Peace Movement.

national | miscellaneous | news report Saturday February 08, 2003 12:51 by €=$

update on London and NYC counter protest measures.

London organisers have decided in the main to continue with the occupation of Hyde Park on Feb 15. Additional sites suggested have also included Picadilly. Trfalgar Square which has a capacity of only 20,000 has been rejected by most groupings. IN NYC the debate rages over the granting of a protest permit.

East Coast Food not Bombs has now organised itself for Feb15th New York City. Actions and concentrations begin Feb9th with activities from the Christian groups.

The story exciting interest though is the Permit to assemble under the 1st Ammendemnt applied for by Leslie Cagan.
The Permit has been refused to Leslie Cagan who has been organising public demonstrations in NYC since the 1967. Cagan is a very respected figure. Leslie's coalition and organizing skills have put hundreds of thousands of people in the streets in many of the largest mobilizations seen in the USA and contributed to building diverse movements: from the Viet Nam war to racism at home, from nuclear disarmament to lesbian/gay liberation, from fighting sexism to working against U.S. intervention.
Cagan testified to the City authorites that she had organized rallies and marches of up to 1 million people since 1967 and has planned this one to be peaceful and orderly.

N.Y.City lawyer Rachel Goldman said the city rejected a permit for the Feb. 15 rally because police could not assure public safety for up to 100,000 people without better information from parade organizers. The focus of the protest being the UN building.
"The First Amendment right is not absolute. The plaintiffs do not have a right to march or protest any way they want, wherever they want and how they want," Goldman said.
She said the city had agreed to let a group of local and national organizations opposed to a war against Iraq stage a rally near the United Nations but not to march past it.
"We don't have a general ban against protest marches in the city of New York," Goldman said.
U.S. District Court Judge Barbara Jones listened to testimony and arguments for more than four hours Friday but reserved decision. She indicated she planned to work through the weekend to decide the dispute.

Cagan said she was "shocked when the city took off the table the possibility of the march."
Meanwhile NYC seems to have had the same reaction that London had when attempts to place obstacles in the way of democratic rights are made. Activists will come regardless of permits being granted and how they move will move through Manhatten is now the question.

A permit has been offered for 49th and 1st, and a decision made to put the call out to meet and rally there. The rally will take place there, and it will be permitted. There will be a sound system set up and negotiations and struggle with the city will continue about conditions. There is a meeting place then out, now, without arrest risk for all communities -- 49th and 1st, rally with speakers.

Of course, there will be many feeder marches, a number of which are already organized. Most of these feeder marches are unpermitted, but walking pickets/marches--so long as one is on the sidewalk--are legal and do not require a permit. There will, most likely, also be civil disobedience actions. There is simply no demonstrator pen/lack of permit that can stop a sufficient number of people from feeder marching to the 49th and 1st location.

In the meantime this petition in support of New Yorkers right to protest has gone online.
http://www.petitiononline.com/FEB15/petition.html
This article has appeared on the "non news side" of NYC indymedia entitled "is it time to leave the US?".
http://www.nyc.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=46108&group=webcast
students have long been planning actions for Feb15 and under many slogans including
"our generation says no to WAR".
and
"not in my name".
have organised for Feb 15. see
http://www.unitedforpeace.org/article.php?id=813
east coast food not bombs.
http://www.nyc.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=45993&group=webcast