LONDON : MONDAY 8 OCTOBER 2007: MARCH TO PARLIAMENT, IN DEFIANCE OF THE BAN

MONDAY 8 OCTOBER 2007: MARCH TO PARLIAMENT, IN DEFIANCE OF THE BAN

Tony Benn, Brian Eno, Mark Thomas, Walter Wolfgang, George Galloway and Ben Griffin (ex SAS trooper) will head the march to Parliament in defiance of the ban. Make sure you are there to demand troops out and in defence of our civil liberties. It is vital that we defy the ban. Don’t miss this demo.

Assemble at 1.00PM in Trafalgar Square

“If they are planning an Iranian attack they will have a public even more upset and disgruntled than before. This is what this tightening up is about …..Civil liberties never seem very important until you need them. At times like this we need to be re-inforcing them.” Brian Eno

“This is rather a ham-fisted attempt to prevent us from demonstrating. What they (the government and police) do is up to them. We will just ignore them and we have the moral and logical high-ground. I will be marching on Monday 8 October.” Mark Thomas

The 1839 Sessional Orders legislation has been dusted off to ban the 8 October Troops Out march.

Sessional Orders are passed at the beginning of every Parliamentary session under an 1839 law to ensure free passage for MP’s to arrive and depart from Parliament. Similar Orders apply to the House of Lords.

Under the 2005 SOCPA legislation any march / demonstration in the vicinity of Parliament must be allowed to take place so long as a minimum of 6 days notice is given to the police.

Something more restrictive was needed so the 1839 legislation passed many years before this country had universal suffrage is now being used to attempt to ban the 8 October Troops Out march.

Since the march to Parliament is intended to be a peaceful attempt to alert Parliament to the feeling of the majority of the British public about the wars and occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan and MP’s themselves will be on the march this cannot be interpreted as obstructing the passage of members of Parliament.

To do so is an affront to the democratic rights of the people of this country and this is made clear in Tony Benn’s letter to the Home Secretary which he delivered on Monday 1 October.

Tony Benn’s letter to the Home Secretary

TO:

The Right Hon Jacqui Smith MP
Home Secretary
House of Commons
London
SW1A OAA
Monday October 1st 2007

Dear Home Secretary

LOBBY OF PARLIAMENT ON OCTOBER 8th

I am writing to you as President of the STOP THE WAR COALITION, to give you advance notice that there will be a demonstration in Trafalgar Square the day Parliament meets calling for the immediate withdrawal of all British troops from Iraq and Afghanistan at which I shall be speaking along with others.

Afterwards many of those present – including myself – will be marching along Whitehall to the House of Commons to meet MPs and urge them to support this call for a withdrawal, as I shall be doing in approaching Malcolm Rifkind my own local MP.

We shall be doing this in an orderly manner and I am making available to those who wish to have one, a postcard over my printed signature as a Privy Councillor, asking the police, and others to assist them.

I enclose a copy of this postcard.

The authority for this march derives from our ancient right to free speech and assembly enshrined in our history, of which we often boast and which we vigorously defended in two world wars.

I am copying this letter, and its enclosure, to Jack Straw, the Commissioner of the Metropolis, and as a courtesy, to the Prime Minister’s office.

I hope that you will be able to re-assure me that those who demonstrate and march down Whitehall will enjoy your full support and the support of the police.

But it is only fair to tell you that the march will go ahead, in any case, and I will be among those marching.

Yours in peace

TONY BENN

Photo : socialistworker