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On Sunday Sept.29 a
thousand people a minute filed by 10 Downing Street (the residence of Tony
Blair) for four hours and 40 minutes in the biggest anti-war rally London has
ever seen. The numbers in this 5 km rally vary from a massive 3 to 5 lakh
people. The rally wound its way from the Embankment of the Thames to Hyde Park.
Those who joined the middle, waited for two-and-a-half hours before they could
begin marching. And many who joined the march were students and office workers,
with no clear political leaning. A student commented: "There’s no party that
speaks for us now, the Tories are the Tories, Labour are the Tories, so who do
we have left, just us."
Of particular concern
to Blair was the strong turnout of the Unions. They showed their muscle once
again at the annual Labour party conference, held soon after the rally. A motion
supporting the government policy on Iraq was withdrawn from debate, after the
Unions said they would collectively oppose it. An opinion poll conducted by the
Guardian showed 44% opposed to a strike against Iraq, with the rest undecided.
The ruling class of
Britain is also divided down the middle, with even senior ministers in the Blair
Cabinet opposing a strike. In a House of Commons debate on Iraq, though Blair
did not allow a vote, 53 Labour party MPs exploited a technicality to register
their opposition to an attack on Iraq. Other Labour MPs threatened opposition to
the government if Britain were to back a US attack outside of a UN mandate, a
possibility that Blair has left open.
The massive rally in London and the
silent opposition shown by the opinion poll indicates that the war-mongering
policy of the Blair government is in direct opposition to the wishes of the
people of Britain. No doubt, if the war against Iraq is launched, this
opposition will grow into a torrent. Blair and gang better beware not only the
resistance if the Iraqi people, but also an upsurge of their own people at home.
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