Yes, I was there! But then in 1986 the whole thing was publicly billed as a protest sit down in front of the US Embassy to start with, and got a few thousand to attend. However, here it was fairly tame, with an agreed area set aside by police and CND leaders for the sit down in Grosvenor Sq.

Then the CND leaders marched us away down Oxford st, and we all sort of spontaneously decided we didnt want to go to a rally, so thousands of us blocked Oxford st for hours. It was good!

The situation was an angry response to Reagans bombing of Libya. (However, Reagans bombing of Libya was not a response to Lockerbie. The Lockerbie bombing was years after all this. Reagans excuse in 1986 was a bomb in Germany that killed some US military people).

I would like to see more direct action. However, on Feb 15th, if we get 500,000 on the protest, every street in Central London will be blocked whether we sit down, march around with placards, perform exotic dances, make love, knit jumpers, sing, or get stoned, whatever...it'll be the numbers.

Yeah, the numbers are the key. We MUST MUST MUST get more folk on the streets on 15/2 than on 28/9. Because, if (heaven forbid) it's fewer, just imagine the headlines!

What those folk do once there is ultimately up to them, whatever the planners say. Though I would urge y'all please not to do violence (even smashing windows), again because of headlines, also because of putting off families with kids etc.

It is not just numbers but what you do with the amount of people. Oxford Street could easily be blockaded by just 10,000 people standing in the middle of the road and refusing to move. If group like the WOMBLES got involved in planning this and turned out to protect the blockade by standing either end of it in their padding then it would be very difficult for the police to clear the street.

This is an excellent idea and we should suggest it to all militant group such as Reclaim The Streets, Disobedience and the WOMBLES. We shouldn't expect the Stop The War Coalition to help out with it though.

the numbers will always be distorted in the media. If things remain as at present, the streets should be heaving, especially if the shots have been fired by this time. Even all the soap-watching politically uninterested folks I know are set against this. The biggest worry I find in this is that the New World Orderists, prepared for this eventuality, have some new big atrocity or atrocities ready and directly linkable to Iraq prepared, in order to undermine this growing area of mass opposition and disbelief. Most likely, as they keep telling us it will be in the bio-chemical sphere. If this happens, we must be prepared to take our scepticism to the streets - those which are unpolluted.
I'm not to sure of the purpose of blocking Oxford St. It just comes across as an obstruction not for any reason except trouble-making - not that I'm particularly against trouble-making for a good reason in this sick and moribund society (leadership-wise).
In a previous comment, I suggested MI6 headquarters as a very viable target for a diversion from the main demo, although I've been out of the South for so long, that I've no idea of the geographic feasibility of that. I can provide six good reasons why though.
We need a targeted area which has some meaning beyond abstract situationist consumptionist rhetoric.
Preferably one that could be announced as a surprise from the speaker's stage.

It won't be much of a surprise if we talk about it on here...!
ANyway, i think the MI6 building is risky since they are likely to be laws regarding national securit that they could use against us if the MI6 building is ivolved at all.
I feel the best action like this is spontaneous, that doesn't mean that some of us dont go down there with the idea in our heads, but if we decide exactley what and where on the day than there isn't much the police can do to stop us.

Oxford Street is the biggest symobl of capitalist greed and this war is being fought over capitalist greed for domination and control of the worlds' richest oil region.

Also it will be as Oxford Street is always full of people it will be very easy to blockade with just a few tousand people and impossible for the police to tell who is a protester and who is a shopper or tourist. It will also be an effictive protest and grip the headlines if thousands of people go there and chant "No attack on Iraq" and No blood for oil" for several hours!