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Craig Murray's speech (and others) at the London 'Ceasefire Now' demonstration

Posted August 8th, 2006 by Davide Simonetti
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Having failed in my attempt to record Craig Murray's excellent speech at the protest, I was relieved to discover that Ady Cousins managed to film it in its entirety.

Ady also has very good footage of the speeches of:

Via The Antagonist who has a very good post on the protest.

GOOD! I still think a

On August 8th, 2006 frog says:

GOOD! I still think a listing of all MSM coverage of saturday needs doing , particularly that on, or NOT on, TV.

I checked here with 6 others in our Collective last night, and only the 2 Communists were aware of the c.100,000 in London.
One read about it in Humanite, the PCF newspaper, the other saw something on LCI TV . The other 4, including a Socialist County Councillor--- nothing.

Unsurprising if the UK coverage was as bad as it seems, but it would be useful to know exactly HOW BAD it was ?

The UK coverage was very

On August 8th, 2006 Davide Simonetti says:

The UK coverage was very bad, so bad in fact that it is hard to find any significant reports in the MSM. You can see the BBC video report from here. There is a bit more on the BBC website here. Other news outlets mention it almost as an afterthought, if they do at all. That's why I wanted to put the speeches up. By now the photographs on the various blogs have thoroughly discredited the 20,000 people figure touted by the BBC and the police. But what the speakers were saying is important and there has been no coverage at all of the speeches as far as I can tell, and I have been looking.

Here is a Letter to The

On August 8th, 2006 Davide Simonetti says:

Here is a Letter to The Guardian from Lindsey German and Andrew Burgin of the Stop the War Coalition:

We were surprised that you carried no report of the mass demonstration calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in Lebanon, which took place in London on Saturday. Around 100,000 people marched at the height of holiday season and at short notice, protesting at the latest escalation of the "war on terror". A petition bearing 40,000 names was delivered to 10 Downing Street. Many hundreds of shoes were laid at the base of the Cenotaph in memory of the children killed in Lebanon.

No doubt the march included many Guardian readers, who will expect coverage of domestic protest as well as of the international crisis, especially since the government is under such pressure on this issue. With parliament in recess until October and with a prime minister who has become increasingly isolated from his own cabinet, his party and the public, the Saturday demonstration was one of the few expressions of the popular will at this moment.

Indymedia, on the other hand, has done a fantastic job of reporting the event with lots of links to good pictures, video and audio clips etc.

TEL AVIV DEMO --- I was

On August 8th, 2006 frog says:

TEL AVIV DEMO --- I was unaware of this, apart from BBC radio talking to one of the "FEW HUNDRED" there.

TEL AVIV DEMO saturday 5 august 2006

Seems there were very minimum 3,000, and maybe up to 10,000 .

"""I should have thought that the photo of a man playing the piano in a ruined house should have sent a message of peace. But I saw the photo with all kinds of very warlike captions, which implied that I want revenge from the inhabitants of Lebanon. I called the press and protested and told them I had participated in the anti-war demonstration. They said: oh, but did you not change your mind when your house was bombed? Change my mind? I have protested against the stupid wanton destruction of war, and then the war and destruction came to my own home. Should that make me change my mind?"""

TheTimes online TVnews video spoke of Bruxelles and Indonesia demos .....

It is very encouraging to

On August 8th, 2006 Anonymous (not verified) says:

It is very encouraging to see the many people here who are;

a) willing to get of their backsides and get on the street
b) refusing to let media censorship deny people the right to the news

What is now needed is to highlight peoples indignation to events in Lebanon in a way that the media cannot ignore. Civil disobedience is a valid form of protest and has been used effectively in many countries.

The conflict in Lebanon can only get worse, and will likely widen in to a broader Middle East war. This will be devestating for millions of people just like us. We should show our solidarity with the Lebanese people by stopping the City and West End, for as long as possible, like days not hours.

Such tactics can be effective if enough people are willing to stand up and be counted. UK citizens should be prepared to take action like this. I cannot think of a better reason in the last 50 years for people to get back on the street and demand that this Goverment stops supporting and aiding in this war.

Our future is being squandered for the interests of US global domination. This is the 21st century, we are supposed to be enlightened and shoulld not be letting our leadership get away with governance that is counter to the interests of the UK.

We are also a democracy and the majority of the adult population in this country are appalled at what is going on. This government needs to listen.