Hello Anons,

First post. Ive been to both the London protests but decided to see about getting to Brum this time, as I live closer to Brum afterall.

Soz if this has been suggested but....

Anyway, I was just wondering whether some sort of stall could be be built to act as a kind of communication/distribution centre for leaflets/general advice to the public/food sales etc. I.e, for people who might be interested in finding out what we are doing, but a little intimidated by approaching the group. Put up a stall with a big banner above it and maybe a little bit away from the main protest.

The problem with London is at both destinations there isnt much space, but I noticed in Birmingham there appears to be quite abit more and a constant flow of people as its not on one side of a road like TCR.

Now obviously, you could buy professional stalls, but tralling the net, it looks like you wont get a decent sized one much cheaper than 250 squids.

This is a very quick (and shit) photoshop of how it could look:



Doubt it would be too difficult to knock something like that together.

Not a bad idea, I think something similar was suggested in another thread with laptops showing videos of testimony from ex-scientologists or something similar. It would act as a good point of contact for those wishing to learn more.

I'd miss out the bit about food sales though as that was discussed and decided against previously.

It would take a bit of planning and would probably need approval from the police (and council?). so maybe one to bear in mind for the May protests rather than trying to get it sorted for the April protest.

*edit* A folding wallpapering table would probably be the most practical option

Maybe a good idea, maybe a bad idea.

Would be good to get a central point for heanding out info.
Bad idea as it might block up the main street and the five oh wont like that.

I'd stick with just handing out fliers the good ol' fashioned way!

As Bestfriend and Myself are both artists, we have discussed the possibility of joining this stall as facepainters?

Would gain the imediate interest of the nearby kids (and amused teens) with the added bonus of Parents getting chatty?

S'up to you guys. We are both free and offer out services.

If a stall can't be afforded, perhaps just use folding lawn tables? I know I have one somewhere.

Whilst facepaint would be epic, we MUST check the legality of everything we do.
Facepainting anon is OK with their permission, but if there are special rules guiding facepainting the public we must be aware of them before hand.

As far as I can tell, using a table isn't illegal as long as it doesn't block the right of way; can someone double check this so that we don't get caught out on this?

Getting a table there may be hard... But I haz Milk-crates in mah back garden... which I wouldn't mind lending to the cause (Provided I can have them back - they make damned good table/ bench legs with an old door on top) They could be used as table legs if Anon wanted?

Following that, Rag market, Cheap Fabric, from like... £1/metre... Get enuff metres and you have clothing for the table.

But: I dont have a way of getting milkcrates to Newstreet... unless I get a taxi (obvious taxi is obvious, and probably easy to tail)...

Ideas/ Opinions/ input?

Facepainting is a grand idea, but i think we need to check this with the police first.

Anon76, can you send a quick email?

when an idea went around previously about giving out balloons, the general consensus was to not 'use' children to get our point across, and the face painting seems the same kinda thing.

Dave: Hadn't occured to me before - but can certainly see where it may easily be construed as such. Will leave it to other anon - just offering services.

I think this is a great idea, and the council shouldn't have a problem with it. During the last protest there were at least a couple of stalls being used by Muslims on New Street.

I'm not so sure we need so much for it, but I think a simple table we can use to put leaflets on, cake on, etc, would work pretty well. Obviously, we'd have to be careful with where we put it, as we need to be sure not to obstruct foot traffic in any way.