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Bush toppled by West Yorkshire peace campaigners

pza | 09.11.2003 23:39 | Bush 2003

Anti-war campaigners in Calderdale, West Yorkshire, today created a dramatic representation of the chasm existing between a just peace and George W Bush’s policy of war.

An effigy of the US President was symbolically toppled from Stoodley Pike, a famous local hill top landmark and a monument to peace.

The effigy of Bush on the gallery of Stoodley Pike
The effigy of Bush on the gallery of Stoodley Pike

George bush about to be toppled
George bush about to be toppled

The twisted remain of the hated despot
The twisted remain of the hated despot


The event was designed to express the anger and dismay felt at the forthcoming State Visit of George Bush on 19th –21st of November.

Demonstrations will be taking place throughout the country, with a protest & vigil in the centre of Hebden Bridge on Wednesday 19th November, 5-6pm, at the main traffic lights. There will be a national demonstration in London on Thursday 20th November. Transport is being organised from Calderdale. Call Juliet on 01422 340967 for details.

Stoodley Pike stands at around 400m on a prominent hill overlooking Todmorden and Hebden Bridge, in the Upper Calder Valley, West Yorkshire. The Pike is a monument 120 feet high, originally built in 1815 to celebrate the outbreak of peace at the end of the Napoleonic Wars. The fate of the monument seems somehow to have been interlinked with conflict. In 1854, when the Crimean War broke out, the monument collapsed. It was rebuilt in 1856 when peace was declared. It had to be repaired at the start of the 20th century when part of it collapsed the day before the end of the First World War. As a monument to the outbreak of peace, it is a fitting location for the toppling of Bush.

A spokeswoman for Calderdale Against the War said:

“We refuse to welcome the man behind an unjust war which has killed, and continues to kill civilians and soldiers of many countries.

Having presided over this violence and destruction, George Bush’s administration has now allowed powerful multinationals to move in for the spoils.

Without consent from the people of Iraq, the occupying force is seeking to sell off Iraq’s essential services. This privatisation means that foreign firms can make profits which they are then free to siphon out of an already impoverished country. This is in violation of international law governing the behaviour of occupying forces.

The international companies and financiers who supported the Iraqi regime now seek to recover their billions at the expense of the very population Saddam oppressed.

People in Iraq are entitled to the conditions in which they can determine their own future, and can rebuild infrastructure and services like health and education. By opening the way for profiteers, George W Bush is undermining the creation of these conditions and threatening the future of Iraq’s people."

Iraq has a debt of at least $200 billion, possibly much more. Revenue from oil sales is less than $15 billion.

Iraq’s debt comes from foreign loans, war reparations and broken business contracts. Saddam Hussein’s regime borrowed money to build palaces and monuments but it also got debts of $76 billion buying weapons and defence equipment from companies such as Marconi, Racal and Thorn EMI

Repayment of this debt would hamper reconstruction and cripple the Iraqi economy for decades.

Source: Jubilee Iraq:  http://www.jubileeiraq.org

Jubilee Iraq, founded by Iraqis and citizens in creditor countries, calls for:

·Cancellation of all odious debt, which benefited Saddam but not the Iraqi people.
·Debt negotiations that are fair and include a strong Iraqi voice.
·A complete moratorium on payments until negotiations are complete.
·A large enough reduction in debt to allow Iraq to recover and prosper.

Public Sector layoffs in Iraq have led to 70% unemployment. Paul Bremer’s economic reforms included the privatisation of 200 state owned companies, allowed 100% foreign ownership of banks, mines and factories; and allowed these firms to move 100% of their profits out of Iraq. The economist declared the new rules a “capitalist dream”. Source: Naomi Klein, The Guardian, 6/11/03

pza
- Homepage: http://www.calderdaleagainstthewar.org.uk

Comments

Hide the following 11 comments

Bravo to the Peace activists of Britain

12.11.2003 07:13

Bravo to you creative British activists. Send me a framed photo of the toppling of that hated Imperial dictator!

Danny


Americans cheer you on!

14.11.2003 03:02

image from several months ago I made
image from several months ago I made

go UK!

me


Go Britain!

15.11.2003 21:42

Absolutely lovely! My only reservation is that he should have been burnt, not merely toppled; but I hear that's going to be done in London soon enough. Many Americans applaud these actions, and despise illegal resident Bush as a coward, murderer and traitor. And in less than a year, hopefully, he'll be voted out of office - until then, keep up the good work.

Best wishes from New York City.

:-), M

Michael Bouldin
mail e-mail: mbouldin@excelsis.us
- Homepage: http://www.excelsis.us


pick up the remains and send them to Guantonamo!

16.11.2003 05:23

Great going guys. We here in the fascist country of Amerika are really counting on you Brits! I wish I could fly and join you in the great toppling of the religious, neo-mafia extremist that has taken over our great country.
Take lots of pictures!

See you on CNN.

Proud to be an American against the corporate looter war-monger infestation of the Whitehouse.

peace

Texan for Peace


REGIME CHANGE IN 2004 !

17.11.2003 02:39

I hope more Americans can get there heads out of the sand like you Brits obviosly have!!Bush and his cronnies hopefully only have 50 more weeks of their thiefery left.

PAMELA R.


With you in spirit!

18.11.2003 01:09

There are millions of us in the U.S. -- and around the world -- who applaud your courage and share your outrage at this murderous oaf who has brought nothing but war and misery to us all.

Tansy Gold
mail e-mail: TansyGold@aol.com


Go UK!

19.11.2003 06:39

I'm an English born citizen, I'm stuck in the immigration process in Canada, its been 2 1/2 years since I came, and its been 2 years since I realised that I was better off in my own country. This country is run by bush (thought the Canadians are too ashamed to admit it). I would have finished being processed a long time ago if Bush hadnt told the Canadian govenment to change their immigration policies.

I wish I could get back to the UK and to my home city Manchester and join you all and show my support.

My father is in the march anyway and I send you all the best of luck.

Show that pig headed war-mongerer that he isn't welcome!

Peter Murray
mail e-mail: ratgod@cogeco.ca


Good going Brits!! -- maybe some of you will join us in NYC in August 2004...

19.11.2003 07:57

See: Protests at the Repub Nat'l Convention to see where *we* Yanks expect to be doing our major protesting next year -- 1M people in the streets? quite possible, *quite* possible......

And -- thanks for *all* your welcome festivities for our Chimp-in-Chief -- i haven't been this excited at a
major protest i think since being at the WTO in Seattle. yes,
there were some incredible protests last year, including the
Feb 15 "world's biggest ever" -- but there was a difference, in
that we sort of knew that these lunatics were going to do
whatever they wanted by that point, but it's different now,
with the mess they've created in Iraq, and the egg on *their*
face, and every day just creating making it worse for them.

i read through the last couple of days of postings on this
list, and am just giddy with looking forward to all the
postings on various websites about what unfolds the next few
days -- and i wouldn't worry at all about seeming
"anti-American", as i've seen repeated many times, everyone
knows this will be anti-Bush instead -- and further, all
Americans *need* to see how much our country is being made into
a pariah nation as the Bushies lead it, and the world,
backwards into the dark ages..

anyway, you probably don't need to be bombarded with a bunch of
support messages while doing core organizing on this list, so
i'll desist from posting again, but i just wanted to say --
many many *MANY* Americans are fully there with you in spirit,
and you are making us proud of our British compatriots!!! :->

- From one of the organizers of the San Francisco shutdown the
day after the war started

*'``'*:-.,_,.-:*'``'*:-.,._,.-:*'``'*:-.,_,.-:*'``'*:-._,.-:*

For Stanford U. activism against the war see:

"The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men
to
do nothing."
-- Edmund Burke (18th Century British philosopher )

"As a result of the war, corporations have been enthroned and
an
era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money
power
of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working
upon
the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in
a
few hands and the Republic is destroyed. I feel at this moment
more anxiety than ever before, even in the midst of war. God
grant that my suspicions may prove groundless."
-- Pres. Abraham Lincoln, during the US Civil War

*'``'*:-.,_,.-:*'``'*:-.,._,.-:*'``'*:-.,_,.-:*'``'*:-._,.-:*'

Xylem Galadhon
mail e-mail: xylem@scpj.org


Get Him Outta There in '04!!!!!!

19.11.2003 21:21

I think it is very important that the world frame their protests as anti-Bush not anti-American. As a Yank myself, I hate this man as much as anybody, and hope for change in '04. This tyrant uses our fear against us to achieve his dastardly goals. Whether or not he knew of the pending attacks on 9-11, he and his administration could not have written a scenario more favorable to their cause. Go ENGLAND!!!

P.S. Note to the EU: Do to Microsoft that which our government couldn't (or wouldn't)

Brian Snider


Support and Two Requests!

20.11.2003 03:56

You guys GO! Yes, there are many of us who have shaken off our national paralysis of fear over here in the US, but not nearly enough. Of you Brits and of your viewers around the world, let me beg for two things: that you not lose courage, hope, or determination; and that you pray for America. If you falter, we will surely never rise; and even tho' we are
prevented in our media from seeing much of what you do, it filters through nonetheless. DON'T STOP. DON'T STOP. You carry for us the moral imperative we cannot seem to see, and this because of 9-11, a wound willfully poisoned and now spreading systemic infection. And PLEASE, PLEASE WORLD, PRAY FOR US, for we are not all, or even most, the greed-possessed, selfish, arrogant, decimating crew that rapes our earth, ravages human rights, assaults our neighbors and guts our just, humanitarian government. Pray that we awaken and arise as a nation, to become what we were meant to be; pray too that with the demise of this Administration, so also will fall the international vipers' nest of corporate plunderers that it represents. THIS is why Congress has not brought Bush down: both sides of the aisle are addicted to that deadly nest. But power lies in the heart, not in money-- and we Americans who are not still petrified have seen and been sickened by what black hearts can do. How much more the heart that is full of light! When you pray for America, you pray for the future of the planet herself, of nations not ours, and, because of our unjust corporate domination, for the peace of the world. Be strong in peace! God bless you! You GO!

Arianne Townshend


McParanoia Doesn't Work Here

20.11.2003 03:58

Bush's democratic downfall is inevitable. He has already proved time and time again that the truth is not a US export. Even the tamed American press is finding it hard to spread his McParanoia, and the line of crap about domestic terrorism requiring draconian legislation is wearing thin. His attempt to fix the next vote by using the insecure Diebold voting machines has been rumbled.

But he is a persistent person. One wonders just how far he'll go to try to hang on to power.

Vik Olliver
- Homepage: http://olliver.family.gen.nz


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