Well, wow, is all I can say. I think over 50,000 - 70,000 people attended today’s march in London against the fighting in Gaza. Impressive, considering it was so cold I couldn’t feel my hands half the time.
This pic was taken once I was back safely in a coffeeshop. More pictures below the fold.
Blog coverage: septicisle and Jamie Sport have commentary and pics.
More: fridgemagnet, bigbluemeanie, lenin’s tomb,
Update: more coverage now also at: harpymarx, The Daily (Maybe), Though Cowards Flinch, Socialist Unity and I.R.
Of course there were the usual gaggle of rudeboys, Islamists, socialists and utterly batty people. But generally I thought the crowd was good natured.
According to the BBC, some 200 people made trouble in front of the Israeli embassy. Idiots. It doesn’t help the cause, but anyway.
I kept an eye out for you Sunny but 69,998 other people must have got in the way!
It was a really good day, a positive atmosphere, a diverse and generally well behaved crowd and what I thought was minimal trouble. But by lord was it cold!
‘Free Palestine’ - what a ridiculous slogan. The occupied territories will never be ‘free’ Even if the occupation ended these places be subjected to barbaric and repressive despotism, as is the nature of Arab Muslim societies. It might still be ‘free’ in your mind maybe, but only because you don’t have to live there.
Oh wow 50,000-70,000 out of how many millions of people in London?
And signs that say ‘Only sharing will save the world’
These people are deluded if they think this I/P debate is just about sharing, it goes much deeper then that, especially with the kind of people who are on Israels side (Evangelicals, Xenophobes)
Thank you for going. As you already know I had once again daddy duty - but I will try to be on any next demo. I believe that that I have seen enough carnage now I must be there in solidarity with all my friends and believes and take a stance!
Nice one Daniel! Maybe next week. Let’s see how the week’s events go…
Jamie - heh, yeah it was difficult to find anyone really. I was trying to find 5 people and managed only 1. Ah well, have linked your round-up now.
I spent around hour and a half trying to find Sunny and spectacularly failed. Ah well, it was still a good day.
As usual, Harry’s Place is doing the job of tarring everyone on the march with the same brush: http://www.hurryupharry.org/2009/01/10/hey-ho-israel-has-gotta-go/
Not a single mention of the number of Jews protesting or their very many banners, which outnumbered the Hamas/Hizbullah/etc ones by I would say over 100 to 1. I saw maybe 2 Hamas banners all day, if that, far outnumbered by Hizbullah ones.
“Oh wow 50,000-70,000 out of how many millions of people in London?”
You can only judge the success of a demo by the relative terms of how many people usually turn out. This turn out is definitely on the more succesful side by that reckoning. Wish I could have made it, maybe next time (I hope there isn’t a next time).
Sunny,
You’re quoting a figure lower than Sky News were quoting, around 100K which is lower than the estimated 175K. It’s not a numbers game I grant you but the police’s offensive total of 15K borders on the absurd.
To deliberately erase the number of people peacefully protesting on a matter of life and death is contemptuous in the extreme and more proof of the politicisation of the force.
Good work all. You should be proud but remember - the fight has only just begun.
Carlo - I woudn’t be surprised by 100k, though its difficult to tell when you’re walking around in a crowd thats taken up the entire road and its impossible to move faster than the crowd.
septicisle - I know. That was as unsurprising as the snow today.
According to the HP account the person introducing Annie Lennox said “We all support Hamas” - to which there was a resounding cheer.
True or false?
Doesn’t the prescence of Azzam “I support suicide bombers” Tamimi also rather undermine things?
If you are against the IDF and hamas surely the same net effect coul dbe achieved by staying at home ?
Doesn’t the prescence of Azzam “I support suicide bombers” Tamimi also rather undermine things?
Well, that is down to the problem that the SWP organise these things unfortunately…
cjcjc: I was somewhat out of range and only half picked up the intro to Annie Lennox, but I didn’t hear that, or any cheer.
Didn’t you have a black marker pen by the way?!
I should say that I never thought you would actually make/carry that banner so I must apologise for my lack of faith!
I ran into Somerfield on the way, and this is all they had… the other one was yellow! So annoying…
No worries
[...] including Martin Luther King, who stood for higher principles. When I march for a free Palestine, I cannot march for Hamas.Furthermore, not only are Hamas letting the Palestinian people down, but as I said last week, so is [...]
[...] The problem with Palestinian leadership has been their inability to provide moral clarity. To see them as merely as freedom fighters is an injustice to selfless freedom fighters from across the world, including Martin Luther King, who stood for higher principles. When I march for a free Palestine, I cannot march for Hamas. [...]
cjcjc: “According to the HP account the person introducing Annie Lennox said “We all support Hamas” - to which there was a resounding cheer.
True or false?”
True that he said it, but false that there was widespread “wild cheering”. Quite a number of people booed, and probably many more would have booed if they’d been expecting him to say it. Most other things got much larger cheers, including the guy from the Jewish peace movement.
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