documenting

Down with Bush!

london stop bush march / november 20, 2003

photography/text: pablo luis gonzález

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Photography © Pablo Luis González

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Bloomsbury was filled with undulating waves of sharp colours as banners, placards, hats, scarves and flying balloons jostled for attention, and with the sound of whistles and chanting rippling through the surface of the human ocean, impatient to march through the heart of London to express loudly and clearly its disgust and rage at Bush's visit. The tranquillity of autumn leaves rustling on this fine November afternoon was nowhere to be heard as the railings across the end of Malet Street were finally withdrawn at about 2.45pm as the march started uncoiling down Holborn, preceded by a line of bright yellow-green Day-Glo jacketed police officers clearing firmly the way, roughing up the egos of a few photographers, whilst a police van set up the speed.

The usual cohort of photographers (myself included), camera crews, journalists, drummers, left wing newspapers sellers, was running ahead of the main body of the march, much to the annoyance of some police officers.

Two subsidiary marches joined the main body as it sneaked its way towards Waterloo Bridge; with their pedal and wind powered bicycles with a couple of trailers in a haze of roasted nuts, and yet more multicoloured placards, hats, scarves, flags, London School of Economics banners, a multitude of human beings of all races, colours, cultures, religions, ages: giggling truant schoolgirls, noisy students drumming tambourines, not-so-quiet grannies with home made placards, little girls with their mothers...

Our coach dropped us for once on time on Gower Street after travelling from Hull via Scunthorpe, where we picked up another group of protesters, including a fiddler, Victoria Miller, and a guitarist, Robert Simpson, who graciously entertained us most of the way down to London.

As we were being dropped off, Stop the War stewards urged us to march down Gower Street towards Malet Street through Torrington Place to join the crowd of protesters already assembled, thousands who had gathered amidst the sound of whistles, drums, chanting, and the incredible variety of people against the multicoloured backdrop of banners. The multitude was densely packed, making advance to the front of the march difficult (knocking off a few cups of coffee on the way, I am afraid to say: Sorry, folks!). The police had cordoned off the end of Malet Street, so climbing up and down garden walls was the only expedient option to get onto the areas assigned to the press, photographers and camera crews.

The streets of central London were lined up with many more demonstrators as we marched through, the walkways across Waterloo Road on the South Bank Arts Complex were bursting with people waving banners and peace flags. The whistling and chanting increased in intensity in a sustained crescendo until acquiring a continuous pitch as we crossed Parliament Square and marched through Whitehall, passing Downing Street. It is very unlikely that Bush was unaware of us, in spite of the protestations to the contrary by Laura Bush.

There were what looked like thousands of people waiting for us as we entered Trafalgar Square, where we were greeted by the covered statue of "you know who", as Lindsay German said, complete with a tiny Blair in his pocket and a First Strike missile in his hands: Bush's baby.

As the first speeches began, we were told that the tail of the march was just leaving Malet Street. It is difficult to know how many people participated in this march and rally, perhaps the biggest march that Britain has seen in mid-week: the police, for once, put a figure of 110,000; although the BBC disgraced itself again by initially saying that no more than 30,000 people had taken part, and that it was finished. Stop the War organisers put the figure over 200,000. I just know that when I was leaving Trafalgar Square to get back to the coach just before 6pm there was still a crowd marching through Northumberland Avenue. The square itself was full to the brim and densely packed, even the fountains had loads of people on top of them, in spite of the exhortations from the podium to get down as there were concerns about the fragility of the sandstone which they were carved from.

The rally had its high point in the symbolic toppling of Bush, complete with Blair in his pocket, the first strike doctrine and an ideology that pretends to advance the cause of Western style "democracy" by brutal means in the Arab world and elsewhere, but which is no more than a codename for naked imperialism disguised under the shroud of "benign" neo-colonialism. Ron Kovics, the American veteran from the Vietnam War who was the source and inspiration for Oliver Stone's award winning film "Born on the 4th of July", led the countdown for the toppling. The message from the podium was loud and clear: Bush, you are not welcome here! Blair, out! Salmond, former leader of the SNP, mentioned that he was dropped from the list of invitees to the State Banquet, no doubt because he would have embarrassed both Bush and Blair with his vocal opposition to the invasion of Iraq.

Two things have come clear since the artificially designated end of the war:

Iraq, under American and British led occupation, has become a "failed state" and, as such, it has become the focus of resistance against Western intervention and interests. Hence the recent attacks on Istanbul against British and other banking corporations involved in the carving-up of Iraq.
The failure of the so-called "war on terrorism". Since the invasion of Afghanistan, and now that of Iraq, terrorist attacks continue to happen unabated at regular intervals in spite of Bush's and Blair's threats and military action. Not only all the indications point to the fact that the war on terrorism has failed, but I cannot stop thinking that instead it has become the "war for terrorism".

I am aware that many people who opposed this war have doubts about the effectiveness of such demonstrations, as on past record both Blair and Bush have ignored any opposition on this matter, apart of gratuitous tirades bordering in plain insults uttered by Blair against all those who do not support his policies, especially those of us who vehemently opposed the attack on Iraq. Yet our position is not a negative one, as what we are demanding is not only to stop the war on Iraq or Afghanistan, but also a shift in a political culture that seeks conflict resolution by the use of yet more violence. The end does not justify the means: questionable means will undoubtedly corrupt the end. There is not much difference between terrorism and state terrorism in terms of their outcomes in the human, political, cultural, economic and social spheres. Fighting for peace is like fucking for virginity, as a banner held by young women put it so succinctly and brilliantly.

I have no doubt that both Blair and Bush will also ignore this march and protest as well with the blindness and deafness and narrow mindedness of those who refuse to see and hear. However, history moves on long cycles: I understand that there are historians who refuse to make an assessment of the impact of the French Revolution on grounds that we still have not seen all its consequences. The Aldermaston march is ingrained in the culture on this country, especially in the political classes: it is true that nuclear disarmament has not been achieved, but it can be argued that now there is an awareness of the long term negative implications of their existence that I am not convinced it existed in the 1960s. Yet five decades is, from an historical perspective, a relatively short period for profound changes to happen.

This Thursday was a brilliant end to a week of demonstrations which was kicked off so spectacularly by Lindis Percy on Monday afternoon, when she climbed the gates of Buckingham Palace, followed by an intense day of protests and mock cavalcades on Wednesday that brought demonstrators close to Bush when police lines were breached, giving him more than an earful of insults!