Europe on the March

London

So this is what it feels like to be in the political mainstream. As we turned into Piccadilly Circus on February 15, and the two lines of march, each larger than any demonstration in British history, converged into a gigantic human current flowing very, very slowly toward Hyde Park, a junior member of The Nation's London bureau posed the essential question: "Are we nearly there yet?"

Certainly we are a lot closer than before the weekend's massive show of opposition to war against Iraq. In demonstrations, size matters, and to have turnout so far in excess of the organizers' wildest hopes, not just here in London, where more than a million protesters took to the streets, but in Rome (2 million), Barcelona (1.3 million), Sydney (200,000) and Melbourne (150,000) is the strongest possible indication that the people remain unconvinced--even, or perhaps especially, in countries whose leaders are content to follow George W. Bush to Baghdad, and whose mass media are filled with dossiers of Iraqi menace.

All of Britain seemed to be on the march: activists, anarchists, stockbrokers, retired soldiers, Muslims, Jews, Anglican priests, Catholic nuns, Buddhist monks and a group of young Iranian women in headscarves carrying a banner opposed to Imperialism and Fundamentalism. Many were first-time protesters; middle England was out in force. A poster of Blair in a teacup helmet counseled Make Tea Not War. A silver-haired man from Gardeners Against War with a hand-lettered sign saying Give Peas a Chance marched alongside a contingent of Sex Workers Against War. There were pre-printed signs from the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, the Muslim Association of Britain and from the Liberal Democrats, whose leader, Charles Kennedy, was an early volunteer to speak at the rally. There were also speeches by veteran campaigners Tariq Ali and Tony Benn, London Mayor Ken Livingstone, pop diva Ms. Dynamite and Jesse Jackson.

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