This is a list of SOME of the towns where anti-war demonstrations occured on Feb. 15th. Belfast had 20,000, Dublin 100,000, and LONDON HAD 2,000,000, no THAT IS NOT A MISTAKE THERE WERE 2 Million PEOPLE ON THE LONDON DEMO.

Adelaide, Albacete, Algeciras (Sp - 15k), Alicante, Almaty (Kazakstan 50), Amsterdam (70k), Andulusia (Sp - 20k), Antwerp, Antartacia (a science research site), Aotearoa/NZ, Athens [Greece and 60 other Greek towns], Auckland (10k), Bagdad 100k, Bangkok 3k, Barcelona 1.5 million [and 9 more sites across Catalunya], Beirut 40k, Belfast 20k, Bergin (Nor. 8k), Berlin 250k, Berne 40k, Brisbane, Brussels 100k, Budapest 20k, Busan, Cadiz (Sp. 100k, Cairo 2k, Calgary, Calcutta 10k, Canberra (116k), Cape Town 5k, Chicago 7k, Copenhagen 40k, Cyprus British Army Bases, Damascus 250k, Dublin 100k, Durban 1k, Dili, Edmonton, Ferrol (Sp. 15k), Foster, Gaza (15k), Geelong, Glasgow 80k, Gothenburg (Swed. 30k), Granada, Guernsey, Havana, Helsinki 15k, Hobart (Aust. 15k), Hong Kong, Huelva, Huesca (Sp. 5k), Islamabad 5k, Istanbul, Jaén, Jakarta, Jersey, Johannesburg 8k, Kiev (2k), Kigali, Kuala Lumpur, Lahore, Lansing (USA 10k), Las Palmas (Sp. 100, Launceston, Lisbon, Lismore (Aust. 7k), Llubljana, London 2million, Los Angeles 100k, Lugo (Sp. 12k),Lulea (Swed. 1.1k), Luxembourg, Madrid 1 million, Málaga 50k, Manila (6k), Martinique, Melbourne 250k, Mexico City, Milwaukee 5k, Montreal, Monza (It -5k), Moscow 1k, Murcia, New York 500k, Newcastle [Aust - 20k], Osaka (Jap - 1k), Oslo 60k, Oviedo Sp. 250, Paris 300k[and some 50 cities in France with 550k], Pattani (Thai 10k), Perth (Aust. 20k), Philadelphia, Poznan, Prague, Ramallah, Reunion Island, Reykjavik, Rockhampton, Rome 3 million!, Salamanca, San Francisco 250k, San Juan, Santander 35k, Santo Domingo, Sao Paulo, Seattle 25k, Seoul 10k, Seville 250k, Skopje, Sofia 2k, Stockholm 80k, Strahan, Stuttgart 50k, Sydney, Takaka,Bergin (Nor. 8k) Tallinn, Tel Aviv 3k, Tokyo 25k, Toronto, Toulouse 10k, Trondheim (11k), Turin 1.5k, Umea (Swed. 2.7k, Vienna 30k, Valetta, Vigo, Vilnius, Warsaw (3k), Wellington (NZ 3k), Wollongong and many more (total over 600)...

Initial Report of the Belfast demo

Photos of the demo appear on our Anti-war photos collection. The BBC carries some Anti-war photos from around the world, inc. Antartica! The CWI site carries some Anti-war photos of the Global Protest, New York, London, Moscow, etc..

Fire fighters lead 20,000 strong Belfast demonstration

Twenty thousand joined the anti-war demonstration in Belfast. It was organised by the Stop the War Coalition, a broad and loose group co-ordinated by the trade unions and including the Socialist Party, Socialist Youth and Youth Against The War. Pride of place at the front of the march was given to the fire service workers, who have been taking strike action recently. Behind them came the trade unions, Left political groups and a range of other organisations. Many people arrived with their own banners and placards. The march was so big that it had difficulty leaving the starting point. In fact, the front of the demonstration found itself blocked by the crowds arriving, especially feeder marches from the north and the west of the city. The trade union contingent at the front had to turn and make their way to the back of the crowd, so that what had been the rear of the march became the front!

The mood was lively and, unusually for large demonstrations in Belfast, virtually the whole crowd stayed to listen attentively to all the speakers who were repeatedly interrupted by cheers and applause.

While there were many middle class people on the demo there were also many workers and young people and the mood was radical. It was the most radical statements - points about oil, about money available for war but not to pay the fire fighters etc - that got the best response. The call for people to come out again on the day war started also got a massive cheer.

Lively socialist party bloc

The Socialist Party, Socialist Youth and Youth Against the War marched as a bloc, with the Youth Against the War banner stretched across the road at the head of our contingent. There were well over a hundred people behind our banners and our megaphones, placards, flags and whistles made this the liveliest and one of the most colourful sections of the march.

Youth Against the War had prepared for the march with its members in the schools handing out thousands of leaflets and holding public meetings. One very new member from Newry held a meeting in her school just a few days before the march and 75 people turning up. Thousands of Youth Against the War leaflets were distributed and dozens of new members signed up. Emails are now starting to come in from other people who want to set up groups in their schools.

More than 500 copies of the Socialist Party paper, Socialist Voice, were sold on stalls before the demo and on the march itself. The Socialist Party stall at the assembly point was busy non-stop with people buying papers, pamphlets, badges, taking placards or discussing about the party.

About 6,000 copies of a special party leaflet were also given out. In all there were about 60 members of the Socialist Party/Socialist Youth putting forward the case for a socialist alternative to war with papers, badges, leaflets and sign up sheets: far more than anything done by any other political group.

The Socialist Party leaflet advertised a public meeting on the War on Thursday 20 February - the next big campaign for Socialist Party members in the Belfast area. The meeting is in the Holiday Inn, University St, 8pm.

Speakers at this meeting will be: Joe Higgins, Socialist Party TD for Dublin West, Jim Barbour, Executive Committee of the FBU and David Semple, from Youth Against the War. Carmel Gates, Socialist Party member and also the President elect of Northern Ireland's biggest trade union, NIPSA, will chair the meeting, in a personal capacity.

Poster for the Belfast meeting, Thursday 20th Please feel free to run off copies for your school, workplace, etc. Come along. Peter Hadden, Belfast SP

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Reports on the International demonstrations CWI site carries lots of reports on the scale of the global protests and reports on the intervention by CWI affilated sections.

Latest statement on the Gulf War. The International Secretariat of the Committee for a Workers International, to which the SP is the Irish affiliated section, has put out another updated analysis of the war.

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To get a range of our articles on the USA-Iraq war go to the sitemap
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