Dear Nessi

Marani's sister hadn't been on a demonstration since the Poll Tax riots in 1990 -91. She was amazed at how different this was. So peaceful. Such a good atmosphere. None of the tension. I explained that ever since I started going on peace protests in October 2001, its as if the old breed of punch-up seeking police had been replaced by friendly guys (and gals) in funny hats who just stand there occasionally smiling. No air of trouble. All good-natured. Ditto to the crowd.

The Bootlegger (so called for taping gigs, not making moonshine) came over at 9 am, and we headed into town. Mary and I had been stuck way at the back and not reached Hyde Park 'til 5 p.m. at last September's march. This time I was determined to be earlier, to get to Hyde Park while there was still a rally.

10 am was a bit too early though. The Bootlegger, me, Mary, and the Scuba Diver and 2 very hungover friends all sat drinking tea in the café in Russell Square Park for an hour. We headed over to Gower Street, the 2nd starting point, at 11. Still an hour to go standing in the cold. Socialist Worker Party people were shouting in megaphones, and placards were lined up along fences. Even the police looked cold.

The crowd became denser and nosier, a mixture of homemade and organised banners and placards. One said, "make tea not war" and had Tony Blair with a teacup on his head. Someone had a paper globe with 'fragile' written on it. Dozens of unions and student organisations and regions in Wales turned up. Churches and artists. Musicians. Hippies and even yuppies. From young to old, and every colour on the planet.

Some girls had a hand drawn banner of 2 dogs mating (Bush and Blair). They were admiring my poster, which had a hand pushing a guy with a US flag on his head (meant to be Bush but not a good likeness unfortunately, especially as I had zillions of photos taken of it all day). The sign read "STOP THE SOD". "It was my husband's idea," I told the girls. One of the Scuba Diver's friends was concerned the girls might think the Scuba Diver was my husband, thus ruining his chances of pulling. I explained that my husband is claustrophobic and was there only in sprit. The friends giggled. Boys will be boys, even in their forties.

Some guys nearby said they had to wee, early on in the march. I was laughing with them and they said "you're one to talk, look what's on your badge!" and indeed among my stop-the-war badges was the penis button from that crap art show I went to with Henry last week.

As the march kicked off some people were leaning out windows with big banners, drinking mimosas and playing the Beatles' "All you need is Love" very loudly. All along the route shops had signs up in support. Even the tacky tourist souvenir stalls had sweatshirts saying "NO WAR" and "F*CK WAR" (only cos they realised they prolly wouldn't get any other business today).

I temporarily lost everyone where the 2 marches joined at Piccadilly Circus. I had to get some photos of guys in Bush and Blair masks.

We'd also somehow, via mobile phones, managed to pick up Knife Girl and her Scottish friend, and, after Piccadilly met up with Marani's sister. Even though BBC people were not allowed to go on the march, being a behind-scenes person she was ok. We never managed to meet you and Vimco, or Merl and Rootmaster, or Mr Flea et al. It was still amazing to keep 8 people together in a crowd of over 1 million (even the lowest estimate of 750,000 made this the biggest demonstration in Britain EVER.).

While we were waiting for Marani's sister, a group of guys in turbans took turns having their pictures taken with me. I wasn't sure if they might be tourists, who had joined the march, as they did not appear to speak English at all. I guess the image on the sign was clear enough.

We got to Hyde Park in good time. Then everyone wanted different things. Hot drinks, toilets or, in my case, to take more photos of the steady stream of people entering the park. This time there weren't the drag queens, or as many costumes. Either it was the cold or it was the sheer volume of people who turned up. Tom, Frankie and Suzy were even there. So many people you'd never think would go on a march. The media later made comments like "1 million people marched, 58 million did not." But Frankie said he and his friends knew about 10 people each who agreed with the march but did not come on it for various reasons, like claustrophobia or having a boss who wouldn't give them the day off work.

Scuba Diver, Mary and others went to the pub. Bootlegger, Marani's sister and me went to see the speakers. Stop-the-war really got a good sound system this time. Though we could not see anything, we heard Jesse Jackson, Bianca Jagger, Harold Pinter, Tim Robbins, and Ken Livingston, the mayor of London. Ken has started a new 'congestion charge' today that means anyone driving in central London has to pay £5 a day. When the crowd cheered Ken's arrival, I said, "these people prolly don't have cars." Within seconds of Ken's speech beginning, someone grabbed the microphone "We're taking this over! Stop congestion charging!"

"Boooo" said the crowd.

"Isn't it great to see the streets of London today free of cars?" said Ken.

Huge cheer from the crowd.

Getting home was rather hellish. We met the others in an overcrowded pub in Victoria. There were no buses due to the march, and the tube station kept closing and re-opening as throngs pushed their way in. Lessons for next time - don't be quite so early - and also leave the rally a bit earlier to get away.

Very oddly Mary came with us to "Heaven's waiting room", the local Stokie pub where octogenarians fall asleep on yellow faux leather sofas by a gas fire. Odd because it so hard to get back to South London from there and its hardly a hub of excitement. Mr Flea et al only go there cos its so cheap - and local. It was good to meet up with people we hadn't seen all day yet. Amazing to think someone like Mr Flea, well on his way to becoming a permament fixture right there in that dismal pub, got up and walked all day.

News coverage on the demo Sunday morning included Labour and Tory ministers repeating their own pro-war mantra, "It's not a choice of war and peace. It's a choice of war or doing nothing" which is such bullsh*t I am constantly shouting at the TV. We are not Saddam appeasers. I mean, if you want I can direct to the websites, but the arguments for both sides are everywhere. And no one I know wants to support Saddam; we just see no reason to start killing thousands of Iraqis next week. The case is not made clear and there's been so much spin already it's hard to tell if we'll ever trust what anyone says again.

I'm still not really feeling well, just wanted to report on the day while its still fresh...

Petra

photos from march in London , 15 Feb 2003 ( I didn't get any brilliant huge crowd scenes - links below have more pics)

Preparing on Gower Street	Michael Moore at bookstore
Gower Street	Singing "All you need is Love"
Gower Street	Moving at last - Shaftsbury Avenue
Piccadilly Circus	Shaftsbury Avenue
PIccadilly	Cowboy on bomb (Piccadilly)
Piccadilly	Hyde Park
Hyde Park	Hyde Park

Links (added 18 Feb 03)
- New York demo pics
- Why we are going cartoon (Tom Tomorrow)

- "The US is abandoning plans to introduce democracy in Iraq after a war to overthrow Saddam Hussein, according to Kurdish leaders who recently met American officials.
"The Kurdish leaders are enraged by an American plan to occupy Iraq but largely retain the government in Baghdad. The only changes would be the replacement of President Saddam and his lieutenants with senior US military officers. "
I read that in a few places recently. This one from Mr Pollak

- Photos from london demo on Indymedia
- Protest in antarcitca!
- More pics from London demo and other events
The real sentiment behind the 'simplisitc chanting' was expressed by the speakers at the rally, and by many people who have been participating in debates on tv and radio. (- me, just adding that as I go)

- Blair's 'moral' case for war in Iraq is shot full of holes
"As public opposition mounts, the PM is forced to play his last card
"Simon Tisdall Monday February 17, 2003 The Guardian
"Downing Street is at panic stations as the full implications of Hans Blix's inspections report sink in. The two main US-British arguments in favour of launching a war on Iraq next month - that Saddam currently possesses deployable weapons of mass destruction and poses an immediate or near-term threat to the region and to us - already had few takers before Friday's UN meeting. In his peculiarly dispassionate, persuasive way, Blix further undermined and, for many, destroyed the credibility of the Anglo-American case for an early, pre-emptive attack.
"A third core argument, favoured by George Bush and blithely reiterated by him in Florida last week - that Saddam is in cahoots with al-Qaida and is somehow linked or even to blame for 9/11 - is not seen as convincing even by those who have espoused it. Downing Street now knows this argument, too, is a definitive non-runner...."

And finally...an interesting argument FOR war, from an Iraqi. Interesting also that the only person I know who's really for a US invasion (albeit by land not air) is an Iraqi. Too bad we can't get more opinions from there.

"Do you still want to march to keep him in power?" the person says. .

People misunderstand the peace movement - NO ONE wants to keep Saddam in power. We just don't want to see the US kill more people for the wrong reasons. We don't trust US motives.

---------- still more, 18 Feb......

I just looked to see if the internet exists in Iraq and discovered that ... Having a modem is illegal apparently... I guess that in it self says enough...Still what about Zimbabwe? If we are going to depose Saddam for human rights violation, then we should definitely depose Mugabe.

n

Yeah of course. And there is Burma. And some news thing last night said, ok Saddam did all these bad things and we want to bomb the crap of Iraq... And the Chinese have done a load of bad things and they get to have tea with the Queen.

p

P.s. Just had an odd thought about Marani's sister being at the demo. They have family that escaped from Kuwait in 1990, losing all their money, home and business when Iraq invaded. I have no idea if they ever got anything back. None of them got killed. They had to drive to India from Kuwait by car. Some of them flew, though. Some were in India when we were there, waiting for the ones driving from Kuwait.

So their family has suffered from Saddam but still protest the imminent war.