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"I've been marching: now my feet hurt"

Well, I made it to the anti-war demo; although due to geographical circumstances, I marched through Glasgow rather than London. I spent most of last week in hospital and thought that I might not be able to make it at all: but I laughed in the face of medical science and soldiered on. It's all catching up with me now though, and my evening is very definitely over.

Was it worth it? I think so. The Glasgow march was timed so that the crowds would arrive outside the SECC as Tony Blair gave his speech to the Labour Party conference. This obviously scared our 'courageous' PM, and instead he delivered his speech first thing in the morning. 1-0 to the protestors.

Hmmm, the protestors. I must have looked at thousands of different banners today: and not one offered support to terrorists, or to Saddam's regime; there were plenty of anti-Bush messages, but nothing you could describe as anti-American; there was religion, but no fundamentalism; politics, but no party squabbling. All I saw today was concern for the unnecessary victims of war: both amongst the innoccent civilians and conscripted soldiers of 'their' side, and amongst the armed forces of 'our' side.

I've been on quite a few protest marches, and this was easily the most diverse. There were groups of the very old and the very young. Trade unions, political parties and pressure groups. Church groups representing all faiths. And loads and loads of ordinary people. This wasn't just the usual suspects. And it definitely wasn't just a bunch of posers trying to be 'fashionable'

Maybe it will even make a difference: and it's not often that you get to say that in this democratic paradise. I'll leave you with my favourite little chant:

1! 2! 3! 4! Bin Laden wants a new Gulf War!

I went to the London one and it was trouble-free and peaceful.
I was fearing that retard "activists" would start trouble with the police, but there was minimal trouble with a handful of arrests.
Surprisingly, the police were reasonable and non-threatening - very unlike the Mayday protest where they rushed the crowd and I was personally beaten by 2 of them with billy-clubs.

No violence, no anger, no red-faced hatred of Tony Blair or George Bush.
But neither was there a "Go Saddam!" feeling.
This was upwards of a million people peacefully and calmly marching to display there personal belief that war is not the correct course of action. There was music, calm discussion and people of all ages together. I walked with a family from Brighton, Grandad through to kid in pram and they were all politely expressing their dissent.
No radicals, no hardline Muslim fundamentalists, nobody calling for the murder of Bush.
Just people like you and me trying to make their voice heard in a matter that they strongly disagree with.

And, oddly, suddenly all reports of terrorist threat to Heathrow etc have ended. Now that the march is over, all has been restored to the peace we all know and love and we can continue with the daily scaremongering about immigrants and congestion charging.

And yes Belldandy, I did see the petrol bombs.
Thrown by Kurds, as Unknown pointed out. Which was odd.

To be honest, I didn't expect anything other than sneering cynicism from you Belldandy: so thanks for not disappointing. How many people would attend a pro-war march? Not many, I suspect. Our government has only been allowed to slide this far towards war by perceived voter apathy; perhaps now, after the biggest demonstration this country has ever seen, politicians will start representing public opinion rather than angling for ministerial posts.

I'm kind of confused by the petrol bomb thing: if the media *report* petrol bombs being thrown, then how can they be described as skirting round it? "A million people marched in London, but people threw molotov cocktails in Ankara, so everybody was a TERRORIST!!!!"?

Interestingly the people who were violent in Turkey (other than the police) were the Kurds. Remember them? They are poor, oppressed freedom fighters on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays - when we're talking about Iraq; but evil, oppressive terrorists on Tuesdays, Thursdays and weekends - when we're talking about how great Turkey is, and, by the way, is it alright if we use your airbases, and go water-skiiing on that lake you built on top of a bunch of Kurdish villages?

I somewhat think that any possible good effects from the marches will be negated by this man;

http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/02/15/ sprj.irq.aziz.assisi/index.html

Plus it's interesting how most of the media skirted around the more "active" protestors in Europe and America....petrol bombs ahoy....

Ah well, I suppose if it was your idea of fun..... top marks for Tony Blair for adapting his speech; "more time" . He didn't say how much more time did he ?

~~Belldandy~~

Tis' what was thought at first, but more options have been looked at. It truly is a mind baffling subject. There's not really a right or wrong answer at the moment.

Hmmmm
:-p

I thought the popular belief was that I'm gay. I'm so out of touch, my my...

Something to argue with...

We spend too much time worrying about making sure that we're physically healthy that we forget about making sure we're mentally healthy?

Possum wrote:
> I'm off to bed, leave something for me to argue with tommorrow.

Grix, contrary to popular belief, is, infact, a male.
Argue away.

I'm off to bed, leave something for me to argue with tommorrow.

That's the most ridiculous logic I've read, heard, or tasted in ages.

Isn't it kinda ironic how you march to stop war?
Was is it Army's do?
They march.
Heh.
"No, it's not"
Fine then, be like that...

I stand corrected.