100,000 join London protest for Peace
Over 100,00 peace activists poured into Trafalgar Square yesterday to demand an end to the bloody war in Afghanistan.
As demonstrators gathered in Hyde Park for the protest organized by the Stop the War coalition and supported by CND, the area became a sea of brightly coloured banners.
They included dozens from branches of unions such as UNISON, RMT, NATFHE, and the NUT.
Whistles blew and horns sounded as the march moved off. Passing motorists honked their support as demonstrators chanted "Peace now!" and "Not in our name."
A group of cyclists took the anti-war message to Christmas shoppers in Regent St and Oxford Street.
The march ended in a packed rally at Trafalgar Square, as it took over an hour for the last of the marchers to trickle into the area.
National Union of Teachers executive member Bernard Regan told the rally that the US and British forces were the "armed wing of the World Trade Organisation."
Labour MP Alan Simpson reminded activists that the "war on terrorism" was a misnomer.
"You cannot eradicate terrorism by bombing the poorest country in the world," he said.
Mr Simpson also condemned the government for using the conflict as an excuse to attack civil liberties at home.
New York trade unionist Michael Letwin assured demonstrators that not all in the US supported the war.
"There are many in the US union movement who see the war as terrorism itself," he said.
He warned that it was the ordinary working people of Britain and the US who would be the victims of the anger across the world at their governments' policies.
Rebel Labour MP Paul Marsden called for anti-capitalist campaigners and green activists to join forces with the labour movement to form a new global movement for change.
"There is a better way to do things in this world," he said, adding, "this is just the beginning."
Veteran campaigner Tony Benn said that Trafalgar Square was a place where movements were born.
"What we are seeing today is the birth of a world peace movement," he declared.
CND official Canon Paul Oestricher insisted that war and terror could be beaten only with peace.
"A world where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer is a recruiting ground for terrorists,," he warned.
Muslim parliament member Dr Gyasuddin Siddiqui noted that all the Muslim governments which supported the war were military dictatorships.
He warned that the world stood on the brink of a new order, under which "state terrorism would become the norm."
Lecturers' union NATFHE general secretary Paul Mackney argued that a far more effective way to counter terroris,m would be to curb the actions of Israel's "terrorist" government and establish a Palestinian state.
Left MP George Galloway agreed, warning the massive crowd about the "murderous" Northern Alliance warlords who now controlled the Afghan capital Kabul.
Fellow MP Jeremy Corbyn also condemned the slaughter, warning that the warlords were fast being "overshadowed" by the transnational corporations, which were poised to exploit the region after the conflict.
Campaigning Journalist John Pilger said that it was the job of the peace movement to expose the "imperialism" at the heart of US President George Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair's war machine.
"We must expose the reality behind the jargon of a 'humanitarian war'," he insisted.
The North-West TUC added its weight to the growing anti-war movement at the weekend, urging a complete halt to the bombing of Afghanistan.
And it said that all aid agencies should be given the resources to help the needy in Afghanistan and among the refugees.
