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Protesters meet the press |
First session of the People’s Parliament as police back down
Benn leads anti-war protesters to Trafalgar Square in ‘victory for civil liberties’
TRAFALGAR Square was proclaimed the “People’s Parliament” on Monday after police back-tracked on banning a mass protest outside the House of Commons.
An estimated 5,000 demonstrators – including veteran politician Tony Benn, Brian Haw, George Galloway MP and the artist Brian Eno – packed the square on Monday to call on Gordon Brown to bring British troops back from Iraq.
Police had banned the demonstration from marching down Whitehall, invoking an archaic law aiming to help MPs reach the House of Commons on the first day of
Parliament.
But the plan collapsed with anti-war protesters claiming a significant victory for people power.
President of Stop The War Coalition (STWC) Tony Benn, who this week announced he would be stepping back into politics as Labour candidate for his home constituency of Kensington and Chelsea, said: “I have spoken in Trafalgar Square many, many times. At the start of the Suez War and in 1964 when Mandela was put in prison.
“But I have never known a campaign to come to such a quick conclusion in one respect. That is a victory that you have achieved and it is an enormous, important victory.
“Comrades, this is the People’s Parliament here in Trafalgar Square and we’re well ahead of the Parliament we are going to visit now.”
George Galloway, banned from the opening day of Parliament for supporting the demonstration, said: “This is a significant victory for liberty and democracy.
“I say to the MPs who are allowed in the House of Commons to stand up against Mr Brown and say ‘No!’”
Anti-war protester Brian Haw boomed: “Love, peace to all!”
A spokesman for STWC said: “The scale of the response and the tremendous public stand taken by Tony Benn, Walter Wolfgang, Brian Eno and others made it impossible for the police to stop us on the day.”
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Chris Allison said: “It was disappointing that, after assurances from organisers that they had no intention of disrupting Parliament or preventing MPs from attending, a group of demonstrators held a ‘sit-down protest’ in the road in Parliament Square.
“This is not what lawful protest should be about.” |
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