Did anyone go on an Anti-War protest this weekend and how can I find out when the next ones will be?

[Tinker]

Hope someone can help. In the spirit of protest for protest's sake and to give this govt a give kick out of complacency, am keen to go on an anti-war march/protest. Same attitude makes me in favour on the firefighter's dispute. However, was most dismayed to discover there had been an anti-war protest in Liverpool this weekend that I hadn't heard about beforehand. So, anyone, where/how did you hear about one? I didn't notice anything in papers last week - but could have just missed something obvious! Thanks

Wow, well done everyone who went, makes me feel quite emotional really!

Thought this might be the right place to post this but I'll sit back and hold my breath!

I don't know enough about the military intelligence they have, but what if Bush/Blair are right and SH needs removing from power because if he isn't he'll use or sell nuclear/biological weapons to terrorists. Isn't military action the only way to remove him from power - I know that the US has human rights issues such as death row etc but as far as I am aware they would not use chemical weapons on their own people (re the Kurds after last gulf war). If SH is so ambivilent about using such weapons on his own people I don't think he would think twice about using it on anyone else - if he aquires a nuclear aresnal which he will inevitably unless he is stopped - what then - the balance of power has shifted considerably! I am not deliberately being contentious but just would like to be persuaded that the anti war arguments are sounder that the others.

We had a wonderful day here in Athens.The comment that "God doesn't want the war" was heard many times, because after a week of rain,snow,sleet and around freezing temperatures we had a glorious sunny day.Cold but sunny.
I'm really proud that I went, they are talking numbers of 70,000 here - they were expecting 20,000.There were people from every walk of life,many children and many elderly people too.Sadly there was some trouble towards the end of the afternoon and of course that is what all the TV channels are focusing on.But you could say that it was 99% peaceful and a really positive atmosphere.
Lets hope that it will have some impact on our future.

Seahorse I really don't know enough about all of this to discuss it properly.I do though have 2 very strong points of view.The first obviously is that I don't want a war to start-I feel that it will spread quickly into a "religeous"war and I frankly am scared.We are too close to the action for my peace of mind.My other view is that it isn't really a case of wanting to remove SH from power - if it was that I think that the Americans would have got rid of him ages ago.
As I said before I don't keep up with the news terribly well and don't have any strong arguments to back up these feelings I have.

Seahorse, I think many people just don't understand how a bungled attempt to kill or capture Bin Laden suddenly got switched to an attack on Iraq. Where's the link or logic in that?

I don't follow the nuclear arsenal argument. Surely within 50 years most nations will have the knowledge/ability and access to the raw materials to build their own nuclear weapons. Why does the US think it should be the only nation that should police this? Look at Israel as a nuclear power with an aggressive leader - no threats of a war on them by the US.

No-one is remotely defending Saddam Hussain but to further humiliate the Iraqi people with more western bombings with no guarantee of this resulting in his removal from power does not seem logical.

A war is more likely to result in him killing his own people, a what have I got to lose scenario, look what you've made happen etc. The US does need to look at it's own Human Rights issues (executing its own people, often with very doubtful evidence) before it dares to comment upon the human rights violations in another country and use that as an excuse for attacking another nation.

If an attack was a guaranteed assualt to take out Saddam and his henchmen and NO OTHERS I would maybe think that was a moral thing to do. But to do a vague hit and miss and fingers crossed we get him this time, is just too, well, vague.

only ti9me for a quick message - haven't read the thread properly - well done scummy's boy marchers and everyone else who went on yesterday's march.

Seahorse - I agree with Tinker and KS, but to add to their points:

Saddam does not have nuclear weapons, he only potentially has nuclear weapons. There is no evidence for the other weapons. Saddam does also have a terrible human rights record, but as far as I know, there have been no more recent human rights abuses in Iraq than there have been in many other countries, including the US (thousands of Al Quaeda and Taliban suspects held without trial, minors executed etc.)

He may have those weapons, but to attack without any real evidence looks very much like the US is simply trying to cement its position as a world superpower. In fact it would look very much like a vendetta against muslims and would serve as a huge recruitment campaign to Al-Quaeda. This is what I am afraid of anyway. Furthermore, it just seems absurd to go to war (and kill many innocent people) in order to prevent innocent people dying.

Just a quick point - I agree that the US has a dubious record human rights record given that it still has capital punishment in some states, but don't think that can be compared for a moment with the tortures, beatings, imprisonments without trial, executions etc etc carried out in Iraq by Saddam Hussein's regime.

Quite. One of the Iraqi exiles in London quoted a million Iraqis dead at the hands of the Iraqi government over the last 30 years. I saw a documentary where a very cynical jorno looked into claims that a protitute had been beheaded by the law inforcment agencies and left the in main shopping street in baghdad. He got conformation from some very pro-Saddam people. Bad as Bush is, you cannot compare the two.

Thought this was very apt (and funny). Agree with the arguments put forward by ks, tinker and Lucy123. Saddam H is undoubtedly a nasty piece of work but I don't see any evidence that he's linked to Al Q and in any case think the world's policing should be done by the UN, not the US.

cityfreak, are you on an emailing list for stopthewar? how did you get on it? i've just looked at the site and couldn't find one... was it by joining?

if you could let me know, i'd really appreciate it. thanks.

I usually like the Open Democracy site. Only history will tell what the "right" thing to do is... not to say I'm for a war at all, as I'm not. The one difference between Iraq and N Korea is oil. Former Pres Carter in 1980 even explicitly said the the US will look out for its interests (ie oil) in the Persian Gulf. Former Pres Bush invoked the "Carter Doctrine" in his initial bid for the Gulf War (it didn't take, so he switched tactics). VP Cheney has recently (Aug 2002) said, "Armed with these weapons of terror and a seat at the top of 10% of the world's oil reserves, Saddam Hussein could then be expected to seek domination of the entire Middle East, take control of a great portion of the world's energy supplies, directly threaten America's friends throughout the region, and subject the United States or any other nation to nuclear blackmail." Oil is an issue here and while I do not think we should go to war over oil, I think that we need to realize just how dependent we are on it for our lifestyle. (Uh, "we" being us typical Americans, I guess.. couldn't think of a better pronoun.) Anyway, that seems to be something that always gets glossed over. Huge changes in day to day life are necessary to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. I'm sure that's not something anyone who needs to be elected to have a job wants to suggest.

Do think that Saddam needs to be stopped, though, just don't think that the proposed war will do it and will have dire humanitarian consequences of its own.

I'm feeling really low about the prospect of war and what it would lead to, so have come here for the first time in ages to have a good sounding-off. I am so scared for dd's future I feel sick. I just cannot understand why we are taking out SH (apparently the Bush administration had him in their sights before 9/11) when the threat is from terrorists who come from a variety of nationalities. By all accounts SH and Bin Laden hate each other - SH has his own problems with fundamentalists, he's hardly going to support any. Most of the 9/11 hijackers were Saudis but we aren't attacking them. The chances are that the terrorists already have the materials for nuclear weapons from the former Soviet block countries for whom capitalism means that you sell whatever the market requires to the highest bidder (much like capitalism here, in fact.) I sat in bed tonight stroking dd's hair and wondering what it would be like to know that a nuclear bomb was going to explode in London - we are close enough for it to get us too - and then I thought of all the parents in Iraq holding their little ones in fear of what the next few weeks will bring. Most Muslims believe that this is a war on Islam and so we are playing right into the hands of every fundamentalist. Well done to everyone on the march, I only hope to God that the powers that be are listening.

Hey, well done to everyone who went. I felt horribly guilty for not going due to financial and logistic reasons when actually I do think it's really important. I was at Greenham and understood why those women believed what they were doing was more important than anything else at the time.

My mom lives in a military-supported city in the USA and they got 5000 people on their peace march! I can't believe it; we used to organise NoNukes protests in the 1980s & we were lucky to get >50 people. If 5000 people marched in my Home Town then many average Americans oppose this war, too.

I've no doubt that Saddam is a nasty piece of work and so on, but I feel that the basic problem that needs to be solved is that of Israel and the Palestinians. I don't think we'll have a lasting world peace until that issue is resolved. Surely there must be a solution somewhere?

JJ, I like the Open democracy site, thanks for that.

Here's a website about those weapons of mass destruction . Look carefully when the page opens up!

What a wonderful day on Saturday! Must do some maternal boasting as we had to walk 10 miles to and from home, as all the Tubes in central London were shut, and the buses weren't running. Ds walked about 2 miles and was very good in the pushchair, and, after finally seeing a big girl do the same, agreed to make use of the bushes in Hyde Park! I do not know any person in real life who was on that march, but to see 1 million people there was amazing, so many different kinds of people, all so peaceful and co-operative. I have never seen Police so laid back on any demo at all, smiling and inviting people with pushchairs on to the pavement when the crowds were heavy. ionesmum, I don't think the powers that be will listen to us, because they are all het up with macho posturing, and financial pressures from the arms trade and big business, but at least we can teach our own children what is right and wrong, and perhaps things will be different when they grow up.

Just had to add my voice to all those who said how wonderful Saturday was - from the moment sitting in a tube train at Temple hearing the cheering and whistles above us, through the hugely long walk, to, for us, the bizarre experience of being at a wedding at 4.30pm next to Hyde Park Corner with helicopters overhead Saigon-style through the ceremony (thankfully the bride and groom didn't seem to mind). What a day to be in London!

hmb, is your dh headed off the the gulf? If so, best wishes to all of you.

Just another adding how much we enjoyed Saturdays march. Ds (nearly 2) was brilliant as it was a long (and cold walk). Many thanks to the 'Transport Salaried Staff Association' for letting us march behind their very nice banner with lots of buses, trains and planes on which kept ds amused for hours.
Lets hope someone takes some notice that maybe there are a lot of people who aren't happy with the 'dictatorial' style of Bush and Blair.

Wonder if I dare make a couple of points on this thread, the main one being...

...that saddam Hussein has not been coorporating for the last 10 years regarding his original promises to the UN - but now he has 300,000 troops on his border he is suddenly very helpful.

I don't think Bush and Blair want a war anymore than anyone on that march, but there is only one way to treat a bully/dictator...stand up to him. I am sure the Iraqia would rather be rid of Sddam than not, and I wonder if the march is a selfish one on our part i.e. we happy democratic civilians don't want the hassle of war, sod the consequences to the Iraqis and the future.

I worry about the Iraqi's. Around 1 million of them killed by Saddam's regimes and no rights at all. 100% "voted" for him at the last election. Less that 0.5% have access to the internet. I have found some of the stories from Iraqi's who are desperate for the US to bomb Saddam very moving.

Also, the fact Tony Blair, Mr Popular himself, is willing to risk all to push ahead makes me think it is more than toadying up to Bush that is behind it. Especially as the only way he can ever be proved right, is to do nothing and risk Saddam attacking Israel and sparking off a conflict that cannot be contained.

THere was a story in todays Times. An Iraqi woman journalist made the mistake of making a negative comment about Saddam Husain's wife at work. She was taken away, tortured, hunged, and her tongue was cut out and sent to her family. To my great shame I have forgotten her name. I shouldn't have.