O-I-L welcomes George

During the George W. Bush visit to London in October 2003 many actions and demonstrations took place to mark the occasion.

The atmosphere on the streets was amazing. Anyone who can get that get that many people to come together for peace and to express their oneness has one up on this particular O-I-L campaign, (for now!)

It is a shame of course that he doesn't at this point do what the fans on the streets want and focus on this profile by working for peace by peaceful means.

After all anything that war can do peace can do so much better.

Some history first: Back in early 2001, O-I-L spoke at the inauguration demonstration of this George W. Bush, at the U.S.A. embassy in London. Our speaker predicted that this president, who had been not elected, but made president, would through his blatant openness about his intended plans for the human race and our planet finally get people off their sofas; away from their televisions and out onto the streets and into some kind of direct action.

O-I-L suggested that this man would mobilise peace, environmental and humanitarian movements all over the world in quite a profound way. O-I-L wanted to say this more to ease the anger and frustration felt by the various groups who were at the demo, (the star wars, the death row, the climate change, the women's global strike, friends of the earth and other environmental and concerned campaigns and campaigners and worried people and politicians to name but a few of the attendees).

It is a shame of course that he doesn't at this point do what the fans on the streets want and focus on this peace provoking profile by working for peace by peaceful means.

After all anything that war can do peace can do so much better.

And it was on this note that a demonstration was called by O-I-L. It was specifically called as a demonstration that was not to be anti-anything, but to stand for all the things that we are for. This is usual for O-I-L.

O-I-L does recognise that one cannot be for something without being against something else. We simply want to take the focus away from complaining about issues and put our energy into active and positive participation to work towards our goals.

In the case of the Bush visit to London, O-I-L called for an all-women demonstration with support wholeheartedly welcomed from men who also support the need for women to be acknowledged in the whole war and peace movement. It is felt by O-I-L that the voices and presence of women seemed overlooked and that if we are to evolve we must look at the needs of society as a whole and not just a few businessmen and politicians.

And so to the gathering itself. A group of women and children gathered in the centre of Trafalgar Square in the heart of London. O-I-L provided a large quantity of chalk for the gathering. Everyone was encouraged to draw and write their messages for peace on the ground, till the whole area was covered in the most varied colourful messages and pictures.

A calm circle of women grew around a group of children who were making great use of the chalks and their artistic skills.

One guy who wasn't aware of what was happening became angry when asked to respect the women's circle and to join the men who were there to show their support.

The women began by holding hands in silence. The silence was to symbolise the silencing of women, as it is rare that women voices are represented in the move for or against war.The silence was very powerful and even loud in its strength and presence.

The number of men supporting was large enough to completely surround the women's circle.

When the circle finished O-I-L's female representative and other women who are working for peace gave speeches. Amongst the speakers were peace activists from both Palestine and Iraq and women who work for peace in Britain disarming the army and naval bases. One of the most powerful speakers was an Iraqi woman who gave her powerful testimony. Many shed tears as the woman spoke to their hearts.

It was refreshing to have women's voices talking about what they are doing for peace rather than just listening to the usual Trafalgar Square speeches which repeatedly tell us that the speakers are anti-Bush, anti-Blair and anti-war in a successful attempt to get the crowd applauding them.

As things began wrapping up the O-I-L rep was slipping away for the next part of the plan. An action was underway to climb the plinth on the square that had no statue on it. It was sadly foiled by a very diligent security guard. But the action continued.

Having had the attempt to scale the plinth stopped she determinedly made her way across the square where the women's circle was just finishing up. Dressed in a wedding dress as a pregnant bride with a gas mask covering her face and a streak of red blood pouring from her heart she climbed up onto Nelsons Column. From here she dropped a large banner, which read:

PEACE IS A
BY PRODUCT
OF LOVE
WE ARE
O-I-L
ONE IN LOVE

After a while she was joined by two other women who held the banner while she made a speech.She addressed the crowd with the aid of a microphone and amp whilst still wearing her gas mask. In the speech she drew attention to the fact that Trafalgar Square was a monument dedicated with statues to the many war lords who had travelled abroad to murder women and children and men who they had never known or even met. The idea behind her costume was to represent the women and children who are mostly the victims of this brutal patriarchal system.

She spoke too of the difference between the billions of dollars and pounds that are invested in killing people rather than Keeping them alive. This can be seen more clearly through the health service where the cuts are made and where the health services world wide are becoming privatised, making us seem like an uncaring inhumane human race.

Of course she spoke of Love and how it is such a valuable resource. She went on to say that it is more valuable a resource than the fossil fuel, oil that is running out due to our markets being manipulated by a few greedies whose mind is on self centred short term gains. It would seem she said that Love appears to be running out and in some cases is even being privatised.

This is happening sometimes as a result of people moving away from the family group and from community and away too from looking out for the more vulnerable people in our society. People are investing all their Love into one person. This they often try to prove to the one other by buying them things to prove they Love them.

For some the Love people have is even further from any human investment as the person puts all their energy into money making, which seems even more common. (A frequent question O-I-L asks people is what they Love the most in the whole world, and so often the answer is “money”. Yes those pieces of paper and metal with pictures of dead people - or in the case of the euro pictures of ugly buildings on them - comes out top... ummmm?) It could all change in a minute, or even less.

Luckily O-I-L happens to know that Love is infinite and that is why O-I-L continues to remind people that Love is a resource that the more we use it the more the more we get. That is to say the more we use Love the stronger and more caring and humane we become as a human race. It is the one thing that can stop wars; clear up pollution, violence, hunger, racism and all the other inhumane things.

A point raised which was a silencer for the crowd was that we are all responsible for peace on the planet. We cannot rely on Blair and Bush to do peace. We must acknowledge that our actions make up peace on the planet too. Simple things were suggested such as when you catch somebody's eye when you walk down a street, rather than look away give that person a smile or even say “hi”. Or how spreading a good vibe rather than a bad vibe leads to peace. Making up with people we have fallen out with. All these and an infinite number of other things go towards making peace the norm.

It is easy to perceive these ideas as naïve; but it is as possible as any other reality. We have to work together with Love, which is the greatest most powerful tool in the world to bring about these changes. Nobody said it would be easy. Yes it's a challenge, but its just laziness to say that this is not possible. It is as possible as everyone fearing that there will be another “terrorist” attack. Whatever we focus on and work towards can happen. O-I-L commits to work towards Love as an experiment to show when that critical mass of humans are in Love then bingo, we can do anything and be One In Love. Yee-haw!

Imagine, and of course, as anything in the world is possible: imagine our George and our Tony committing large acts of true loving kindness. They'll be talking about oil alright…. Operation Infinite Love and telling everyone how we are One In Love... why not.?

P.S.: O-I-L suggests that we challenge ourselves by sending these popular guys some Love, because if we keep sending these guys hate then maybe that is what they will use to make big decisions. This was greeted by a mixture of boos and cheers at the demo the day Bush was elected but the boos seem to not be there these days when suggested as people seem to get the concept of how we all contribute to the energy field on this beautiful planet where we are One In Love...

Keep it O-I-Ly.

Ah yes, by the way, that night as I was walking back through Trafalgar Square the magic of the days events were continuing. People wandering through were slowing down their rushed walks and stopping, like so many others were, to read the messages drawn on the ground and looking at the pictures. One guy I spoke to told me that he was on his way to the national portrait gallery but had not made it as he had spent the past two hours looking at all the beautiful messages and pictures.

email info@o-i-l.org