Disappointing Turnout for Lacklustre Anti-War March

Perhaps inevitably, the police claimed (according to the BBC) there were only ten thousand on yesterday's march, whilst at the other end of the spectrum, Socialist Worker inevitably claimed 100,000.

It's always hard to be accurate about this but from attending far too many demonstrations over the years, the truth is probably neared to 30,000 (about the same as at West Ham's nil-nil draw with Arsenal yesterday). Sadly, there was no more than 300 on the east London feeder march and no mass turnout from Tower Hamlets and Newham's Muslim communities.

Of course, before the enormous February 2003 demonstration, 30,000 would have been a respectable number. But the pre-publicity for yesterday's march was muted, as was the atmosphere on the day, and it felt like a gathering of the Left rather than of the much broader anti-war movement of 2003.

It is true that early 2003 was a 'tipping point' in public opinion on the war in Iraq and the march in February of that year was part of a rolling campaign of activities. This was not the case yesterday and it is hard to judge the impact of the London bombings in July. It may be that the impact of the proposed new and astonishingly draconian anti-terrorism laws begins to move public opinion again and it seems the US anti-war movement has been reinvigorated by the campaigning of military families - the Washington DC march looks to have attracted around 200,000 people (see the photo links below)

Photos of London Indymedia UK [1] [2] [3]
Photos of Washington Indymedia DC [1] [2] and William Hughes