[Imc-uk-network] World day for animals in laboratories

[JimDog]

Hey all.

This saturday 24th is the annual world day for animals in laboratories march through central london. Last year attracted over 2000 activists from around the world who marched peacefully through the streets of london as part of a global day of action to call for an end to the exploitation of animals in laboratories worldwide. This annual rally is the most important in the animal rights calendar.

Work permitting, i'm hoping to come to london on saturday and cover the demonstration with photographs and audio interviews and will contribute the results to london indymedia. There will also be a number of members of notts indymedia there. This is a call out for anyone who'll be out and about in london on saturday to meet up and pool resources, and for anyone who won't be but could help out with dispatch if necessary.

Just to give some context, last years event took place shortly after the g20 and a a time when the met police were under a lot of press scrutiny about their dubious crowd control methods. A large number of mainstream journalists turned up to cover the march, but since it passed peacefully and without any asserts, the only news outlet that carried the story of the march was of course indymedia.

This year has seen a steady return to the old, highly repressive ways of policing animal rights demo's including heavy deployments of fit teams and the use of police horses, something guaranteed to agitate a crowd of animal rights activists, and therefore justify to them the use of force against otherwise peaceful demonstrators. This could clearly be seen during the recent bradford demonstration where 2 arrests were made, essentially stemming from an attempt by a few present to obscure the view of the fit team cameras.

It would be great if we as a network could provide a coordinated reporting effort of this event, and if those who will be in london on the day could meet up there to share resources and provide a wider coverage.

Can i suggest that all responses to this email go to the imc-uk-network list to allow a wider number of people to get involved if they wish?

In solidarity

jimdog
(one of imc northern england)