End The Occupation of Iraq - Freedom for Palestine - No more war lies.

London, September 27th, 2003

100,000 Say No To War No To Bush.

5 months after the war 100,000 people marched on the streets of London chanting Anti Bush, Anti Blair, Anti War Everywhere! Thanks to all the groups and individuals who did so much to make it a success. It proved conclusively that the movement has not gone away and that we are as determined as ever to stop the occupation and future wars.

Many activists were surprised by the turnout, (more about the numbers later) but the Stop the War Coalition’s march on 27 September was the success it set out to be. The antiwar movement, just like the war on terror, is not dead. The fall out of the Hutton Enquiry, the realisation that the deaths continue to pile up and the WMDs that will not be found all contribute to a growing sense of disgust at Blair’s desire to go down in history as a wartime prime minister.

Obviously there weren’t going to be 2 million people marching again, but 100,000 was a great result. Or was it 10,000 as the police claim? Put it this way. On Saturday we handed out 10,000 leaflets about the European Social Forum. If the police were right, many people have taken 2 or more leaflets (given that there’s always a number of people who refuse all leaflets at protests) This is a historic first. A piece of paper so popular without being a bank note that people wanted multiple copies. The leaflet didn’t even have a picture on it. If you took two, can we have one back, please?

No, there was tens of thousands, and to say 100,000 is not a fanciful claim. Loads of people I have spoken to seem to think it was a different demo - many hadn’t seen the GR pink and orange tank, it was one of those marches where you didn’t see most of your friends because of the number of people there.

The understanding of people there was excellent. The connection with economic imperialism, the acceptance of anti-corporate ideas was obvious. More than 50 people signed up their interest in the European Social Forum. As I said 10,000 took leaflets and 10 actually parted with a considerable amount of cash to get their train tickets sorted (an excellent number for a demo).

It’s all looking ahead again now, as speaker after speaker mentioned the fact that George W Bush is coming to London. Time to get on the streets one more time. A state visit from Bush is probably the closest thing to a G8 or IMF meeting in the UK. And we know he’s going to be staying in Buckingham Palace. Anyone up for it? GR is now getting a group together to lay plans for action when the boy Bush arrives. If you want to be involved, contact [email protected].

Many people showed they had the determination to keep the pressure up on Blair and Bush, we have the perfect opportunity to increase that pressure now. Stay on the streets, keep organising, another world will be ours.

Guy Taylor

A Message From Arundhati Roy, read out on the demonstration.

“Iraq is the frontline, Iraq is the battlefield where Empire is staging its most vulgar assault. Iraq is caught in the cross-fire of Empire’s most brutal weapons - the cheque book and the cruise-missile. The war in Iraq is the inevitable culmination of the process of Corporate Globalization. But let us not forget that Iraq is also where the armies of Empire are being actively engaged in real, headlong battle. If we are against Empire, if we are against the onslaught of corporate globalization, then we must support the Iraqi peoples’ resistance to the occupation of their country. In each of our countries we must campaign against our various governments’ various attempts to shore up the occupation - whether it is the sending of troops, money, weapons or equipment. The transnational corporations that have been given multi-million dollar contracts for the privatization of Iraq’s infrastructure and natural resources have offices strung across the globe.

We must turn our gaze on them. We must shut them down. We have globalized dissent. But symbolic dissent is not enough any longer. It is now time to globalize resistance.”
Arundhati Roy

 

Thousands of anti-war protesters from all over Britain have united in London today to call for an end to the British and American military occupation of Iraq.

Organised by Stop the War Coalition, CND and the Muslim Association of Britain, the demonstration was part of hundreds of anti-war protests taking place around the world on the weekend of September 26-28 marking the third anniversary of the Palestinian uprising (intifada) on the eve of the Labour Party conference.

Toddlers stood on their parents‚Äö shoulders holding placards, schoolchildren chanted and the elderly and pensioners sang songs about peace.

Slogans included ‘Bush, Blair, CIA, how many kids did you kill today?’ and ‘We are anti-Bush, anti-Blair, anti-war everywhere’.

The protest started from Hyde Park at 13.00 and ended in a march in Trafalgar Square at 14.30 where MP Tony Benn, CND‚Äös Kate Hudson and MP Jeremy Corbyn were among the speakers.

The organisers estimated around 100,000 protesters participated in what is the first major anti-war demonstration after the fall of Saddam Hussein.

Addressing the demonstrators, Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn said: “We are here today because we‚Äöre united to try to change the politics of this country”.

The proven inexistence of the Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, the lies exposed at the Hutton inquiry fed to the British public to convince them to support an illegal war, the violent death of unarmed Iraqi civilians and a conditioned British tabloid media declaring liberators those who fought one of the poorest countries in the world, have all contributed to the fury of the people who say ?íNo more war, no more lies‚Äö.

The bombing of Iraq was strongly opposed by the British public throughout the time of the war marking the biggest demonstration ever in Britain on February 15 2003. Like Afghanistan, post-war Iraq is in a deep socio-economic crisis, left with thousands of murdered civilians, an unstable government and demolished houses for the civilians. All an American and British creation.
Elvira Sklavenitis