TORTURERS IN TOWN.

 

              Athletes a part, we all know that the Olympics will be the gathering of all the pompous, arrogant, parasites, such as heads of state, dictators, monarchs, princes, etc. from all shades of the authoritarian spectrum, some worse than others. Though on the whole, the entire ratbag should be classed the same, but it does no harm to single out one who might stink a bit more than the others.

This appeal from AVAAZ

Dear friends across the UK and the Middle East,

         The British government is about to reward a torturer with a luxury hotel and chauffeur-driven BMW at the London Olympics -- unless we demand they stop this outrage.
        Prince Nasser bin Hamad Al-Khalifa is a chief architect of Bahrain’s brutal suppression of the Arab Spring, accused of personally torturing protesters, and persecuting athletes who have stood up against his father’s dictatorship. Gifted the presidency of the Bahrain Olympic Committee, Nasser now stands to receive VIP treatment at the London games. British Foreign Secretary William Hague has said that Nasser will be “closely assessed”, but hasn’t yet committed to keep out this human rights abuser. If enough of us raise our voices, we can ensure Nasser is kept away from the London games.
         Avaaz members in the UK and Bahrain have come together to start a campaign to force Secretary Hague to keep this torturer away from the Olympics, but they need our support. Sign the petition now -- when we reach 30,000 signatures, we’ll work with Bahraini activists to deliver the message to Secretary Hague and PM David Cameron in London:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/no_torturers_at_the_olympics/?vl

          Nasser is the son of Bahrain’s ruling King Hamad ibn Isa Al Khalifa, one of the Arab World’s most brutal dictators. Intimately involved in the crackdown on the Arab Spring pro-democracy protesters in Bahrain, Nasser has used his platform as head of the country’s Olympic Committee to ensure that athletes in particular have been punished if they dissent.
        He installed himself as head of a committee that targeted 150 athletes and sports officials for their democratic views, including a disabled athlete, personally ensuring that two of Bahrain's national football team star players were also arrested and imprisoned. When Mohammed, capped 52 times for Bahrain, was sentenced to 2 years in prison, Nasser tweeted, “If it was up to me, I’d give them all life.” Several of the protesters have also claimed that they were personally tortured by Nasser after their arrests for peaceful demonstrations.
        Foreign Secretary Hague and PM Cameron have the power to block Nasser’s entry into the UK, but right now, they stand set to reward him with publicly-funded VIP treatment for the duration of the London games. Let’s stand with Bahraini athletes and protesters to demand that Hague and Cameron prevent Nasser’s attendance at the games. Sign the petition:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/no_torturers_at_the_olympics/?vl

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ASSEMBLIES, THEN WHAT?

This from Info Exchange:

Occupy to Self Manage
By Michael Albert

         I have yet to see my nearest large occupation, Boston, or the precursor of all U.S. occupations, Wall Street. Instead, I have been on the road for the past six weeks in Thesselonika and Athens Greece; Istanbul and Diyarbikar Turkey; Lexington, Kentucky; London, England; Dublin, Ireland; and in Barcelona, Madrid, and Valencia Spain.

        In all these places, I talked with diverse individuals at many meetings and popular assemblies. I met people involved in occupations, as well as audiences assembled by my hosts to hear about participatory economics. Beyond addressing assigned topics, my own priority was to learn about local movements. I repeatedly asked what folks struggling for many months wished to say to other folks first embarking on similar paths.

Boredom, Disempowerment, and Consensus Obstruct Growth
       In Greece and Spain, a single message predominated. It had nothing to do with analyses of capitalism or other analytic focuses. Instead, Greek and Spanish activists reported that they had massive assemblies in widespread cities and their occupations grew, grew, grew, so that assemblies were up to 12,000, 15,000 - and then they shrunk, shrunk, shrunk, so that assemblies are now not meeting, or are meeting in the hundreds, or less. ---

Continue READING:

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AH, POOR NICK!!

        UK Uncut has moved it targets from high street corporate tax dodgers to those, "We're all in it together" millionaire politicians. It beggers belief that the people of this country put up with being told to tighten their belts and face poverty with humility, from a bunch of pompous, arrogant over privileged parasitical milliomaires. When will we ever learn!!!

This from a BBC report:

       Hundreds of anti-cuts protesters have gathered outside Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg's home in south-west London.

       UK Uncut said disabled activists had chained their wheelchairs at both ends of the street in Putney where he lives. The group, which is staging protest "street parties" in 10 UK cities, said it was targeting Mr Clegg as he was "one of the architects of austerity". A spokesman for Mr Clegg said: "People have a right to peaceful protest."

        A Metropolitan Police spokesman said there were no reported arrests.

        UK Uncut, which has previously targeted high profile people it believes are avoiding paying tax, said it was now targeting politicians. Jean Sandler, 42, a UK Uncut supporter, said: "Nick Clegg is one of the architects of austerity; he's a millionaire and lives in a £1m home. "The cuts are a political choice of this government and the cabinet of out-of-touch millionaires, they are not necessary.

Continue READING:

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CONFUSED POLICING?

This looked more like confusion rather than policing. Let's hope that our numbers grow and their confusion grows in unison.


See this video and more at Indymedia London

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STUDENTS BOYCOTT LECTURES.

        March 14 saw thousands of students boycott lectures and attend rallies against the tripling of tuition fees for univesity students. We are a nation where money buys you a degree, higher education for the rich.

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IN DEFENCE OF NHS.

      Join us online at 6pm this evening for a LIVE stream of a major campaign event opposing the government's controversial plans for the NHS.

     The Rally To Save Our NHS is being held in Westminster this evening, and will be broadcast online. It kicks off at 6pm and you'll be able to follow it live online at GoingToWork.org.uk/saveournhs

We’ve a full programme from 6pm until 7.30pm, with dozens of health practitioners and campaigners speaking about their concerns for our NHS if Andrew Lansley's Bill gets passed.

     Former psychiatric nurse Jo Brand, prominent opponent in the House of Lords, Lord David Owen, Shadow Health Minister Andy Burnham and many more will join nurses, GPs, physios, paramedics, radiographers, consultants and other health workers on stage.

     This evening, as the Rally gets going, please help us make it a really big event outside London too - it's a great opportunity to show thousands of people around the country the full breadth of opposition to the government's plans.

SOLIDARITY.

      Let's organise a real burst of online action for our NHS that the government won’t be able to ignore. People tweeting and blogging, commenting in the media, signing petitions and lobbying Parliamentarians - making a huge noise to add to the voices in the hall opposite Parliament.

We've put together a list of actions you might like to take if you want some inspiration, or use your own ideas. But whatever you do, do it as loudly and as widely as possible - there could only be weeks left now to safeguard our NHS.

Watch the rally and take action at: GoingToWork.org.uk/saveournhs

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RESISTANCE IS ESSENTIAL.

Protest on Budget Day
11:30am, Wednesday 21 March
Downing Street, London

        

              Coalition of Resistance is organising a protest with the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union and Stop the War Coalition. This is planned to coincide with when George Osborne leaves Downing Street to present the budget to the Queen. Our messages will be 'Not one more cut to public spending', 'Welfare not Warfare' and 'Scrap Trident'. If you can, come wearing hospital scrubs, nurses uniforms, academic mortarboard and gown, a firefighter's helmet or any other outfit that represents what this government wants to cut, privatise or scrap! Others will be dressed as bankers and politicians.
        Call for volunteers: If you plan to attend wearing an outfit that represents a service being cut or can help on the day please phone Sam on 07872 481769.
Please invite your friends and spread the word on Facebook. Click here for the event.

SOLIDARITY.

Activist Meeting:- 28 March Strike and demonstrations Protest on Budget Day
6:30pm, Monday 19 March
Room 4418, School of Oriental and African Studies
(SOAS), Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square
London WC1H 0XG
         We are organising an activist meeting to bring together all those that want to help plan and build for the protests, strikes and demonstrations in the coming weeks. Please spread the word. If you want to organise an activist meeting in your area, we can put you in contact with others.

Please email coalitionofresistance@mail.com.

Upcoming Public Meetings

Croydon

7pm, Wednesday 14 March
Ruskin House, 23 Coombe Road, Croydon CR0 1BD
with Jeremy Corbyn MP

Newcastle

7pm, Wednesday 14 March,
Newcastle Arts Centre (Black Swan)
67 Westgate Road NE1 1SG
with Owen Jones, Lindsey German, speaker from Greece

Kings Lynn

7:30pm, Wednesday 14 March
Friends Meeting House
38 Bridge Street, King’s Lynn PE30 5AB
with Andy Bain (Coalition of Resistance, former president of TSSA)

Glasgow

6:30pm, Thursday 15 March
STUC Centre, 333 Woodlands Road, Glasgow G3 6NG with Owen Jones

York

7pm, Monday 26 March
Friend's Meeting House, Friargate, York YO1 9RL
with Mark Serwotka (PCS), Clare Solomon (Coalition of Resistance)

Doncaster

7pm, Tuesday 27 March
Danum Hotel, High St Doncaster DN1 1DN

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CORPORATE OLYMPIC MONEY SPINNER.

         A recent headline really shows the arrogance of the millionaires in the Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption, it states “Politicians condemn Olympic strike threat”. This is all about the leader of Unite Union, Len McCluskey, stating that there could be industrial action during the Olympics. His statement "I believe the unions, and the general community, have got every right to be out protesting. – If the Olympics provide us with an opportunity, then that's exactly one that we should be looking at." seemed to have hurt their sensitivities.

       Our elected politicians never miss an opportunity to “condemn” any protest, demonstration or industrial action taken by the ordinary people to try to defend themselves against the savage attack being hurtled at them by the said elected politicians.

      Why should we listen to them, the pay themselves excellent salaries and generous expenses, secure for themselves wonderful pensions, get all sorts of perks and not content with that, lots of them fiddle the system. While wallowing in their unearned grandeur they state that there is no alternative to “austerity”. Then they have have the audacity and arrogance to tell us to take what they throw at us and accept our poverty with humility.

       Because the corporate world wants to hold a mainly public funded extravaganza in the hope of making even more money, and remembering the most cities that hold the Olympics are bankrupted after the event, why should we see it as some sacred festival, and restrain ourselves from defending ourselves against facing a generation or more of poverty? When it comes to defending ourselves the last people we should listen to are the politicians. The last thing that will benefit the ordinary people is a world wide corporate event that will make millions for broadcasters like Sky and Virgin etc. make millions for sponsors, and cost us the public, millions. We need a National Health Service, we need an decent education system, we need pensions that give dignity to our elderly, we need nurseries, we need libraries and we need a host of social services, we do not need an Olympic corporate money spinner.

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WE HAVE THE RIGHT TO PROTEST WITHOUT FEAR.

         Alfie Meadows was beaten by the police on the December 9th 2010 student demonstration and had to have emergency brain surgery to save his life. Now he has been charged with violent disorder. Please help spread the petition to get justice for Alfie

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/justice-for-alife-meadows

       Signatories include: Tariq Ali, Gigi Ibrahim (Egyptian activist and blogger), John McDonnell (MP), Ken Loach (Film Director), Caroline Lucas (MP), Liam Burns (NUS President),Zita Holbourne (PCS NEC), Mark Thomas (Comedian) and Jody McIntyre (Journalist and Equality Movement Activist).

SOLIDARITY.

       On 9th December 2010, tens of thousands of students took part in a national demonstration against MPs voting for £9,000 tuition fees in a mass show of unity against this deeply unpopular policy. Thousands who wanted to protest were met with police charges on horseback and kettling. A senior doctor from Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, who set up a field hospital in Parliament Square, spoke of her experience of being kettled on Westminster Bridge, "It was the most disturbing thing I’ve ever seen – it must have been what Hillsborough was like. The crush was just so great." She recorded people suffering from respiratory problems, chest pains and symptoms of severe crushing.

Jody McIntyre was pulled from his wheelchair and dragged along the pavement.
       University student Alfie Meadows came on the demonstration after being involved in a campaign at Middlesex University to save his philosophy department from closure. He was struck so hard on the head with a police baton that he needed emergency brain surgery. Alfie lost his university department and when he protested he received a life threatening injury. But outrageously Alfie has since been charged with violent disorder and faces a trial on 26th March.

       This forms part of a pattern of attacks on protest which has seen hundreds of students arrested and scores either charged or sentenced to long terms in prison. We the undersigned demand an end to political charging and sentencing of protesters and call for all charges against Alfie Meadows to be dropped. We also call for a mobilisation of students, workers and campaigners outside his court hearing on 26th March.

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IT'S A GLOBAL STRUGGLE.

     
      Red and black flags waved as a dozen people from the Anarchist Federation, Industrial Workers of the World, the Scottish Socialist Party, the Solidarity Federation and other individuals took part in a picket of the Glasgow premises of Adecco for one hour between 4 and 5pm on Friday 20th January.

      A couple of hundred leaflets were handed out to curious passers-by explaining how Adecco are supplying strike breakers to replace workers on an indefinite strike at the ABB Factory in Cordoba Spain. We also explained how the lower wages and job insecurity encouraged by employment agencies like Adecco worsens conditions for all workers.

      One member of Adecco's staff came out and laughed when we told her why we were there and then had her fag break. 2 other members of staff came out to ask what we were doing and took the leaflet. One falsely claimed that we weren't making it clear that the Adecco strike breaking was in Spain to try to disassociate their office from the dispute. However he did accept they were part of the same company. Placards clearly stated the demands of the strikers in Spain – equal pay for all workers at the ABB Factory in Spain, respect for all ABB and Adecco subcontracted workers, a safe workplace for all workers, ABB and Adecco should talk to the strikers, Adecco should stop providing scabs for strike breaking, sacked strikers should be re-instated by ABB and Adecco collective bargaining rights and job security for all workers. Another placard in Spanish, based on a banner by the strikers union, the National Confederation of Labour (CNT) called for the defence of all jobs.

      The other member of staff called the police. The police turned up to ask what the picket was about and to say the protest was fine as long as we didn't block the entrance and then quickly left. No one crossed the picket line. The police returned a bit later to tell us they had spotted us on Facebook and to repeat what the picket was about!

       A postman calling at neighbouring offices stopped to say even though he wasn't going to Adecco he wouldn't cross a picket line even if it was one man and a dog. He was a Communications Workers Union rep who also trains people in other unions. He took our leaflets to put up on noticeboards at the main Glasgow sorting office in Glasgow. He will also be giving them to Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers (USDAW) members he is currently training through Union Learn at the Tesco Extra in Springburn. A passing teacher also stopped to voice his support. He had been out on November 30th.

        Pickets also took place in Brighton, Bristol and London. Since November 28th there have been numerous solidarity pickets around Spain and one as far away as Chile.  From Mark M.

Updates on the strike at:   http://www.cnt.es/On

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SPARKS FIGHT BACK.

          It is encouraging to see the private sector fight back against the savage attack on their living conditions. A combined fight back of both public and private sector industries is one route to success. This article is from Union-News.co.uk

Sparks in “unprecedented” action over pay, apprenticeships

 by Pete Murray - 7th December 2011, 18.36 GMT

     Electricians in the construction sector have taken part in what organisers describe as “the biggest unofficial strike in decades”. The series of mass walk-outs followed a decision by the construction giant, Balfour Beatty to initiate a legal challenge to last month’s strike ballot conducted by Unite which returned an 81% majority in favour of industrial action against threatened “sign or be sacked” contracts which had been due to come into force today. Hundreds of sparks and supporters blockaded Balfour Beatty sites in London, Hartlepool, Hull, the Conoco Phillips refinery at Immingham in Lincolnshire, Cardiff, Liverpool, Glasgow and Manchester. Sparks at the Grangemouth oil refinery in central Scotland voted at a mass meeting earlier this week to join more than one hundred colleagues who protested outside the company’s head office in Hillington, Renfrewshire. They later blockaded the entrance to a Strathclyde Fire Brigade training centre under construction by Balfour Beatty. More than a dozen sparks walked off the job to join protesters who later occupied one of the site offices.

       Today’s protest in Cardiff marks the first action of its kind in Wales. In Manchester, electricians occupied a city council meeting and demanded to know why councillors had awarded a construction contract for the town hall and library to NG Bailey – one of the seven employers which Unite says is trying to impose a 35% pay cut and enforce de-skilling on the industry. Ian Black, Unite shop steward at Grangemouth told UnionNews: “The agreements at the centre of this dispute have worked well for forty years and we don’t see any reason for change. “This is an attack on our wages and employment, but it’s also about apprenticeships. It’s about the future, about young people getting a proper four-year apprenticeship.  It’s not just about money, not just about ourselves.  It’s about the young men and women coming into our industry.” Rank and file organisers of today’s protests – which mark an escalation in their four month campaign against the so-called BESNA contracts – feel increasingly the momentum is with them, not the employers.

       At Balfour Beatty’s Blackfriars site, 300 workers and students persuaded 20 workers not to go in, despite police pushing aside campaigning workers to allow Balfour employees to enter the site unhindered. Campaigners did manage to shut down a lorry entrance leading to the canceling of orders for the day. One spark from Southend who only wanted to be named as “Keith” told workers blockading the site: “You [Balfour] can’t make 55 million pounds and then expect people like me to take a 35 percent pay cut.

SOLIDARITY.

      In one scuffle, a police officer grabbed the only black protester present at the demonstration. Other activists tried to free him but officers took the man named by a friend as “Josh” away to a van and confirmed he was arrested for assaulting a police officer. Cries of “racist boot boys” and “I’d rather be a picket than a scab” reverberated around the area, as protesters promised to return this evening. Rank and file sources say no sparks, cable pullers or scaffolders came on site for the night shift. Spirits were  boosted by the presence of a large number of senior lay Unite officials at the Blackfriars protest, which was also attended by the Labour MP John McDonnell and RMT general secretary Bob Crow.

      Unite is contacting all members at Balfour Beatty in preparation for re-balloting employees in the coming days. The union is also preparing to ballot for industrial action at two more of the group of seven companies seeking to break away from the current JIB agreements, which cover pay, skill and safety levels. Senior officials believe Balfour Beatty’s management is looking for a “face-saving exit” from the dispute. Unite is calling for the employers to take part in talks at ACAS to try to stop escalating industrial action and civil disobedience in the new year.

Watch our film report of today’s events here:

Tags: Balfour Beatty, JIB agreements, NG Bailey, sparks, Unite

Related Articles:

1. Sparks ignite nationwide protests
2. Sparks block Blackfriars – ballot, Nov 9th day of action planned
3. Sparks shower shards of anger in City of London
4. BREAKING NEWS: Sparks occupy fire station over contracts dispute
5. Unite condemns Balfour legal challenge – cancels sparks 81% strike ballot

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THE STATE V MUTUAL AID??

         We have to accept that there is an attack on the living standards of the ordinary people, with social spending slashed communities will have their facilities plundered, it will be almost impossible to keep communities together. We have to look to new strategies that by-pass and short circuit the state apparatus and allow communities to offer social amenities to young and old alike. Empty buildings can be utilised and brought into use for the community. People can come together and by means of mutual aid and networking strengthen their community and allow their creativity to blossom. We don't need the state to provide, we have the imagination, resources and the strength to function outside the state apparatus. A brilliant idea, though not new in anarchist history, is the Bank of Ideas, in London. 

The Bank of Ideas is situated on Sun Street, Hackney in an abandoned office block purchased several years ago by the bank UBS. It is an enormous space complete with a 500-seater lecture hall.

It has been opened to the public for the non-monetary trade of ideas to help solve the pressing economic, social and environmental problems of our time.

There is also room for community groups, youth clubs, nurseries and other public services that have lost their space due to Government spending cuts.

Artists, performers and creatives are welcome to come entertain and to help transform the space. We also encourage games, workshops and skillshares on anything from yoga to yahtzee.

READ ON.

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A POST FROM PRISON.

          Recently I posted a statement from Omar Ibrahim, who was sent to Wandsworth prison for his part in the March 26th anti-cuts protest in London. Well, Omar hasn't been idle while in prison and has set up a blog which he hopes to update on a weekly basis, or better, if possible.

This week's post includes the prison gossip on the Pakistani Cricketer Celebrity Prisoners!

        You can support Omar and his blog HERE.

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BREAK THE SILENCE ON AFGHANISTAN.

From STOP THE WAR.       

        There is a conspiracy of silence about the war in Afghanistan, despite the fact that the occupation is in growing trouble. Five British soldiers have died in the last ten days but their deaths have barely been reported. Britain and the US are trying to push an agreement that they can keep thousands of soldiers in the country after the so-called withdrawal date of 2014. Polls show this is deeply unpopular with the Afghans. On Saturday 1,000 students marched against the deal in Jalalabad. But the plans are barely mentioned in the British media.

        Stop the War is supporting an Afghanistan Withdrawal Group meeting tonight in parliament featuring Rodric Braithwaite, author of an important book about the Russian occupation of Afghanistan, 'Afgantsy: The Russians in Afghanistan 1979-89'. Tariq Ali wrote in the London Review of Books that: 'Each page reads like a warning to Afghanistan's current occupiers.'

PUBLIC MEETING:
Afghanistan Withdrawal Group of MPs
The Russians in Afghanistan 1979-89: Lessons for Today
Tuesday 22 November, 6.30-8.30pm
Committee Room 9, House of Commons, SW1A 0AA
(St Stephens entrance, nearest tube Westminster)
See: http://bit.ly/s0KZ48

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THE MEDIA - LIES AND ILLUSIONS.

         Several weeks of protests in New York by the Occupy Wall St. movement and still the media give it a very low key approach, the fact that it is spreading to other cities in America makes no difference what so ever. It is not hitting the headlines, there is obviously a form of censorship in the West. You can report protests and up-risings in lots of countries across the world, the further away the better, the nearer to home the less coverage they get. Not much in the European media about the protests in Athens, Madrid and Rome, to mention a few, but lots of cover on the uprisings in the Middle East. As Julian Assange said at the London anti-war protests this weekend, "journalist peddle lies", but what is equally abhorrent is the non reporting of certain events when it might throw a bad light on their lords and masters the corporate world. The mainstream media is a subservient tool of the corporate world, the peddler of illusions, a PR machine for the corporate and political parasites at the top. It is time that we stopped looking to the mainstream media for "news" and stick with the independent alternative media, activists' news-sheets, internet, facebook, twitter, etc. Let the mainstream media peddle their lies to the thin air. Information on Protests and Anti-war info.

By John Hartfield.

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WAR = PROFITS.

       

         Ten years of death and destruction in Afghanistan and still it goes on. Hundreds of UK troops killed and thousands injured, plus billions of pounds spent on maintaining this inhumane, pointless slaughter. Where does all that money go? It pours into the arms industry who are delighted to see tons of munitions being exploded, creating a need to have them replaced, at the same time allowing the other psychopaths in power across the globe an opportunity to see these destructive weapons in use. A war is like a trade show to the arms industry and it doesn't cost them a penny.

         There are urgent and pressing needs across the globe, they are not being seen to, the usual excuse is lack of resources. How much of the capitalist world's resources are spent on destruction and killing, what impact would there be if all those resources were directed at people's needs? Of course for that to happen we need to get rid of the capitalist system itself. As long as we have the present system of corporate capitalism and national governments, we will have wars and destruction, suffering and deprivation, as the parasites engineer everything to their own benefit.

STOP THE WAR 

       The Antiwar Mass Assembly in Trafalgar Square on 8 October is going to be one of Stop the War's most important events.  Thousands of people have pledged to be there (see  http://bit.ly/pBlNMI), transport is being organised around the country (see http://bit.ly/oM17x9), the timetable for the event
has just been published, with a very impressive list of speakers, musicians, artists and performers (see http://bit.ly/poSQPd).

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