Blackburn Protests against Rice visit

[scott_forester]

as a news channel owned partly by Murdoch (i think i've heard something like 40%) they do confuse me at times with some good reports

Competition with news 24 driving up standards - although it's doesn't explain fat boy Homes.

 

[tollbar]

at the peak of the demo (around 6-6.30pm marching down Hope Street) I'd say it reached 3-4,000. The rally at the beginning had a lot of people on the steps of the cathedral. I've seen a formal photo shoot with 500 people there and they only took about a quarter of the space. There were a lot of people milling around so it was hard to estimate, particularly at the Philharmonic Hall. Certainly a heck of a lot more than 1,000.

A reasonable turnout then, but small beer, as was the last STW national demo, when set against the ongoing events in France, the pensions strike or the big demos against immigration controls in the states.

The problem for the anti war movement is that outside the hardcore movement movement people have become bored with what appears to be a bloody stalemate with no side coming out of it well in terms of civilian casualties. Admittedly this perception has been manipulated by the media to some extent, But iraq is a very complex issue for a lot of people

 

[yourmom]

looks like it was a pretty good turnout in Blackburn today too - plenty of men in black as well - http://www.prestonrespect.org/condigohome/

 

[stereotypical]

Good turnout in Liverpool, was a good vibe aswell

(Apart from some SWP crank tellin me to join the 'main' focus of the demo )

Much respect to those Philharmonic artists who withdrew, the singer who sang Give Peace a Chance (Liverpool was proud) and to that Iraq vet who gave me a can of Stella

 

[Gumbert]

Good turn out in blackburn. The set off of the demonstration from bangor street community centre was around 200. As it weaved down towards town through whalley range people were applauding from the sides and kids were joining in with the chants.

When it reached the town centre it swelled to around 500 then through the morning as people converged on the townhall in the next couple of hours the crowd reached easily over a thousand people.

what i liked about it was that rice and straw had to wave uncomfortable at us chanting them down for the war criminals that they are.

Alot of the reports that there were 200 demonstrators on the american newswires is bullshit, and the reports of there were just as many supporters of rice and straw as protesters is bullshit too, there were four of them one with a union jack. and c4 news picked one of them out. It turned out that the bloke waving a union jack was a BNPer who had to be grabbed out of the crowd.

And that darshna soni from c4 news is an arrogant bastard.

 

[X-77]

Competition with news 24 driving up standards - although it's doesn't explain fat boy Homes.

hardly - News 24 didn't cover the March 18 demos at all for instance and were very dismissive of the Condi protests saying 'most people welcomed her' and that the anti-war groups were a 'vocal minority'. It seems they will put the boot in any way they can with such protests. Feel free to correct me if you have seen any decent coverage lately, I always seem to miss it and catch the reports that send my blood pressure soaring.

 

[justuname]

Yes, and I have noticed this before. Sky news are generally very good at reporting those kinds of demos.

Indymedia infiltration