Head north this November

As I've mentioned previously, this autumn will see two major opportunities for anti-war and anti-G20 protest in quick succession in Scotland. Those of us in the North East of England will be mobilising for the demonstrations too.

G20 Finance Ministers - Alistair Darling, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and his equivalents in the other major economies of the world - will gather to discuss the global economic crisis in St Andrews. They will be joined, so I gather, by the governors of their respective countries' central banks. This is an important summit for our ruling elites - and we can expect little in the way of new solutions.

Just one week later the Nato Defence Ministers will be heading to Scotland - this time to Edinburgh, principally to talk about the occupation of Afghanistan they bear responsibility for. They will be greeted by thousands of anti-war protestors angry at the continuing tragedy of that country.

These demonstrations provide a rare chance to tie together the big issues facing us all. Put People First - the coalition of unions and NGOs behind a major London demo in March - is mobilising against the G20, as well as Scottish TUC and Stop the War. This will no doubt feed into the following weekend's anti-war protest and broaden its politcal scope. Crucially, the day after the demo there's a chance to bring it all together with a counter-summit covering war, climate change and recession.

This is the latest information,from Scottish Stop the War, about the anti-Nato mobilisation (I'll post further details - about these events and the previous weekend's activities - when available):

Saturday 14th November: Stop the War Scotland has called a demonstration in Edinburgh. The demo is supported by UK Stop the War, SCND and British CND. The slogans are 'No to Nato', 'Troops Out of Afghanistan', 'Scrap Trident' and 'Jobs not Bombs'.

Sunday 15th November: Alternative summit - in Edinburgh - with venue to be confirmed. The themes are imperialism and war/ climate change / jobs and the economy.

If you would like to get involved in the organising groups for either the demo or the alternative summit please contact scotlandstopwar@hotmail.co.uk