[PEN-L:36001] London demonstration speeches

[Chris Burford <cburford@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Our contingent arrived at Hyde Park half way through the rally. 

Well organised, large screen and amplification.

Strong on trade unionists women, muslims, and old left wing and peace
campaigners coming back rejuvenated as if 20 years younger.

Bruce Kent: We must use a new instrument only just coming into being: the
International Criminal Court, and make our leaders answerable in front of
it. We must expect soldiers too to say, Stop, I will not obey these
orders, when they are unjust. 
We are building new structures. The aim is to build a world with a just
and democratic UN, where people come before profit.

Head of the National Union of Journalists:
There can be no peace without justice - justice for the world's
poor.
The Iraqi war makes money. "That is the logic of capitalism and
imperialism" (applause)

a  senior member of the Liberal Democrats (Charles Kennedy not
speaking this time as he says he must support our troops now)
- praised the anti-war movment for helping people like him get all the
Lib Dem MP's to vote against the war.
Quoted Mary Robinson that the war is illegal. This war is based on the
oil economy - wanted us all to think about a non-oil renewable energy
economy. 

Jeremy Corbyn, one of the steadiest left-wing labour MP's who got into
trouble years ago by talking with Sinn Fein, before the government did,
praised the shut down of the centre of San Francisco for 15 hours. He
praised the school students who blocked Parliament Square: they are not
going to forget this experience. He described the attack on Baghdad as an
arms bazaar.

Tariq Ali veteran campaigner from Vietnam war days: Blair leads from
behind - from the behind of the American president. I say to the UN, do
not become a cleaning company for Bush and Blair. Claire Short as Mrs
Mopp of Bush and Blair. We must transform this great anti-war movement
into a great movement against the neo-liberal American empire. We must
support the Global Economic Forum. We must struggle to get rid of US
bases in each country. 

Mark Serota from the civil servants union - proud that civil servants
walked out on the day war started. If war can be stopped, innocent lives
will be saved. This is the 21st century, we want a world of
humanity.

Head of the Muslim Association of Britain: they are raping Baghdad, and
this will not go unpunished. The city of the Abassids, the city of peace
and learning. Pull the troops out now or else! We do not want London or
any other city of the west to suffer in the way Baghdad is today. 

The Kurdish Federation in the UK, wearing a tee-shirt Free Ocalan.

Poets against the war

ended "We're counting. And we count"

Senior member of NUT in a personal capacity.
Her sense of shame at being associated with this attack on a muslim
country. How can we teach our children that bullying is wrong when the
USA behaves like a bully. As for blaming the French, "Vive la
France!". If Blair had stuck with Chirac and Schroeder, a peaceful
solution would have been found. I am in support of our troops in the Gulf
so much I want them home. 

CND speaker: going to raise funds through the sale of white ribbons to
provide money for a prosecution at the International Criminal Court.

Speaker from Unison, proud of the role of local authority workers in
opposing this war, and even walking out of work on the day war was
declared. 

Andrew Murray, chair of the Stop the War Coalition, also passing on a
message from the head of Aslef, the union for which he is press officer:
we should not sit passively in front of television screens and get
demoralised, we should get out on the streets.

[his report to the Executive Committee of the Communist Party of
Britain:-
http://www.communist-party.org.uk/EC_PC/EC/EC_Political_report_-_March_20/ec_political_report_-_march_20.html
]


Representative of muslim women: the bombing of Baghdad: it feels as if I have been asked to watch a brutal act - implying rape. 

Bianca Jagger, nuanced experienced speech of a peace celebrity: If it wasn't for these demonstrations Bush and Blair would not be making any efforts to save innocent civilians. Aid should go through the UN, not Bush and Blair. 

Ken Livingstone, Mayor of London, who must have helped a lot in ensuring the conditions for the demonstration were as convenient as they could be: This is the largest demonstration against an ongoing war in British history. It will not stop with Iraq: it will be Iran and North Korea next. This is not one isolated war: this is 80 years of interventions by Britain and the USA for control of the Middle East. "When they come for Iran, we will be ready"
1 person in 10 in London is a muslim. I want you to oppose any racism towards muslims. He had written to every head teacher in London asking them to ensure there is no bullying of muslims children in school.  Ken was 11, he said, when he delivered his first speech - against the attack by Britain, France, and Israel against Eqypt at Suez. To the school students he said "I respect and applaud what you have done". 
We are seeing a locking in place of the New World Order announced 10 years ago by George Bush senior. He had spoken this morning with Jesse Jackson: They intended to work for a new world order which deals also with the slaughter that comes from poverty. They will host a conference in London later this year. 

Lindsay German, Convenor of Stop the War Coalition, a member of SWP, who with Andrew Murray must have done much to establish the non sectarian pluralist nature of the coalition: "We have one of the bloodiest records of war and imperialism of any country in the world." Just imagine if Baghdad were London: think of all the beautiful buildings that are to be bombed. Is this a humanitarian war? The first thing they have done is secure the oil fields. If it was a humanitarian war the Turks would not be invading Kurdistan.About school student protestors: these kids are not truants. They are our political future. Next Saturday will be a day of local demonstrations. 

Tony Benn
This demonstration will be seen all over the world. There has just been a massive terrorist attack on Baghdad. It is a war against the muslim world, against the Palestinians, against the world's poor. Those around the Bush administration have a doctrine called full spectrum dominance in every area, including information. That is why these demonstrations are sources of information. Look around you: it is a university of peace. This campaign is not going to end when the war ends. It will go on to campaign for justice in the world. 

George Galloway, Scottish MP long ago in trouble for trips to Libya and to Iraq: It is almost Shakespearian how the guilt of the crime he has committed is written all over Tony Blair's ravaged face. He wants to create a world of order and stability. Look at what he has unleashed. The last British general to conquer Baghdad in 1917, Sir Frederick Maude, said he came as a liberator. He was dead within a year.


High morale in rally. Great anti-racist practical action, muslims and non-muslims side by side. Sense of immediate relevance, and of future purpose, and of impending world change.

Young people blocking buses in Oxford street as I left.

Chris Burford
London