I have been crying over this ...
probably some of the posts/comments were from me.
May be I missed them

I have been trying hard to highlight the need to reach across the racist divide. The Shi'ites the majority of Iraq and their pilgrim to Kerabala is presented with racist stereotyped images in pigTV over here and that could be one reason.

The aggressors in the first phase of the recent atrocities in Iraq were racists. That is why they conducted a racist war.
There people are also racist and it is no surprise that they do not want to know..especially when an Islamic government looks like a possibility. It is an absolute non to support here as either this website promotes a certain political idiology or are mostly followed by racists.
It is sick either way.
I have been shouting white pigs at random to wake them up but instead see an army assembled against me. They exist in a sad mode of racism.

We have a bitch for distributing aid to developing countries who was claiming to stay on government for this very stage of helping and empowering the Iraqis exactly at this very moment in time when help is badly needed.
But there is a clear blackmail of the Iraqi people with aid that is our duty by the Geneva convention.
The oil pipes are apparently fixed now...they have been working 24 hr shifts to get it but basic human needs are held back in warehouses.
Aparently there is a lot of warehouses in cities that did not get looted. .....

We are disussign Dolllar/Euro, upcoming elections, protests that usually achieve nothing, and other crap.....like Zionis/semitism.....

I am glad that "Shocked" from Athens has criticised us here in Britain for not being more vigorous in our anti-war efforts in Britain. The Internet is an excellent way for anti-war activists to exchange views. The Greek anti-war movement has set an excellent example, second to none, and has been a very hard act to follow.

There has been a drop off in activity since the "glorious 15th" of February when we got 2 MILLION (sic) people out on the streets. But we DO now need a gentle kick up the backside and the Greek anti-war movement, which put up such a magnificent showing last week, has every right to provide this encourgement.

What do I think needs doing?

First, target the warmongers head on: the "Masters of War" like the Carlyle group and Haliburton. Let us all organise protests outside their offices in the UK (see ealier post). Put a few of their windows through and draw people's attention to the real warmongers.

Second, we need to consolidate the anti-war movement, anti-racist movement and the trades union left etc., into an alternative political movement to Blairism and New Labour. We can legitimately argue about what we call it and what form it might take, but a political alternative MUST be be built soon: British Social Forum? Rifondazione Laborista?

The Labour Party, when it was first formed, broke from the Liberals organisationally, but not politically. It was a step forward, but it was extremely limited as we now see.

The unions are the real mass organisations of the working class with money and the ability to make a difference.
The unions opposed to privatisation and warmongering need to break from New Labour and REFOUND the political organisation of the workers', environmental and anti-war movement--this time there must be a clear POLITICAL, as well organisational, break from Liberalism. Blair is now actually to the right of the Liberals. But we do not want another tired Old Labour Mark II.

We need a vigourous party which will pull in the youth. The right wing have closed down all young socialist organisations and trades union youth sections because they were won to anti-capitalist positions in the 50s, 60s and 70s. We need to re-establish some sort of Young Socialist organisation (call it what you like as long as the youth are organised and fighting). The far left groups and anarchists are trying to do this, but to really build a MASS youth movement, we need serious backing and serious money--which only the unions have. The trades unions need to re-establish youth sections (the NUT used to have a Young Teachers Section--remember them?). It was closed down in the 70s because it was strongly influenced by the far left.

Youth work has been neglected and repressed for decades. It is time to put an en end to this--the school strike show what is possible.

Here in the USA, motherland of reaction, we have 80% in support of Bush's war. In the last election, of white male voters, 87% supported Bush. Ours is now a state that fits Mussolini's definition of Fascism: "Fascism should be called 'corporatism'; for it is the merger of state and corporate power."

That's how most of our people want it. That's why I'm leaving while it's still possible.

That's why Prime Minister Poodle is worse than Neville Chamberlain, who at least did not look to taking a piece of Czechoslovakia for himself.

I am outside the UK (not sure how long for) and it is striking how much anti-war feeling there is in continental Europe, even in countries like Italy and Spain whose leaders are part of the so-called coalition of the willing. But in the direct aggressor countries, anti-war people are probably up against a lot of media demagogy and nationalist hysteria ("support our boys", "liberators" and so on). It may simply be harder to be anti-war in Britain, just as it was harder to be in the resistance movement in WWII if you were German as opposed to French, Greek and so on.

Interesting letter in The Guardian today:
"As Jews involved in human rights issues who took part in the march, we feel compelled to speak out about our experience of it as confusing and uncomfortable.
We unreservedly support an end to occupation and the establishment of a Palestinian state. We also deplore US hypocrisy in its selective opposition to UN resolutions. But to be surrounded by hate-filled chanting and images in which anti-Israel and anti-Jewish imagery were blurred left us feeling deeply alienated. How else could we feel when we saw placards featuring swastikas and the Star of David - an ancient symbol for all Jews everywhere, not just for the state of Israel - as synonymous symbols of oppression?
Where does that leave us, as Jews who totally oppose the war in Iraq but felt hostility or indifference from many of our fellow marchers?
Reva Klein, Edie Friedman, Francesca Klug
London"

Now that the war is a "done deal" so many British have gone into ostrich-mode! Even many of the ones who were marching on the 15th just sit back and say "I tried". The press has been turning against the movement and prominant anti-war figures are being smeared (Galloway and his "money from Saddam scandal"). It is not as bad as the US but things are pretty shit here if you are anti-war. We are percieved as having lost (we failed to stop the war) and no-one like a loser...

It is depressing and sometimes a really want to leave this country. When I see people on the train reading The Sun or The Mail and laughing at genocide. Sometime I think we need a serious terrorist attack to wake us up but that would probably just end up allowing the war-party to increase its power and control (as happened with Bush in the states).

I for one intend not to stop fighting the war-mongers but I guess I am among the few that have the courage to stand by their convictions. Most people are so easily influenced by the press and a large section of the press in this country is right-wing filth. The irony is that the people who are buying this shit (Mail and Sun readers) are the ones who are likely to be hit hardest by the war taxes (working class, low income) but you try and make them see this and you are denounced for being a traitor or an appeaser.

I like the idea of having a British Social Forum though, does anyone have any idea how this might be achieved? Funding, location, guests, agenda... its a big project but I would love to be involved. Hmmm, something to think about...

Thanks for illustrating my point about the press. The anti-war movement has constantly been criticised for having simplistic views concerning Israel / Iraq (ie: we hate all Jews because of our opposition to Sharon and we love Saddam because of our support of the Iraqi people) but this is a typical example of them using the "with us or against us" idea.

For fucks sake, ask any anti-war protester for a bit of in-depth analysis of the Israel situation and you will find that they do not hate all Jews, they just hate what Sharon and his right-wing Likud government is doing to the Palestinian people (ie: creeping genocide). I personally know many Jews who are appalled by Sharon and his horrendous actions yet are these the fabled "self-hating Jews"? I think not!

This is the age of sound-byte politics and it is rare for a dissenting voice ever to get enough time to fully explain their position. Everything is reduced to a slogan or a snippet of a speach and then we are derided for having "simplistic" views.

Fuck-em. Kill your TV and encourage your friends to do the same, the damn things are mind-control devices and need to be eradicated.

Maybe it's because we are trying to convey a message to thugs and racists that people are getting fed up.
On the way to nearly every march I attended people would mouth off about supporting the troops like a bunch of sheep. "Get a job" was also a favourite insult used by those with only 2 brain cells.

It seems to me that even most of the people against the war would not tollerate talk of "Our troops" being hired killers, they were too busy believing the soldiers had no choice but to be there.

Only with a few people have I had the chance at a truly intelligent conversation regarding the invasion of Iraq. Most people will start to shout you down the minute you mention "The War". It seems that britain is on the same track of dumbing down as America and there is little hope of getting through to the brainwashed masses.

As long as we continue to reduce the intelligence of the nation, the chance for rational debate is pretty much dead along with all hope of making a difference.

I keep hearing lets get a peoples forum, power, party, but
there seems to be more debate about what it should be
called, this is putting people off, it starts to sound to much like what we've already got. Especially those
who have never JOINED any group. There is always an underlying feeling of non acceptance about control.

But diffrent people that I have heard talk on this matter
cannot seem to balance there want of control with there
hate of control.

I have heard diffrent groups talk of the anarchist???
like there a diffrent species
The socialist workers like they are not welcome.

This group and that group, like we're fighting against them
If you cant stand as an individual and come together, we'll never sort out diffrences.

I'll keep fighting alone or together and hope for tthe day
when there really is an alternative, not in power,
but working together.