500 locals march for peace in Gulf War garrison town
Colchester Peace Campaign | 27.01.2003 14:51
Colchester Peace Campaign held a march against war on Iraq this Saturday (25/1/03). Organisers were overwhelmed by the turnout, which reached 500 as it passed through the town, on its way to the Garrison of the 16th Air Assault Brigade, which is preparing its move to Kuwait for its assault on Iraq.
Our march got great support from other local people, with shoppers applauding and joining in, while car drivers sounded their horns. Our banners spelt out the massage clearly and vividly, No to war, don’t attack Iraq, no blood for oil.
We received positive media coverage, a big photo of the march with the caption “Anti-War lobby out in force” hitting the front page of the East Anglian Daily Times, with 2 more pages inside!
The Evening Gazette has a huge story on Page three. It features a beautiful photo of the March assembling underneath a stunningly vivid double rainbow that had appeared. (A sign of hope, and also a coming torrent of rain that drenched us all but did not reduce our numbers or spirits!) There is also a photo of young women tying anti-war banners to the Parachute regiment barracks. We also got on TV and Radio news.
The East Anglian Daily times report 91% of their readers in phone polls rejecting Blair and Bush’s war while the Gazette features the Feb 15th National Demo, giving details of local coaches to the protest.
This is now the biggest movement in Britain since the anti-Poll Tax revolt smashed Thatcher. It is a historically unprecedented opposition movement to an imperialist war.
The march had only taken 8 or 9 days to organise, and gained momentum with the government announcement earlier in the week that the locally based Air Assault Brigade, which includes the Parachute Regiment, was to immediately begin the huge operation of its move to the Gulf.
Immediately the Peace Campaign began picketing the Brigades HQ, gaining newspaper and TV coverage and local support. We were pleasantly surprised to find some soldiers beeping horns in our support, giving us the thumbs up. Others expressed a differing opinion!
The barracks are a hive of activity, with military vehicles lined up, all marked for transit to Kuwait. Spare parts and miscellaneous kit are crammed into dozens of rust coloured ‘florens’ freight containers, awaiting shipment.
This Saturday, everybody seemed energised by the march, wanting to do more.
People of all ages, young people who have never protested before, older people who hadn’t protested for decades joined a peoples parliament outside the barracks.
At an open mike forum, dozens of young people, many from the 6th form college, made eloquent criticisms of the war, and discussed what to do to oppose it. Applause was given to calls for money for welfare not warfare, with fair pay in the Fire Service, and proper resources for Education, rather than increasing student debt being popular ideas.
On the same day, by coincidence 800 marched through Norwich – that means over 1200 marched in the East Anglia region alone in one day. We are also receiving reports of many other meetings in the most rural parts of East Anglia at the same weekend, with even many conservative people taking a stand against the war.
What Next? Join the discussion!
We received positive media coverage, a big photo of the march with the caption “Anti-War lobby out in force” hitting the front page of the East Anglian Daily Times, with 2 more pages inside!
The Evening Gazette has a huge story on Page three. It features a beautiful photo of the March assembling underneath a stunningly vivid double rainbow that had appeared. (A sign of hope, and also a coming torrent of rain that drenched us all but did not reduce our numbers or spirits!) There is also a photo of young women tying anti-war banners to the Parachute regiment barracks. We also got on TV and Radio news.
The East Anglian Daily times report 91% of their readers in phone polls rejecting Blair and Bush’s war while the Gazette features the Feb 15th National Demo, giving details of local coaches to the protest.
This is now the biggest movement in Britain since the anti-Poll Tax revolt smashed Thatcher. It is a historically unprecedented opposition movement to an imperialist war.
The march had only taken 8 or 9 days to organise, and gained momentum with the government announcement earlier in the week that the locally based Air Assault Brigade, which includes the Parachute Regiment, was to immediately begin the huge operation of its move to the Gulf.
Immediately the Peace Campaign began picketing the Brigades HQ, gaining newspaper and TV coverage and local support. We were pleasantly surprised to find some soldiers beeping horns in our support, giving us the thumbs up. Others expressed a differing opinion!
The barracks are a hive of activity, with military vehicles lined up, all marked for transit to Kuwait. Spare parts and miscellaneous kit are crammed into dozens of rust coloured ‘florens’ freight containers, awaiting shipment.
This Saturday, everybody seemed energised by the march, wanting to do more.
People of all ages, young people who have never protested before, older people who hadn’t protested for decades joined a peoples parliament outside the barracks.
At an open mike forum, dozens of young people, many from the 6th form college, made eloquent criticisms of the war, and discussed what to do to oppose it. Applause was given to calls for money for welfare not warfare, with fair pay in the Fire Service, and proper resources for Education, rather than increasing student debt being popular ideas.
On the same day, by coincidence 800 marched through Norwich – that means over 1200 marched in the East Anglia region alone in one day. We are also receiving reports of many other meetings in the most rural parts of East Anglia at the same weekend, with even many conservative people taking a stand against the war.
What Next? Join the discussion!
Colchester Peace Campaign
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