It is heartening to see so many people go against the monologue presented by most politicians and media outlets. Remember the thousands marching, and non-establishment estimates range from 60,000 to 100,000, must represent only part of the anti-war constituency. Each and every one of these thousands is not thinking the way the government wants them to. This is especially positive at a time when War inc. is crowing about the fall of Kabul as a victory over their domestic opponents. Any thought that it was a victory on the international front should be tempered by remembering that just before it happened they told us it would not, and that even as the Northern Alliance occupied Kabul they told us this was not happening.
The demonstration had a good atmosphere and quite a bit of creativity with homemade banners, a samba band and such things as "Cavers against War" - protestors in caving gear. Possibly feeling misrepresented by all the talk about Bin Laden in a cave.
The Anti-Capitalist Bloc formed up around the samba band and was well smothered by police, presumably to prevent a repeat of incidents on previous occasions where the Bloc broke off from the main body of marchers and rambled around the city. The Bloc was much smaller and less coherent than I expected, my image of London being made up of such things as J-18.
Amusingly a Texan restaurant was also well covered by the police.
At first I was a little dismayed at what I perceived as a lack of anarchist/libertarian propaganda being dished out to the multitudes, but this was probably a result of me being more used to demonstrations where I can see everything which is going on. I collected two free newsletters, Resistance and Schnews, free spoof newspaper "The Spun", and a leaflet from No War But The Class War so I guess this stuff was getting out there.
This was a youthful and diverse crowd happily free of any political domination, at least until the speeches at Trafalgar Square at which point most of the crowd left anyways.
A considerable number of people from West and South Asian backgrounds were present , and not all of them of the religious sort I should stress.
While I am a confirmed Islamophobe (and equally hostile to other religions and cults), and while it is somewhat disconcerting to be sandwiched between between people attempting to convert me to the edicts of dead Russians or to the edicts of dead Arabs, this is to be welcomed. The more people taking a stand the better.
It is here we enter into controversy. Let´s look at how the media portrayed this Muslim element, not the boobs and bombs of "The Sun" but the nice, gentle, left of centre, "Guardian". The "Guardian" which didn´t even bother to report the previous national anti-war demonstration in London. Better yet a report from John Vidal, one of the leading lights of the left wing press.
"There were British born Afganis, too. "Bush is a freemason and a devil worship," said Aqwel Khan, who said his uncle from Birmingham had gone to fight.
"Bin Laden is a warrior, a freedom fighter not a terrorist." Azmat Rehan said: "I´ve come to support my people. We believe in the Taliban. The news only shows the bad side. The good side is that they stabilised the country."
"I think we should march with the Muslims," said Theresa Davies with a group from the King´s Church in Portsmouth.
"This is a united march, all faiths must work together."
Of course putting this last quote after the quotes from the fundos neatly misrepresents what seems to be this woman´s view.
It certainly misrepresents the attitude to Islamic fundamentalist terrorism shared by the overwhelming majority of the protestors.
The implications are
(1) The march was dominated by Muslims,
(2) These Muslims were pro-Taliban/pro-Bin Laden,
(3) The rest of the marchers thought this was O.K. .
Well actually there have been pro-Taliban rallies in England, which had numbers of around 100, and having watched most of this demonstration I can say there was a small group, in the tens, which could be described as pro-Taliban.
The rest of the demonstrators thought this was kosher? Well had we waded into them with baseball bats I´m sure we would have had more press coverage. We had no control over their presence anymore than peace demonstrators in the U.S. have control over the presence or absence of pro-war counter-demonstrators.
I´m not one to rush to the defence of the sky freaks and god botherers of this world but it would be unfair not to draw a distinction between the devout and the devoutly mad. Given the current situation not only unfair but in fact inflammatory.
Consider the text of the leaflets I got from specifically Muslim organisations.
"As has already been emphasised by numerous Muslim scholars, the events of 11th September were acts of terror, thus condemned by Islam"
(from a leaflet of the Young Muslim Organisation UK)."The attacks in USA on the 11th of September are and must be universally condemned by Muslims submitting to the words of God and the example of His Prophet Mohammed (peace be upon him)."
(from a leaflet of the World Association of Muslim Youth).
Nonetheless the presence in Britain of considerable numbers from the world community from whence Al Qaida draws it´s recruits makes it doubly important to make a clear stand against BOTH power hungry war machines. It takes two to tango and while "Fight UK/US Imperialism" (the Socialist Workers Party slogan of the day) would make great sense if the UK and US were at war against each other it hardly does when Arab piloted missiles are wrecking havoc in New York.
There is a misconception that Al Qaida represents some kind of regrettable but understandable uprising of the downtrodden.
One speaker at the Trafalgar Square rally proclaimed poverty as a cause of terrorism . Well Bin Laden is not poor, the S-11 hijackers were not poor, and nor is Blair or Bush. In reality we have two politico-military-economic hierarchies both out for power and the class line runs through all nations, those of the east, the south, the north and the west.
In short No War But The Class War, Politicians To The Trenches, Fight the Rich Not their Wars, and all the other home spun truths of old.
Such demonstrations like this are useful as a morale boost and as a first start for many people, but fighting for peace also requires people to organise counter-information (e.g. leaflets, posters, small demonstrations) in their local area and direct action, such as the occupation of an armed forces recruitment centre in Brighton on October the 11th. All such actions (of counter-information and direct action) are to be applauded and it is good to see much more happening now, than during the time of the Gulf or Kosovo conflicts.
(Thanks to the hospitality of folk from the London section of the Anarchist Federation).
November 20th 2001.