The Rally Yesterday …

Well I went to the rally yesterday, it was not as big as the huge anti-war rallies last year but it was big enough that people were still leaving the start (Hyde Park) as the rest of us were having our rally in Trafalgar Square. It rained a little bit and it was very windy – I heard that people in other parts of the country had been killed by flying debris, but no-one here (al-hamdu lillah) was injured, although I almost got one of the Marxists’ flagpoles land on my head in Hyde Park.

We had the usual speakers – obviously the groups who organised the rally (Stop the War, The Muslim Association of Britain and CND) and a few trade unionists and minor politicians, and four of the hundreds of Birmingham schoolkids who walked out of school last year to protest against the war. Nigel Kennedy gave two violin recitals (one by Bach and one piece he said was from Lebanon or Palestine) and after the rally the Asian Dub Foundation gave a gig. Respect were out, of course, but I had expected them to have a higher profile than the various Trot groups which come out of the woodwork on days like this. If these guys want to help organise anti-war rallies, fine, but don’t they realise that they damage the credibility of these rallies by using them to advertise themselves? There can’t be that many Communists in this country, surely?

I heard someone on the radio mention that a lot of the people who turned up on last year’s big marches were notably absent – the married thirty-somethings and Twickenham brigade or something like that. As usual, they played down the number of people who turned out – the organisers said about 75,000, the police said it was a third of that number. Of course, the threat of wind and rain may well have deterred people from coming, but I don’t see why it matters. The fact is that at least one group of people are still protesting at what is a ridiculous adventure in which we had no need to get involved and has not had the results the leaders promised. Yes, Saddam is gone, but what is going to take his place? Nobody knows, and I don’t believe the coalition are in any place to decide.