London March Against the Wars

Saturday (samedi) March 15 there was a call in London to people who are indignant about the wars against“Orientalism” as Said would call it, naming one of the West’s principal constructions of the “Other”, Islam. The wars are supposed to be against what the powerful call “terrorist” fundamentalist movements and against particular countries that have greater geopolitical interest for the expansion of economic and political influence. There are “ally” exceptions, of course, like Egypt, but even that relationship is marked by condescending disrespect.

Educated people know this and are horrified by the greedy aggressive monsters who go into wars and sacrifice civilian and young soldiers’ lives to secure great profits for industries related to the military and war destruction. Don’t ever for a second think that Iraq and Afghanistan wars are useless; just ask the contractors and the investors. It is bounty to them. It is misery for those directly involved, mostly the young—for most cannon fodder soldiers are barely adults—and children, women, and their men who die, suffer from dislocation, or have their livelihoods destroyed.

You cannot imagine the immense flow of disgust that overtakes me when I write these words. We, part of the masses who are suffering only indirectly through continuously increase in prices and the decay of our standards of living, corresponding decrease in our peace of mind, and the auctioning of our future to the military related debt—we must feel, we must think, we must act.

The people met at Trafalgar Square. Rain threatened but Saint Claire kept it away until the next day when it was wet, cold and dreary. The rally lasted about one hour. Then we marched for two hours to Westminster, across the Thames, back on the other bridge that leads to Parliament Square near Downing Street. There were between a quarter to half a million people there of all ages and backgrounds.

I marched with my long lost childhood friend Francesca (see the blog Finding Francesca for the story). She is active in the Palestinian Liberation Movement. As a photographer, she has visited Israel and the Occupied Territories. She took photos and has exhibited them. We marched carrying “Free Gaza” posters behind the group’s banner. A group of drummers was just behind us in the beginning of the march. They played Brazilian rhythms. But it stayed behind as we went along and we got serious about chanting.

“No blood for oil!” “One, two, three, four, we do not want your bloody war.” “Bring the troops home.” And an interesting call: (Caller, very slowly and after each response from the crow increasing speed) “Geor-ge Bush!” (Crowd responds in the same pace.) “Terrorist!” In five minutes we are going very fast calling Bush and the Prime Minister of Britain terrorists, alternatively.

The two things I saw for the first time in this march were pictures that we do not see in the US, of people—particularly children--hurt and defaced by US bombings, and acknowledgement of the use of depleted uranium ammunition. Aptly hey were calling the Iraq and Afaghanistan wars NUCLEAR WARS. They are