le cool

Demonstration Stop the Spread of Guantanamitis

With the new legal year beginning today and the "old Bush laws" still in operation, we have a real chance to stand up against the continuous breaches and violations of international law that are infecting governments around the world. The Islington and Hackney Amnesty Group are holding a demonstration on behalf of the 223 Guantanamo detainees to show that much still needs to be done to free them from illegal detention and that we need to stop "Guantanamo-style" detention centres spreading across the world. There will be banners with the names of all the remaining detainees held in solidarity on the day. The demo will be opened by singer Sarah Gillespie and saxophonist Gilat Atzmon followed by speeches by lawyers, human rights campaigners and journalists on Guantanamo Bay and the far-reaching influence that it has had on national and international law. So join me and let’s try and stop the spread of Guantanamitis. / Sophie Khan
where
Parliament Square, Westminster



when
1pm - 4pm

how much
free

Le Cool

If you want to read words that are more powerful then weapons, which survived a decade of censorship and become an underground anthem of resistance then Brother Yasin should be on the top of your list. The poems are a personal recollection of Nabeel Yasin’s life before and during Saddam’s regime and the screening tells his story from his exile to the UK to his return visit to Iraq after the overthrow of Saddam. The film, directed by Georgie Weedon, captures the astonishing journey not just of the poet but his poems which were smuggled across borders back into Iraq and copied and distributed among the sympathetic even though they were banned and if found punishable by arrest. The film shows how the poems touched an Iraqi psyche that was struggling under the daily hardships of the regime and how now the poems and the poet himself have become part of the national identity of Iraq. / Sophie Khan
where
Frontline Club, 13 Norfolk Place, W2 1QJ
020 7479 8950


when
7pm

how much
£10