Peace Strike was active in Parliament Square and Whitehall up to 2016. These are the main projects in which we were involved in addition to the regular Peace Strikes.

Peace Boxes
From 2010, Peace Strike established two Peace Boxes situated on the pavement opposite the Houses of Parliament. The boxes were made from hoarding boards reclaimed from skips in the nearby area of Westminster.

The boxes were an extension of the 4ft high display board made for the Vigil for Gaza. While the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act legislation of 2005 required protests around parliament – and selected locations elsewhere – to get authorisation, it did not put a limit on how many authorisations a person could apply for.

Peace Strike applied for several authorisations, which provided space for two boxes which were built to fill the space of 8ft in length, 8ft in height and 4ft in width. One box was used for storage and the other had an area for making drinks and meals and a small sitting area. They provided shelter on the many rainy days during the months that the Peace Boxes remained in Parliament Square.

The purpose of the box was to act as news billboards with large messages that could be read from the gates of parliament and by the MPs and others going in. The notices would be changed frequently to highlight ongoing concerns, primarily the on-going wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The SOCPA legislation was repealed in December 2011 and was replaced by the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011. It was under the new legislation that the Peace Boxes were removed by the police. On the 3rd May 2012, the final box was removed following an unsuccessful High Court challenge.

After they were removed from Parliament Square the ‘peace plinths’ were on display in ‘The Peace Project’ exhibition in a central London gallery in 2012 and one made the trip to a gallery in Los Angeles (picture below). See more info and photos on the Internet Archive.

See photos of the boxes in Parliament Square.

Supporting the Tamil protests
In 2009, there were large-scale demonstrations in Parliament Square by the Tamil community in the UK against the atrocities that the Sri Lankan Government has committed against Tamils in Sri Lanka.

Arrest Tony Blair
At 11:15 on 16th May 2007 Peace Strike members made their first attempt to conduct a citizens arrest of Tony Blair. They were accompanied outside Downing Street by a small group of supporters and a film crew. The police were informed of their intentions and relevant documentation was handed over. 

Downing Street petitions and demonstrations
In June 2007, Peace Strike petitioned Downing Street asking for the arrest of Tony Blair and those responsible for the war in Iraq. We believe  these people have broken several laws relating to war crime and crimes against humanity.

For a number of years, a petition was handed into No. 10 Downing Street on a regular basis, sometimes every day. The petitions made a variety of requests relating to peace and justice issues. On many occasions a one-person demonstration with a placard also took place behind the gates of Downing Street, opposite the door of No. 10. These were often timed to coincide with the Cabinet meetings of the government.

By January 2009 the following number of petitions had been handed in at 10 Downing Street: Crisis in Gaza 1 Hands off Iran 337 Supporting a peace plan 80 Arrest Tony Blair 12 Free Palestine 7 Solidarity with the people of Burma 5 Repeal SOCPA 5 Petitions handed in as part of the monthly Peace Procession 4 TOTAL 451

By 2013, there had also been 50 demonstrations outside No. 10, within Downing Street.

In 2013, the petitions were still being presented regularly to No. 10, and continued until PM Boris Johnson entered Downing Street in 2019.

An estimated total of 3,000 petitions were handed into Downing Street during the time of Prime Ministers: Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg (coalition ) David Cameron, Theresa May, Boris Johnson.

It ended abruptly on Boris Johnson’s watch with an email from the police stated that too many petitions had been handed in. Clearly the administration was not keen on the constant knocking on the door. Shortly after that, the country went into COVID SHUTDOWN.

Downing Street went into #PartyGate

See photos here.

Peace processions
The first peace procession through Westminster took place in October 2008 in London, 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.