Seven people from Chester, Wrexham and beyond took a solidarity vigil into Chester city centre to mark the start of another three days of pre-trial hearing for Bradley Manning in Fort Meade, Maryland, US.

The vigil was timed to begin at 3pm BST, as the hearing was beginning in Fort Meade. Don’t take any notice of the time displayed on Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee clock in the photos – it’s bust. We should been here at the weekend and brought Bradley Manning to the QE2 Jubilee revellers.

We handed out information leaflets and spent a lot of time discussing Bradley’s case with passing shoppers, workers and tourists who, by and large, arrived ignorant and left informed and indignant. Several new people signed up to join the WISE Up network, others took sunflower seeds to participate in the ‘Plant Seeds of Truth’ project.

We were forced to run for shelter during a number of torrential downpours in the course of the afternoon, but the big banner stayed up throughout and wherever we looked there were cameras pointed up at it. We expect an imminent surge in support for Bradley Manning in Japan.

It doesn’t take much effort to get out on the streets and talk to people about Bradley Manning. As the number of pretrial hearings looks set to double from three to six, there will be plenty of opportunity for more solidarity and support actions between now and the Autumn.

See also previous post about the vigil and press release.