Pix of Anti-War Demo - Sat 24 Feb 07 - Set 1 of 3

Pictures of the Anti-War Demonstration from Hyde Park Corner to Trafalgar Square.

For permission to copy and use, see CopyLeft at the end of the story below the photos.
For a link to the other set of photos, see one of the comments at the foot of this page.

The people-jam in the Marble Arch subway leading to Hyde Park's Speakers Corner

Red flags flutter while the protesters gather at Hyde Park's Speakers Corner

Flying multi-lingual Peace flags

Hand crafted banner in front of the massed socialist choirs

Tony Bliar and President Shrub

World's #1 Terrorist not amused at being publicly outed

Green-greenies, let yourself GO!

Human-powered zero-emissions transportation

Galithian pipes and drums ensemble

"News from Nowhere" author joins anti-war demonstration

Speak your own truth - make your own placard

Parading down Piccadilly

A grand exemplar of Welsh banner quilting

Ford car workers flying the flag of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela

Close-up detail of the banners on the Ford TGWU Central Branch Dagenham's banner

Marxism on the back of the banner...

...and international solidarity on the front!

DIY placard draws attention

On Sat 24 Feb 07, scores of thousands of people demonstrated against the war drive of British and American imperialism. Calling for all occupying troops to be withdrawn from Iraq, no replacement of Britain’s nuclear weapons system and no attack on Iran, the demonstration took over one and a half hours to exit Hyde Park, while being entertained by the massed ranks of socialist choirs, including Raised Voices [1] and the Strawberry Thieves [2]. However, since this was yet another march from A to B and listen to speeches event, organised by the left of capital in cooperation with the police, don’t expect a change in imperialist policy in Whitehall. Now just imagine what large scale, effective, direct anti-war action could be created with scores of thousands of people...

In what may be the most gross discrepancy of estimated participants so far, “The Stop the War coalition [3], which organised the event, along with CND [4] and the British Muslim Initiative [5], estimated that around 100,000 participated in London; the Metropolitan Police estimated about 2,000-3,000 took part” [6]. Lies, damn lies and Metropolitan Police “estimates”; or perhaps we should blame falling standards of numeracy on New Labour’s support for faith-based education – churning out cop-fodder who sincerely believe that the scores of thousands of people they can see in front of them are merely 2,000-3,000; C21 state-sponsored doublethink, anyone?.

What's Next?
Why not join in Pre-emptive Peace Strike #1 - “Don’t Attack Iran” [7] on Tue 20 Mar 07, the anniversary of attack on Iraq? Be in Parliament Square, Westminster, London from 10:00 for some anti-war peaceful direct action.

For the most politically astute coverage and analysis of the escalating barbarism being visited upon our brothers and sisters in Iraq, I recommend the International Communist Current's 'War in Iraq' portal page:

http://en.internationalism.org/taxonomy/term/70

In International Solidarity,

Tim D Jones

[1] Raised Voices socialist choir:

http://www.raised-voices.org.uk/
[2] Strawberry Thieves socialist choir:

http://www.strawberrythieveschoir.org.uk/st_home.htm
[3] Stop the War coalition:

http://www.stopwar.org.uk/
[4] CND:

http://www.cnduk.org/
[5] British Muslim Initiative:

http://www.bminitiative.net/
[6] "Thousands take part in anti-war rallies":

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2020933,00.html - and see also "How Many People Were In Trafalgar Square On Saturday?":

http://www.blairwatch.co.uk/node/1660?PHPSESSID=c29ec986bb6cc883c729b38ccd10d44b
[7] Pre-emptive Peace Strike #1 - “Don’t Attack Iran”:

http://www.peacestrike.org.uk/index.htm

PHOTO COPYLEFT LICENSE
All these photos are 'CopyLeft'.
This means you are free to copy and distribute any of my photos you find here, under the following license: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 -

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/
Accreditation: tim_d_jones[at]yahoo.co.uk

NB: for Indymedia upload purposes, the photos shown here are lower resolution copies (max 640 pixels, JPEG 60) of higher resolution originals (up to 2816x2112 pixels, JPEG 85); to request full resolution originals, please email tim_d_jones[at]yahoo.co.uk quoting caption name(s).

Tim D Jones
e-mail: tim_d_jones[at]yahoo.co.uk
Homepage: http://en.internationalism.org

Additions

Clickable Links to Related Media

26.02.2007 14:04

Here are clickable links to my three sets of photos and Video Compilation of the Anti-War Demo in London on Sat 24 Feb 07, plus photos and audio by others.

Set 1 of 3

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/london/2007/02/363457.html

Set 2 of 3

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/london/2007/02/363478.html

Set 3 of 3 (The Choir)

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/london/2007/02/363500.html

Video Compilation

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/london/2007/02/363521.html

Pictures of the Anti-War Demonstration by other folks
Chris -

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/02/363284.html
Guido -

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/02/363387.html
finally -

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/02/363257.html?c=on#comments
CragFinman -

http://www.flickr.com/photos/anarki/tags/stopthewar/
Group Photo Pool (526 photos) -

http://www.flickr.com/groups/stopthewar-london-24feb2007/
marc vallée -

http://www.protestphoto.co.uk/stories_no_trident.html
the void -

http://johnnyvoid.blogspot.com/2007/02/that-stop-war-march.html

Audio from The Choir and the Anti-War Demonstration
r2r -

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/02/363369.html

Tim D Jones
mail e-mail: tim_d_jones[at]yahoo.co.uk
Homepage: http://en.internationalism.org

Comments

Hide the following 2 comments

Nice one!

26.02.2007 13:50

Hi Tim

Thanks for uploading all the photos and video, it's really appreciated.

I agree that the ICC stuff is good, the CWO (

http://www.ibrp.org/ and WSWS (

http://www.wsws.org/ ) are also worth looking at -- if you are going to support a left group -- these 3 are the best in terms of their analysis of the state of the world, as far as I can tell.

Personally however, I did my time in a trot group and never again wish to be in an organisation where anyone tells anyone else what to do.

If you ever come across Tim Wohlforth's "The Prophet's Children : Travels on the American Left", Humanities Press, 1994, ISBN 0-391-03802-8, get a copy -- it's the a great antidote to the cult like nature of all the far left groups...

http://www.timwohlforth.com/prophet.html

In solidarity

Chris

You're Welcome

28.02.2007 07:39

Hey Chris,

Many thanks for your encouraging comments. I'm getting a new 18x optical zoom digicam this week, so future contributions may be even better!

Like yourself, I've been through the Trotskyist mill: soak up the revolutionary energy of youth and twenty-somethings, spin 'em round selling papers (and wearing 'em like badges) and other merchandise, periodically march 'em from A to B to listen to bourgeois politicians and reformist TU "leaders", then spit out disillusioned and burned-out ex-cadres, while never actually challenging the capitalist state. At least I got a good education in marxism and developed my critical thought muscles.

Thankfully, I'm pleased to see, some of us have rallied and moved leftwards.

Ta for the book suggestion. And if you've not seen it already, for a sound revolutionary analysis of why Trotskyist parties act like they do, I'd recommend the International Bureau for the Revolutionary Party's online pamphlet "Trotsky and Trotskysm":

http://www.ibrp.org/english/pamphlets/trotsky_and_trotskysm

Share, enjoy and disseminate,

Peace & Love,

Tim D Jones

UK Indymedia