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LONDON (Reuters) - Waving anti-war banners and chanting slogans against "Bomber Bush and Bomber Blair," tens of thousands of Britons flocked to a vast peace rally in London on Saturday to oppose a possible military strike on Iraq.
Reuters Photo
Joint organizers Stop the War Coalition and the Muslim Association of Britain estimated more than 350,000 people took part in the rally at Hyde Park and a preceding march from the River Thames near the British parliament.
Police put numbers lower, at 150,000. But that would still make it probably the biggest peace rally in Britain since a huge anti-nuclear demonstration in 1981 drew a quarter of a million.
Myriad groups and personalities backed the march -- from "rebel" members of the ruling Labour Party and the mayor of London, to trade unions, religious leaders, artists, pop stars, rights activists and Gulf War ( news - web sites) veterans.
"Our message to the U.S. and British governments is that they would be very foolish to defy a coalition of this breadth and diversity. Just sticking a U.N. fig leaf on this does not make it any more humane," Stop the War spokesman Mike Marqusee told Reuters as the march began soon after midday.
"It's the biggest peace protest in Europe for years."
Not surprisingly, protesters directed their wrath at President Bush ( news - web sites) and British Prime Minister Tony Blair ( news - web sites), America's closest ally in the build-up of pressure on Iraq.
Washington and London are trying to get through the U.N. Security Council a tough resolution which would give Iraq one week to accept demands to disarm and 30 days to declare all its weapons of mass destruction programs.
"Bomber Bush, Bomber Blair, we'll resist you everywhere!" chanted students. Effigies parodied the pair as war-mongers. Protesters shouted "shame" as they passed Blair's residence.
"Hopefully our leaders will see the huge feeling against the war," said Anne Gleeson, a school catering assistant marching with her husband and two children. All wore Palestinian scarves.
MUSLIMS JOIN MARCH
The demonstrators were rallying under two main slogans -- "Don't Attack Iraq" and "Freedom for Palestine."
Ismail Adam Patel, head of the Muslim group Friends Of Al'Aqsa, said the two issues were inextricable. "Until we solve the Palestine issue, we are not going to get any peace in the Middle East. Why are we going after Iraq when Israel has far more weapons of mass destruction?" he told Reuters at the march.
Thousands of Muslims, from Britain's 2.5 million-strong Islamic community, joined Saturday's march. Many protesters, from all strata of society, brought children. Some Church of England ministers were also dotted among the demonstrators.
Polls show most of Britain's 60 million people oppose their nation joining a purely U.S.-led attempt to topple President Saddam Hussein ( news - web sites). But the picture changes if the United Nations ( news - web sites) approves such action, with about two-thirds then in favor.
Most of Blair's critics dislike Saddam as much as the prime minister does, but they say a war on Iraq would be an unjustified aggression that would destabilize the Middle East, cement U.S. hegemony and snub international public opinion.
Opponents also say Washington and London are behaving hypocritically given their previous support of Iraq under Saddam in the years before the 1991 Gulf War, and are refusing to admit their real economic motives for wanting to control Iraqi oil.
"Clearly it's about oil and U.S. dominance," film-director Ken Loach said on the march.
"If we go to war with Iraq, it represents the beginning of the era of American imperialism, which is not what my founding fathers' vision was for the United States of America," former U.N. weapons inspector Scott Ritter told Reuters at the rally.
The event was London's second mass protest in a week after a pro-fox hunting march drew an astonishing 400,000 last weekend. Both marches passed off peacefully, with just two arrests for public disorder on Saturday.
Reuters Photo
Joint organizers Stop the War Coalition and the Muslim Association of Britain estimated more than 350,000 people took part in the rally at Hyde Park and a preceding march from the River Thames near the British parliament.
Police put numbers lower, at 150,000. But that would still make it probably the biggest peace rally in Britain since a huge anti-nuclear demonstration in 1981 drew a quarter of a million.
Myriad groups and personalities backed the march -- from "rebel" members of the ruling Labour Party and the mayor of London, to trade unions, religious leaders, artists, pop stars, rights activists and Gulf War ( news - web sites) veterans.
"Our message to the U.S. and British governments is that they would be very foolish to defy a coalition of this breadth and diversity. Just sticking a U.N. fig leaf on this does not make it any more humane," Stop the War spokesman Mike Marqusee told Reuters as the march began soon after midday.
"It's the biggest peace protest in Europe for years."
Not surprisingly, protesters directed their wrath at President Bush ( news - web sites) and British Prime Minister Tony Blair ( news - web sites), America's closest ally in the build-up of pressure on Iraq.
Washington and London are trying to get through the U.N. Security Council a tough resolution which would give Iraq one week to accept demands to disarm and 30 days to declare all its weapons of mass destruction programs.
"Bomber Bush, Bomber Blair, we'll resist you everywhere!" chanted students. Effigies parodied the pair as war-mongers. Protesters shouted "shame" as they passed Blair's residence.
"Hopefully our leaders will see the huge feeling against the war," said Anne Gleeson, a school catering assistant marching with her husband and two children. All wore Palestinian scarves.
MUSLIMS JOIN MARCH
The demonstrators were rallying under two main slogans -- "Don't Attack Iraq" and "Freedom for Palestine."
Ismail Adam Patel, head of the Muslim group Friends Of Al'Aqsa, said the two issues were inextricable. "Until we solve the Palestine issue, we are not going to get any peace in the Middle East. Why are we going after Iraq when Israel has far more weapons of mass destruction?" he told Reuters at the march.
Thousands of Muslims, from Britain's 2.5 million-strong Islamic community, joined Saturday's march. Many protesters, from all strata of society, brought children. Some Church of England ministers were also dotted among the demonstrators.
Polls show most of Britain's 60 million people oppose their nation joining a purely U.S.-led attempt to topple President Saddam Hussein ( news - web sites). But the picture changes if the United Nations ( news - web sites) approves such action, with about two-thirds then in favor.
Most of Blair's critics dislike Saddam as much as the prime minister does, but they say a war on Iraq would be an unjustified aggression that would destabilize the Middle East, cement U.S. hegemony and snub international public opinion.
Opponents also say Washington and London are behaving hypocritically given their previous support of Iraq under Saddam in the years before the 1991 Gulf War, and are refusing to admit their real economic motives for wanting to control Iraqi oil.
"Clearly it's about oil and U.S. dominance," film-director Ken Loach said on the march.
"If we go to war with Iraq, it represents the beginning of the era of American imperialism, which is not what my founding fathers' vision was for the United States of America," former U.N. weapons inspector Scott Ritter told Reuters at the rally.
The event was London's second mass protest in a week after a pro-fox hunting march drew an astonishing 400,000 last weekend. Both marches passed off peacefully, with just two arrests for public disorder on Saturday.
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