Jean Charles de Menezes: Angry marchers demand justice

Jean Charles de Menezes: Angry marchers demand justice

AFTER THE killing of Jean Charles de Menezes on 22 July, Stop the War
Coalition (STWC) called a peace vigil. Around 400 people gathered
outside Stockwell tube to protest; the local Brazilian and Portuguese
community was angry.

Rob Macdonald, Lambeth

After the speeches from church leaders, RMT etc. local people called
an impromptu march to Parliament. A very angry march then passed through
South Lambeth Road where there are many shops run by Portuguese
speakers.

It swelled to 700 people with chants of "the people united will
never be defeated" and "no shoot to kill" and other
anti-war chants until the police stopped the demo at Vauxhall Bridge.
There was a call for a further protest on 29 July at 6pm at Stockwell
tube.

This protest confirms the Socialist Party’s position that there
should have been an organised demonstration over the issue with friends,
family and the local community involved.

The Portuguese-speaking community opposed the war in Iraq and
understood the link but wanted to express their horror and campaign for
justice for Jean Charles and were not happy for the campaign to be
dominated by others.

Lambeth Socialist Party will sensitively help build a united campaign
of the working class of Lambeth to bring justice for the assassination
of Jean Charles.


Call for unity

AT THE vigil Socialist Party member Rob Macdonald called for the
unity of the Lambeth community. He said that there will be no peace
without justice and that the killing of innocent people by the police
was not a new phenomenon for the people of Lambeth.

It was always working-class people from Iraq to Stockwell that pay
for Blair’s policies with cuts, wars and murders. Under the guise of
anti-terrorism laws we are all in danger. The local Socialist Party is
calling for a demonstration to be organised through the local
working-class estates of Lambeth to unite the community. Rob called for
no to war, no to terrorism, no to racism and for the unity of the
working class.


Message from a Brazilian socialist

ANDRE FERRARI from Socialismo Revolucionario (the Brazilian section
of the- CWI/CIO, which the Socialist Party is affiliated to) and an
executive member of Partido Socialismo e Liberdade (P-SOL) writes on the
shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes by the London police.

THE MURDER by eight shots (at least seven direct in the head) has
shocked Brazilian people. Most people don’t understand why this happened
to an innocent Brazilian worker.

Like many other workers Jean Charles was outside Brazil trying to get
better living conditions, a job and a future, things he cannot get in a
country that suffers from neoliberal and anti-working class policies.

At the same time, the feeling amongst Brazilian people is clearly
against the barbarous terrorist attacks in London. The understanding is
growing that Jean Charles is another victim of a policy that will not
end terrorism but, as the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan shows, only
provoke more deaths, terror and war.

The Party of Socialism and Liberty (P-SOL) in Brazil publicly
condemns the murder of Jean-Charles and considers British and US
imperialism to be responsible for this tragedy.

We condemn the terrorist attacks in London and firmly work for the
end of the invasion of Iraq and all imperialist interventions and a
socialist alternative as a way for a world without war and terror.


Beeston, Leeds

Staying united under pressure

ON 23 July hundreds of people took part in a peace march through the
streets of Beeston, Leeds and into the city centre. Beeston resident
James Winterbottom gives his view on life in the area.

It’s been a turbulent time over the past fortnight. It started when
four young men became suicide bombers carrying out a coordinated attack
on London’s transport network killing dozens of people. These abhorrent
acts left a trail that led the police and the world’s media back to
Beeston.

Where you’d normally see kids playing football in the street,
sneering pinstripe-suited media executives sipped designer coffee in
deckchairs under makeshift gazebos on the pavements.

Getting home from work everyday would mean navigating through
ever-changing police cordons. Police cars thundered up and down the
streets and pavements were packed with officers walking the streets,
usually a rare occurrence.

The hardest thing our community had to get our heads around was that
the suicide bombers that devastated London had regularly met in Beeston
to plan their attack. The sense of shock was palpable, people gathered
on the streets sharing their feelings with neighbours. Waves of guilt
collided with confusion, anger and sadness shaking our tight community
to the core.

The anti-Muslim feeling that the terrorist attacks created elsewhere
could have spread through Beeston and made us all turn on each other,
upsetting the balance of the diverse community. This would have suited
certain people. The terrorists wanted this to happen to make
impressionable young Muslims think they live in a country that hates
them. Racist organisations wanted this to happen to add fuel to their
disgusting propaganda about the Muslim faith.

The opposite was true. The attacks prompted much soul searching about
how young people could be pushed to extremism but no one was willing to
start pointing the finger at other people.

From my experience, the community has never been more united. During
the evacuations this spirit helped make a difficult time much easier.
Most people accepted the massive inconvenience of being moved out of
their house or like me, returning from work to find you weren’t allowed
into your home. Everyone pulled together and looked after one another,
regardless of race or religion.

Media coverage

THERE WERE patchy media reports of this unity but media coverage of
Beeston was far from being fair and balanced. The press need an angle on
every story; when they cannot find one they tend to make one up.

Most focussed on the run-down areas, painting a picture of
deprivation where terrorism was an inevitable consequence of such
squalid conditions. Reporters were happy to receive free bottles of
water from Hamara Healthy Living Centre but didn’t say that it and many
other schemes had gone a long way to help local people and improve the
environment.

The negative portrayal of Beeston may just be lazy journalism but
their reports made viewers think that the culture of the area helped
nurture terrorism and pushed people out to the fringes of society. I
find it hard to believe that Beeston was to blame for producing people
willing to carry out such horrendous acts.

I think the government used criticism of Imams and the Muslim faith
to deflect responsibility for the effects their war on terror has had on
disillusioned youth all over the country, not just in Yorkshire.

New Labour’s foreign policy has alienated vast amounts of Britain’s
youth. For me it’s the single greatest factor in changing peaceful young
men into mass murderers. The Anglo-American war on terror and the
Islamaphobic rhetoric that goes with it gives extremists the opportunity
to recruit impressionable angry youth and guide them down the path to
terrorism.

Acts of terrorism will do nothing to change the current global
climate and will only encourage Blair and Bush in their unjust war in
Iraq. To make a genuine difference we must act collectively and
peacefully to make our voice heard.

The peace march made me feel better about the area I live in.
Marching with a complete cross-section of my community showed we aren’t
ashamed to live in Beeston. It shows we hate terrorism, that we’re not
afraid to say the war in Iraq was wrong and that we’re a united
community. It also showed the many young people present that
collectively the working class can make a difference without resorting
to terrorism.