Protest Demonstration
for Movement for an Adoption Apology at ‘Philomena’ premier,
Odeon
Leicester Sq. October 16th
2013
Some
of you will know that a Green Party Conference about two years ago gave an
overwhelming vote of agreement to the
motion, proposed by Jean Robertson-Molloy and seconded by Natalie Bennett, for the Green Party to support the campaign
by the Movement for an Adoption Apology .
We are seeking a cross-party
Parliamentary apology for past adoption practices.
We intend to stand outside the Odeon cinema on
the 16th of October at the premier of the film ‘Philomena’ with
placards demanding justice for the birth parents of the past ( many of us are
still alive but getting older all the time).
Thousands of women of our
generation, were pressured by the authorities into giving up our babies just
because we were not married. ‘Philomena
‘ which stars Steve Coogan and Judi Dench, is about a woman who lost her son to
adoption in Ireland, and spent fifty years searching for him.
Since
MAA started our campaign, we have received precious little attention from the
powers that be. We have written to every
MP in Parliament and to lots of other people too, but most people just don’t
want to know. That includes both
high-powered politicians and some well-known women who still find talking about
it too shameful and embarrassing.
What
good would an apology do? It would be an
acknowledgement, a recognition, of what so many women suffered. Many of us never had any more children and
many suffered serious mental health problems for years afterwards.
An
apology in Parliament, such as that given in March this year to Australian
women by their premier Julia Gillard, would go a long way towards helping birth
parents to feel acknowledged and able to speak out, instead of ashamed and
scared to speak, even to close family and friends.
So
we plan to gather asking for justice on that day , 16th October. We want a large group of supporters
to be outside the cinema waving their placards.
Please
get in touch with maanpn@gmail.com or
phone
Jean on 0208-882-7275 or Veronica on
01323-491417 if you would like to join us that day. More details of what to wording to put on
placards to follow.
Thanks Evelyn for the information.
ALAS sends our good luck wishes to MAA .
