When: 26 March · 11:30 - 15:30
Where: London
Meeting point: Victoria Embankment Gardens
Nearest tube station: Embankment (District and Circle lines)
Meandering from Embankment to Hyde Park
_______________________________
Babies and buggy boarders, spread the word... kids against cuts being seen
and
heard!
Joining the myriads to oppose the squandering of our future.
For details of the day visit marchforthealternative.org.uk
Showing posts with label Anti-Militarism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Anti-Militarism. Show all posts
Friday, 25 March 2011
Monday, 8 March 2010
Mothers March & Speak Out: Saturday 13th March, London
An International Womens Day and Mothers Day Event
Saturday 13 March 2010
Mothers March & Speak Out
For recognition and support for all the work
we contribute to society
Come with your children, relatives and friends.
Bring your banners, placards and demands.
Assemble 2pm Trafalgar Sq
March to Parliament Sq
Westminster, London SW1 ALL WELCOME
mothering is hard work
The survival of the human race depends on the caring work of mothers.
But we get no recognition or support. Only blame when things go wrong.
And we're even expected to do more work to feed the family, often on
the lowest pay.
every mother is a working mother
Events also in: Guyana, Haiti, India, Mexico, Peru, US
MEN: Join the contingent of fathers & other male carers who support
mothers.
mothers, this march is for you who are raising children in cities, towns or villages...
Who are separated from your children or have lost children
Who are surviving war & environmental disaster
Who are seeking asylum
For you who are grandmothers, non-biological mothers, domestic workers & other women doing caring work
For you who have disabilities or have a child with disabilities
Who are fighting for justice for loved ones
Who have been raped
Who are students & mothers
Who are sex workers supporting families
Who have been criminalised by poverty
Who want to have children but havent been able to
For you mothers of every race, age, passport, income, sexuality & occupation
For all of us who are overworked & underpaid.
Our demand is: invest in caring not killing
Called by All African Womens Group Mothers Campaign (MoCa),
Global Womens Strike (GWS), and Single Mothers Self-Defence
Endorsed by: Kay Adshead (playwright/poet), Black Womens Rape
Action Project, English Collective of Prostitutes, Oliver James
(child psychologist/author), Jenny Jones (Green Party), Sheila
Kitzinger (natural childbirth campaigner/author), Payday mens
network, The Peace Strike at Parliament Square, Wages Due Lesbians,
Michelene Wandor (writer/broadcaster), Women with Visible and
Invisible Disabilities, Women Against Rape, Women of Colour in the
GWS
Sign MoCas petition for family reunion:
http://www.PetitionOnline.com/MumsKids/petition.html (
http://www.petitiononline.com/MumsKids/petition.html )
Youtube Clips on Why a Mothers' March
Selma James ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcCk9CmQD2A ), Global
Women's Strike
Isata Denton-Ceesay ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eh2orh7Gt4E ),
All African Women's Group
For info on disability access and facilities for children, to sponsor or
to make a donation: (020)7482 2496 voice/minicom
www.globalwomenstrike.net ( http://www.globalwomenstrike.net/ )
aawg02@googlemail.com womenstrike8m@server101.com
Saturday 13 March 2010
Mothers March & Speak Out
For recognition and support for all the work
we contribute to society
Come with your children, relatives and friends.
Bring your banners, placards and demands.
Assemble 2pm Trafalgar Sq
March to Parliament Sq
Westminster, London SW1 ALL WELCOME
mothering is hard work
The survival of the human race depends on the caring work of mothers.
But we get no recognition or support. Only blame when things go wrong.
And we're even expected to do more work to feed the family, often on
the lowest pay.
every mother is a working mother
Events also in: Guyana, Haiti, India, Mexico, Peru, US
MEN: Join the contingent of fathers & other male carers who support
mothers.
mothers, this march is for you who are raising children in cities, towns or villages...
Who are separated from your children or have lost children
Who are surviving war & environmental disaster
Who are seeking asylum
For you who are grandmothers, non-biological mothers, domestic workers & other women doing caring work
For you who have disabilities or have a child with disabilities
Who are fighting for justice for loved ones
Who have been raped
Who are students & mothers
Who are sex workers supporting families
Who have been criminalised by poverty
Who want to have children but havent been able to
For you mothers of every race, age, passport, income, sexuality & occupation
For all of us who are overworked & underpaid.
Our demand is: invest in caring not killing
Called by All African Womens Group Mothers Campaign (MoCa),
Global Womens Strike (GWS), and Single Mothers Self-Defence
Endorsed by: Kay Adshead (playwright/poet), Black Womens Rape
Action Project, English Collective of Prostitutes, Oliver James
(child psychologist/author), Jenny Jones (Green Party), Sheila
Kitzinger (natural childbirth campaigner/author), Payday mens
network, The Peace Strike at Parliament Square, Wages Due Lesbians,
Michelene Wandor (writer/broadcaster), Women with Visible and
Invisible Disabilities, Women Against Rape, Women of Colour in the
GWS
Sign MoCas petition for family reunion:
http://www.PetitionOnline.com/MumsKids/petition.html (
http://www.petitiononline.com/MumsKids/petition.html )
Youtube Clips on Why a Mothers' March
Selma James ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcCk9CmQD2A ), Global
Women's Strike
Isata Denton-Ceesay ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eh2orh7Gt4E ),
All African Women's Group
For info on disability access and facilities for children, to sponsor or
to make a donation: (020)7482 2496 voice/minicom
www.globalwomenstrike.net ( http://www.globalwomenstrike.net/ )
aawg02@googlemail.com womenstrike8m@server101.com
Saturday, 6 June 2009
Mayday Kidsbloc: Kids and Adults Unite Against the Arms Trade
On 4th May 2009, groups of parents and kids came together to form a ‘peace garden’ themed kidsbloc as part of the ‘Smash EDO’ Brighton street party (May the Fourth be with you!) against capitalism, war and the arms trade.
For the past five years, ‘Smash EDO’ has been a relentless and successful campaign against Brighton’s local arms manufacturers (EDO MBM/ITT make bomb components used against people in Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine): “Every bomb that is dropped, every bullet that is fired in the name of this War Of Terror has to be made somewhere. And wherever that is, it can be resisted” (http://www.smashedo.org.uk/). A film has also been made of the campaign: ‘On the Verge’, despite many failed attempts at banning its’ realise. The truth will out, as they say…
The Mayday! Mayday! Street party saw around 2,000 people from all over the country come together to protest not just about the bomb manufacturers, but also other war profiteers such as Barclays bank, HSBC, RBS, Lloyds, and McDonalds (see http://www.indymedia.org.uk/ for more info).
The main demo started at 12 noon in front of Brighton Pier, with protestors dressed mainly in red on foot and also bikes, sporting banners, sound-systems and a massive red carnival dragon, which the kids loved. The atmosphere was calm but excited. The autonomous Kidsbloc (which probably consisted of over 35 adults and children) had met up beforehand, for dressing up, face painting, meeting each other, checking food drink and kiddie supplies, and preparing the ‘peace garden’ theme. Children were dressed and face-painted as flowers, bees, butterflies (including the obligatory tiger and dinosaur, but veggie anti-militarist ones, of course!), and adults were also dressed up for the occasion. Huge colourful crepe-paper flowers and bees were held up, along with more specific anti-war banners: “War is not healthy for children and other living things” and “War is very, very naughty”. Drums, horns, bells and all types of instruments were used to make noise, and a continuous stream of bubbles were floating peacefully in the air. The kidsbloc even had an in-buggy soundsystem (patent pending!) which blared out Smash EDO radio (on pirate Radio 4A 101.4fm) throughout the demo to energise and update the kidsbloc crew!
As the march moved off towards town, the kidsbloc hung back and formed a visible family-friendly section. Adults without kids also came to support the kidsbloc on the day, and it is important that this is acknowledged and kidsblocs aren’t always left to parents to arrange. Any event can be easily made more parent-and-kid-friendly, and children shouldn’t be excluded from going to events that matter to them, or from showing solidarity with other children in war-torn countries throughout the world. After all, it’s often women and innocent children that suffer the most from war and poverty.
Despite a heavy police presence, the cops operated a relatively stand-offish approach, probably still smarting from the G20 in London a few weeks before, and bad press they got surrounding the murder of Ian Tomlinson and manhandling of peaceful protestors. Prior to the Mayday streetparty, people thought long and hard about whether children should be a part of this demo. Would an off-site kidspace be a better option? Many decided that they wanted a visual kids-and-parents presence on this demo, and that this demo was likely to be relatively relaxed as opposed to previous Smash EDO events (see Carnival Against the Arms Trade last summer). Once this decision was made, the main emphasis was on how they could make the kidsbloc as safe as possible and kid-friendly, as well as making an impact. Legal Observers and First Aiders were called upon, and tactics for supporting others within the kidsbloc were discussed.
The first half of the march was relatively peaceful and uneventful (being at the rear of the streetparty, the kidsbloc didn’t realise there were banner drops and actions all along the way!) and as it wound down underneath Brighton station, shouts of “Whose streets? Our Streets!” reverberated through the Brighton station underpass. The first kick-off point was when the march reached McDonalds on London Road. Here, protestors and riot cops started their first major scuffles. Being on high alert, the adults in the kidsbloc saw the riot cops preparing to move in from afar, and so they all moved swiftly and easily out of the way.
However, it was at this point that the kidsbloc, as well as other protestors from elsewhere in the demo, seemed to disperse in different directions. The kidsbloc in particular seemed to split in two directions, as well as some parents deciding, understandably, that it had been fun so far, but it was now time to take the kids home. A group of the kidsbloc crew never managed to regroup with the main demo, mainly because it was moving so fast that little legs and buggy wheels just couldn’t keep up! Instead a refreshment break was called for- strawberries, grapes, juice, milk, nappy changing, and a sit down on picnic tables outside a local pub. When everyone had re-energised, the decision was made to head straight to Preston Park to see if the march had ended up there and find out more info about what was still happening.
Once arriving in Preston Park, people settled down for a picnic on the grass, more face-painting (kids can never get enough!), and playing games in the playground. Others had already settled there with soundsystems and a band was playing an acoustic set. The demo seemed to have split up quite rapidly into many affinity groups. Those with kids decided to call it a day (it was around 4pm by this point) and just happily chill, and it was only fair on the kids to do this.
The kidsbloc would probably have benefited from more planning/meetings prior to and on the day, which, in this case, was not possible due to other commitments from people and general other mini-crisis’s of parenthood (those with kids know what they're talking about)! Would a kidsbloc that had greater cohesion within its members would have regrouped more easily after dispersing? Or have all taken the same route away from the action? However, this issue seems to be more general of how the whole demo ended up on the day, rather than specific to the kidsbloc. Other ideas and points were raised and discussed. It’s all a learning experience, and one that’s relatively unpredictable due to the nature of protest and the police. However, it was great to see such a positive turn out for a kidsbloc, and it all went really well- they all stayed safe, had fun, and had their say against war and greed. It would have been more satisfying to have regrouped with everyone that had been on the kidsbloc at the end of the day to discuss how they felt it all went, and how it could be improved next time, but unfortunately this wasn’t possible as people were spread across Brighton by this point and the kids were getting tired.
Well done everyone, kids and adults, who participated autonomously on the kidsbloc!
“We can bomb the world to pieces, we can’t bomb it into peace”
For the past five years, ‘Smash EDO’ has been a relentless and successful campaign against Brighton’s local arms manufacturers (EDO MBM/ITT make bomb components used against people in Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine): “Every bomb that is dropped, every bullet that is fired in the name of this War Of Terror has to be made somewhere. And wherever that is, it can be resisted” (http://www.smashedo.org.uk/). A film has also been made of the campaign: ‘On the Verge’, despite many failed attempts at banning its’ realise. The truth will out, as they say…The Mayday! Mayday! Street party saw around 2,000 people from all over the country come together to protest not just about the bomb manufacturers, but also other war profiteers such as Barclays bank, HSBC, RBS, Lloyds, and McDonalds (see http://www.indymedia.org.uk/ for more info).
The main demo started at 12 noon in front of Brighton Pier, with protestors dressed mainly in red on foot and also bikes, sporting banners, sound-systems and a massive red carnival dragon, which the kids loved. The atmosphere was calm but excited. The autonomous Kidsbloc (which probably consisted of over 35 adults and children) had met up beforehand, for dressing up, face painting, meeting each other, checking food drink and kiddie supplies, and preparing the ‘peace garden’ theme. Children were dressed and face-painted as flowers, bees, butterflies (including the obligatory tiger and dinosaur, but veggie anti-militarist ones, of course!), and adults were also dressed up for the occasion. Huge colourful crepe-paper flowers and bees were held up, along with more specific anti-war banners: “War is not healthy for children and other living things” and “War is very, very naughty”. Drums, horns, bells and all types of instruments were used to make noise, and a continuous stream of bubbles were floating peacefully in the air. The kidsbloc even had an in-buggy soundsystem (patent pending!) which blared out Smash EDO radio (on pirate Radio 4A 101.4fm) throughout the demo to energise and update the kidsbloc crew!
As the march moved off towards town, the kidsbloc hung back and formed a visible family-friendly section. Adults without kids also came to support the kidsbloc on the day, and it is important that this is acknowledged and kidsblocs aren’t always left to parents to arrange. Any event can be easily made more parent-and-kid-friendly, and children shouldn’t be excluded from going to events that matter to them, or from showing solidarity with other children in war-torn countries throughout the world. After all, it’s often women and innocent children that suffer the most from war and poverty.
Despite a heavy police presence, the cops operated a relatively stand-offish approach, probably still smarting from the G20 in London a few weeks before, and bad press they got surrounding the murder of Ian Tomlinson and manhandling of peaceful protestors. Prior to the Mayday streetparty, people thought long and hard about whether children should be a part of this demo. Would an off-site kidspace be a better option? Many decided that they wanted a visual kids-and-parents presence on this demo, and that this demo was likely to be relatively relaxed as opposed to previous Smash EDO events (see Carnival Against the Arms Trade last summer). Once this decision was made, the main emphasis was on how they could make the kidsbloc as safe as possible and kid-friendly, as well as making an impact. Legal Observers and First Aiders were called upon, and tactics for supporting others within the kidsbloc were discussed.
The first half of the march was relatively peaceful and uneventful (being at the rear of the streetparty, the kidsbloc didn’t realise there were banner drops and actions all along the way!) and as it wound down underneath Brighton station, shouts of “Whose streets? Our Streets!” reverberated through the Brighton station underpass. The first kick-off point was when the march reached McDonalds on London Road. Here, protestors and riot cops started their first major scuffles. Being on high alert, the adults in the kidsbloc saw the riot cops preparing to move in from afar, and so they all moved swiftly and easily out of the way.
However, it was at this point that the kidsbloc, as well as other protestors from elsewhere in the demo, seemed to disperse in different directions. The kidsbloc in particular seemed to split in two directions, as well as some parents deciding, understandably, that it had been fun so far, but it was now time to take the kids home. A group of the kidsbloc crew never managed to regroup with the main demo, mainly because it was moving so fast that little legs and buggy wheels just couldn’t keep up! Instead a refreshment break was called for- strawberries, grapes, juice, milk, nappy changing, and a sit down on picnic tables outside a local pub. When everyone had re-energised, the decision was made to head straight to Preston Park to see if the march had ended up there and find out more info about what was still happening.
Once arriving in Preston Park, people settled down for a picnic on the grass, more face-painting (kids can never get enough!), and playing games in the playground. Others had already settled there with soundsystems and a band was playing an acoustic set. The demo seemed to have split up quite rapidly into many affinity groups. Those with kids decided to call it a day (it was around 4pm by this point) and just happily chill, and it was only fair on the kids to do this.
The kidsbloc would probably have benefited from more planning/meetings prior to and on the day, which, in this case, was not possible due to other commitments from people and general other mini-crisis’s of parenthood (those with kids know what they're talking about)! Would a kidsbloc that had greater cohesion within its members would have regrouped more easily after dispersing? Or have all taken the same route away from the action? However, this issue seems to be more general of how the whole demo ended up on the day, rather than specific to the kidsbloc. Other ideas and points were raised and discussed. It’s all a learning experience, and one that’s relatively unpredictable due to the nature of protest and the police. However, it was great to see such a positive turn out for a kidsbloc, and it all went really well- they all stayed safe, had fun, and had their say against war and greed. It would have been more satisfying to have regrouped with everyone that had been on the kidsbloc at the end of the day to discuss how they felt it all went, and how it could be improved next time, but unfortunately this wasn’t possible as people were spread across Brighton by this point and the kids were getting tired.Well done everyone, kids and adults, who participated autonomously on the kidsbloc!
“We can bomb the world to pieces, we can’t bomb it into peace”
Anti-copyright: Text and Photos by Tracy Beaker (interviewed by Tumbleweed)
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