Peace & Anti War Video Day

[Cynthia]

I hope lots of our Forum users will be interested in this event.

Follow up to Peace Festival organised last year, this Peace and Anti War Video Day is organised by East Edinburgh Stop the War Coalition (local Branch of STW Coalition - see www.edinburghstw.org.uk) -
SATURDAY 13TH MARCH 10.30-5.30PM IN YOUTH LOUNGE, PORTOBELLO COMMUNITY CENTRE, 3 Adelphi Grove. Films include: The Big Blockade (Faslane); Youth Against War - "Old Enough To Know Better" produced by Edinburgh School Students; Why War? The Invasion of Iraq, with contributions from Tony Benn, Noam Chomsky, George Galloway, Salma Yaqoob, Greg pallast, Bianca Jagger. Refreshments by 'Make Tea Not War'(aka Ever Green Shop) Free - donations welcome.
More details from: eastedinburghstw@fsmail.net or phone 07905 220954 mob (Caroline)

[Cynthia]

I'm told tea/coffee and juice, organic fairtrade choc bars, cake and other goodies will be plentifully available to buy at fair prices throughout the day c/o Ever Green/Make Tea Not War - plus excellent videos and company - the Youth Lounge only seats comfily 20 I would guess but as we are showing most of the videos on a rolling prog turn up, grab the comfiest seats or if too crowded come back for the next showing.....Prog follows:

Peace and Anti War Video Day Saturday March 13th, Portobello Community Centre (Youth Lounge) 3 Adelphi Grove….free/donations welcome- Refreshments/Ever Green
/Make Tea Not War- organic tea/coffee, cake, biscuits, etc come for all or part of the day
10.30am
The Big Blockade … and why we go. Faslane on the Clyde is the home of Britain’s Trident submarines. This film tells the story of the 2001 blockade.

11.05am
Youth Against War – “OLD ENOUGH TO KNOW BETTERâ€Â

[Cynthia]

Another date for your diary - March 20th (Sat) is the one year anniversary of the beginning of the war on Iraq - there are two marches/events to protest against war, and this one in particular, organised -

one in Glasgow:
March assemble South Hanover St at 10.30 am, march to St Enoch's Square, for rally from 12 midday. Part of an international day of action. Organised by the Scottish Coalition for Justice not War.
Taken from CND website Thursday 4th March

one in London: - assemble 12 noon central London organised by Stop the War Coalition. More details: www.stopwar.org.uk

I'll post any more details as I get them. Carla

[Cynthia]

[Cynthia]

the final sentence should read G8 not G ! they are not cool they are the folk that make our lives miserable - the 1% of the world who control 99% of the wealth .... and speculate on land, houses, companies, jobs, and arms ofcourse, to make their wealth even wealthier...

[Cynthia]

well as usual the Police miscounted - said it was 5 or 600 in Glasgow, I (& others)thought 2,500 - you can rely on the Police to get it wrong by about 4X less than what it was - so I was right again! bingo - its funny how you can quite accurately check your own estimate by multiplying the Police one by 4-5 - and it works! The London one you could see from the photos was way more than 25,000 - apparently the organisers put it nearer to 75,000 or more - I only trust the figure when I hear direct from the organisers what they really thought in the anti war and left press. Just a sea of placards - very moving. No neither of the UK ones were as big as those on the eve of outbreak of war - some of us thought there was just a tiny chance we could have stopped it or at least stopped the UK/TB going along with it and giving it credibility. Its not surprising not so many turned out this time, but its certainly not a sign people are downcast - rather that since the Spanish election of an anti war government, we can feel change is happening. Its a hopeful time but we can't afford to be complacent.
I was on the Glasgow demo - the weather was truly awful today - snow was forecast, and it ended up raining very hard with a freezing cold very strong wind. A good day for flags providing you had a secure hold on them. It was a very upbeat and cheerful day - slogans like "Aznar Aznar, gone, gone, Bush, Blair, next, next" and "Tony Blair he is scum, he took money off my mum, went and spent it on a war, we don't want him any more" and lots more very hopeful lyrics, creativity (home made drums out of plastic barrels, lots of flags, a whole range of unconventional/home made musical/noise making instruments) and sound. One things for sure, the depressing, hopeless feel of demos we had under Thatcher are not here today. They could return if the movement against war, for peace and decent lives for all, starts to falter, and we stop having confidence in ourselves. But there was certainly no sign of that today, and only a sign of strength from struggles for better pay, the anti war movement and more struggles to come. We learn from each and get stronger, and pull more support in from a very wide section of communities. The next big anti war demo in Scotland is at Faslane Nuclear Base (Trident Submarines) called aptly "Where Are the Weapons of Mass Destruction?"! called by Scottish CND march and rally Easter Monday 12th April 2004 1pm assemble at Faslane Peace Camp. For more info see www.banthebomb.org - there is a bus organised from Edinburgh - I'll post details later. You really can't rely on the mainstream news for a real picture of what is going on - so check the anti war websites regularly for info - www.edinburghstw.org.uk is a good one - and you can tell the ones that involve real campaigners as people are out there campaigning so it takes them a wee while (not too long since digital cameras) to get photos on their sites - we all have to recover a bit especially from weather like today, long bus journeys etc. The huge demos in Rome, Spain, Australia, London and the like are inspirational - as are the two brave souls who climbed up Big Ben in that wind and rain - watch this space!

[Cynthia]

East Edinburgh Stop the War Coalition who meet monthly in Portobello Community Centre to discuss and promote peace and anti war activities and discussions in this area ('think global, act local' to borrow a phrase from Globalise Resistance Campaign) would welcome any one who is committed to furthering peace in the world to our meetings. These are attended by people from all and no political parties, and faiths, and we would welcome anyone who would like to get involved. We are at the stage of discussing showing peace videos to a wider audience, as well as informing each other of coming events.....If you would like to come along our next meeting is this Thursday 1st April 6.30-7.30pm in Porty Community Centre, 3 Adelphi Grove. If you want more details phone Caroline on 07905 220954