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An tea party on Parliament Square is scheduled in London at the weekend to defend the symbolic right to protest outside the Palace of Westminster. Many of you will be aware that this right has seriously infringed upon recently by UK anti-terror legislation. Original listing to be found at http://protest.net/imcuk/index.cgi?span=event&ID=530416&state_values= ************* October 16th 2005 Special Event Title Peoples/Creative Commons London Location Parliament Square Phone Contact 0785 439 0408 Topic / Issue Civil Rights The MPs are back this week, so, please distribute widely and if you can - please come along. [This is an edited version of last week's Invitation] 12 Noon Every Sunday, Parliament Square, London Defend the Right To Protest- Creative Commons/Picnic/Tea Party Ladies and Gentlemen, Help Us to Reclaim the Commons! Invitation: You are cordially invited to join us for our weekly People’s Commons Meeting/Mad Hatters Tea Party/Picnic-Protest on the Green at Parliament Square, Westminster. We meet every Sunday at 12 Noon. Help us to reclaim this symbolic space. Background: Building on the sunny success of our previous meetings, initially held in response to New Labour’s attempt to criminalise the Right to Peacefully Demonstrate [without permission] in Westminster, we are now striving to reclaim and create an alternative Creative/People's Commons. What to Bring/Wear/Theme: Bring whatever you think will help make the party a success, but especially bring yourselves.Particularly useful are food, drink, music, banner-making materials, games (cricket, frissbee, croquet etc) bubbles, flowers and new ideas for the future. it's a party, so depending on weather conditions, please dress up! Edwardian/Suffragette, Keystone Cops and Robbers Doing Hard [New] Labour, Clowns, 60s Revolutionaries, Children, Jedis (with or without light sabres). Or just come as you are. What Happens/Featuring: Local - The Creative/People’s Commons Meeting (towards a DIY, non- hierarchical participatory form of democracy) in which all those who wish to take part are invited to sit together and speaking their minds on whatever subject they feel moved to. One person Facilitates and another takes Minutes, and these roles rotate each week. Global - Free The Tea: in which a group of revolutionaries walk down to the Thames and half way across the river throw tea bags (PG Tips, pyramid shaped) into the river in support of the proposed tax on international currency trade (Currency Transaction Tax or CTT) aimed at ring fencing billions of pounds each year for international development. This feature is a protest at our government’s (and the G8’s) neo-liberal attitude to Trade Justice. See early Day Motion 500 currently before the House of Commons for more on the CTT and www.tobintax.org.uk. No More Corporate Representation without International Taxation! Spiritual - Prayer Vigil for Justice and Peace: a silent moment asking for help in the battle for a better world, for individuals of all faiths and/or none. Takes place at/around 4pm. Art - Banner Making: we will continue to challenge the workability and justness of the new law by making banners. One idea recently suggested - let's do a full demo but with 100% Peace and Love Banners and see what the Met makes of that. Sounds like a great idea. So please do tell your friends, spread the word and if you can come along and join us for more creative, beautiful, peaceful acts of defiance, and over time we will see what is possible. For more details, and links to images and reports from previous weeks, please see www1.atwiki.com/picnic (an easily editable web page in which everyone is invited to contribute ideas etc regarding the organisation and direction of the event), www.parliamentprotest.org.uk (a more general site that covers all aspects of the Right to Protest movement), www.liberty-human- rights.org.uk/issues/right-to-protest.shtml (Liberty website’s section on Right To Protest etc) Hope to see you there! 12 Noon, on the Green, Parliament Square, Westminster, every Sunday, just behind Brian Haw’s banners. If we can keep going, every week, with your help the Creative Commons will go from strength to strength. It's your parliament, and it's your Square, so if you can, please be there!