Join the “Protest the Pope” Campaign in this large-scale march against the State Visit of Pope Ratzinger in the UK.

The protest march will assemble at 1.30pm at the top of Piccadilly (Hyde Park Corner).

It will then proceed through central London via Piccadilly, Piccadilly Circus, Haymarket, Trafalgar Square and Whitehall.

At the arrival point, opposite Downing Street, on Richmond Terrace, there will be the final Rally with speeches.

CONFIRMED SPEAKERS:

• Andrew Copson, British Humanist Association

• Richard Dawkins

• Ben Goldacre

• Maryam Namazie, One Law for All

• Pragna Patel, Southall Black Sisters

• Terry Sanderson, National Secular Society

• Peter Tatchell

• TBC, Women Against Fundamentalism
  

Please put this date in your ...diary and make every effort to be there.
Spread the news of this event as far as you can. Local groups might consider getting a coach party to come and if you’re coming from outside London and could offer a lift to someone in your area, please let us know and we’ll put you in touch.
Local humanist and secularist groups:
- http://www.humanism.o...
- http://www.secularism...

The final Rally will be held in the proximity of our democratic Government, opposite Downing Street, to highlight our opposition to the State Visit as opposed to a Pastoral Visit like the one of the previous Pope.

1pm – Assembly at Hyde Park Corner

2pm – 3pm – March: Piccadilly, Piccadilly Circus, Haymarket, Trafalgar Square, Whitehall

3pm – Rally opposite Downing Street

For further information, please follow this link:
http://www.protest-th...

See the Facebook event for more information on groups joining the march and to tell us you’re coming!

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* The Pope, as a citizen of Europe and the leader of a religion with many adherents in the UK, is of course free to enter and tour our country.

* However, as well as a religious leader, the Pope is a head of state and the state and organisation of which he is head has been responsible for:

1. opposing the distribution of condoms and so increasing large families in poor countries and the spread of AIDS

2. promoting segregated education

3. denying abortion to even the most vulnerable women

4. opposing equal rights for lesbians, gay, bisexual and transgender people

5. failing to address the many cases of abuse of children within its own organisation.

6. rehabilitating the holocaust denier bishop Richard Williamson and the appeaser of Hitler, the war-time Pope, Pius XII.

* The state of which the Pope is the head has also resisted signing many major human rights treaties and has formed its own treaties (‘concordats’) with many states which negatively affect the human rights of citizens of those states.

* As a head of state, the Pope is an unsuitable guest of the UK government and should not be accorded the honour and recognition of a state visit to our country.