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Stop the War Protest - 20th March 2004 London

 
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Maurice
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PostPosted: Sun Jul 09, 2006 6:48 am    Post subject: Stop the War Protest - 20th March 2004 London Reply with quote

Stop the War Protest - 20th March 2004 London

By Sue E., Journalist



London, England - The march started from Marble Arch at 12.00pm and was going to wend it's way to Trafalgar Square, I arrived at Trafalgar Square at 12.40 pm and walked amongst the growing crowds of people in the square.


Crowds gather at the Tralfalgar Square.


Some of the people were tourists but most were protesters waiting for the marchers to turn up and like a lot of people as it was lunch time I sat down on the steps to have a sandwich and a cup of tea to wait . There was no growing excitement of the march in October more like the hum of theater goers waiting for the play to start. There was the inevitable loud music, protest songs interwoven with pop songs and oddly 'Strangers in the Night' also there was video wall like you see at music festivals playing anti-war messages.

Click Here For Video One

It was easy to move around the crowd though it was growing by the minute to look at the different stalls selling T-shirts and badges and people were handing out leaflets some Islamic but others for different special interests, I saw one man handing out leaflets on anti-taxation . The crowd was still growing and then at about 2.10pm a voice came over the tannoy to say that the marchers were arriving and that 100,000 people had come out to protest , my own opinion is that at the time there were less but Trafalgar Square is a huge place and therefore my perception may be defective, and sure enough the marchers, not enough to stop the traffic, turned into the square to a rousing cheer from the non marchers and the speeches started.

Click Here For Video Two

The protest was being run by The Stop the War Coalition of the UK, CND and The British Muslim Association. The speeches I heard were basically the same the was was illegal,we were lied to regarding the reasons to go to war, we should follow the Spanish and vote out Mr Blair from government and the world is a more dangerous place because of the actions of Messrs Blair and Bush all greeted with cheering and whistling from the crowd .

[img]http://fortressoffreedom.com/SueAni8[/img]
Anti-war signs at the protest.

I left soon after the 3rd speaker as I was leaving more people were arriving so hopefully the organisers will be pleased at the turn out which considering it is a Saturday and cold and windy and the protest is about what is essentially old news was remarkable.




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