Stop The War Protest
Leading the Stop The War protest
October 24th 2009 was set to be the date for the ‘Stop The War’ protest, a demonstration march against the ongoing war in Afghanistan. The top 10 reasons for protesting, as quoted by the Stop The War website were:
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The death rate is rising on both sides
The number of British troops who have died is now higher than those killed in 6 years in Iraq. Fifteen soldiers died in the first two weeks of July alone. No one keeps track of the number of Afghan dead but it numbers tens of thousands since 2001. In May more than 140 Afghans, mainly women and children, were killed in one air strike.
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This is an unwinnable war
The Taliban was defeated in 2001 but is now growing in strength. Osama bin Laden has not been captured. The war is supposedly about defending the Karzai government. But his government is one of the most corrupt in the world. Neither he nor the occupation forces have brought any real improvements for the Afghan
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Gordon Brown claims the war is about combating terrorism.
There was no terrorist threat to Britain before the war in Afghanistan, or before the war in Iraq in 2003. It is those wars and their consequences that have made Britain a target. Even MI5 told the government the Iraq occupation was likely to increase not decrease terrorism.
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We are told this may have to be our ’30 years war’
We have fought for eight years and the situation is getting worse. Children as yet unborn will be dying if this war is not stopped.
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The war is spreading to Pakistan
Pakistan is a nuclear state, opening up the prospect of an even more terrible conflict
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Life is getting worse for most Afghans under occupation
There is a huge refugee problem. Corruption is rife. While Tony Blair promised in 2001 ‘we will not walk away’ Afghanistan remains one of the poorest countries in the world. According to the United Nations life expectancy has fallen for Afghans since 2003. Far more is spent on the war and the military than is spent on reconstruction. Aid meant to help the Afghans is not getting through to those who need it.
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Britain has spent £4.6 billion on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq every year
This is enough money to create 200,000 graduate jobs annually. We should be funding these jobs, not wasting more money on war. Unemployment must not become a recruiting sergeant for the army.
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More troops or helicopters won’t help
The NATO forces are not losing because they don’t have the equipment but because they are in Afghanistan.
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We were told that the war in Afghanistan was to liberate women
Women’s lives have not improved. Death in childbirth is rising. The Karzai government even tried to pass a law allowing rape in marriage. Despite all the talk about troops helping girls to go to school, less than a third of Afghan girls are in school and less than 10% can read and write, 8 years after the fall of the Taliban.
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The majority of Afghans do not want the war and occupation
The majority of British people think the troops should come home by Xmas at the latest. In two recent polls 56% (BBC and Guardian) and 59% (ITN) want the troops out.
Placards ready and waiting
Thousands turned up to join in the march through the streets of London chanting anti-war and political slogans all the while. The broad spectrum of people making the effort to march really made you think, some of the more notable people being:
Peter Brierley
Hetty Bower
Joe Glenton
Tony Benn
Peter Brierley
Peter recently hit the news as the man who refused to shake the hand of Tony Blair, stating “I’m not shaking your hand, you’ve got blood on it.” Peter’s son Lance Cpl Shaun Brierley was killed while in service in 2003.
Hetty Bower
At 104 Hetty was the oldest protester at the event, but still managed to walk the entire march. Having lived through each of the world wars Hetty said “‘I march because I can see no reason for further killing. I have walked on every march against us going to war. At my age there is not very much I can do but while my legs can carry me I am going to march.”
Lance Cpl Joe Glenton
Joe Glenton is the first serving soldier to take part in an anti-war protest. Already facing arrest and court martial for being AWOL due to his disagreement with the war, Joe had been told that attendance at the march would result in further charges being brought, but Joe felt so strongly about the issue that he still marched proudly.
Tony Benn
Politician and leader of the Stop the War Coalition, Tony Benn still made the effort to attend and give a rousing speech despite having recently been hospitalised after taking ill at a recent conference in Brighton.
Marching forward at the Stop The War protests in London, October 24th 2009
The march started at the well known Speakers Corner in Hyde Park, demonstrators gathering from 12 noon where they were greeted by stalls from many political groups handing out flyers and newspapers. Hundreds of placards waited for them to collect and hoist aloft, ready for the actual protest march which began at 1pm. The march set off at 1pm exactly and lead the protesters through Park Lane, Piccadilly and Haymarket among others, ending at Trafalgar Square where the crowd were entertained with songs by Robb Johnson before listening to moving speeches from Tony Benn, Joe Glenton, an ex Guantanamo Bay prisoner, leader of the British Muslim Initiative and others. Despite rain trying its best to spoil the day, people listened intently to all speakers, whooping cheering and clapping often, making their views known on the war.
Protesting for peace
Rain didn't deter the protesters
Protesters listen to the speakers at Trafalgar Square
There was even a bit of light comic relief at times, provided by Charlie Veitch who is often to be found shouting on a loudspeaker in protests in London. Unfortunately I didnt manage to capture the first part of one of Charlie’s talks to the police, in which he advised officers when using their batons not to hit below the belt, no cracking skulls and if at all possible try not to kill anyone. Even the police were chuckling at this, as you can see here:
Charlie Veitch
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWJx-12ZIYQ”>www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWJx-12ZIYQ
All in all it was an excellent protest, peaceful and respectful as they should be. Hopefully they have made people think, especially with the upcoming general elections!
The rest of the pictures from the day can be seen in my gallery by clicking here.
As ever, comments and suggestions welcome.
~Shepy
| This entry was posted by Shepy on October 25, 2009 at 11:13 pm, and is filed under news, Photography. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site. |
about 2 years ago
LOL point 2. Is so wrong…the only reason it was not winnable was that Pakistan was doing bugger all to close the boarders…this weekend they owned the Taliban. It took a while but they are now on board and will get the shit blown out of them for it……but if they stick to the plan it will all be over quicker than you think!
Point 3. There was no threat to me from the gang of 14/18 year old kids down the road. But they battered a mate and I Took offence to that. You either help or you hide. Oh! you people of little memory. The best thing we have done in the last 10 years is help America. WHY? because they shut down the funding to the IRA! NO THREAT MY ARSE! London was getting bombed regularly…since then – only once. I know which one I prefer….shit we even got our street bins back!
Point 5. Pakistan have had the A-bmb for YEARS – they have been at war on and off with India for years over Kashmir…not seen a mushroom cloud yet, have YOU!
Point 6. YES IT IS! more aid gets to Afghanistan people than gets to African people from red nose day and live aid!!!
Point 8. WTF – they are not losing jack shit….Less Soldiers have died in 8 years than in any 1 day of WW1 –
Point 9. OMG – that’s mad – 90% of kids who leave school today in England cannot read or write – The fact that the women have the Opportunity to learn should be applauded!
Point 10. is fucked up LARGE – make a statement and back it up with facts from a totally different demographic..
about 2 years ago
Shepy you surprised me with this one, I agree mostly with the previous poster, after seeing a great deal of footage from Afghanistan (including that of mad man ross kemp) they do want us there and are grateful for helping to give their lives back.
I do a lot of my photography at catterick garrison and know many squadies, a major and even a couple of colonels, they didn’t join the army to sit and play cards or dominoes and wait for another falklands war, some of them say one of the worst things about being over there, is watching people back here protesting over them doing their job.
I’m sure it would be a different matter for many of these protesters, if they had lost a loved one due to terrorism, I was in the forces when the IRA were bombing the crap out of the UK, I remember a 747 being blown out of the sky and smashing in to Lockerbie just before Christmas, and I had tears rolling down my face as I watch another jumbo fly into the twin towers live on tv. I saw the thousands of bodies of men, women and children lying around from sadams gas attacks.
We walk around at this time of year with poppies adorning our lapel’s saying lest we forget, remember the holocaust, don’t ever let it happen again, but we do, bosnia, serbia, iraq, the congo and afganistan, all places genocide was/is happening again, even people on the march were wearing poppies including Peter Brierley, I find that very contradictory, on one hand they are saying we can not let it happen again, on the other they are saying as long as we don’t fight to prevent it.
And why are they protesting, its not like any of them are going to be called up to go fight in a foreign land, it smells like a re-occurrence of vietnam to me, next it will be lots of miss informed people, shouting baby killer at returning troops.
As for point 6, shit man since when were nato ever an occupying force in Afghanistan, nato is there at the request of the afgan people and will leave if asked too, nato provides UN-mandated International Security Assistance Force (isaf) originally it was limited to Kabul area, but now to cover Afghanistan’s whole territory. The number of ISAF troops has grown accordingly from the initial 5,000 to around 50.000 troops coming from 42 countries, including all 28 NATO members.
42 countries supplying troops and equipment to help defeat terrorism and free an oppressed people, and a protest in london to make it 41. I remember a protest of the Falklands war, a few hundred people marched through london, while the rest of the UK were calling for blood, over a few islands most of us hadn’t heard of, but none of the protesters marched in protest of the Argentinian dictator, invading the islands and imprisoning the islanders or mass killing his own people. Luckily because of the Falklands, he was over thrown and a democratically elected government put in place, if the protesters had their way that day, I wonder how many more people would have died in Argentina and the Falklands.
Protests have their uses, and we have the right to protest, but we shouldn’t we be protesting against terrorism not the fight against it.
about 5 days ago
Again leftist useful idiots are bought out as pawns of controlled opposition. New (communist) World Order get rid of those clowns first thing World government is established.
P.S. Nice picture of Charlie “MI5″ Veitch there… lol