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Thousands join anti-war protest
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Thousands of anti-war demonstrators staged a noisy protest outside the Labour Party conference on Saturday calling on Gordon Brown to end the "catastrophic" conflict in Iraq and withdraw British troops.
Students, pensioners and peace activists joined a march through Manchester to deliver another anti-war message to the Government.
Leaders of the Stop The War Coalition and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament held up a giant banner which read "troops out" at the head of the march, which organisers said was joined by at least 5,000 people.
Scores of police officers, some on horseback, were on duty as the protesters, some chanting: "Troops out" and others singing: "We all live in a terrorist regime" walked towards the conference centre.
A letter was handed in to a Labour Party official explaining that the demonstration was in protest at the Government's foreign policy which organisers said merely followed that of the US administration.
The letter read: "We urge you to deliver on your commitment to withdraw all British troops from the illegal and catastrophic occupation of Iraq. We also urge you to recognise that the occupation of Afghanistan has involved Britain in an unwinnable and devastating war in a country where the population is clearly opposed to our presence."
Lindsey German, convener of the coalition which signed the letter, said: "Seven years after the war in Iraq a number of flash points have flared up in the Middle East, South Asia and now the Caucuses.
"Britain's role in the world has become dangerous and to criticise Russia for taking military action in Georgia is breathtakingly hypocritical."
Kate Hudson, chairwoman of CND, said: "We are here to tell the Government that we want a foreign policy based on peace not war. We want our troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan and we are appalled at the prospect of the further spread of war.
"Most people around the world want peace but our Government plans war policies. Change is needed."
Reader views (4)
George W. Bush’s sentence-by-sentence speaking skills are deteriorating. Apparently, this may be due to a mental illness called “presenile dementia.” Bush may or may not be secretly still drinking heavily. Bush lied, and thousands of people died. Bush suffers from narcissism and megalomania. Moreover, Bush has been arrested three times. Bush was arrested for disorderly conduct. Bush was arrested for stealing. Bush was also arrested for a serious crime—driving under the influence of alcohol. There are reasons to believe that Bush suffers from a learning disability. Bush’s learning disability would explain a lot of things. All in all, Bush is a severely mentally ill individual. Bush is not fit to be the president of the United States.
Anti-war protesters are great.
Submitted by Andrew Yu-Jen Wang
B.S., Summa Cum Laude, 1996
Messiah College, Grantham, PA
- Andrew Yu-Jen Wang, Shippensburg, USA, 03/10/2008 00:42
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Godwin!
Yes, vision aforethought, you lose, for comparing WW2 with the invasion and occupation of a weak and unthreatening nation.
In order to avoid charges of hypocrisy, why aren't you agitating for the invasion of Burma?
- Guthrie, UK, 22/09/2008 21:58
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@ Vision Abridged
Socialists? Who mentioned any political ideology? I think you'll find this was an anti-war march. You'd have to hate humanity with a vengeance to WANT war, but perhaps you do and have your reasons.
To rebut your point about Germany and Japan - I think you'll find that in those cases the Germans and Japanese were the aggressors. In Afghanistan and Iraq WE are the aggressors. But to follow your own argument to its logical conclusion you actually agree with the anti-war movement in general stance, but go one step further - it would be the right thing to do for other nations of the world to ally and stop the US/UK axis forces in their tracks to prevent the further genocidal killing of civilians in the two nations we currently brutally occupy, thus releasing them from the clutches of empirical and fascistic power. Well argued!
One final point - if we'd not fought Germany in WWII they wouldn't have been in the clutches of socialism (left wing), they'd have been in the clutches of national socialism (right wing), the very people who violently crushed, imprisoned and killed active members of the socialist and communist parties during the National Socialist (Nazi) party's rise to power. If you're going to start spouting off historical equivalences, at least know something of the historical reference or you'll end up arguing in favour of the very thing you hate as you've done here.
- Vim Vendors, UK, 22/09/2008 18:50
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Amazing how these socialists will play the human rights card occasionally, and then when a free country attempts to liberate an oppressed people they cry murder! Such hypocrisy! Imagine if we had not liberated Germany and Japan, they would still be in the clutches of socialism / empirical power. Oh, but of course, that's what they want! Oops.
- Vision Aforethought, Oxford, 21/09/2008 00:26
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