I was at the March in London today with friends. The reports by police that only about 15,000 people marched are definitely under the mark. At the same time, the announcement in Trafalgar Square that about 100,000 protesters were in the square was ambitious. My guess is about 50,000 - 60,000 marched - some left before they made it to the square. I didn't make it to the last big march, so can't compare the numbers.

The atmousphere was fantastic! People were upbeat, singing, chanting, smiling. No arrests, as far as I know. It was really encouraging to participate in.

The media coverage was very skimpy except for Channel 5 News, which did a really good piece. But who cares about media coverage. It was good to be there, in such friendly atmosphere.

Trafalgar Square was far more packed than last time - I'd estimate double. For the first rally, the police said 20.000 and for this one they claim 15,000 (!!!) - this is a blatant lie as anyone that attended both rallies will undoubtedly tell you! The really independent opinion of the last rally estimated around 30,000 which would make your guess of 50/60,000 spot on in my book.

Peace

I think the police had already made up their minds that there were only going to be about 10,000 protesters - and this was the figure they originally fed the media (eg ITN online quoted 'up to 10,000'). However, the size of the demo caught plod on the hop and he had to revise the figure upwards.

But it was a brilliant demo! It shows that the anti-war movement is going from strength to strength - there were so many new groups there! We have the potential to stop this war - especially now the US/UK strategy with the Northern Alliance is already unravelling.

A warning to media whores;

Your corporate controlled media coverage is fooling no-one. The figure of demonstrators (100,000) attending Sunday’s Anti-War protest in London was carefully omitted by your reporters and you focused primarily on the Muslim contingent, while all ages, races, classes and causes were represented.

Bearing in mind the film technology available, it would have been possible to relay an aerial view of the entire procession to the public, which would have revealed the true extent of the opposition. Millions more are in solidarity even if they don’t attend.

You talk of Bin Laden’s guilt, when no evidence has been produced and no trial is being sought, just his assassination. The success of this war is being measured in it’s weakening of Al Qaida, (created by CIA) who our politicians remind us operate in 62 countries, which no doubt will require “weakening” too.

The “entertainment” media is dominated by war movies past and present, while videos, computer games, cartoons and adverts are disturbing for the level of sex, violence and consumerism being promoted to children. Many programmes are debauched or satanic.

The usually incessant Nazi documentaries are being quietly phased out, because Hitler’s doctrine is indiscernible from the policies presently being implemented in our ‘democratic’ and ‘civilized’ societies.

You are serving and protecting the very group of elitists who will enslave, or murder your children. It’s time to ask yourself where your loyalties lie, in the freedom of your family, (the human race) to live in peace or our domination by a global regime of terror.

It took about 2 hours to clear the park - this one was huge- next time we'll take down their silly little tape lines and let them know how big it is

The police had the situation under control from the park onwards - the samba band and dancers were totally hemmed in by shoulder to shoulder lines of yellow jacked police whose tactic was to hold us back and keep us at the back of the march -
all you socialist / anti-war people - you could hear us in the park -
Why didn't come to help us?

I don't agree that the police were hemming people in.
The main bottleneck that was slowing progress out of the park was that there were only two gates out, and they were narrow - the one further down Park Lane where the samba band was (I was right behind them) was only about 3 people wide and gave out onto a street already full of marching people. So whether the police were there or not we wouldn't have been able to get out any faster.

It seemed to me the police were trying to keep people dierctly towards the gate to make sure we exited that way rather than have people streaming outwards and trying to jump over the fences - which would have been dangerous because the street on the other side was full of people.

It doesn't really matter that it took us a long time to get out does it? It shows the march was large. It's not a race to the finish!

Anyway it was a great day, a massive turn out (forget the 15,000 crap - I'm going to post something else in a minute which proves more like the 60,000 being talked about) and above all a safe day. My perception was that the police were calm and the mood was peaceful.

It's on the front page of the Guardian today, with a large colour picture of the march on the streets - the best picture I have seen so far.

I don't agree that the police were hemming people in.
The main bottleneck that was slowing progress out of the park was that there were only two gates out, and they were narrow - the one further down Park Lane where the samba band was (I was right behind them) was only about 3 people wide and gave out onto a street already full of marching people. So whether the police were there or not we wouldn't have been able to get out any faster.

It seemed to me the police were trying to keep people dierctly towards the gate to make sure we exited that way rather than have people streaming outwards and trying to jump over the fences - which would have been dangerous because the street on the other side was full of people.

It doesn't really matter that it took us a long time to get out does it? It shows the march was large. It's not a race to the finish!

Anyway it was a great day, a massive turn out (forget the 15,000 crap - I'm going to post something else in a minute which proves more like the 60,000 being talked about) and above all a safe day. My perception was that the police were calm and the mood was peaceful.

It's on the front page of the Guardian today, with a large colour picture of the march on the streets - the best picture I have seen so far.

I was on the demo and I think 100,000 is about right, so I'm not disputing that it was huge. The proof that Mercury Kev was talking about would be very useful though, can we have it?

I decided to count the march as it went by. Every so often I counted how long it took for 100 people to go by and I averaged it at about 30 seconds - quite big variation though. That means 200 a minute, 12,000 an hour. The march took a bit over two hours to pass so I'd say 25,000.

Yes, an inspirational day actually. Despite the fact that the police gave the Pink/Silver (or Anti-Capitalist) bloc a very heavy presence, I enjoyed the day a lot. The samba band was really good - as good as I've heard for quite some time, the costumes and colours were great and even the placards and banners in this bloc were inspirational. From what I heard, the other contingents weren't quite so lively.

Perhaps if there is another anti-war march (and I think there will be considering that Iraq is likely to be next) the anti-capitalist bloc banner should be more prominent at the start and we should perhaps decide to meet somewhere else (either leave via a different entrance - not likely to suceed, or in a shopping/financial precinct) and march to Trafalgar Square/Parliament Square by ourselves. This might be seen as hijacking, but on the other hand can be seen as a way of linking capitalism and the imperialist war on Afghanistan. With the press doing their utmost to ignore the protests, I think us radicals have the right to do what we feel is right to raise issues and *fight back*. What do you all think?

I think if we really want to get any media coverage we need to get feisty and challenge robocop. I went down to Trafalgar sqaure and afterwards left with some friends and we went down towards Parliament square - of course it was all blocked off with a long row of vans all the way down the street. A young woman was stopped by one cop - who didn't even have an ID number - and asked to remove her sticker, and they were blocking the whole road off.

It kind of reminded me of the IMF protests in Prague last year though when the bridge to the IMF's conference centre was blocked off - YA basta challenged them then even though they couldn't get through, as it was a bridge. We should have had something like that, as we could have broken through that line and made a much more powerful statement.
The only thing that's going to make the powers that be listen is civil disobedience - and not just walking around chanting under some Swappie banner, that's just respectable middle class bullshit.