Peace Strike "ON STRIKE FOR PEACE"

In the early hours of this morning, Maria occupied the Churchill statue in Parliament Square. Surrounded by barbed wire as a symbol of the concentration camps in the Tamil area of Sri Lanka, she is highlighting the plight of hundreds of thousands of ordinary Tamil civilians who are being held in atrocious conditions in military camps.

The camps break many international conventions, and there are many reports of disappearances,rapes and torture. Also, medical personnel are denied access, and international NGOs and medical organisations cannot get into the area with any aid. The Sri Lankan Government has imposed draconian restrictions on journalism, so the only news and monitoring is at grassroots level.

The action at Parliament Square is a striking image, with Churchill surrounded by barbed wire and placards about the Tamil Plight.

For more images and a report, see here.

A continuous Vigil for Gaza started in Parliament Square on Thursday 8 January to to call for an immediate end to Israel’s military assault on Gaza and an end to the blockade and siege on Gaza.

The vigil is supported by the Peace Strike. Please come and join the vigil whenever you can. See http://www.vigilforgaza.net here for more details.

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.