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---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Hugh <justice@easynet.co.uk> MARCH AND RALLY London, Saturday April 17 1999 Iraq: Stop the bombings! Lift the sanctions! Press release 1 March, 1999 Birmingham organising meeting: "April 17 march will be the first national demonstration on Iraq for eight years!" An organising meeting in Birmingham on Sunday February 28 was held to make plans for the April 17 demonstration. Represented at the meeting were local campaigning organisations from Birmingham, Coventry, Leicester, and London, and messages and communications were received from organisations in Manchester, Glasgow, Brighton, Cambridge, Bristol, Wolverhampton, and elsewhere. Observers, representatives of social, religious and political organisations, and others also attended the meeting. Among those who sent messages of support to the meeting were representatives of branches and regions of Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, Labour Action for Peace, including its President Frank Allaun, and other representatives of the peace movement. Taking a leading part in the meeting were Sheffield Campaigner John Smith, Birmingham campaigner Sylvia Boyce, representative of the Muslim community Saira Akhtar, a representative of the Indian Workers Movement, and many others. Special coaches to the demonstration are now being organised from 9 different towns, and news keeps coming in of further local initiatives to make the demonstration a success. The meeting issued an appeal to the peace and labour movement and all other concerned organisations and individuals, calling upon them to make urgent contact with the Organising Committee and support the preparations for the demonstration. Demonstration Organiser Hugh Stephens said: "We must make up for lost time and build a national movement to stop the bombing of Iraq and lift the sanctions. Building such a movement is now a public demand. People everywhere are demanding it. Now is the time for the main peace and labour organisations to start putting their resources behind this task. The Iraqi people need this more than ever. Contact us urgently and help us make this demonstration a success." An open meeting of the Organising Committee will be held on Tuesday March 23 at 7 p.m. in London, at Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, WC1. Address correspondence to: April 17 March, BM 2966, London WC1N 3XX. Phone: 0171 436 4636 Fax: 0171 436 4638 e-mail: justice@easynet.co.uk