I met this lady at Parliament Square a year last autumn, sat at the peace camp along with an Israeli and a Palestinian. Until then I'd always assumed Brian Haw started his protest in response to the invasion of Afghanistan, but it was actually before that. Initially he was protesting the sanctions Britain and the United States imposed upon Iraq, the ones that are reported to have brought about the deaths of half a million Iraqi children during the 1990's alone.
As I write this the sun is setting on the twelfth day of Barbara Tucker's hunger strike. If I've got the details straight, she is refusing food in protest of the British governments refusal to return her tent and its contents, which they stole from her in January of last year. It is her contention, and I see no reason to doubt it, that the British government removed her shelter in the hope that she would go away and take her pictures of Iraqi children deformed by depleted uranium with her. Their images defacing England’s green and pleasant land as they do. Ms. Tucker is not certain that she will survive the cold of another winter without shelter and has therefore decided upon this more drastic course of action.
Thus far, none of the major media in the UK seems to have found this story newsworthy, I wonder at what point they will. I only know about it because I saw the interview below on the Iranian State sponsored Press TV! Personally I find the fact that a female peace protester is right now starving herself to death outside the Houses of Parliament worth a mention.
You can follow her story at the following link:
This will not end well for her. I dare say she would get a little more coverage if she were easier on the eye.
ReplyDeleteDo you think there are more effective ways to get the public to consider a minority concern? I am certain there are. Absolutely!
In addition, A catholic considers suicide as murder.
I'm sure it won't end well for her. I didn't post this to say that I'm glad she's on hunger strike, potentially going to kill herself and I don't disagree with the Catholic position the suicide is a form of murder committed against oneself. I hope she lives and carries on campaigning for many years yet.
ReplyDeleteI think the peace camp has been more effective in raising public awareness than you might think. I'm always interested in 'more effective ways' of course, but am not sure that genocide should be a 'minority concern'. I'll be making another post about Brian Haw soon, in the meantime, this article by Johann Hari in the Independent came to my mind, about how the Vietnam war protesters achieved more than they thought they had.
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/commentators/johann-hari/johann-hari-protest-works-just-look-at-the-proof-2119310.html