Sights and sounds from stop-the-war demo, London, 24 Sep

The marchers gradually assembled in the gardens of the Parliament Ticket Office and along the road in front of the Houses of Parliament. I presume that the organisers had arranged prior police permission for this assembly point, otherwise the marchers would be committing a Serious Organised Crime by assembling there. Although the grassy area of Parliament Square was cordoned off, and Brian Haw’s (still legal) peace camp was apparently being guarded by a line of yellow-jacketed police, marchers and other passers-by were visiting the peace camp without interference from the police, reading the placards and information on display, taking photos and chatting with Brian. More photos to follow.

A large and rather pink samba band provided entertainment for the waiting marchers, of which a 1 minute 16 second mp3 clip is attached. This is recorded at 16kbps to keep the file size small for dial-up users, but I can upload a higher-resolution version on request.

Organisations and campaigns were out in force – Stop the War, local peace groups, Socialist Party, Respect, CND, Campaign against Climate Change, sacked Gate Gourmet workers, trade unions, Congo solidarity campaigners, Artists against War, and the “Green Bush – harmless” guy.

One organisation I hadn’t come across before was Hizb ut-Tahrir, which describes itself as “a global Islamic political party working against western imperialists and their proxies in the form of Arab and Muslim dictators”. It is already defined as “terrorist” in many of the Arab and Muslim countries run by western-supported dictators, and Tony Blair recently announced that he planned to proscribe the party in the UK.

From chatting to one of their activists for a while, and from reading their leaflet, they don’t sound like a terrorist organisation to me, any more than the SWP are. Their idea of a “Caliphate” across the whole Muslim world, governed according to true Islamic law (not the perverted versions of the Taleban or the Saudi Wahabis) sounds to me much more agreeable than the current arrangement, although my anarchic tendencies aren’t too happy with the need for a “Caliph” to rule the whole thing.

We marched to Hyde Park, and near the end of the route a small crowd had formed around what appeared to be an anarchic art exhibition. Attached to the railings were a series of mounted and framed cartoons, subverted propaganda and photographs, apparently for sale although it was not clear who they could be bought from. Some photos of these to follow.

Inside Hyde Park, Stop the War stewards were urging the marchers to drop their placards on a big pile unless they intended to take them home. Hopefully this measure made it easier to clean up Hyde Park afterwards!

Rebel Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn was on fine form, and brought forth a stream of righteous anger at what our government is doing in our name with our money. He summed up the recent incident in Basra quite neatly.

“And what happened in Basra this week, you couldn't have written a play about it. You couldn't have made it up. British SAS officers, armed to the teeth, driving through a checkpoint, dressed in some Arab clothing, then try to shoot their way out of it. And then they were arrested, apparently quite properly, by the local police, and the British army then bombard the police station in which they were held. Who are the lawless forces now?”

Read More (with more photos and audio)
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/london/2005/09/324256.html

25.09.2005 23:16
Report, pics and audio clips: http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/09/324256.html
Pics of placards, banners and clothing: http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/09/324278.html
Pics from Brian Haw’s peace camp: http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/09/324320.html
Pics of an anarchic art exhibition: http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/09/324299.html
Quicktime Video: http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/09/324113.html
Debate about numbers: http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/09/324118.html
South London feeder march pics: http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/09/324125.html
Mini Mouse pics: http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/09/324133.html
Guido pics: http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/09/324141.html and http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/09/324151.html
Fit team vs the Grey Bloc pics: http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/09/324157.html
Drawing from Washingtom: http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/09/324169.html
Concerned Photography pics: http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/09/324235.html
Blair spotted at rally pic (suspect this is a hoax): http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/09/324223.html

PS glad you appreciated the audio uploads, “part radio part revolution” – that was pretty hard work! Capturing video and audio at the point where it happens, and bringing it together into a coherent and understandable report, is something I’m still learning. And no, I’m not London-based, and probably can’t spare any time to help with IMC radio projects (sorry). I’d rather stick to capturing the events I attend in whatever media I capture them in, and publishing to the newswire in a way which makes it understandable to as many people as possible. And if that adds to the pool of copyleft content which you can use to build a feature or a film or whatever, then so much the better

Don’t hate the media, be the media!

Simon

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/london/2005/09/324256.html