Forthcoming Events

We've got two forthcoming events that you might be interested in...

Free Bradley Manning! End the wars!

From 2pm, Saturday 17th Square, US embassy, Grosvenor Square: The closest tube is Bond Street; there will be speakers, music and an open mic. This solidarity event outside the U.S. embassy in London will be on Bradley's 24th. birthday - a day that many of his supporters will gather outside of Ft. Meade and U.S. embassies worldwide. We invite you to join us in London to demand FREEDOM FOR BRADLEY MANNING and an END TO THE WARS!

Bradley Manning, a U.S. Army intelligence analyst, faces life in prison for allegedly sharing a video of a U.S. helicopter attack that killed 11 civilians and seriously wounded two children in Baghdad, Iraq with the WikiLeaks website. The footage had been withheld by the U.S.military from those trying to discover the truth about the attacks.

More info at collateralmurder.com, bradleymanning.org and wiseupforbradleymanning.wordpress.com.

Anti-nuclear resistance celebration and planning

This year marks 30 years of continuous faithful Christian anti-nuclear witness at the Ministry of Defence (MoD) on Ash Wednesday. Many people have risked arrest, been arrested and served prison time over the years as an act of repentance for nuclear terror, and to call for repentance from this terrorism.

We are helping to organise an event on Saturday 7th January 2011 to celebrate this witness and, for those who wish, to plan for the future. This is a good opportunity to find out more about how to begin taking challenging action for peace and justice. All welcome.

Wishing you all a very peaceful and hope filled Advent season as we prepare for the coming of the Prince of Peace, who came among us poor and powerless to bring down the mighty from their thrones, and raise up the lowly.

Video of Good Friday arrests

https://youtu.be/6pFCQthlxgg

See the next item for a full report of the protest, plus pics.

Three CWers arrested on Good Friday

Three CWers were arrested after they breached the security gate at the entrance of 10 Downing St. in London, the home of the UK Prime Minister in a "Free Bradley Manning" Protest. The three arrested were Steve Jacobs of the Columbia MO CW, Frank Cordaro of the Des Moines IA CW and Ciaron O'Reilly of the London CW.

The witness took concluded the annual Good Friday Stations of the Cross organized by the London CW, the London CW Farm and the Oxford CW. In the introduction to the booklet prepared for this years Stations, the CW'ers note that Christians around the world remember that Jesus was crucified, suffered and died to show God's love for us on this day. CW'ers believe that Christ continues to be condemned and crucified today, in those who suffer as a result of:

The Arms Trade - which crucifies the poor;

Climate Change - which crucifies creation;

War - which crucifies the innocent;

Torture - which is a form of crucifixion;

Nuclear Weapons - which threaten to destroy the earth;

International Debt - which is like the burden of the cross to the poor;

Homelessness - which reveals the ragged face of the crucified Christ;

Immigration Policy - which condemns innocent people fleeing persecution, poverty and violence.

To highlight each of these forms of modern day crucifixions a 'Geography of Suffering' was mapped out in the heart of London. Using the scripture reflections of Fr Emmanuel Charles McCarthy of the Center for Christian Nonviolence's Stations of the Cross as a template, 15 sites within walking distance were mapped out to correspond to the 15 traditional Stations of the Cross.

Starting with the first station at 10 Downing Street, a procession of 20 people moved to the Ministry of Defense building, the Dept. of Energy and Climate Change offices, the arms dealer Matra BAE Dynamics Alenia headquarters, the Foreign Office, the Parliament, the Milbank - home of the Committees on Arms Export Controls, the Security Service MI-5 building, a Home Office building - responsible for immigration control, former headquarter offices of Lockheed Martin - arms manufacture, the headquarters of Qinetiq - a British global defense technology company, offices of Rolls Royce - its military contract branch, the Defense and Security Organization offices, the Treasury Office and ending back at 10 Downing St.

When the group returned to 10 Downing Street. Ciaron O'Reilly made his way to the front of the crowd of tourists, close to the security gate. Frank Cordaro and Steve Jacobs followed close behind. At the same time a London police security officer open the security gate to let a car out of the Prime Ministers compound. That was all Ciaron, Frank and Steve needed to slip past the security officer and set up their protest inside the security space separating the public and the Prime Ministers compound. (Stroke of luck? Act of God? There are no accidents... )

What followed was a 40 minute stand off between the London police and the three CW'ers. The time was not wasted. As soon as it was clear that the police were not going to remove the three CW'ers immediately, Ciaron started doing what he is know best for - 'Soap Box' speaking. As hundreds of tourists made there way past the site, Ciaron started to inform them of why we were holding our protest to free Bradley Manning. When he stopped Frank and Steve stepped in to fill in with the public education moment, with help from NYC CW'er Carmen Trotta and Oxford CW'er Sr Susan Clarkson.

At one point Frank was able to read the Gospel of Mark's Good Friday account - stopping to remind the crowds were Jesus was being tortured in the text.

Through out the stand off, different London police officers tried to negotiate with Frank, Steve and Ciaron to remove themselves from the site, informing them that they were illegaly occupying space that could get them arrested and taken off to jail. All three CW'ers told the officers that they were perfectly aware of the possibility of arrest and jail and that despite this they were not going to remove themselves voluntarily.

Armed police showed up immediately, followed by a couple of vans of riot police.Police repeatedly informed Steve, Frank and Ciaron that they were going to be placed under arrest.

The 40 minute stand off concluded when the three CW'ers were escorted away from the prime ministers residence. All three were taken across the street, questioned and released - no charges have as yet been made. More pics: 1 | 2.