24.10.2001

Teesside

Moving forward

The anti-war movement on Teesside is moving forward. Over 30 attended a weekly meeting last Tuesday, a small but nonetheless significant increment on the previous week?s turnout.

The main issue discussed was next week?s public meeting, to be held in the St. Mary?s Centre conference room at 7pm on Monday October 29. The meeting, which will feature Alan Simpson MP as principal speaker alongside three other spokespersons from the Socialist Alliance and Green Party, promises to be well-attended and a wholly positive event. This, alongside the scheduled appearance of our press officer, Bill Wennington, on this Sunday?s ?North of Westminster? television broadcast, debating with Hilary Armstrong, will certainly reach a substantial constituency of dissent in the area.

Tuesday?s meeting discussed exactly how we should plan to build on next Monday?s event, if the high turnout predicted is successfully realised. It was decided that regionalising our efforts, in coordination with larger groups in Newcastle, would be a means of increasing the effectiveness and size of future demonstrations. Many expressed the view, by contrast, that proceedings should be localised as much as possible in the initial stages of the campaign, in order to attract the widest possible base of support from those living on Teesside. The possibility of marching to the Middlesbrough Cenotaph on the day before Remembrance Day, or holding a rather pacifistic candle-lit vigil around the ?Angel of the North? sculpture near Tyneside has been discussed in recent weeks.

Comrade Lawrie Coombs of the Socialist Alliance, speaking from the chair, however, voiced a warning that we must be wary of planning too much at once. We must allow the movement to evolve steadily along the lines of people?s consciousness.  Regardless of how we proceed on Teesside, however, it looks likely that the steady increase in local support will continue throughout the coming weeks.

David Hunnam