Fury at Blair as 100,000 take to the streets over Lebanon

[laststeamtrain]

Fury at Blair as 100,000 take to the streets over Lebanon

Some 100,000 protesters took to the streets of London on Saturday to demand an end to Israel's assault on Lebanon and Gaza - and to express their fury at Tony Blair's refusal to call for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire.

The emergency demonstration, called by the Stop the War Coalition at a week's notice, attracted a broad range of people. Many had decided to come along at the last moment, after the march was featured on the front page of the Independent newspaper.

Protesters booed as they filed past the US embassy in Grovesnor Square. They left 1,500 pairs of children's shoes outside Downing Street to symbolise the children Israel has killed in Lebanon and Gaza.

The demonstration's anger was not just directed at Israel, but also at the US and British governments for their complicity in the carnage now engulfing the Middle East.

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http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/article.php?article_id=9416

Picture:
http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/article.php?article_id=9415

[joemurphy]

1. Wow. Where's our fury? n/t

[Robbien]

6. There are protests all over the US, the media just doesn't bother

reporting them.

Here in Chicagoland there are at least five or six that I know about. I've attended one on Saturday and will go to another Sunday.

[Tom Joad]

2. Next week we should show them up. Los Angeles, DC, San Francisco

http://www.actionsf.org/

[Vidar]

3. Proud of the British.

[bleever]

4. God bless our British cousins,

chafing under their unrepresentative government, as we do under ours.

[T_i_B]

13. This protest was organized by the far left

By groups such as the Socialist Worker's Party who, like it or not are very much on the fringe and not representive of the British public, as can be seen by their ever-rubbish showing in elections.

I certainly don't see any mass movement against whats going on with Israel/Lebanon on the scale of the 2003 anti-war demos happening, even if it is the same people organising the anti-Israeli protests.

[High Plains]

15. Hmm, 100,000+ "fringe" people march.

That's a pretty good-sized fringe.

[T_i_B]

18. 100,000 is a pretty optimistic estimate.

Just as the police like to downplay protest numbers, so protest organizers like to exaggerate, which is why I have already mentioned that 50,000 sems like a fair estimate inbetween the two.

And no, this protest was organized by groups such as RESPECT, who only have one MP, and if he keeps on choosing to appear on TV shows like Celebrity Big Brother rather then in the parliament he was elected to then it will not be too long before it are no Respect MP's. Outside of that one high-profile MP RESPECT poll even less the the Greens and UKIP.

[High Plains]

23. Would that be Mr. Galloway?

[Seabiscuit]

24. Gee, if those on the "fringe" got 100K of their own to turn up,

the "fringe" is probably at least a million strong. That means the rest of us on the "far left" (I guess that's what you'd call anyone not a neocon) must number in the hundreds of millions.

[T_i_B]

25. Well you certainly don't get millions out on polling day do you?

[neweurope]

5. k & r

-----------------------

Remember Fallujah

Bush to The Hague!

[aquart]

7. They did that for Darfur, too, didn't they?

[jspaddock123]

8. Hypocrisy..

Pure hypocrisy. Where are the protests, the mass demonstrations of outrage
at the killing of Jews by Hezbollah? Where is the outrage when Muslims
slaughter innocent people. I don't remember a similar type of demonstration
at the Madrid bombings, the London bombings, the destruction of the World Trade Center,
the slaughter in Tanzania and Kenya. I think the demonstrators in London he to take cold hard look at their motivations
and they're selective outrage..

[CJCRANE]

9. a) What would good

would a demonstration be against terrorists who don't represent a state?
b) Hezbollah are like flies compared to Israel, just look at the casualities - 30 vs 900 - plus the destruction of the infrastructure of Lebanon, I think that is where the outrage lies.

[Name removed]

10. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[saigon68]

26. Au Revoir Enjoy your very short stay

[magellan]

11. Selective memory

"I don't remember a similar type of demonstration
at the Madrid bombings, the London bombings, the destruction of the World Trade Center,
the slaughter in Tanzania and Kenya."

Gee, do you think that might be because (except in the case of the WTC attacks) the injured countries you mention didn't invade another country and slaughter innocent civilians left and right while hunting down their attackers?

:eyes:

[T_i_B]

14. There have been pro-Israeli demos

But it's a different crowd for those demos, as I am sure you will not be suprised to hear.

Personally, I don't have much time for the partisans on either side.

[Bretttido]

21. Cease fires usually involve both sides...

You are obviously a bigot though and I don't expect your views to change when you spout statements like "Where is the outrage when Muslims slaughter innocent people."

[denverbill]

22. You don't remember the candlelight vigils?

Hundreds of thousands of Europeans took part in candlelight vigils and other gathering to express sympathy and support for the US following the 9-11 attacks and condemning the attackers.

Where exactly were you demonstrating after the train bombings in London and Madrid? I don't recall ANY demonstrations of support for Britain and Spain in the US after those outrages.

Besides, what is the point of 'demonstrating' against terrorists? Terrorists don't give a damn about a street protest.

The only useful entity to protest against is an elected government.

[T_i_B]

12. Police put the figure at around 20,000

So I'd say that it's more likely to have been 50,000. Mind you, it was organised at short notice.

I was in London myself yesterday for the more pressing matter of The Great British Beer Festival. I've seen anti-Israel protests before and that's not the sort of thing that I have any intention whatsoever of getting involved with.

[Acadia Blue]

16. The Brits are not afraid like the Americans. I hope Blair resigns.

[JackNewtown]

17. The UK press is free to discuss Israel and its actions

Hence the outrage there. In the US the corporate MSM just backs the government line, which is blindly pro-Israel at all times.

[judaspriestess]

19. sure there is protest going on here in the states

but a 100,000 people strong? Same thing in Mexico, there's 100,00 people + protesting over there about the elections. Here not a damn thing. We suck.

[Massachusetts]

20. take to the streets

A question in your nerves is lit
Yet you know there is no answer fit to satisfy
Insure you not to quit
To keep it in your mind and not fergit
That it is not he or she or them or it
That you belong to.

Although the masters make the rules
For the wise men and the fools
I got nothing, Ma, to live up to.
-B Dylan