Hands Off Venezuela Join Bush Protest in London

Members of Hands Off Venezuela attended the demonstration against George W Bush’s visit to the UK on Sunday 15 June, to express anger over the USA’s continuing threatening behaviour towards Venezuela. Read a full report here.

Members of Hands Off Venezuela attended the demonstration against George W Bush’s visit to the UK on Sunday 15 June, to express anger over the USA’s continuing threatening behaviour towards Venezuela.

As happened when Bush last visited London in 2003, the demonstration’s organisers, the Stop The War Coalition, planned to lead a march down Whitehall in Central London, passing Downing Street, where Bush was meeting the British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown. However, this time the Metropolitan Police banned any march down Whitehall from taking place, forcing protesters to be content with a meek rally in Parliament Square .  The demonstration was initially unremarkable, with up to 2000 people listening to speeches and waving placards as has come to be expected at Stop The War Coalition rallies.

After roughly 10 speakers, the sound system failed and the microphone cut out. Angry at being stopped from marching down our own streets due to interference from a foreign government, protesters on mass decided to challenge the police’s decision to block off Whitehall. Led by a samba band, they approached the police barricade chanting “let us though” and “Who’s streets? Our streets!” As protesters surged forward, police responded with vicious metal baton blows, causing bloody injuries to the head for those at the front of the demonstration.

After a two hour stand off fear tactics were introduced to split and demoralise the crowd. A pack of roughly 100 riot squad officers marched up Great George Street towards one side of the protest. Some demonstrators went to confront them, initially staging a sit-down to highlight the peaceful nature of the protest. "Snatch squads" of riot police then started weaving amongst the dwindling numbers of protesters, picking off and violently arresting people. 25 people were arrested in total including a 60-year-old woman on suspicion of indecent exposure.

“This isn't the empire, this is freedom’s march” insisted George Bush on Sunday when asked about his negative perception around the world. The reality of Bush's “freedom march” was evident on the closed down streets of London as he swaggered up to Downing Street unchallenged while this country's residents were denied the right to protest freely.

Hands Off Venezuela are proud to say that despite the police’s attempts to intimidate us, even as many others had been initially subdued or later scared into abandoning the demonstration, we stood our ground and stayed till nightfall. Many people approached us to express their support for the Venezuelan revolution, including a group of Venezuelan nationals who also expressed their gratitude for the campaign’s work. Despite the ever increasing loss of our civil liberties and the continuing curtails on our right to protest here in the UK, we will not be intimidated into giving up our struggle in solidarity with the Bolivarian Revolution.

LINKS
8 minute video of protest - by Rikki
Letter of complaint to Commissoner of Police - by George Galloway MP