Quarter-million march against war

Demonstrators bring the streets of London to a standstill with a message of peace By James Cusick, Westminster Editor

It dwarfed anything seen in central London during the 1960s and rivalled the masses that gathered for last weekend's countryside protest. A quarter of a million people taking to the streets is difficult to ignore. Organisers of the anti-war march, which crowded the streets of London and swamped Hyde Park yesterday with one of the largest mass demonstrations seen anywhere in Europe, couldn't quite believe the size of the protest they had gathered. In its early stages, police were caught ill-prepared and had to divert the march into two routes to cope with the sheer scale of protest. En route to Hyde Park, the marchers covered the streets, stretching miles between the Embankment, along Whitehall, through Trafalgar Square, up Haymarket, along Piccadilly and into Hyde Park.

Banners, whistles, megaphones, chants, even a makeshift papier m‰chŽ tank complete with missiles and puppets of George W Bush and Tony Blair, alongside 'soldiers' in fatigues complete with dripping fake blood, tried to ensure the message was anti-war and not just anti-American.

Andrew Burgin, from the Stop the War coalition, accused Bush and Blair of using allegations regarding Saddam Hussein and Iraqi weapons of mass destruction as a cover for a war that was really about oil. Organisers had spent a week making placards at their Brick Lane headquarters in London. They needn't have bothered, however -- everyone, from all corners of Britain, brought their own.

No protest march would be complete without the Socialist Workers Party and this was no exception. Huge banners shouted 'No War for Oil' and 'Stop the War Machine'.

Alongside the issue of war with Iraq, many on the march voiced concern over the situation in the Middle East and Israel's continuing action against the Palestinians. 'Stop State Terrorism, Stop Sharon, the Child Killer,' stated banner after banner. Police and intelligence-gathering helicopters hovered over the demonstrators as the march snaked along some of central London's main streets.

There was gridlock for miles around and traffic was at a standstill. Guests who were staying in a plush Piccadilly five-star hotel were unable to get through to the main lobby of the hotel.

Near the head of the march, Mohammed Sarwar, Labour MP for Glasgow Govan, said over the noise of megaphones, whistles and chants: 'I'm here to join the many tens of thousands of people who are here to protest against this unjustifiable war. It has little to do with weapons of mass destruction. Bush wants to act alone and my fear is that Blair is supporting unconditionally.'

Sarwar said that the vast majority of Labour's rank-and-file activists did not support the war. 'Blair should listen to the people, not George Bush,' he said.

Banner after banner filed past police and bemused tourists. Protesters came from universities, teaching associations and unions such as Unison, the Transport and General, and other groups like the Muslim Association of Britain, the Socialist Alliance, and Musicians Against Nuclear War. Some Japanese monks in Buddhist clothing banged their peace drums.

Peace was called for but hatred was nevertheless evident. A small child, sitting on his father's shoulders, shouted through a small megaphone: 'Bush and Hitler are the same, the only difference is their name.' Other banners and chants referred to Bush and Blair as 'an axis of evil'. The words on one banner were aimed directly at the prime minister : 'Tony Blair be Fair, Iraqi Leos Are Murdered Every Day.'

The demonstrators were not all from Britain. Krista van Velzen, a 28-year-old Socialist Party MP from The Hague, wore a sandwich-board that read 'Dutch MPs Against The War'. She said: 'It's great that there are so many people from different backgrounds united under one slogan. I came to find out how people got this demonstration together because it's the right way forward. In my country, like here, most people are opposing any attacks on Iraq but the people representing them in parliament are not.'

Christian groups marched alongside Muslim groups . Thomas Chitseko, 16, a schoolboy from Harlow, Essex, carried a 'Quakers for Peace' placard. He said: 'The Quaker movement is anti-war; there were lots of Quaker conscientious objectors during the second world war .'

The wide range of ethnic groups was matched by variety in terms of age from children in pushchairs all the way up to pensioners .

Ken Fleet had travelled to London from Nottingham as part of the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation group. Twelve other coaches left Nottingham early yesterday morning with supporters of this organisation. A veteran of protests in the 1970s and 1980s, Fleet was proud that his group was established by Lord Russell, one of the founders of CND and a leader of the Aldermaston anti-nuclear march in the 1960s. 'This is the same argument,' Fleet said, and predicted that if war with Iraq went ahead there would large-scale anti-war rallies throughout Europe's main capitals.

Less seasoned demonstrators also took to the streets. 'I've never demonstrated before,' said actor David Warner, 'and that shows just how important I think this issue is. I don't want to see Iraqi civilians killed or young people sent there to get killed.'

Film director Ken Loach was also among the demonstrators. He said: 'We can't get involved in this war; we can't consider murdering another 100,000 Iraqis simply to pursue America's interest in oil and their dominance in the region.'

Although organisers would have preferred the unifying force of a single anti-war demonstration, the scale of the protest meant that other issues -- such as Palestine, world poverty and anti-capitalism -- fought for space and attention in the vast crowd that marched towards Hyde Park.

Khairi, 33, a student of Libyan origin from south London and a member of the Muslim Association of Britain, said: 'It's not just about war on Iraq; Israel is killing our brothers in Palestine too. If Britain are America are having a war on terror, why don't they stop Sharon ?'

For the various trade union members on the march, there was a unifying message. Jan Kowalczyk, 46, a psychiatric nurse from Salford and a Unison member, carried a banner for his local mental health union branch.

He said: 'There is a tradition of trade union support for anti-war protests. In the Falklands and the Gulf war our branch also had an anti-war position. As the reality of the war becomes closer, people are talking about it more at work. People don't want war -- they're working in a hospital and they think about the casualties and ask why are we attacking another country.'

Optimism and hope on such protests is usually there like adrenaline at a sporting event . But on this march, anger went alongside a harsh reality that war might be inevitable. Mohamed Abdurrazag, 37, a doctor from Libya now living in Dewsbury in Yorkshire, carried a Green Party placard saying 'People B4 Petrol'. He felt pessimistic about the effect the march would have.

Abdurrazag thought politicians would ignore everything -- even the quarter of a million-strong march. He said: 'There is mass opposition to the war in Britain, you can see it today, but I think the decision to go to war has already been taken. The UN is under the control of the United States so it won't make the right decision.'

At Hyde Park, when the marchers eventually reached the focus of the rally, some two hours behind what organisers predicted, those addressing the crowd included the former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter and Ken Livingstone.

The mayor of London said: 'The largest march in 30 years -- bigger than the Countryside Alliance -- will have an electrifying effect on the Labour Party Conference and on those MPs opposed to war.'

Veteran politician Tony Benn told the crowd: 'Nothing can take the British people into a war they do not want or accept.' He added that it would be 'wholly immoral' for the US and Britain to attack Iraq.

Inevitably on any mass protest there were people who just turned up feeling they should say something, however unclear . The best expression of this came from one spectacled youth in a rainbow-coloured anorak. He carried a placard with the message 'Various People Against Bad Things'. His confusion was understandable. The United Nations has been troubled by the same confusion for months.

http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/timeline/v1.htm

Above -- A German V-1 bomb in flight about to crash and explode in London. (Photo credit: U.S. National Archives)

The 'V' came from the German word Vergeltungswaffen, meaning weapons of reprisal. The V-1 was developed by German scientists at the Peenemünde research facility on the Baltic Sea, under the direction of Wernher von Braun and Walter Dornberger.
They were nicknamed "buzz bombs" by the British due to the distinct buzzing sound made by the pulse-jet engines powering the bombs, which overall resembled a small aircraft. Other British nicknames included "doodlebugs" and "flying bombs." Each V-1 was launched from a short length catapult then climbed to about 3,000 feet at speeds up to 350 miles per hour.
As the V-1 approached its target, the buzzing noise could be heard by persons on the ground. At a preset distance, the engine would suddenly cut out and there would be momentary silence as the bomb plunged toward the ground, followed by an explosion of the 1,870 pound warhead.
The first V-1s were launched against London on June 13, 1944, a week after the D-Day landings. During the first V-1 bombing campaign, up to 100 V-1s fell every hour on London. Over an 80 day period, more than 6,000 persons were killed, with over 17,000 injured and a million buildings wrecked or damaged.
Unlike conventional German aircraft bombing raids, V-1 attacks occurred around the clock in all types of weather, striking indiscriminately, causing suspense and terror among the population of London and parts of Kent and Sussex.
Prime Minister Winston Churchill recalled, "One landed near my home at Westerham, killing, by cruel mischance, twenty-two homeless children and five grownups collected in a refuge made for them in the woods."
According to German records, 8,564 were launched against England as well as the port of Antwerp, with about 57 percent actually reaching their designated targets. The remainder failed as a result of antiaircraft guns, barrage balloons, and interception by fighter planes.
Over 29,000 V-1 bombs were built, mainly through slave labor at a huge underground factory near Nordhausen. Launch sites and production facilities were specially targeted by Allied bombers during Operation Crossbow. In those raids, nearly 2,000 Allied airmen were killed.
Eventually, British and American planes knocked out the majority of the launching sites. By September of 1944, however, the Nazis introduced the V-2 rocket, a liquid-fueled rocket that traveled at supersonic speeds as high as 50 miles, then hurtled down toward its target at a speed of nearly 4,000 miles per hour, smashing its 2,000 pound high explosive warhead into the ground without warning. Unlike the V-1, the V-2 rockets could not be intercepted. Over a thousand were fired at London.

I just finished watching an old movie called "Operation Crossbow". Excellent study in courage, by the way.
How can anybody look at the numbers in the above article (6,000 killed, 17,000 wounded and a million buildings destroyed or damaged) and think a madman like Saddam would act any different?
The Brits have such short memorys.
Just food for thought.
LOKI

To the Brits:
Iraq at the present time is a threat to the United States and the rest of the Free
World! Iraq cannot be allowed to develope or possess weapons of mass
destruction. Sadam Hussein has used weapons of mass destruction on his own
people as well as having used them during Iraq's war with Iran(It's being looked
into if he used them against Our troops during the Gulf War). I would not be
surprised if Hussein's regime backed the attack on New York and Washington on
9/11!!!! To allow Hussein's Regime to aquire(if he has'nt already) Nuclear
weapons or transfer weapons of mass destruction technology to other Terrorist
entities would be Disastrous!!!! Hussein and his Bathe Party are very Brutal(with
proven Deadliness) to Iraq's own people. Don't believe the Democrats party line
that War with Iraq is not part of the War On Terror!!!! Eliminating Hussein and his
Bathe Party and replacing it with a Free and Democratic Government helpful to
the Iraqi people as well as the rest of the world will be a BIG VICTORY in the
WAR ON TERROR!!!! The War On Terror and Eliminating Hussein is one and
the same!!!! Hussein and his Bathe party are proven terrorist(against Kuwait as
well as his own people) that must be eliminated!!!!

I looked at the pictures. It seems to me that many of the protesters are of Arab descent. They weren't there during WWII.
And remember that at least some of the terrorists came from a Mosque in England.

It's now or never to get Iraq. Soon there will be too many Mooooslims in the UK. And too many immigrated Demon-crats in the USA.

Sat Sep 28,12:19 PM ET

Anti-war protestors pass Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament during a rally in central London, September 28, 2002. Tens of thousands of Britons joined a peace rally in London to oppose a military strike on Iraq. Photo by Peter Macdiarmid/Reuters

Sat Sep 28,12:32 PM ET

Thousands of protesters march at Embankment, central London, Saturday Sept. 28, 2002, opposing proposed military action against Iraq by President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair. (AP Photo/ Lindsey Parnaby, PA)

Sat Sep 28, 4:01 PM ET

A protester cries out against a war in Iraq during a peace protest in Hyde Park, London, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2002. More than 50,000 Britons from all regions, ages and social backgrounds, marched in central London from Embankment on the River Thames to Hyde Park Saturday, urging British Prime Minister Tony Blair and President Bush not to invade Iraq.(AP Photo/Sang Tan)

Sat Sep 28, 4:09 PM ET

Protesters against a war in Iraq and Israel's policies in the West Bank and Gaza gather in Hyde Park, London after marching from Embankment through central London Saturday, Sept. 28, 2002. Preliminary crowd estimates varied from 50,000 demonstrators according to Scotland Yard to 250,000 people and more according to a spokesperson from The Stop the War Coalition, which helped organize the march. (AP Photo/ Lindsey Parnaby)

Thanks for the photos. They show not an English face in the bunch. I suspect they are largely typical of the demonstrators.

To be fair here are some other photos with some Brit lefties.

Members of The Stop The War Coalition march behind a heavy police presence at Embankment, London, Saturday Sept. 28, 2002. Thousands of protesters gathered along the River Thames Saturday to urge British Prime Minister Tony Blair and President Bush not to go to war with Iraq. (AP Photo/PA, Matthew Fearn)
- Sep 28 10:14 AM ET

	Thousands of protestors gather in London's Hyde Park on September 28 to demonstrate against a possible military strike on Iraq. REUTERS/Peter Macdiarmid - Sep 28 8:31 PM ET

	Thousands of peace protesters march through central London from Embankment to Hyde Park to demonstrate against starting war on Iraq, in London, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2002. An estimated 150,000 took part in the march. (AP Photo/Sang Tan) - Sep 28 4:40 PM ET

	Protesters shout out as they gather in Hyde Park for a rally after marching through central London from Embankment to demonstrate against a war in Iraq, London, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2002. (AP Photo/Sang Tan) - Sep 28 4:14 PM ET

	Protesters against a war in Iraq and Israel's policies in the West Bank and Gaza gather in Hyde Park, London after marching from Embankment through central London Saturday, Sept. 28, 2002. Preliminary crowd estimates varied from 50,000 demonstrators according to Scotland Yard to 250,000 people and more according to a spokesperson from The Stop the War Coalition, which helped organize the march. (AP Photo/ Lindsey Parnaby) - Sep 28 4:09 PM ET

	Former United Nations weapons inspector Scott Ritter displays a document while speaking during the Peace Rally in London's Hyde Park, Saturday Sept. 28 2002. More than 50,000 Britons from all regions, ages and social backgrounds, marched in central London Saturday, urging British Prime Minister Tony Blair and President Bush not to invade Iraq. (AP Photo / Lindsey Parnaby, PA) - Sep 28 4:12 PM ET

	Scott Ritter, former UN weapons inspector, speaks to thousands of peace protesters gathered in Hyde Park after marching through central London from Embankment to demonstrate against an invasion of Iraq, in London, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2002. (AP Photo/Sang Tan) - Sep 28 3:57 PM ET

	A young protester waves a Palestinian flag as thousands of peace protesters gather in Hyde Park for a rally after marching through central London from Embankment to demonstrate against a war in Iraq, London, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2002. (AP Photo/Sang Tan) - Sep 28 4:02 PM ET

	A protester cries out against a war in Iraq during a peace protest in Hyde Park, London, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2002. More than 50,000 Britons from all regions, ages and social backgrounds, marched in central London from Embankment on the River Thames to Hyde Park Saturday, urging British Prime Minister Tony Blair and President Bush not to invade Iraq.(AP Photo/Sang Tan) - Sep 28 4:02 PM ET

	A demonstrator expresses his views against war on his stomach during an anti-war rally in London on September 28, 2002. REUTERS/Natasha-Marie Brown - Sep 28 2:49 PM ET

	Anti-war protesters join a march through London to protest against a possible military strike on Iraq, September 28, 2002. Joint rally organizers Stop the War Coallition and the Muslim Association of Britain estimated at least 350,000 participated in the march through London on Saturday. REUTERS/Natasha-Marie Brown - Sep 28 1:58 PM ET

	Thousands of protesters march through Parliament Square in central London Saturday, Sept. 28, 2002, to urge Prime Minister Tony Blair and President Bush not to go to war with Iraq. Legislators from Blair's Labor Party are among the leaders of the Stop the War Coalition that organized the march with the Muslim Association of Britain. They wanted to rally those who believe war would cause political and economic instability on a global scale. (AP Photo/Lindsey Parnaby, PA) - Sep 28 12:39 PM ET

	Thousands of peace protesters march through central London from Embankment to Hyde Park to urge British Prime Minister Tony Blair and President Bush not to go to war with Iraq, in London, on Saturday, Sept. 28, 2002. (AP Photo/Sang Tan) - Sep 28 12:34 PM ET

	Thousands of protesters march at Embankment, central London, Saturday Sept. 28, 2002, opposing proposed military action against Iraq by President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair. (AP Photo/ Lindsey Parnaby, PA) - Sep 28 12:32 PM ET

	Five-month old Kitiana McEwan wears a peace message on her vest as she is carried by her father during a peace rally in central London, September 28, 2002. Joint rally organizers Stop the War Coalition and the Muslim Association of Britain estimated at least 100,000 participated in the march through London on Saturday in opposition to a military strike on Iraq. (Peter Macdiarmid/Reuters) - Sep 28 12:17 PM ET


	Anti-war protestors pass Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament during a rally in central London, September 28, 2002. Tens of thousands of Britons joined a peace rally in London to oppose a military strike on Iraq. Photo by Peter Macdiarmid/Reuters - Sep 28 12:19 PM ET

	Former U.N weapons inspector Scott Ritter prepares to address an anti-war rally in London's Hyde Park against a possible military strike on Iraq, September 28, 2002. Joint rally organizers Stop the War Coalition and the Muslim Association of Britain estimated at least 100,000 people participated in the march through London on Saturday in opposition to possible military action against Saddam Hussein's regime. REUTERS/Peter Macdiarmid - Sep 28 11:57 AM ET

	Anti-war protestors assemble at the start of a mass rally in London to oppose a military strike on Iraq, September 28, 2002. Joint organizers Stop the War Coalition and the Muslim Association of Britain estimated at least 100,000 were participating. Photo by Peter Macdiarmid/Reuters - Sep 28 10:37 AM ET

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In 1938 !