Bush Cabinet Minister Coming to Cork: Demo Tuesday 11th May 10am

cork | anti-war / imperialism | event notice Wednesday May 05, 2004 11:40 by Dominic Carroll - No Prescriptions for Profit npfp at eircom dot net

Marlboro Man Not Welcome Here · No Prescriptions for Profit

Demonstration at EU/US Health Ministers’ Meeting at Rochestown Park Hotel, Cork on Tuesday 11th May at 10am

The US Secretary of Health, Tommy Thompson, and EU Health Ministers will find themselves the subject of a noisy protest when they gather in Cork next Tuesday 11th May for a meeting in Rochestown Park Hotel. The coalition of campaigning groups and political parties which has called the demonstration has adopted the slogan "No Prescriptions for Profit", and intends to embarrass Health Minister Micheál Martin for daring to invite warmonger Tommy Thompson and his UK counterpart, John Reid, to a health conference at the very moment their troops continue to pile up the corpses and wounded in Iraq.

Incredibly, Thompson will speak on cardiovascular health despite having been funded to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars by US tobacco giant, Phillip Morris, purveyors of Marlboro cigarettes and numerous other brands of death-stick.

Thompson is a thoroughly bad fish in many other ways: a militant Catholic, he has stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the president in what’s being called “Bush’s Other War” against women’s reproductive rights, and pioneered work-for-welfare programmes in the US.

The protest is open to all, and will gather at 10am in Douglas Court Shopping Centre carpark.

The demonstration will focus on the following issues:
· Peace not War
· Universal and free healthcare, not privatised healthcare
· Clean air and seas, not incinerators and pollution
· Public ownership of the pharmaceutical companies, not pharmaceutical profiteering
· A woman’s right to choose, not continued attacks on women’s reproductive rights.

We would urge activists from Cork and beyond to join the demo. Bring banners, placards, whistles and drums.