Palestinian flags amongst the crowds on Feb 15 2003.
The two-million-strong demonstration against the Iraq war on February 15 2003 remains, 20 years later, the biggest protest in British history. It is estimated that one in every five households in the country had at least one person on the demonstration.
It was also the biggest day of co-ordinated protests across the globe, with tens of millions of people taking to the streets in over 600 cities.
The scale of the demonstration dispels the lies of Tony Blair, Alistair Campbell and the MPs that supported the war who say it was the right decision or that the arguments supporting an invasion were credible at the time. The film Official Secrets portrays well the impact of the demonstration and the prevalence of the anti-war arguments.
Every person who marched on February 15, and the millions more who were represented by those on the streets, could see through Blair and George W Bush’s lies. The demonstration didn’t stop the war, but it had a lasting impact on the political terrain and the consciousness of a generation.
The result of the demonstration was that immediate plans for widening the scope of the “war on terror” were halted and our leaders haven’t dared to propose another boots-on-the-ground invasion since. Some polls showed majority opposition (or near-majority in others) to David Cameron bombing Libya in 2011, and the opposition to war with Syria in 2013 stopped Parliament from approving the action.
When Jeremy Corbyn ran to become the leader of the Labour Party in 2015, the video of his speech in Hyde Park on February 15 went viral. It spread among a generation of children and teenagers who had been on the march with their parents, who had been a part of the wave of school strikes against the war following the demonstration, and who were central to his victory.
It is sometimes imagined the demonstration appeared out of thin air — but in reality, it was the product of a year of public meetings, rallies, town halls, stalls, and protests that spread the anti-war message and galvanised people into action. It was a transformative process that involved and brought in a huge layer of the population, and built roots and organisation in every community across the country.
Often missed out is that as well as the slogan “Don’t attack Iraq,” the main banner of the demonstration also demanded “Freedom for Palestine.” Following the Israeli massacre in the Jenin refugee camp in 2002, the anti-war movement made a point of centring the plight of the Palestinians and making the connection with the West’s war on terror.
The effect of this was the assertion of Palestine solidarity in a mass way which has directly contributed to why, 20 years later, Britain has the strongest Palestine solidarity movement in the world.
Demonstrations against the bombing of Gaza in recent years have brought hundreds of thousands onto the streets and Palestine activism is a staple feature in almost every university in the country.
February 15 was a historic day but it is not a day consigned to history. It shaped a generation, showed the power of organisation and continues to be a reminder that we were right. This is a lesson we must carry today in the fight for peace in Ukraine and in stopping our leaders’ insistence on pushing for more war once more.
Source: Morning Star