POLITICS: Europe Prepares Another Message From the Street

By Sanjay Suri Reprint | | Print |

Sanjay Suri

LONDON, Mar 19 2004 (IPS) - Tens of thousands of people across Europe are expected to take to the streets Saturday to protest the continued occupation of Iraq.

The numbers are expected to be small compared to the millions who came out a year ago to protest against the invasion of Iraq. In London alone more than a million joined the protests; in Rome the numbers were even larger.

A protest against continued occupation inevitably lacks the urgency of a move to stop imminent war. There is a sense of ‘We told you so’ with the demonstrations due on the anniversary of the invasion of Iraq March 20 last year. But these will be no triumph marches. They will be an underlining of the bold message delivered last year.

"Everything we said about the war has turned out to be true, and everything the government said has turned out to be a lie," Lyndsey German from Stop the War Coalition which had taken a worldwide lead in the protests last year said in a statement.

"We are continuing to march because we want to make clear the strength of anti-war feeling in this country.we expect the demonstration will send a strong message to (British Prime Minister) Tony Blair that however much he wants to move on we will not allow him to do so."

The change of government in Spain has given new strength to the protests. The new Spanish prime minister-elect Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero talked the language of protestors when he said that the invasion of Iraq was a disaster, and the occupation of Iraq is a disaster.

Stop the War Coalition said in a statement that Blair, U.S. President George W. Bush and former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar must all be held accountable for the war on Iraq.

"The election result in Spain, which saw Aznar’s party trounced, can only be interpreted as a vote against war," the coalition said in a statement. "The Spanish government enthusiastically signed up to the illegal bombing and invasion of Iraq a year ago: it has paid the political price."

The bombings in Madrid "were seen by many Spanish people as a result of its government’s warmongering," the coalition said. "They refused to allow that same government to use the tragedy to justify its policies. The war has made the threat of terrorism greater, not less."

The statement added: "Bush and Blair’s popularity ratings have plummeted and we believe the turnout for Saturday’s demonstration will yet again show the widespread opposition to war and occupation which exists in Britain."

Thousands of black flags will be released during the protests in London to mourn people on all sides who died in the course of the invasion and later. Mayor of London Ken Livingstone will address the rally, as he did the anti-war rally Feb. 15 last year.

Some of the larger rallies this year are expected again to be in London and Rome – the cities that house governments still firmly supportive of Bush’s Iraq policy. In both Britain and Italy, the rallies had a strong anti-government edge last year, compared to rallies in France and Germany where the protesters’ demands were in line with the policies of their governments.

But this year could bring a massive turnout in Madrid where the sentiment against violence is expectedly strong. Madrid had also seen huge anti-war protests last year. The earlier conservative government in Spain had taken a decision to support the invasion of Iraq in the face of massive public opposition.

Demonstrators also plan to deliver a strong anti-terrorism message at the rallies this year. A minute’s silence will be held at the London rally in memory of more than 200 people who died in the Madrid bombings. Similar mourning will be observed in cities across Europe.

The failure to uncover any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq has clinched the anti-war arguments. Organisers now hope to use the protests as the beginning of a new popular movement against leaders who joined or backed the war.

Protest groups now plan to follow up demonstrations with legal proceedings against the Blair government. A group of academics has already produced a voluminous report detailing the illegality of the invasion of Iraq. A copy of that report has been sent to the International Criminal Court at The Hague.

That research will be supported by Stop the War Coalition to launch a campaign that it plans to sustain after the protest demonstrations this Saturday.