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Photography © Pablo Luis González
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How does one feel being part of a crowd of two million people? I am writing these lines ten days after the march and I still do not know. It just felt like being in a journey at sea: what fills the field of vision are the surrounding waves gently breaking on us… there is just a vague awareness of the vast immensity of the oceans.
The diversity of the people around us was astounding; there were the usual street vendors trying to make a buck, or actually making it, by selling antiwar and peace related merchandise: whistles, recorders, T-shirts.
A young coy girl was playing in a T-shirt with the slogan "Non a la guerre", was she French? A Dutch middle aged couple carrying home made signs were having their own personal march between Hyde Park and the roar of the approaching march from Picadilly Circus.
Over there a tall grey bearded Catholic priest was looking for someone or something, perhaps a runaway flock?
An elderly lady with a multicoloured hand made placard, "Give Peace a Chance", mingled effortlessly with the crowd.
Two elegant women with their dogs for peace happily posed for a snap.
A lonely American man was sailing through the crowds, perhaps looking for a sympathetic compatriot? A drop from one particular ocean, that formed by the hundred of thousand of fellow American citizens demonstrating in New York, Washington, San Francisco, Los Angeles and innumerable American cities.
A couple of young women from Devon suggesting to castrate Bush… what an excellent idea! (Can I add Blair to the list?)
The London green movement was out in force with portable windmills et al.
Placards, banners, signs, said it all: "I'm American and I'm against the war!!!", "Nuclearie? Non merci", "Buck Fush, buck Flair", "Peace on Mama Earth", "Audite Voce Populi"... and many more, the ingenuity of the legends being marvellous...
I decided to go straight to Hyde Park rather than join the march after travelling in a coach from Hull, as it was after 1pm when we disembarked. I never managed to even see the stage during the earlier march on September 28, 2002.
This time round I was dying to hear some of the speakers: I was not impressed at all by Charles Kennedy's ramblings on a second resolution by the Security Council, an organisation that has already lost all credibility, functioning as no more than an arm of the Department of State of the United States; Tariq Ali's call for regime change in London was received with a roar of approval; while the uncompromising stand of Jeremy Corbyn MP put to shame many of his fellow Labour MPs, who seems to be more interested in furthering their careers rather than in taking a principled stand against this coming murderous war.
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Page updated: 27 March 2009
