Showing posts with label protests. Show all posts
Showing posts with label protests. Show all posts

Sunday, 4 March 2012

Anti-capitalists to target Frankfurt in May


INTERNATIONAL protesters are to converge for three days of action in Frankfurt , home of the European Central Bank.

The European Resistance website said that folowing an Action Conference attended by 400 people,  there would be protests from May 17th to 19th "against the crisis dictatorship of the European Union".

The statement reads:  "We resist the disaster that is applied to Greece and other countries, against the impoverishment and denial of rights of millions of people and the practical abolition of democratic procedures resulting from the decisions of the Troika consisting of ECB, EU and IMF.

"The days of protest in Frankfurt directly succeed to the International Action Day on May 12th and the anniversary of the first assembly in Madrid on May 15th.

"We are therefore sending a visible sign of solidarity to those people in Europe who have been and are resisting against the debtocracy of the Troika and the attacks on their livelihood and their future.

"Simultaneously, protests are being organised in the US against the G8 Summit in Chicago.

"The choice of Frankfurt for the protests results from the role that the city has as headquarters of the European Central Bank (ECB) and of powerful German and international banks and corporations.

"On May 17, we will occupy parks and main squares of the city to create spaces for discussion and exchange.

"On May 18, we will block the running business of banks in Frankfurt and turn our anger about the Troika's policies into action.

"We will gather for a large demonstration on May 19 and visualise the broad base of the protests. From many countries and regions of the world people will travel to Frankfurt and participate in the days of protest.

"The success of the protests requires a mobilisation that is actively supported by as many as possible: the Occupy movement, the initiatives of unemployed and the crisis alliances, trade unionists, Attac, the environmental and peace movement, migrants', youth and students' organisations, anti-racist, anti-fascist and left groups, activists of various local struggles and the Left Party.

"The period of mobilisation includes the European action day on March 31st and international Mayday, as well as collective bargaining struggles in Germany that have our solidarity."

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Monday, 9 January 2012

Occupy Nigeria uprising - ten protesters killed



POLICE have killed 10 protesters as the Occupy Nigeria uprising gathers force.

Tens of thousands of people have been taking to the streets as trade unions join in the rebellion with an indefinite nationwide strike against Goodluck Jonathan's neoliberal regime, which has hit the poor by removing a state fuel subsidy.
 
President of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Abdulwaheed Omar, who confirmed the killing, accused the police of using excessive force to quell the protests and cracking down on protesters.
 
Giving the breakdown of the casualty figure, Omar said six protesters were killed in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State, three in Lagos and one in Kano during the demonstration, reports The Moment
 
The Red Cross also confirmed that police fired live ammunition and tear gas to disperse a crowd of protesters in Kano and Lagos wounding at least 18 people, some of whom died in the hospital. 
 
For the Lagos incident, angry protesters at Ogba in Lagos, identified one of the slain protesters as Ademola Aderinto, and the injured as Alimi Abubakar, Egbujor Samuel and Iyara.  
 
One of the protesters, Dickson Oracle said, ‘There were about seven policemen shooting in the air to disperse protesters.
 
"The DPO (police chief) opened fire targeting these four people and shot them. One died on the spot, because he sustained serious bullet wounds and the remaining have been brought to the hospital."
 
Another protester, Abubakar, said: "We were standing in front of our Mosque when some people who were sharing hand bills got to the place and just as we were still talking with them, suddenly police vehicles pulled up and started shooting sporadically on the ground before one of their Ogas took the gun from one of them and fired at us and the bullet hit me on my left thigh and I fell down. 
 
"We were not even protesting on the road."
 
In Lagos the usually busy Mushin, Fadeyi, Jibowu, Ikorodu Road, Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway were blocked by the protesters who made bonfires on the roads. 
 
At Fadeyi bus stop, demonstrators burnt tyres and scores of youth were seen chanting anti- government slogans. 

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Thursday, 29 December 2011

Afghans protest against NATO attack


 
THOUSANDS of Afghans have taken to the streets in the eastern province of Ghazni to show their anger over a US-led night time raid that killed two civilians in the area, Press TV reports.

The protesters staged a rally on Wednesday and strongly condemned the civilian casualties sustained during the deadly NATO airstrike. They also chanted anti-US slogans.

Meanwhile, the Kabul-Kandahar Highway was blocked for hours by protesting local residents.

President Hamid Karzai said on December 24 that Afghanistan will not sign a strategic partnership deal with the United States until NATO night raids and house searches stop.

Karzai said that “arbitrary operations and house searches by NATO have become a serious problem between Afghanistan and NATO forces and that this has been one of the main obstacles on signing the strategic partnership deal with the United States.”

The loss of civilian lives at the hand of foreign forces has dramatically increased anti-American sentiments in Afghanistan.

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Thursday, 15 December 2011

Libyans protest against new regime



PEOPLE in Libya are rising up against the regime foisted on them by foreign powers following the overthrowal of Gaddafi.

In the words of Twitter user Dima Khatib: "Revolutionary Friday is back in #Libya .. Yes #Feb17 is alive and  kickin till the people get what they fought for."

There are reports of tens of thousands of Libyans protesting in Benghazi and Tripoli accusing the National Transitional Council of "stealing the revolution."

The protesters demand transparency, accountability and payment of wages in a movement that connects democratic and economic demands.

Business Week says they feel the ruling National Transitional Council is being too secretive about its membership structure and finances.

“We sacrificed a lot in this war,” Salwa Bugaighis, a lawyer in Benghazi and a former member of the NTC before she resigned in August over a lack of transparency in its decision- making process, said in an interview.

“We want democracy.” Bugaighis said protesters set up a tented encampment today at Benghazi’s Maidan al-Shagera, or Tree Square, and will not leave until the NTC enacts new rules on transparency and releases the names and resumes of all its members.
 
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Monday, 12 December 2011

Protests succeed in disrupting US ports



OCCUPY protesters in the USA succeeded in causing serious disruption to West Coast ports on Monday.

Reports RT: "From the blocked port of Oakland to the shipping hub of Seattle, thousands of disenchanted activists have taken to the streets in defiance of a police crackdown.

­"Seattle police have reportedly used flash bang percussion grenades to disperse the protesters who blocked the entrance to the Port of Seattle facilities. Police said multiple people had been arrested, but did not specify exact figures.

"Occupy Seattle protesters were seen holding banners reading Made in China, clearly highlighting the problem of American jobs being outsourced to China.

"Those protests appear to be a part of the nationwide effort to block West Coast port traffic, when thousands took on ports from California to Alaska to disrupt, they claim, the economic machine that benefits the wealthiest individuals and corporations.

"Protesters say they are targeting corporate greed and the government’s complicity and by maintaining their activity, they are keeping the message of the Occupy movement alive.

"According to protesters, among other things they are targeting profits of Goldman Sachs, which owns half of one of the world’s largest transportation and shipping outfits. Therefore, for the movement this is the way of  'getting back at' one of the major banks which had contributed to the financial crisis.

"In New York City, protesters took their message to Goldman Sachs directly. They marched in solidarity with their fellow campaigners from the West Coast to the bank’s Low Manhattan’s headquarters. Almost two dozen of them were arrested."

"In Houston, Texas, some 20 people got arrested in similar solidarity protests.

"While US authorities seem to be quite successful in cracking down on peaceful protesters, with more than 5,000 having been arrested in the course of the past three months, none of those arrests even make it to the headlines in major US media anymore.

"Occupy protesters marched on Monday morning on ports in San Diego, Oakland and Los Angeles in California, Portland in Oregon, Seattle and Tacoma in Washington, as well as Anchorage in Alaska, eventually succeeding in disrupting the work of these major ports on the West Coast. The port of Oakland, for example, was almost completely shut down, while in Portland and LA they effectively blocked trucks from approaching the ports."

Keep up to date with the global insurrection - follow VM on Twitter.

Sunday, 11 December 2011

Occupy activists aim to shut down US ports

 
A BID to block the West Coast ports of the USA is being launched by Occupy activists on Monday December 12.

Says the West Coast Ports Blockade site: "The ports play a pivotal role in the flow and growth of capital for the 1% in this country and internationally.  

"For that reason alone it is the ideal place to disrupt their profit machine. The workers on these ports have always understood that; they have consistently staged shutdowns for political reasons, honored community picket lines, and led the labor movement.  

"A general disruption of commerce, in protest of the nationally coordinated attacks on Occupy movements alone is warranted, but additionally, the specifically targeted attacks on workers at these ports by the 1% further necessitate this call to action."

Adds the Occupy Los Angeles site: "As part of the Dec. 12 Boycott and March for legalization and good jobs, the Occupy movement will protest at one or more facilities belonging to SSA Marine, a shipper owned by Goldman Sachs, with 5 terminals and a warehouse in the Harbor area.   

"SSA Marine was recently fined for building an illegal road to the site of its massive, dirty coal terminal project in WA. It was also caught recently not alerting workers to the threat of explosive cargo in Oakland. 

"SSA/Goldman Sachs symbolize the ruin that corporate greed has brought into our lives. The 1% are depriving port truck drivers and other workers of decent pay, working conditions and the right to organize, even while the port of LA/LB is the largest in the US and a huge engine of profits for the 1%. 

"The 1% have pursued a conscious policy of de-industrialization that has resulted in 'trade' at the port meaning that there are 7 containers coming in for every one going out. The 1% have driven migrant workers into a 'grey market' economy and repression. 

"The 1% use police brutality and repression, jails and prisons to suppress, divide and try to silence the 99% and all who oppose their insatiable greed. To put an end to all that, we call on the 99% to march, boycott, occupy the ports, and STRIKE." 

For latest news, the Twitter hashtag is #occupytheports 

Keep up to date with the global insurrection - follow VM on Twitter.


 

Saturday, 10 December 2011

Russian anarchists torch police car and call for uprising


RUSSIAN anarchists have torched a police car and called for a radical uprising against the regime.

Says a statement from the Conspiracy of Cells of Fire, Russian Cell, FAI/IRF, posted on the 325 website on Friday "After December the 4th (election day in Russia), when the Russian state deployed numerous police and military forces in Moscow and common people took to the streets to shout 'Enough is enough' in the face of cops and corrupt bureaucrats in all major Russian cities, anarchists were engaged in assembly work, organizing and propaganda.

"Last week saw several clashes of common people with police (anarchists took part in those fights): 1 & 2

"This 'popular dissent' is expressed not only in Moscow, but in St. Petersburgh, Nizhnii Novgorod, Tyumen and other big cities.

"System opposition called for a mass rally on December the 10th. Them and the authoritarian lefties try to come on top in this situation and direct the malcontent towards liberal reformism and pacifist practices.

"Tomorrow will be the day we’ve been fighting hard to see coming. Tomorrow is the day that the Russian regime anticipates with fear.

"Being not the least among those who helped build-up the situation, we continue to push for a more radical character of popular uprising.

"On 09/12/2011 we torched a police car. Solidarity with all active insurgents, solidarity to all revolutionary anarchists in prisons!

"Push for anarchist revolution!"

Occupy Red Square!

Live streaming of protest in Russia can be seen at http://www.ridus.ru/

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Monday, 5 December 2011

Russians revolt against corrupt regime - video



THOUSANDS of angry Russians have taken to the streets in Moscow and St Petersburg in protest at the corrupt Putin regime.

The ruling United Russia party won less than half the votes in this week's elections - and there are claims that even this was only achieved with the help of vote-fiddling.

Protesters in Moscow tried to march on the Central Elections Commission near the Kremlin, but were stopped by riot police and taken away in buses.

The photo below shows anarchists burning flares while protesting in the Russian capital with a banner declaring: "You were cheated!".

As one newspaper report says: "Many voters, fed up with widespread corruption, refer to United Russia as the party of swindlers and thieves and resent the huge gap between the rich and poor."

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Wednesday, 23 November 2011

Protesters battle French riot cops



ANTI-NUCLEAR protesters battled with riot police in France in a bid to stop a train of nuclear waste heading for Germany.

The authorities used tear gas and brute force, but the environmentalists managed to sabotage part of the railway and torch a police vehicle.  

The French state is refusing to end its nuclear operations, even after the Fukushima disaster and the horrific after-effects.

The shipment from the French nuclear giant Areva's reprocessing plant at La Hague is the last planned to Germany.

Similar protests are expected along the whole route - the last convoy in 2010 was blocked for three hours in Caen and one night in Germany.

Tuesday, 13 September 2011

Indian fishermen reject nuclear plant

RESISTANCE to nuclear power is growing across the world, fuelled by the Japanese disaster and now this week's explosion in France.
In India, IBN reports that 10,000 fishermen staged a day-long fast protesting against the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Project (KNPP) being set up in the district under Indo-Russian collaboration.
It says: "Around 10,000 fishermen from various hamlets in and around Koodankulam joined a core group of more than 100 fellow fishermen of Idinthakarai whose indefinite fast on the issue entered the third day on Monday, police said.
"More than 4,000 people had observed a fast on Sunday protesting against the plant."
It added in an update: "Expressing their solidarity, hundreds of fishermen from Kanyakumari left for Koodankulam on Monday to participate in the hunger strike that is going on for the closure of Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant .
"Led by the Kanyakumari parish priest Leon Kenson, fishermen from Kanyakumari, Kovalam, Chinna Muttom and surrounding areas gathered in front of Our Lady of Ransom Church at Kanyakumari on Monday morning and left for Koodankulam in more than 50 vans.
"Earlier, the country boats in Kanyakumari and over 300 mechanized boats at Chinna Muttom fishing harbour did not venture into the sea as a form of protest.
"Apart from that, the fishermen’s children from Kanyakumari studying at various schools and colleges in the district did not report to their classes today (September 12) and also accompanied their parents to participate in the hunger strike at Koodankulam."

Friday, 9 September 2011

Brazilians protest at corrupt system


THE INTERNATIONAL wave of revolt against the corrupt ruling system has spread to Brazil.

Independence Day celebrations on Wednesday were marked by the launch of a mass movement against corruption, along the same lines as the 'indignados' of Spain.

Protests have this week been staged in 35 towns and cities across 20 states. All were organised over the internet.

São Paulo saw five simultaneous marches in different parts of the city and there was a 25,000-strong protest in Brasilia.

In Río de Janeiro a demo has been called for Tuesday September 20 in the plaza de Cinelandia, a traditional site for civil protests.

Walter Magalhães, aged 28, one of the organisers of the march in Brasilia, was quoted in El Pais as saying: "It's not enough for us to stay sitting comfortably on the sofa. We have to do something to show that we are alive and that we are against all this corruption."

Photos of the protests can be found here.

A global wave of protest has now been sparked by the revolution in Tunisia, which inspired people in Egypt, whose mass movement led to protests in Spain - which have now in turn had a positive effect on Latin Americans.

Sunday, 26 June 2011

Peruvian protests halt mining



PROTESTERS in Peru have scored an astonishing victory against the destructive forces of global capitalism.

Reports the Globe and Mail: "As smoke rose from burning tires and torched security vehicles, heavily armed police confronted nearly a thousand angry anti-mining protesters walking the runaway of Juliaca’s airport in southern Peru, near Lake Titicaca.

"One protest leader called for the group to reclaim the airport. Others said it was too dangerous. Then a call came through from the protest leaders in the capital, Lima.

"The government had given into their demands and agreed to revoke the licence for Canadian mining firm Bear Creek to open its Santa Ana silver mine in the area; as well, it halted all new mining concessions in Puno province for 36 months.

"The unrest ended with the agreement Saturday, narrowly averting a repeat of a bloody conflict the day before, when police killed at least five demonstrators at the airport.

"While the breakthrough agreement stopped further bloodshed, it casts doubts on other resource operations in Peru, a nation that relies heavily on foreign investment and receives about 70 per cent of its GDP from the mining industry.

"Peru is South America’s fastest-growing economy, driven by surging commodity prices, but the rural poor have benefited little from mining and complain it contaminates their water and crops.

"The incoming government must balance the interests of international resource firms, whose production is a huge source of national wealth, alongside those of protesters who argue mines have a devastating impact on the environment."

Sunday, 6 February 2011

Protests and strike hit Bangladesh


RIOT police patrolled the streets of Bangladesh's capital Dhaka on Monday as angry opposition to the regime grows.

Rising food prices and a stock exchange crisis have fuelled popular discontent.

Passions have also been raised by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's plans for a new airport to be named after her father.

The original scheme has now been abandoned following passionate protests and the death of a policeman.

Al Jazeera reports: "Bangladesh police said that at least eight buses were set on fire on Sunday night, just hours before the strike was enforced.

"A homemade bomb reportedly exploded on the campus of a Dhaka university, injuring two people.

"Earlier on Sunday, hundreds of angry investors had also gathered to protest outside the Dhaka Stock Exchange, following the latest in a series of stock exchange collapses."

Tuesday, 9 November 2010

Rebel clashes in the Sahara


REBEL protesters in Morocco have been attacked by live bullets, tear gas canisters, truncheons, stones and water cannon, it is being reported.

Western Sahara's independence movement said on Tuesday 11 people had been killed in clashes with Moroccan security forces.

Reports Reuters: "Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony which was annexed by Morocco in 1975 sparking Africa's longest-running territorial dispute, was the scene of violent clashes on Monday when Moroccan security forces raided a protest camp."

It says a statement released on Tuesday by the Polisario independence movement in Algeria, where it has its headquarters, said 11 people had been killed in Monday's clashes, 723 were wounded and 159 others had disappeared and were feared dead.

"The Moroccan forces of aggression used live bullets, tear gas canisters, truncheons, stones and water cannon against peaceful, defenceless civilians," the statement said.

Clashes erupted on the day officials from Morocco and the Polisario were gathering near New York for talks brokered by the United Nations and aimed at breaking the stalemate in their dispute, Africa's longest-running territorial conflict.

The protest camp of thousands of tents near Western Sahara's main city of Laayoune had been there for a month when attacked.

Adds Reuters: "Soon after, several hundred of the people forced out of the camp took their protest to the streets of Laayoune, where they blocked roads with burning tyres, set fire to cars, and threw stones at police."

One protester told Reuters from the scene: "Anger is boiling over. We are in the streets protesting against Morocco."

Western Sahara is a sparsely populated tract of desert about the size of Britain, with rich fishing grounds off its coast and reserves of phosphates, used to make fertiliser and detergent.

Morocco says the territory should come under its sovereignty, while the exiled Polisario Front says Western Sahara is an independent state.

The Polisario waged a guerrilla war against Moroccan forces until the United Nations brokered a cease-fire in 1991.

Monday, 11 October 2010

Anti-Columbus protests across USA


A DAY celebrating the conqeust of America by Europeans has attracted protests across the USA.

The Boston Globe reports, for instance, reports: "Instead of the daring adventurer who opened the New World, critics say, Columbus opened the way to the enslavement and death of millions of indigenous people in the Americas."

It quotes protester Alex Papali, an organizer with Resist the Raids, an advocacy network that is critical of immigration enforcement.

He tells the paper: "We are taught to honor this man, Columbus, who represents the worst of humanity. We are doing the right thing by standing against 500 years of mind control."

RT reports ReconsiderColumbusDay.org as declaring: "For way too long, Columbus created heinous crimes against the indigenous populations of the Caribbean and millions of Natives throughout the Americas. And Columbus set the stage for the slave trade in the New World."

It describes protests at Arizona State University, San Juan Capistrano, California and Boise State University in Idaho, where protesters thanked Columbus "for humiliation, extermination, indoctrination".

Monday, 20 September 2010

Global protests for Khimki hostages


PROTESTS have been held all over the world calling for the Khimki hostages to be released.

Events in support of Gaskarov and Solopov were also held in St Petersburg, Moscow (pictured), Irkutsk, Tyumen, Kaliningrad, Kiev, London, Paris, Dusseldorf, Stockholm, New York and Seattle, among other cities.

The St Petersburg Times report explains the two activists were imprisoned after an anarchists’ protest in front of the headquarters of the Khimki administration, which is instrumental in destroying the Khimki Forest to make way for Prime Minister Vladimir Putin-backed toll highway project to connect Moscow and St. Petersburg.

On Sunday, an estimated 150 St. Petersburg anarchists, Antifa activists, environmentalists and residents gathered to demand the release of Alexei Gaskarov and Maxim Solopov, who were arrested a day after the much-talked-about July 28 demonstration in Khimki in which several hundred participants firing pellet guns and setting off flares left graffiti on the walls of the administration building and broke several windows.

The protest in Khimki was a surprise for the authorities, who have deployed massive police forces to the forest, where preservationists held a vigil to put pressure on them.

The few police patrols at the scene drove away, apparently discouraged by the number of protesters, and did not detain anyone.

Gaskarov and Solopov, high-profile Antifa activists, were detained in Moscow a day after the July 28 rally in what their fellow activists describe as an act of revenge.

Their guilt has not been proven. Charged with disorderly behavior, they face up to seven years in prison.

"It’s not that they were targeted by chance; they were targeted deliberately, because they were anti-fascist movement activists who did not hide their faces, appearing constantly on television, at rallies and other social events,” said Dmitry, an activist with Autonomous Action and an organizer of the St. Petersburg rally. He asked for his last name to be withheld.

Because the police failed to detain anybody during the demo when the Khimki administration building was damaged, they wanted to arrest somebody as a scapegoat,” he said.

“They were there, but the police are trying to present them as the event’s organizers. It’s not clear why they’ve been held in prison for two months; nobody gets put in pre-trial custody on charges of disorderly behavior.”

Gaskarov and Solopov are not allowed to see their relatives, Dmitry said, adding that the police investigation has been declared “closed,” forcing the activists’ first lawyer Mikhail Trepashkin to resign over the investigators’ demand that he sign a written oath promising not to speak about the case.

“Trepashkin had to resign in order to help the public campaign for their release,” Dmitry said.

Activists say that the rally in which the administration building in Khimki was damaged was held when they felt that all other measures taken to save the forest during the three-year struggle had proved ineffective in stopping construction.

“There has been a struggle which lasted for three years against the corruptors, the crooks who were destroying the Khimki Forest, but it didn’t yield any result — quite the opposite, several ecologists and journalists have suffered, such as Mikhail Beketov who has been left permanently crippled after an attack on him, while the OMON special task police and neo-Nazis have been deployed against the environmentalists,” Dmitry said.

“Having tried all methods, there were people who decided that they must show their strength, if the authorities can’t understand any other language.”

The campaign’s rallies were held between Sept. 17 and 20 in anticipation of a court hearing on the activists’ case due later this month.

“A wave of repressions against anti-fascists has begun,” Dmitry said.

“Several people are on a federal wanted list and have had to go into hiding or leave the country, while all the young people who participated in the rallies and were included in the Center E databases (Center for the Prevention of Extremism) have been visited by uniformed and plainclothes men.”

Dmitry said that several activists were beaten and injured during interrogations in Moscow and the Moscow Oblast. “The campaign is also against the repressions that are raging now, mostly in Moscow,” he said.

President Dmitry Medvedev ordered a halt to construction of the Khimki highway on Aug. 26, after a substantial portion of the forest had already been cut down. Tree-felling could be resumed at any moment.

Information about the campaign is available in several languages at www.khimkibattle.org.

Wednesday, 8 September 2010

The party's over for Tony Blair


PROTESTERS are claiming victory after Tony Blair cancelled another central London event in the face of angry opposition.

The Press Association reported that the former British Prime Minister called off a party to mark the launch of his new book because he said it would be "frightening" for his friends to have to walk past anti-war protesters.

Following an egg-throwing protest in Dublin, Blair had already cancelled a book signing at Waterstone's in Picadilly.

Such is the mistrust that surrounds Blair and his PR machine that protesters turned up anyway at the gallery in Bankside in case news of the cancellation was a hoax.

A report on Indymedia says they staged a mock book-signing for the many cameras, with a Blair-masked bloody-handed actor signing copies of a booklet called "Iraq: a people's dossier - questions for Tony Blair".

Meanwhile two activists scaled the scaffolding at the front of the House of Parliament for an anti-war banner drop.

They are protesting about the Afghanistan war prior to a commons debate on Thursday and vowed to remain on the front of parliament overnight and until the debate.

Monday, 6 September 2010

Blair on the run from protesters


TONY Blair has cancelled a book signing in central London through fear of angry protests outside - but demonstrations continue.

His first promotional appearance in Dublin on Sunday attracted considerable opposition, with eggs and shoes thrown at him and one young woman trying to make a citizen's arrest for war crimes.

There were plans for protests in Piccadilly, London, for his second book signing event on Wednesday.

But with the event called off, it is now being suggested that he will be appearing in Bristol instead and a protest has been called for Wednesday September 8, 12 noon to 2pm, outside Waterstones Bookshop, Union Street, Broadmead, Bristol BS1 3XD

In the capital, the focus is now on the Tate Modern in Park Street, Bankside, London, where the former Prime Minister is staging a party to celebrate the launch of his autobiography.

Protesters are being urged to gather outside from 5.30pm on Wednesday September 8.

Despite the best efforts of his PR machine, it is clear that Blair remains the most widely despised figure on the British political scene.

Friday, 30 July 2010

Ian Tomlinson protests spread


MORE protests against the Ian Tomlinson scandal have been called in the last few days.

In Newcastle, there will be a demonstration at the central police station on Friday July 30.

Said a spokesman: "Let's show solidarity here in Newcastle to all those who suffer police violence. Meet 1pm at Monument, from there we'll go round the corner to the station to picket it and hand out leaflets etc."

In Edinburgh, the Scottish capital, there is to be a protest outside the Crown office and Procurator Fiscal in Chambers Street at 12 noon on Friday.

In Bristol there will be a demo outside the Crown Prosecution Service at Froomsgate House in Rupert Street on Friday at noon.

Meanwhile, campaigners in Norwich have already held a vigil outside the Bethel Street police station.

In San Francisco, USA, there is to be a protest outside the British Consulate in Sansome St on Friday, 12 noon to 3pm.

The London protest is at 12 noon Friday 30th July, Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, Rose Court, 2 Southwark Bridge Road, SE1 9HS.