Anti War March, Bradford, Saturday January 18th 2003

"This march, organised by Yorkshire CND and the Bradford Stop the War Coalition, supported by the Muslim Association of Great Britain, was part of a global day of peaceful protest against the proposed (and it would now seem inevitable) war on Iraq.

There were marches and other demonstrations in Liverpool, Glasgow, Shannon, Tokyo, Moscow, Damascus and throughout the US. The biggest march was in Washington DC, where tens of thousands of 'ordinary' American citizens marched to show their opposition to the war their president seems determined to wage regardless of public opinion, valid reason or proof of Iraq's ownership of 'weapons of mass destruction'. It hardly needs pointing out that this in itself is hardly a valid reason for waging war, if it were surely every nation in the world would be waging war on the US, which has far, far more than any other nation on earth, the UK not being so far behind. Also, as a friend of mine recently pointed out to me, the events of September 11th 2001 proved that anything can be a weapon of mass destruction.

The march in Bradford was really well organised and extremely peaceful. We milled around at the starting point in Lister Park enjoying the sunshine and looking at the banners people had brought along. As well as all the men, women, teenagers and children of all ages, backgrounds and colours dozens of groups had joined the protest - peace groups from various Yorkshire and Lancashire towns, Leeds coalition against the war, NATFHE Yorkshire and Humberside, the Woodcraft Folk and Bradford Anarchist Group to name but a few. There were also several Palestinian flags (the anti war campaign has strong links with free Palestine organisations). I particularly liked a huge banner proclaiming 'we need trees not Bushes'.

We set off at about 1pm and marched for an hour down Manningham Lane and through the town centre. Traffic was delayed on some roads but not for long as we kept moving fairly quickly, and the police did a good job of (mostly cheerfully) stewarding and organising the traffic. My one complaint about the police at this and other, similar sized, marches is the use of police horses. Not only is this unnecessarily intimidating and terrifying for the marchers (especially children), it is also one of the most appalling examples of animal cruelty I have witnessed. For a start horses should not be walking on tarmac with plastic shields over their faces. Even if you don't have a problem with this, it is clear every time that they are completely freaked out by the amount of people and the lane of traffic heading towards them (from the side of the road not taken up by marchers), to the extent that one particular horse walked right in front of a moving car and caused several others to swerve. This was such an upsetting spectacle that for a long while I completely forgot why I was there in the first place. I beg the police to think about using horses at such events in the future, and to reconsider why they actually need them, I could see absolutely no justification.

We marched on into the city centre, accompanied by various chants, music, drums and some folk singing - all very high spirited and peaceful (well, the chanter with the megaphone does always get a bit carried away and scare people, but apart from that…), passed some rather confused looking shoppers and congregated in Centenary Square to listen to various local speakers. All in all a really enjoyable and quite satisfying experience, and if nothing else real proof that a LOT of people oppose war and want the government to know about it.

But does it really make any difference? Does anyone really listen? Will it really stop Bush and Blair in their tracks or even make them think for one second? Most likely not. This is tragic, but no reason for not taking to the streets again and again and again. Firstly, our leaders cannot completely ignore this kind of action forever, especially when the participants in recent protests are increasingly such a true cross section of society (not just trouble-causers and anarchists as some media reports would have us believe). Also, the fact that more and more people are willing to make such a physical and public show of their opinions (be that on countryside issues, the fire fighters strike, war etc.) is, to me, a sign that people are increasingly dissatisfied with the running of our country. So, secondly, if we are ignored then if nothing else we are highlighting the fact that our society is not as democratic as we are led to believe. There will be a national march in London on Saturday February 15th. If you are against the war and marching is your cup of tea, then take a few hours to let the government know about your views. If its not your cup of tea, do something else; write a letter, sign a petition, wave at us as we march by or tell someone you know about it." - Catherine Tonge

For More information why not check out these web sites?

The Stop The War Coalition - http://www.stopwar.org.uk/

CND - http://www.cnduk.org/

US Anti War Organisation - http://www.antiwar.com/

The Muslim Association of Great Britain - http://www.mabonline.net/

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