December 2001 • Vol 1, No. 7 •

by Paul Davidson

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An anti-war demonstrator holds a placard against the bombing of Afghanistan in Trafalgar Square in London on Sunday, Nov. 18, 2001. The rally was to protest the action taken by America and Britain in Afghanistan following the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington on Sept. 11. Photo by Alastair Grant (AP)

I have just arrived back from the biggest protest march in London since the early 1970’s. 100,000 people from a myriad of different groups and communities participated in a three mile hike from Hyde Park to Trafalgar Square (which one speaker, Tariq Ali, informed the audience was named after the Arabic name Tarif i Algar, being the straits separating Spain from North Africa.)

The demonstration was peaceful and spirited with many drummers and musicians plus clowns on stilts (no, I am not talking about the British politicians whose absence was either worth noting or worth nothing). Favorite chants included all the usual but also Arabic chants and songs from the strong Muslim contingents. Near the front of the procession was a bloc of 150 teenage Muslim girls who intervened militantly with slogans and chants. The tail end was still leaving the park as the front end entered the Square where a succession of speakers condemned the infamous bombing and brutality of the US-UK military madness.

Some of the estimated 100,000 anti-war protesters make their way along Picadilly in London on Sunday, Nov. 18, 2001. The rally is against the action taken by America and Britain in Afghanistan following the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington on Sept. 11. Photo by Alastair Grant (AP)

Hundreds of different leaflets and flyers were given out. I did not get the whole set so I cannot send off for my free Pokemon. I gave out 1,000 copies of Cuban foreign minister Perez-Roque’s UN speech of 13 November, which is an excellent summary of Cuba’s position. The leaflet was very well received with people dashing through the crowd to grab copies.

The action was organized by the Stop The War coalition here in Britain. Personally, I had expected a smaller turnout than last month’s protest but instead the size was double the previous. This reflected most strongly the fact that people had not been taken in by the propaganda that the media and politicians have pumped out this last week, namely, that: 1) The war is all but over so why bother protesting, and 2) that the fall of Kabul “proves” war is an effective means to fight terrorism. Indeed, we have heard today that the Empire’s forces have begun using B52s to dislodge Taliban forces from the remaining holdouts in the north. Specifically, this means that they have stepped up the offensive and are now carpet bombing whole cities. This is truly diabolical!

Afghan refugees leave Khonabad, Kunduz province, the only province in the Northern Afghanistan still under the Taliban control, November 22, 2001. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich (Reuters)

For Britain and the U.S., once they have succeeded in reining the Taliban back into the fold, their next aim will be to marginalize or destroy the Northern Alliance, which is the force that has blockaded the road to Russia for the last five years. For this war is the first in a succession of wars that will be fought in Central Asia and all across the southern flank of Asian Russia in order to tighten the steel band around that once great superpower. If that is the case, the anti-war movement will need to show a political maturity that has not been evident in the past. It will need to move from reactive politics towards ongoing mobilization so as not to be wrong-footed. Analysis of U.S. war aims has been superficial and leaves us facing south (Afghanistan) while the Empire is already preparing the big push north (Russia).

Young Afghan refugees push an elderly woman in a wheelbarrow at the Afghan and Pakistan border outside the the Pakistani town of Chaman on Nov. 13, 2001. Refugees continued to cross from southern Afghanistan into Pakistan near Chaman. Photo by David Guttenfelder (AP)

But what is becoming clearer to all is that ever since the so-called end of the Cold War the succession of regional wars led by NATO form a pattern. This new Hot War takes place all around the borders of the former Soviet Union from the Baltic to the Balkans and from China to Chechnya. It is driven by U.S. competition with German dominated Europe and is in fact a life or death issue for a fading hegemonic power. Today’s demonstration is a welcome sign that we will be up to the task.

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Paul Davidson is an activist in London and editor of the Euro-Cuba News, an email newsletter