Solidarity from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The anti-war movements in the UK and Europe are a great inspiration for us here in Canada and North America. The mainstream mood is very pro-war. Anyone who questions it is shouted down. So, in marching, you don't just march for yourselves, but for us too. Please keept it up!

SP

I was at the march and I can, in fact, confirm that the march was very large (at least for the UK); compared with other protests I've been to, I would say we're talking in the range of 30 to 40 thousands people. It's true that it was very hard to tell because there were so many people and the streets were windy and sometimes quite narrow...

On the whole though, it was a great and inspiring day!
The solidarity was amazing. Different people made speeches for their particular region of the world that is experiencing Western viz. American imperelism and war, but what we all understood, and what was explicitly stated, is that the suffering people all over the world had very similar causes and that the death of an Afghani, or Palestinian, or American, or person from ANY nation is equally abhorrant - yes, a very simply fact (to you and I maybe), but something that seems to be implicitly denied in the military actions and media of many western nations (some worse than others, of course).

RE: The media. I don't know how bad the media is in Canada, but the US media is incredibly right-wing and biased. I went to CNN for a laugh to see what they reported on the London protests:

 http://europe.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/europe/10/13/gen.peace.demonstrations/index.html

And here is some text:

"LONDON, England -- Thousands of Muslims and Christians took to the streets of Britain."

They are obviously trying to frame the march as some sort of minority, religious-led protest... In actual fact, the Muslims and Christians, while present, were a minority at the protest. The crowd was incredibly mixed - people from all backgrounds, political groups, and just 'regular' normal Londoners attended. It wasn't a religious-based protest by any means.

Secondly:

"Up to 10,000 people were predicted to attend a rally in London, despite police estimating that about 3,000 had gathered at Hyde Park before the march was to head for Trafalgar Square and the West End."

Actually, the final OFFICIAL POLICE estimate, widely reported in the UK, was at 20,000. Initially, they had expected 5,000.. not 3,000. In any case, the number was MUCH larger than 20,000. I've been on many protests before, and it may have been up to nearly twice that amount.



Oh well. Battling the corporate-led media is part of the fight, I suppose. We've got either challenge the media to report the facts more accurately, or we have to reach a large enough audience ourselves through our own media channels. Unfortunately, the old-style 'mass media' (through TV) is still dominant.

Solidarity from London. :)

I second that emotion: Saturday's peace march was, quite simply, a collection of concerned people keen to make their views heard. When a couple of lagered-up lads tried to burn the American flag, you could hear large portions of the crowd encouraging the police to take them away - there was a strong determination to keep it peaceful. Flag burning sends out completely the wrong message and, besides, the UK is every bit as implicated in this war now as the US.

But where do we go from here? I agree some kind of broad symbol like a black and white ribbon would be useful. Or a dove... one woman was marching with a plastic dove tied to a long wooden branch - I loved that kind of gesture. Another cyclist moved through the crowd on an extraordinary Heath-Robinson style contraption which flapped its wings, bearing the message 'Love your Mum' - adorned with pictures of the world. :o)

The challenge will be to keep our righteous anger channelled carefully into peaceful protest. While our leaders are over-reacting and behaving like schoolyard bullies (of the very vilest kind), we must set an example of friendliness, open-mindedness and fairness.

I am therefore looking forward to how this protest movement develops. By all means let's search for joint symbols, but let's still have lots of diversity and individual expression too. Isn't that the point... we refuse to accept other people's versions of reality. I know I do.

Hey. I'm the girl who was dancing in the fountain in Trafalger Square. If anyone has any pictures of me, or with me in it please email me..


THANKS

GG what were you wearing? (there were a lot of boys and girls in the fountains).

The day for me was amazing. Here at last was a serious physical presence to testify that many people are standing up for peace and justice. I was thrilled to see so many people gathered at Hyde Park and as the march started I stepped aside to watch it pass and wait for a latecoming friend. 45 minutes later I was still there watching the crowd march past, seas of printed placcards punctuated by home made banners and signs as well as banners made by groups and trade unions. A quick calculation - with 3 other people we counted the numbers passing by us in a minute, we reckoned on average it was about 600, so 45 X 600 = 27,000 At this point there was still at least 5,000 people still waiting in the park to leave. We were stunned! (though more so when getting home and seeing reports like the one AFP (french equivalent to AP) saying only 5000 people marched and the BBC saying only 10,000. As stated above the police official end figure was 20,000, CND later said nearer 50,000. My feeling had been definatly more than 30,000, maybe 40,000.

The diversity of the crowd too was amazing, so too was the atmosphere in Trafalger square - such a long time since I had seen this traditional place of protest so full of people! The police were quite hands off about the whole thing, but were taking no chances. As usual police camera crews peppered the crowds, and many streets that were passed were blocked off with vans. I thought the presence of a row of mounted riot police at the start point of the march was a strong message not to deviate from the agreed route. Later I counted over 60 vans of riot police down Whitehall and the surrounding streets.

I guess it'll be interesting to see how many people turn out for the sit down protest next sunday (both the numbers willing to risk arrest and those just their to give support). With another national demo called for the middle of November I can only imagine it getting bigger... 100,000 next time?

It is a bit fustrating that Glasgow Peace protest has gone almost unreported, even in Indymedia (see front page). It was one of the biggests ilegal protests seen in Glasgow recently. Around 4000 people. If compared with the population of Glasgow, less than 1 million, its in proportion almost as big in numbers as the one in London.

The feeling of solidarity was great and so was the humanitarian sense that something has to be done to stop this bloody war.

No pasarán!

I was wearing a blue bikini top and a black thong with a cat's face on it. And i had a kind of wilted mohican.

I was the only one in my fountain (it was the one on the left)
Apart from the really little kids who were naked at the bottom.

I want to come and show my support for the sit down but I can't get arrested.........gcse's and such like......

It was great to see so many people there on Saturday. And thank you to the people who gave me clothes....

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you....I seem to be writing a lot of thank you's these days. Thanks to IMC and those who post here and especially thanks to everyone all over the globe who demonstrate for peace, sometimes despite severe repression. I live in Portland, Oregon, (northwestern US, south of Vancouver, BC). Our city is somewhat more liberal than some, but even so "we" are still a definite minority. It is worse than the early sixties because the feds have (in my opinion) learned their lessons well: the un-Constitutional and anti-democratic measures being enacted against all dissent, all justice and peace communities, coupled with the militarization of the local police (amounting to a standing army, really) - all of these things and more make our struggle seem very grave indeed. The terrorism that we in America are waking up to is NOT the deaths of thousands of innocents (as horrifying as that is); no, the terrorism we are facing is the deliberate destruction from within of an ideal. (As Langston Hughes said, it is an unrealized ideal...but something to work for nonetheless.) VENCEREMOS THANK YOU

All I read here on IMC was about 3 lines on Glasgow demo and one pic - if you were there write a report please :-)

Report from Media Workers Against War:

 http://www.mwaw.org/article.php?sid=138

Between 30,000 and 50,000 people – far more than the CND organisers expected – marched through Central London on Saturday 13 October to protest against the war. It took more than 90 minutes for the column of marchers to leave Hyde Park and thousands were still in the park when the head of the column arrived at Trafalgar Square 5 km away. With this demonstration, the anti-war movement has emerged as a serious political force in Britain. Until now, the major media outlets have pretended that we do not exist. After this extraordinary turn-out, that pretence will be harder to keep up.

The next national protest against the war will be in London on Sunday 18 November.

The main slogan of the demonstration was “not in our name” – that Prime Minister Tony Blair does not speak for all of Britain. Less than one week after US and British forces began their military assault on Afghanistan, the protest was diverse, vibrant and determined. Young and old, black and white, people of all religions and none, veteran political activists and many thousands attending their first ever protest, all joined in sending a clear message to the government: we will not allow this unjust war to be made in our names.

There were banners from trades union branches (UNISON, NUT, TGWU, CWU, MSF and NUJ), anti-racist and Muslim organisations, Palestinian refugees, Turkish and Kurdish groups, colleges and universities, a wide variety of local and national peace organisations as well as the full spectrum of left-wing activists. Contingents came from Birmingham, Sheffield, Cardiff, Cambridge, Colchester, York, Lancaster, Leicester, Portsmouth, Plymouth and elsewhere. There were banners for Lawyers Against the War, Medics Against the War and, of course, Media Workers Against the War.

“This was the most socially diverse and multi-racial protest march I’ve ever seen in central London,” observed anti-racist campaigner Suresh Grover, chair of the National Civil Rights Movement. “It’s an indication that south Asians in Britain will be speaking out in no uncertain terms against this cruel and hypocritical war.”

The tens of thousands who joined the march are among more than a quarter of a million people who have already directly participated in anti-war activity of some kind in Britain in the last three weeks.

Saturday‘s demonstration followed anti-war meetings across the country during the previous week. The Stop the War Coalition reported that 2000 people turned up to protest at Downing Street on Monday evening at less than 24 hours notice. On Tuesday, 500 attended a meeting in Glasgow and 300 in Sheffield. On Wednesday, more than 600 packed out the Media Workers Against the War meeting in central London, while another 200 attended a meeting in Newcastle and more than 100 an event at the London School of Economics. On Thursday, 300 attended a meeting in Liverpool, 250 a meeting in Newham, east London, and 160 a meeting in Nottingham.

And from the Independent in Sunday, 14 October 2001

Surprise at large turnout for national anti-war rally

By Cole Moreton

Old men in Islamic dress marched with former Greenham women and dreadlocked anti-capitalists who booed when they passed McDonald's. Yesterday's peace rally in London was the first major public show of strength for a diverse coalition of people opposed to war which has grown up by website and e-mail faster than in any previous conflict.

Even the organisers were surprised at how many people turned up. "The police expected 10,000 but we have far, far exceeded that,'' said Carol Naughton, chair of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, which cancelled a planned demo against Star Wars in order to host the rally. The police estimated 20,000 people were on the march from Hyde Park Corner to Trafalgar Square, while the organisers put the numbers at 50,000.

It was a noisy and unruly demonstration on a hot day but people danced in the fountains instead of causing trouble. Attempts by far-left groups such as the Socialist Workers' Party to dominate the gathering were thwarted by weight of numbers.

Salma Yakoob of the Stop the War Coalition in Birmingham addressed the crowd from the plinth in Trafalgar Square. "If only the leftists had been here today people would have said we were all lefties," she said. ''If only CND had been here they would have said it was the middle-class elite. If it was only the Muslims they would have called us extremists. If it was only Asians and black people they would have said it was the ethnic minorities. Tony Blair, we are here united against this war. You cannot dismiss us all.''

The poet Adrian Mitchell performed a piece which he had first read out in Trafalgar Square in 1964. "It is about Vietnam,'' he said. "But it is still relevant. It's about sitting faithfully in England while thousands of miles away terrible atrocities are being committed in our name.''

The Stop The War Coalition announced that it intended to hold another national rally on 18 November.