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Pictures from August 5th demo (part 1)

Camera Boy | 08.08.2006 01:59 | Lebanon War 2006 | Anti-militarism | Cambridge | London

This is the first part of my pictorial narrative of what happened on Saturday August 5th, when several thousand people came together in London in outrage at what the tinpot imperialist Israeli government is currently doing to Lebanon.




















More to follow Soon...
More to follow Soon...


Well, I could do the numbers game and try to do a head count of attendees, I could talk about the edginess of some of the police, although for me this would be dishonest, as I did not directly see any of this, I could also remind you why the demonstration happened, but by now you've already read about this many times.

I won't do any of that, instead, I'll just say that all you need to know is that people turned up.

Many, many people turned up.

And the reason why they turned up is really quite simple.

Because despite what the media and politicians might lead you to believe, the majority of human beings on this planet do not like war.

The majority of human beings, even though at times they may find themselves getting angry with their fellow humans for whatever reason, still do not resort to war, resort to killing their fellow human beings to make their point.

And even when pushed to do this, they still do not like doing it, because they find themselves somehow LESS human by being involved in the the act of taking the life of another human being.

This is why most human beings do not like war.

This is all you need to know.

The pictures I've taken can tell the rest of the story of that day, of how many, many people came together on the streets of London from many different backgrounds to simply say they do not like war, whoever happens to be doing it.

There is an old saying:
"An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind"

Our Zionist friends would do well to remember this.

Camera Boy

Comments

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Great Picture

08.08.2006 09:47

The picture with the empty deck chairs is brilliant,people have literally got off thier backsides to protest
Like your sentiments about war too

mike d
mail e-mail: solidarityparl@hotmail.com
- Homepage: http://www.myspace.com/solidaritypark


An eye for an eye will make us all blind!

08.08.2006 11:47


I saw this saying for first time on this (A) poster

Personally I believe that by marching from A to B like we did again and again the past few years will bring NO result. The war will continue and we will be guilty as well... I agree with the analysis of the comrades from Greece:

=====================================

After the fall of the regimes of Eastern Europe and the final degradation of the USSR, humanity came in front of a new status where we began to live and we still live under the “New Order Era” which was imposed by victorious empire of the “Cold War Era”. The New Order that was imposed by the United States of America demands the total subordination both on a state-government level and especially on a social level, turning the citizens into obedient subjects. The New Order demands “earth and water” (1*) and on the same time is changing the economy even of the Western Countries, and finally is creating a global mercenary army.

The american dominance achieved to transform the dogma of “development through the marginal conflict”, which was their doctrine during the Cold War Era, into a continuous for 16 years Undeclared World War, which is carried out under the pretence of international terrorism, thus demanding the social consent from the populations of the west. In other words, they want the people to be their accomplices in the policies of the NATO coalition sovereigns.

This Undeclared World War is taking characteristics either of international sanctions (embargo, external control of national programs, integration in the “axis of evil”), or of military intervention against the states that “hide and help the international terrorism”, or action against organised groups that commit acts of “terrorism”, or even military action against whole societies and people.

It is quite interesting that in the frame of promoting the interests of the empire, everyone can observe that very often and very easily the allies are turned into enemies and the enemies into allies, always according to the present situation and not on the basis their real characteristics. Such occasions are Saddam Hussein, Bin Laden, the Muzahentin and the Taliban, who used to bear the title of the “freedom fighters” some years ago. It is crystal clear that the resurrection of the extreme islamism (fundamentalism) is the work of the USA.

What is happening now in Palestine and Lebanon is the continuity of the policies of the New Order, which is imposed by the bosses of the planet. We enter in a situation where we cannot foresee its end, but the only thing we can surely foretell is that the people will pay dearly, both the people of the west and the people of the east. We have seen such consequences before with the attacks in USA on the 11th of September, the attacks in Madrid on the 11th of March, and the attacks in the metro of London.

The antiwar movement, which was developed against the war in Iraq, was not able to develop the required resistances against the policies of the global dominance, and that’s why it was not able to stop the war. The only thing which was expressed by the antiwar movement was an abstract “stop the war” without any kind of criticism to the roots that give birth to the war. We must avoid the mistakes of the past, we must learn from these mistakes, and we must move forward by building an antiwar movement that will not only question the war, but it must move to a direct confrontation with the foundations and the structures of the system of the New Order which gives birth to the war.

CAPITALISM KILLS BOTH DURING WAR AND DURING PEACE

SOLIDARITY THE WEAPON OF THE PEOPLE! WAR AGAINST THE WAR OF THE BOSSES!

Antiauthoritarian Movement Assembly of Thessaloniki

(*1) Speaking of “earth and water” we mean “total obedience”. It’s an expression taken from ancient greek history, when the Persian Empire invaded Greece and the Persian king Darius demanded “earth and water” before any invasion, as a sign of unconditional surrender and slavery.

=====================================

 http://www.resistance2003.gr/en/news/story.php?id=101

Joe


Eye for eye: response.

08.08.2006 13:38

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that old saying may be a biblical one..?
If anyone knows better, please enlighten us!
;-)

As for your comments about the state of perpetual war, well, a Certain Mr.Eric Blair prophesied all this nearly 60 years ago in his novel "1984", and so far I've seen nothing in the current state of world affairs to doubt his extremely shrewd judgement.

And yes, marching from A to B in itself doesn't really do much in real terms, however in holistic terms it registers for all the world to see the fact that there is a portion of the population that does not believe the hyperbole they are fed by the governments and the the corporate media, or are likely to any time soon.

The only real terms ways to change things is by action - what action is chosen to do this is up to the individual, but it should be considered that, quite often (ironically), acts of violence (be it against people or property) can be seen to be counterproductive in the eyes of the wider public.

Camera Boy


where the saying comes from

09.08.2006 00:48

In reply (for info) "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth" is a quotation from Exodus outlining the kind of justice God wants done ie if someone puts your eye out you have the right to put out theirs...

Gandhi reversed this and said it was a bad system of justice based on vengence and that "An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth and the whole world would soon be blind and toothless." This usually gets shortened to "an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind" - cos it is snappier

anyway - Israel out of Lebanon and Gaza!

jimjay