Joint organizers Stop the War Coalition and the Muslim Association of Britain estimated at least 100,000 people had joined the march from the River Thames, near parliament, to Hyde Park, in the heart of the British capital.
A number of groups and individuals backed the march — from “rebel” members of the ruling Labour Party and the mayor of London, to trade unions, religious leaders, artists, pop stars, intellectuals, rights activists and Gulf war veterans.
“Our message to the U.S. and British governments is that they would be very foolish to defy a coalition of this breadth and diversity. Just sticking a U.N. fig leaf on this does not make it any more humane,” Stop the War spokesman Mike Marqusee said at the start of the march soon after midday.
Not surprisingly, protesters directed their wrath at U.S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
“Bomber Bush, Bomber Blair, we’ll resist you everywhere!” chanted British students at the march.
“Hopefully our leaders will see the huge feeling against the war,” said Anne Gleeson, a school catering assistant marching with her husband and two children. All wore Palestinian scarves.
MUSLIMS JOIN MARCH: The demonstrators were rallying under two main slogans — “Don’t Attack Iraq” and “Freedom for Palestine”. Police said 40,000 people had assembled by early afternoon, but organizers put the figure at more than 100,000 and said that could double.
Ismail Adam Patel, head of a Muslim group, Friends Of Al’Aqsa, said the two issues were inextricable. “Until we solve the Palestine issue, we are not going to get any peace in the Middle East. Why are we going after Iraq when Israel has far more weapons of mass destruction?” he wondered.
Thousands of Muslims, from Britain’s 2.5 million-strong Islamic community, joined Saturday’s march. Many protesters brought children with them. Some Church of England ministers were also dotted among the demonstrators.
Polls show most of Britain’s 60 million people would oppose their nation joining a purely US-led attempt to topple Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. But the picture changes if the United Nations approves such action, with roughly two-thirds then in favour, according to recent surveys.
Most of Blair’s critics dislike Saddam as much as the prime minister, but they say a war on Iraq would be an unjustified act of aggression which would destabilize the Middle East, cement U.S. world hegemony, and snub international public opinion.
Opponents also say Washington and London are behaving hypocritically given their previous support of Iraq under Saddam in the years before the 1991 invasion, and are refusing to admit their real economic motives for wanting to control Iraqi oil.
“Everyone in Britain must know now that the real issue is not Saddam and his weapons but America’s need for oil,” wrote veteran left-wing politician Tony Benn, a speaker at the rally.
Former U.N. weapons inspector Scott Ritter, who resigned his post in 1998 and has been campaigning this year to prevent a U.S.-led attack on Iraq, said there was still no evidence or sufficient global support to justify an attack.—Reuters