UK Indymedia | Simultaneous Anti-War Protests in UK and US

Simultaneous Anti-War Protests in UK and US

imc features | 26.09.2005 13:04 | Anti-militarism | Iraq | London

On Saturday 24th September tens of thousands of people took part in an anti-war demonstration in London [pics and report]. Organised by Stop the War Coalition, CND and MAB, the "March for Justice and Liberties" called for troops to pull out of Iraq as well as protesting against the ongoing erosion of civil liberties. Two feeder marches set off from East and South London, joining the main march at Parliament Square and taking two hours to reach Hyde Park for a rally. Organisers said up to 100,000 people had taken part, while police claimed only 10,000 people attended (see numbers controversy 1 | 2).

London Multimedia Reports: [March Pictures 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 ] [Rally Pictures 1 | 2 ] [Placards and Banner Pictures 1 | 2 | 3 ] [Audio Interviews + Rally Speeches 1 | 2 | 3 ] [Video Reports 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 ]
See also Cambridge Peace Procession and USAF Croughton Peace Picnic

America Protest Reports: Meanwhile in the US hundreds of thousands marched against the iraq war and US military spending priorities in what activists say was a important illustration of the changing mood in America. Organisers said over 300,000 people joined the march on Washington, though again there was disagreement over the numbers [report]. Up to 50,000 people marched in San Francisco, and 15,000 in Los Angeles, while smaller protests were held in many other towns and cities across the US. See United for Peace and Justice | September Action

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Washingtomn DC Pics

26.09.2005 14:08

reuteurs sky view pic

anti-war pix

global

San Francisco - Seattle - Los Angeles

26.09.2005 15:01

Seattle
Seattle

anti war everywhere

indypix

Re Washington - IMF / World Bank

27.09.2005 00:49

Part of the protests were also against the IMF / World bank meeting taking place that weekend in washington. An important point to note.

factoid

thoughts on washington

27.09.2005 02:12

I haven't been to a big DC mobilization in a while, but I have gone to quite a few anti-war demonstrations. I think the first time I went on such a march was when I was in high school, and rode to DC with my parents for the march opposing US policy in El Salvador and Nicaragua in the 1980s. In 1991, my college room-mate and I went to the massive anti-Gulf War March, and I remember feelng a profound sense of futility as we passed the rows of military police in front of the Whitehouse gates. The chant, "This is What Democracy Looks Like" hadn't been invented yet, but if it had, we would have said it with an ironic eye-roll.

And still, the war goes on.

In my own experience, this demonstration stood out in one major respect. I felt the presence of the American war dead in a more immediate and personal way than I ever did at any of the demonstrations I described above. Undoubtedly, this feeling of personal reality is the result of Cindy Sheehan's courageus work all summer long at getting so many Americans to witness her intimate expressions of grief as she waited for the president to answer her question, "in what noble cause did my son die?" While I have always felt a sense of immediate cataclysm and crisis at anti-war protests, a feeling of maddening frustration at the inability of the large opposition to US foreign policy to have any tangible effect on that policy, I have rarely felt the presence of American deaths quite so personally in an anti-war demonstration, an rarely have I felt such a consciousness of being among the people grieving those deaths personally in an anti-war demonstration.

It's not only Cindy Sheehan...it's the number of casualties, the length of the war, and the momentum that's beginning to build as the war drags on. I have never been in alive during the foundation of groups like Iraq Veterans against the War, Military Families Speak Out, and Gold Star Families for Peace. I have never before heard so many testimonies from soldiers and their families in opposition to US wars and their cost. I have never before seen so starkly the impact of military spending and priorities as all of us did in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

I never thought that I would cry when I was hearing Joan Baez sing "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" since I had grown up hearing that song and considered it by now a "peace movement cliche." I have always felt the panic and the guilt, the tragedy and the hopelessness when I know that my government is off to bomb another country to punish its leaders for disagreeing with the American power elite's notion of the "way things ought to be," but not since Sept. 11th, when I felt personally that I was trapped between two juggernauts beyond my control, have I felt so strongly how much US foreign policy hurts people in the US, hurts "us" along with the more immediate victims of our policy. I can understand why, as Noam Chomsky interpreted the Powell doctrine, it was all about short, overpowering commitments of American air power that were designed to avoid the kind of anti-war groundswell that met the growing numbers of American casualties in Vietnam.
If we can feel the presence of the American dead so painfully in anti-war demonstrations in Washington, DC, it seems to me a signal of the failure of the Bush administration's efforts to hide the truth of the war's cost from the American people. I often feel hopeless at the conclusion of such protests, but maybe now is the time to feel hopeful.

http://redredbecca.blogspot.com/

redredbecca repost

Why?

27.09.2005 21:00

I always wonder, why the radical left has degenerated that much in recent years. Why is left fighting against freedom and democracy. Why doesn't the radical left say: "Freedom and democracy is nice and we support you that far, but better would be real freedom and socialism". Why does the radical left instead say: "Freedom and democracy is imperialistic. The peoples do not deserve better than dicatorship and tyranny."?
I can't understand, why the radical left is so wrong. Well, maybe a look into history can help.
Mr Churchill fought the Nazis even when all other free governments in the world were already defeated or not (yet) willing to take up the fight. Today it is Mr Blair who has the guts to fight fascist islamist terrorists, and again he is isolated.
While radical left-wingers in 1941 rallied against the war (yes they did!) Britain was fighting against the Nazis, today the radical left-wingers are trying to stop the War on Terror. Like Stalin had his Pact with Hitler, today's would-be Stalins try to toady to the Saddams and Bin Ladens of this world.
Probably the radical left never was what is should have been.

Franz Meier

Radical

29.09.2005 19:49

Freedom and socialism its the only option all else is just masterbation!

That OK

The Left

Earthquake

08.10.2005 19:51

Can human escape from natural calamities??

First we saw the death match in katrina and now earthquake in India and Pakistan.
Can humans live a secure life.

Regards.

nivedita
Homepage: http://www.mindzone.co.nr

Demonstrations are Not Enough

09.10.2005 14:15

It's nice to have demonstrations against the war, but they are hardly sufficient. If we took all the money and energy that went into to them and canvassed door to door in neighborhoods, also pointing out how all the money spent on weapons could be spent on alternative uses, we would have a far far greater impact. Who is it that designs and conceives of these demonstrations? Why is the hierarchical format, the lack of face to face democracy inherent in them, not considered archaic? Some other alternatives include: the creation of study circles, town meetings, and linked media broadcasts.

Jonathan Feldman
mail e-mail: jonathanmfeldman@excite.com
Homepage: http://www.webcom.com/ncecd/reports.html

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