Peace Strike Campaigning for Peace

So, with the removal of Peacestrike peace boxes from Parliament Square, the new restrictions on protest under the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act have been enforced. These ban any kind of sleeping equipment that can sustain long-term protest, as well as any kind of amplification equipment that demonstrations use and need.

What next for Peacestrike?

Maria has been protesting 24/7 since 2006 in Parliament Square. It has been the base for so many Peacestrike activities including daily petitions to 10 Downing Street, speaking out about the causes and consequences and the horror of war, and supporting the protest of others.

The peace boxes more lately became a focal point in Parliament Square with their powerful statements, art work and all-round creative approach to use of the space. The protests in Parliament Square have for 10 years been a visible expression that war is wrong and have become a place where those who wish to express their concern and sorrow in relation to war can gravitate towards, a space of common concern within the anonymous city.

No sleeping in Parliament Square

With nothing but a single placard, sleeping bag and plastic sheeting, Maria spent last night on the pavement, determined to maintain her protest. At 3am the police arrived and gave her a warning to hand over the sleeping bag which she did. They informed her that she would be issued with a summons to appear at court. Maria argues that it is vital to be able to sleep in order to sustain a long-term protest. Without sleeping equipment, that becomes very difficult and the protest is undermined.

The legal case

Maria and the lawyers who have challenged the new restrictions on protest will go to the Court of Appeal and, if necessary, the European Court of Human Rights, to contest the case against the law.

Auctioning the peace box

Maria is keen to see the peace boxes auctioned to raise money for children in Iraq. One of the boxes in currently an exhibit in an art show in Los Angeles. See here

How can you help

If you would like to be kept in touch about the peace box auction, get in contact. Please consider donating to Peacestrike to get the auction going. See contact us for details

Posted by a supporter

Below are press articles, video and pictures of the removal by police of the remaining peace box, tent and other items.

Press

BBC

Guardian

Daily Mail

Evening Standard

December 2011 – the new restrictions on protest come into force under the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act (PRASRA). Maria applies for an injunction to stop Westminster Council removing her peace boxes and other items. This is granted. see http://repeal-socpa.info/

January 2012 – at a high court hearing Maria is granted a judicial review of the legislation in March. see http://repeal-socpa.info/press_release_15Jan12.htm

March 2012 – Maria’s case against the enforcement of PRASRA is heard in the high court with Westminster Council as defendent and the Home Office and the Metropolitan Police as ‘interested parties’. The outcome of the case is of national significance: not only will the restrictions apply to a large area around the centre of decision-making at Parliament, but local authorities have been given powers to adopt similar legislation. see http://repeal-socpa.info/press_release_5Mar12.htm

April 2012 – one of the peace boxes is shipped to the US to be part of an art exhbition in Los Angeles. see http://www.artbelow.org.uk/ab/Artist.action?artistId=730

April 2012 – The judgement is given from the high court. It denies that there is any incompatibility with human rights and that Peacestrike has no right to stay in Parliament Square. see http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17867852

3 May 2012 – after a further court hearing the injunction protecting Maria’s protest from the new law is lifted. Maria will apply to the Court of Appeal and, if necessary, to Strasburg to contest the new restrictions on protest. At around 6pm the police turn up and start to remove the Peacestrike protest.

See this article from Peace News about the new law and the recent legal proceedings.

#PRESS RELEASE#   00.45 Tuesday 20th July 2010 Parliament Square
“Democracy Village goes on STRIKE!”

“Concerned Citizens”at Democracy Village on Parliament Square state in open defiance of the pending eviction notice that they fully intend to carry on with their demand to “Bring Our Soldiers Home Alive!”

The majority of the people in this country DO NOT SUPPORT THE WAR IN AFGHANISTAN!

Young people want a future free from war and deprivation. We now have a whole generation of disenfranchised youth who are disillusioned with a government that spends our money on illegal wars of aggression and illegal occupations.

We refuse to comply with laws that prevent our message going out to the people from Parliament Square, the historical home of protest. People only gather together to risk arrest and possible imprisonment if their concerns are of the utmost urgency.

Therefore to go “ON STRIKE for PEACE” to save life is our duty and can never be illegal if the underlying cause is justified.

On 2nd October Maria won a case in Westminster Magistrates Court against a charge under the Public Order Act. She was arrested for ‘insulting behaviour’ when she climbed up the Churchill Statue in Parliament Square with placards highlighting the plight of Tamils in Sri Lanka held in atrocious conditions in military camps. Maria was charged after a complaint by Nicholas Soames MP, Winston Churchill’s grandson, who happened to be driving into the Houses of Parliament at the time.

Maria represented herself and successfully argued that any offence caused to Nicholas Soames was unintentional and that references on her placards to nazi concentration camps was legitimate for campaigning purposes.

See the story of Maria on the statue from July

Over 30 people gathered on a rainy Sunday to walk for peace from Westminster Cathedral (top picture) to the Edith Cavell Statue, just north of Trafalgar Square (bottom picture).  Edith Cavell was a nurse and humanitarian, who was executed by firing squad in Germany on 12th October 1915 for helping soldiers of both sides to escape the squalor of World War One. 

The campaigners, from all faiths and none, were joined by Brian Haw and David Gould, whose step-daughter Helen Katherine Jones was killed on a Piccadilly line train at Kings Cross during the bombing of the London underground in 2005. They stopped on the way at Downing Street where a petition demanding a peace plan was handed into Gordon Brown and at St Martin’s in the Fields in Trafalgar Square (middle picture). See the Indymedia report for some great photos of the event by Terry.

The first of a regular monthly peace procession, calling for an end to war and occupation, will take place on Sunday 5 October 2008 in London.

The peace procession will start at Westminster Cathedral, stopping at Parliament Square and Downing Street, finishing at St Martins in the Fields, Trafalgar Square. The time of the procession will be announced shortly. Everyone is welcome to come and take part in the procession – it is for all faiths and none, for everyone who cares about humanity and peace and wishes to demand an end to the destruction and suffering caused by our own country’s actions.

• 1.30 meet outside Westminster Cathedral on piazza. Join in prayers for peace, forgiveness and reconciliation.
• Depart 2pm
• Proceed to Westminster Abbey, and Methodist Central Hall, then on to Parliament Square
• Group photo of ‘petition’ written on a roll of wallpaper, with signatures from all over the world.
• 3pm – 3.30pm Present ‘ We Demand a Peace Plan ‘ petition to Downing Street. This petition is to highlight the point that there is no peace plan for the Middle East because one does not exist.
• We then continue on to Trafalgar Square and gather at the Edith Cavell statue, near St Martins-in Field for a vigil.

We hope you will be able to come along….

Next procession….Sunday 2nd November 2008.

We demand a REAL peace plan for the Middle East NOW!

We say:
NO to the illegal occupation of Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan
NO to the funding of war and occupation
NO to the arms trade that fuels conflict
NO to the suffering and loss of life that war creates

We will be organising an online petition and a regular peace procession from Westminster Cathedral.