Guess the commentor here is, like me, a bit sick of reading self-congratulatory reports about the sit-down/stand-up/end--of-demo party in Oxford Street. Yeah, it was OK; yeah it made lots of people feel like they were achieving more than just marching, or just listening to Benn etc blether endlessly on about the evil deeds being done by the same party they are members of. But in the end, apart from being naughty children and not doing what the police or the SWP told us, where was the big achievement? Was the country brought to a standstill? I think not. Could/would the police have swept us all off the streets if we'd been a real threat? I think so. There's no especial difference between rallying in Hyde Park or blocking Oxford Street, when you can go home to your bed at the end of the day either way, feeling vindicated in whichever way suits you.

As the guy says, people in Iraq are being murdered. And, if the news can be believed, they seem to be fighting back. Just like in Palestine. And although I'm not advocating an immediate borrowing of tactics for this country at this time, if you want to see what real direct action resistance looks like, take a look at how they do it in Gaza against an enemy that doesn't keep the gloves on in the way it does here. Long live the intifada.

Rak, anti-war protests are driven by anger, frustration and the desire to make a different world. If people get some pleasure also out of the protest, well so what, we are human. You may have noticed that human emotion is something that the US forgets, as it drops its bombs which rip people to small bloody bits. Be angry with the people who deserve your anger. Not the people who are doing whatever they can to resist.

I don't quite see what is wrong with enjoying yourself while taking part in positive action, positive being the key word. It's not half as bad as hearing marines "woohoo"ing as their missiles go crashing into the front of a building!

i've also protested, it was good at start, i was optimistic i thought it could bring change but they've won this battle, the propaganda war.

When all else fails what does Tony Blair do?play the nationalist card' hope that now everyone supports the troops'...so obviously if i protest now i'm somehowm celebrating brithish soldier deaths. i don't think so, remember all those who supported the war have to face the consequences of what they support, when a british soldier dies, remember they supported the war.

The protests have highlighted a crisis to me, the left of UK and of Europe. what the hell do we stand for anymore, we're socialists and we're divided, we're communists and we're killing our own, we're for equality and against poverty but we're doing nothing to bring the change.

we;'re just going on the streets and then the right wing media associate our protests with being anti-troops.

The wars started and i might not protest anymore, but if i ever see an Esso petrol station in Iraq i might take to the streets in a very different way next time.

P.S. the Daily Star/SUN reporting about freeing Iraqi people, all they ever highlight, care about, report about are isignificant celebrities and evasive crap.

this movement is not all pesimistic, if we're to have a chance we need a reform in the left, for the worlds sake if you're left wing lets unite!!!

Don't be too pessimistic. We may not have stopped the war but the movement has achieved a significant victory - by forcing some European politicians into an anti-war stance we have proved that the US was willing to go it alone all along. Without this it would have been much harder to show the world what a sham the UN is, and how the US acts in it's own imperialist self interest.

This war for us is a lost battle but we may take some victories from it which may help us win the wider war.