Categories: uncategorized
Date: 03 October 2002 14:36:00
i didn't tell you about the march.
it was great.
left at 8am (far, far too early for a saturday), and arrived at a car park just 2 mins walk from embankment before 12. So far so good. Met up with others (amazingly - it was kind of crowded. Hurrah and hurroo for mobile phones. What did we do before they were invented? Oh yes... we made more detailed plans with built-in contingency plans. I remember. Anyway...) Stood waiting to march from 1ish.... stood for 2 hours before we moved, then it took us 3 hours to walk the walk. Just before we were on our way we learned that this was due to the sheer number of people who had turned up. Marvellous.
could say loads, but won't. It was amazing to be part of something so big that related to issues i feel so strongly about; I've never demonstrated about anything in my life before. I felt that it was important we were there, just as every person who was there was important - actually turning up and taking yourself down those streets at that time is a major statement, and people physically going is what makes it what it is. As we turned a corner by the houses of parliament, babs pointed out to me an old guy in a chair by the side of the march, with an old lady stood by his side. Obviously he was unable to take part, but he watched us all go past, applauding with his hands lifted up the whole time. It's one of those images which stamps itself in your head.
The other thing was hearing about the numbers as we walked round. We knew it was BIG because we went about 2.5 miles in 5 hours!! But being in the middle of it and hearing a steward with a loud hailer say 'thank you so much for your patience... it's moving slowly because this is the biggest ever anti-war demonstration in britain' was fantastic.
October 31st is next - pop over to http://www.stopwar.org.uk, find out what's occurring and join in.