Funeral provokes emotional response from concerned Londoners
Environmental activists and concerned citizens from across Britain,
Iceland and Trinidad and Tobago converged on Sloane Square in London on Friday (27/10/2006) to protest against the aluminium invasion into these islands. They congregated for an emotionally charged 'funeral
procession' and demonstration, to mourn the loss of the wildernesses
in Iceland, the Kárahnjúkar wilderness in particular [1]; and the
rainforest and beaches in the Cedros Peninsula of Trinidad and Tobago
[2].
The aluminium industry, notably ALCOA and ALUTRINT are determined to turn these regions into heavy industry havens. The event was in the
style of a funeral for the 'dying lands', and featured a lone violin
playing between moving speeches and poems. Speakers included a student union president, several Trinidadians and Icelanders as well as former UK Member of Parliament Sue Doughty [3].
Miriam Rose, from the campaign 'saving iceland' said, 'today was very
important as we established a real link between the fights in Trinidad
and Iceland. People were truly moved by this solidarity and the
shocking truths about ALCOA's actions.' After the ceremony a
procession followed the symbolic coffin to the embassies of the
affected nations, where petitions were presented. Embassy staff
threatened to call the police when a woman from the Cedros Peninsula,
Trinidad, tried to hand over a petition to the Trinidad & Tobago
embassy. Staff at the Icelandic embassy refused to accept the
document, which asked for the Icelandic and Trinidadian and Tobagonian governments to reconsider their heavy industry policy.
A live phone link connected the crowd in London to a simultaneous
protest in Trinidad, where locals are setting up a protest camp at the
University of West Indies in objection to the building of two huge gas
powered smelters [4], one by Alcoa, one by Alutrint. Details from this
Trinidadian protest camp can be obtained through contacting
info@therepublicofcedros.org or rightsactiongroup@gmail.com
The London demonstration was organised by Saving Iceland and
www.NoSmelterTnT.com
If you would like more information on the London demonstration, please
contact Miriam or Dan. welliebird7@hotmail.co.uk 447765501687 or 44 7944 313974.
posted by Attillah at 12:18 PM
3 Comments:
Your links aren't working. I will try calling but could you try to fix them? Thank you very much. And thank your for this blog.
So this posting was read word for word this morning on Paul and Nikki's show on 96.1 in the "Plain Talk Bad Manners" segment. The two hosts proceeded to bash the Prime Minister for his lack of consultation with the people and reiterated the point that Trinis do not want these smelters! They were very good in calling on people to look at the environmental, health and economic consequences of this type of "development". The anti-smelter movement has allies in many places. Keep up the struggle!
Shivonne
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