-Pres.; Student Coalition Against War in the Gulf; Anita Goldsmith, Nat. Women's Officer, Nat. Union of Students; Victoria Brittain, journalist; Tim Gopsill, Editor of The Journalist; Rula Lenska, actress; Gertrude Elias, political journalist; Stephen Rose, Professor of Biology, Open Univ.; Hillary Rose, Professor of Sociology, City Univ.; Jim Nolan, Merseyside Port Shop Stewards Committee; Bob Crow, Asst Gen Sec, RMT (pers. capac.); Roger Bunn, Music Industry Human Rights Assn; Khalid H Lodhi, journalist; Father Geoffrey Bottoms; Geoff Simons, author of The Scourging of Iraq; David Hoffman, author of The Politics of Terror; Mujahid Tirmizey, General Secretary, Pakistan Institute of International Affairs (UK Branch); Len Aldis, Sec., Britain-Vietnam Friendship Soc.; Lila Patel, Sec., Korean Friendship &Solidarity Campaign; Mushtaq Lasharie, Chair, Third World Solidarity; Friendship Across Frontiers; Catherine Stenger, artist, poet; Marianne Ure, Justice and Peace, Scotland; Peggie Preston, Dr. Janet Cameron, Jimmy Johns, Kevin Hemsley, Gulf Peace Team (1991) Fax: 0171 436 4638. Address: BM 2966, London WC1N 3XX -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is a discussion list run by Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq. To be removed/added, email soc-casi-discuss-request@lists.cam.ac.uk, NOT the whole list. Archived at http://linux.clare.cam.ac.uk/~saw27/casi/discuss.html