RE: 50,000 march in London

["Jordi Martorell" <jordi@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

I was also at the London demo. Very impressive demo, much bigger than
anything we saw in the demos against the bombing of Yugoslavia. The police
said there were more than 20,000 and the organisers 50,000. I can only say
that two hours and a half after the front of the demo had already arrived
at Trafalgar Sq there were still people arriving and many could not get
into the Square.

>
> VERY LARGE DEMO of DIVERSE MAKE-UP
>       It was a very large demonstration which is important for confidence
> building. Mainly younger people with a wide cross-section of different
> communities. Overall it was very encouraging and there is great
> potential and opportunity there.

It was particularly interesting to see a large amount of Muslims and people
from Asian communities, many of them were probably at a demo like that for
the first time in their lives.

>
> LEFT SECTARIANS
>I saw no sign of the Socialist Party
> (Militant) either in paper sellers or a contingent.

??? The Socialist Party were definitely there and they had a huge stall at
the beginning of the demo in Hyde Park with a big banner saying ISR Join
here (or something like that). I saw a few of them selling during the demo
and at Trafalgar Sq. I am not in the SP (in fact I am with the people who
were expelled ten years ago! just a question of accuracy).

The SWP seemed to
> have every member out selling papers, pamphlets and badges. This is
> shameful parasitism. More
>significantly no one seemed to be buying them -- from the SWP or anyone
>else. There did seem to be interest in the leaflets and broadsheets that
>were handed out. Anyone with a worthwhile analysis of events could be
>'in business'.

That is true and we sold out of our special Socialist Appeal document on
the war both at the London demo and at the Glasgow one ;-)


>       The police seemed content to let the demonstration pass. However the
>       riot
> gear was all ready in vans in Park Lane (nearest point to the US
> Embassy).

At the end of the demo, after the speeches had finished (and they went on
until 5.30pm at least, a group of samba players and people from Reclaim the
Streets tried to march off Trafalgar Sq to somewhere else, but large
numbers of police quickly sorrounded the square and would have definitely
clamped down. Also the police broke the demonstration into separate groups
and tried to prevent some of them from entering the square (with the excuse
that there was no more room), with the result that many people left the
demo early.

here's a good pic of the London demo where you can appreciate the numbers
(the pic does not cover the whole demo but just a section of it:

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/p/ap/20011013/wl/1002999438britain_attacks_lon1
09.html

Jordi

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