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Round-Up Feb-March 2006
In addition to their work locally in defence of asylum seekers, FRFI supporters in the North East have mobilised twice to Scotland in the recent period. On 11 February, following their own week of action demanding that the ‘Cuban 5’ held in US prisons be freed, they joined Scotland comrades in their protest outside the US Consulate in Edinburgh. On 4 March they mobilised to the regional dayschool of the Student Anti Imperialist Network (SAIN), and contributed speeches on: national liberation struggles and Palestine; the two gulf wars and the anti-war movement in Britain; and military organisation under socialism.
Regular Thursday evening pickets of Newcastle M&S have continued, and on 18 March FRFI supporters protested alongside activists from Tyneside Stop the War Coalition against the continuing occupation of Iraq. The colourful street theatre of the RCG activists vividly exposed the reality that the war is being fought for the interests of the imperialist ruling classes, at the cost of misery and slaughter for the Iraqi people, and the deaths of many working class young people in the occupying armies. Under the slogan “The rich keep lying, the poor keep dying”, the street theatre provoked a warm response from the people of Newcastle. Many passing young people, previously uninvolved in politics, took up petitions and leaflets, collecting over 160 signatures within two and a half hours.