Peace activists have set out on a three-week \u2018Long March on Newport\u2019 to protest against September\u2019s NATO Summit. Police say they have drafted in 9,000 officers to face the protesters in one of the UK\u2019s biggest ever police operations.<\/p>\n
More than 20,000 activists from around the world are expected to take part in demonstrations during the summit, where a week-long peace camp and a counter summit are among some of the events planned in what has been billed as Wales\u2019 largest protest in a generation.<\/p>\n
Sixty world leaders from the 28-nation military bloc will meet at the Celtic Manor in Newport for the NATO summit on September 4 and 5. Previous NATO summits in Chicago and Strasbourg saw thousands protest war, austerity and global inequality.<\/p>\n
In one of the UK\u2019s largest-ever policing deployments, 20km of security fencing is being erected around the venues.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a UK-wide policing effort and I am confident that we will be able to deliver a safe summit, for delegates and the public,\u201d said Assistant Chief Constable Chris Armitt, who is leading the policing and security operation for the summit.<\/p>\n
No NATO Newport is taking a 19-day route from the National Eisteddfod in Llanelli on Friday, arriving in Newport on August 29. The protest is inspired by the Newport Chartist Rising, a 19th century suffrage march where scores were killed while demanding the release of Chartists imprisoned in the town.<\/p>\n
\u201cMany of us are increasingly worried by the threat that NATO poses to world stability and peaceful relations,\u201d said the organizers.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince the end of the Cold War, NATO has reinvented itself supposedly as a tool of the \u2018international community\u2019 to safeguard \u2018freedom and security\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn reality it is a vehicle for US-led use of force in the interests of the rich and powerful, accelerating militarization, bypassing the United Nations and the system of international law, and escalating spending on arms,\u201d they added.<\/p>\n
Activists argue that the money spent on arms could be better spent on hospitals, schools and services.<\/p>\n
The protesters want to collect messages on postcards from members of the public along the way with the aim of delivering them on the first day of the summit during planned demonstrations outside the venue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Peace activists have set out on a three-week \u2018Long March on Newport\u2019 to protest against September\u2019s NATO Summit. Police say they have drafted in 9,000 officers to face the protesters in one of the UK\u2019s biggest ever police operations. More than 20,000 activists from around the world are expected to take part in demonstrations during … Continue reading “Anti-NATO protesters begin mass march on summit”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2961,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,3],"tags":[9662,2376,9661,1946,7437],"class_list":["post-15137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-europe","category-news","tag-long-march-on-newport","tag-nato","tag-peace-protesters","tag-uk","tag-wales"],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2961"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15137"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15137\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15138,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15137\/revisions\/15138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}