100 Deaths - The Protest in Nottingham
Author:John S.

On Wednesday evening, up to 100 of us, school students, students from both the city's Universities, people straight from work, stretched our line of 100 coffin-shaped placards right across the steps, between the two lions on either side of the Council House.

Each placard, edged in black, shows the name of one of the British service personnel killed so far in Iraq. Speakers from Stop the War pointed out the names of Lance Corporal Thomas Keys and Fusilier Gordon Gentle, whose relatives had done so much for Military Families Against the War, and emphasised that although we were marking the 100th British death, we were also there to remember the 100,000 Iraqi dead, and the 2,200 US dead. We wanted an end to the occupation, and an end to the killing. The names of the 100 were read.

In less than an hour passers by in the Old Market Square took virtually every one of our 1,000 leaflets, explaining why we were there, why we wanted the troops out now, and urging them to join the International Demonstration on March 18 (see the events list).

When we first turned up, the Council's security guards were anxious that we should not block the entrance, especially if the Lord Mayor were to turn up in his official Bentley. We assured them, and a group of the new Street Wardens who were summoned to deal with us, that we would not interfere with the Lord Mayor, his limousine, or access to the building in general. As our numbers grew, we heard no more about it.

Later in the evening, the regular Stop the War Organising Meeting decided to repeat the exercise at our Street Stall in the Market Square from 12noon until 2:00pm on Saturday (4th February).

(Pictures courtesy of Bill O'Brien)