Anti war Demonstration February 24th , 2007 ,London

Well I actually did it. I attended a march in central London to demonstrate about things I have been angry about and felt that the government not only does not listen or care about but is actively in favour of causing serious mischief in .

I had been increasingly worried about the possible bombing of Iran . I have been getting a recurring feeling of 'deja vu' where despicable politicians from USA , Britain , Israel and their minions have repeatedly made noises about how the leader of Iran is so much like Adolf Hitler and that he plans to 'wipe Israel of the map ' and of course if that is part of his plan for Israel , imagine what he has in store for the rest of these poor and under prepared super powers ?



Hitler , 1939 was in charge of a military super power of his time , he did invade many countries and planned to dominate many others with an institutional policy of racism of the worst kind. But what these despicable politicians are saying and what is echoed by a bland and docile media is false , Iran has never in its modern history invaded any countries and neither did Iranian president , Ahmadinejad threaten to destroy Israel . Those who would seek various reputable or varied sources will realise that this is a fabrication similar to those used by Goebbels :' A lie is only a lie but if repeated enough times , becomes the truth ' . How ironic that the very same people that cry 'Hitler is coming ' are the same rascals that mimic Goebbels.

It is incredible ! I heard a top journalist on radio speaking to an American politician who was virtually advocating the possible air strikes on Iran repeating this mantra about Iran's leader wanting: 'To wipe Israel of the face of the map' and the journalist not challenginging the veracity of the statement. This is the lame media of the BBC world service , you can imagine what the traditional jingoistic right wing press and pro Zionist outlets have gone to town with .

So, amidst the distortion of the truth it is hard to single out exactly what is happening ,It would be wise to look for various sources and see their views. It becomes abundantly clear to me anyway that , Iran is no threat to Israel apart from maybe her military supplies to Hezbollah or other shi'ite factions in the region . And so what?; allies tend to help eachother . The US and Britain both stood by, did not call for an immediate cease fire whilst they watched children burn in Lebanon from the fire of an invading Israeli force. But not only that ,the scoundrels were supplying the highly equipped Israelis with more ammunition . That is the outrage.




So we seem to be being prepared to acquiesce as passive witnesses( albeit with carefully censored and selected visual information) to another example of American terrorism of the worst sort. At present there is a military build up in the middle east with American air craft carriers close by . Some independent journalists are saying that what the Americans want is to destabilise Iran so that it can disintegrate from being a unified ,sovereign state ,that they are encouraging rivalry amongst various ethnic groups in order to instigate a regime change and 'hey presto! ' oil , gas , military pathways etc are theirs .. But hang on , things are not that easy are they? look at Iraq ? . it's hard to believe , but although I may be deluded or reading the wrong reports , these criminals are planning again to do some bad things in the name of greed and generally to acquire wealth for the few rather than the many .


So I attended the 'peace march' . Nobody would come with me , nobody ,and I was wondering whether I should really go or not. but I did , I arrived by 12.00 at Hyde Park Corner. I felt lost and out of place being one of the very few loners their . I looked odd, not holding a placard or wearing a badge or distributing leaflets of my favourite cause. I ended up being herded into a line on a road within Hyde Park , very orderly and heading for Trafalgar Square .The crowd was ushered into a straight line of a width of at least 6 or seven people by the official stewards . It didn't look enormous to me but I could not estimate the size. I could not see the front. I waited standing , not talking to anyone , I wanted to be alone somehow in this crowd as I had come alone ,I wasn't in the mood of 'meeting wonderful people and making friends' but there was an implicit feeling that all present were friends and although I had pictured an event in my mind that could attract pickockets and other like minded scum , I was pleasantly surprised to see a genuine mix and match of all ages, classes, political persuasions and races all having some reason to be there in an atmosphere of friendliness and respectfulness.
Some had placards of 'Bush the world's greatest terrorist' others were definitely 'ban the bomb ' people of Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament ' campaigning against the governments's recent decisison to renew the Nuclear submarine fleet known as Trident ,and various other causes .

In fact this variety did lack a specifically targeted common cause for a campaign and I guess that's what made it lack much collective passion and outrage to focus upon . However some youngsters were banging drums continuously to a 'Ba boom ba boom !' rhythm and were well coordinated , others were shouting into megaphones :'Come on everybody dance to this ; War what is it good for - nothing !' This song from the eighties being revived by a campaign supported by the renegade former 'new labour ' MP George Galloway .

I had been motivated by what I believe is a gradual process of public desensitisation by the government, right wing press and other hangers on ,in preparation for another major assault on a foreign country ;Iran .
I eventually found a placard with 'Do not attack Iran' and held this all the way to Trafalgar.

I waited a long time until the orderly mob started marching proper . We moved like a large snail . set into motion at about 1.00pm . I was getting inpatient by then but got to enjoy the various spectacles . Endless groups of inviduals desperately handing leaflets of their causes to who ever . I bought a copy of the 'Peace Times' for 50p and accepted leaflets for so many different political causes that it reached a fatigue level and I couldn't care less any more about 'jews against Zionism' , 'The Twin Tower Conspiracy ' the 'socialist Worker ' 'The Bolivar Revolution ' etc etc. I started refusing and saying ' Thanks ,I already have one' as they nodded in approval .




We continued to walk and after about what seemed like an hour but must have been 40 minutes ,I had just come level to Green park tube station . I could not believe it and thoguht to myself , well at this rate I won't be back in time for my afternoon
nap which I usually like to take at about 2 or 3 o'clock . But then I reasoned that this was a worth while cause and how selfish was I to compare my little nap to the real horrors we here to denounce. I passed 'Grosvenor House ' a big office block
where 34 years ago I started my first job as an apprentice telephone engineer ,the company had a meeting base at the basement of this building , how I had a flash back of arriving early one morning and getting a little too comfortable whilst waiting for the rest , had begun to doze; they never let me forget that , I eventually suffered the ignominious sacking after struggling for a year or so trying to be 'the apprentice ' ; Bastards"!. Such a long time ago I thought , what a young , confused boy I was, I needed understanding not mocking . A long time ago that was.

I left the unhappy memory behind and cruised along Park Lane or Piccadilly,whatever that road is called , I have walked past there so many times and thought to myself : this is were I belong , this is my home town , I was born in Nicosia but I don't have the same connection as I do here , I always feel a pang of excitement in my bones when I walk up the West End , where ever I have lived in London over the past forty years or so , that was not my place , not Burnt Oak , Manor House , Crouch Hill ,Edmonton , no the only constant was the love of travelling to the West End .
When I went to live in Cyprus in 1992 , It was the West End that I missed.

But this walk in the West End was different , I was the traffic , the road had been closed off for me to walk on instead of being used by the motorists . The cars had to wait for me and a few thousands of other faceless VIP's to carry on the march, get to the destination and then allow normal traffic right of way .

So amidst the thousands or tens of thousands of heads and shoulders , I looked up at familiar buildings , statues , restaurants , book shops etc, all from such a strange angle never before experienced , alongside the somemwhat eccentric jumble of activists made the whole view surreal . I was just staring at the buildings with loudspeakers blaring , drumbeats thumping , young girls' hips gyrating and me plodding along with a placard and mixed up thoughts of past present and future.


One thought whilst listening to a group in their late teens discussing the march and their anger againsts the government made me think, how slow I was again ,taking me forty nine years to get off my bum and join in a mass protest rather than staying at home and fuming .



By four o'clock or so we had reached Trafalgar Square , it was peaceful no bad incidents seen , no problem with police etc . We had made it . Placards were
discarded into piles on the floor as marchers watched the large video screen which projected the image of various speakers including George Galloway MP . A Spokesman for the 'Muslim Initiative' said many things about the misrepresentation of Muslims and how true Muslims will protest ligitimately etc. George spoke as usual in his rabble rousing manner , always worth a listen . He seems quite hated , many boo'd him as he spoke . there was a live link up with Bruce Kent, leader of CND who in my opinion made the best speech which in essence was:'think for yourselves ' don't just listen to the rubbish spoken around the corner in Whitehall etc.'

After I had listened to a few speakers , I did feel that the atmosphere was somewhat dead-beat and that the turn -out was a disappointment ,yet figures seem to be a matter of opinion in these marches , I would make a very crude guess at 10 thousand , but can't be sure .

I left , as I saw others trickling toward the Leicester Square Tube station .
This way I thought I could avoid a crush movement under ground . The trains were crowded, but I got back in good time with no complaints or major discomfort apart from exhaustion . When I returned home I actually thought it was worth it , just to show and be part of the expression to our leaders of the oligarchy that , 'you are not listening and you do not represent us, get that? I also managed to get two hours late afternooon's sleep .

The next day I watched some videos of the march on the internet posted on u-tube , Brian Haw, the man who is permanently camped outside parliament was the guest speaker that seemed to attract the most applause , his message was simple and a little blunt , almost naive ,peace not war , love etc , but many agreed and applauded . Seemed a little like a mascot of the left or the dissidents to me . A token allowed by the oligarchic system to demonstrate that big brother does love us all and cares and even allows limited protest outside its front door providing it does not get out of hand .



Well I hope after all this , that Iran is not attacked . Some may read this and think it's a naive notion because Iran may get stronger and stronger then turn on all of us and be able to destroy us all . I think that notion would be more naive and that an attack on Iran would be criminal. I may be wrong but time will tell .
Peace be with you .