LONDON, 21 March 2003 — Youthful opponents of the war on Iraq descended on Parliament Square in the heart of London by the hundreds yesterday, spearheading protests up and down Britain against a “day of shame.”
Some 700 demonstrators were seen by an AFP reporter gathered in the shadow of Big Ben in anger at Prime Minister Tony Blair’s decision to join the United States in its war on Iraq.
“One, two, three, four, we don’t want your bloody war! Five, six, seven, eight, stop the killing, stop the hate!” a group of about 30 children were heard chanting, borrowing a slogan from Vietnam War days.
One protester ran around in a mask of Bush and a sign that read: “Weapon of mass destruction.”
Some 100 police officers were at the scene.
Two young people were seen being arrested yesterday as police tried to stop demonstrators from blocking the busy streets around the square, which is overlooked by statues of Winston Churchill and Abraham Lincoln.
The Stop The War Coalition, representing more than 300 groups, had called for a national walkout by workers and students, and for people to rally in city centers all over Britain at 6:00 p.m. (1800 GMT).
It is also organizing a big demonstration in London this Saturday that it hopes will match the million-strong anti-war march that took place on Feb. 15.
“The war has started which is an outrage against world peace, against the population of Iraq and against law and democracy in Britain,” its chairman Andrew Murray told reporters.
“This is going ahead without the support of British people,” he said. “This is a day of shame for Britain. Our country has been dragged into a ridiculous war by a US administration which has shown contempt.”
Elsewhere in London, about 10 activists sought yesterday to occupy the offices of the Department for International Development, whose minister Clare Short earlier this week withdrew a threat to quit Blair’s government.
In the City financial district, just meters (yards) from Saint Paul’s Cathedral, a man was seen by an AFP reporter hanging a thin banner on an office building, reading: “No, Tony, not in my name. No.”
Elsewhere in Britain: — In Cambridge, home to one of Britain’s greatest universities, around 300 demonstrators stopped traffic during a sit-down protest and formed a “ring of peace” around market stalls.
David Howarth, Liberal Democrat leader of Cambridge City Council told the protesters: “The war now strikes me not only as foolish, not only as wrong, but also it is probably illegal too.”
In Bristol, the main city in the west of England, police shut down roads into the city center after around 400 protesters gathered there.
In Exeter, also in the west, youngsters stopped buses in the city center, handed out leaflets and waved anti-war placards.
In Scotland, about 400 protesters, mostly schoolchildren, marched through Edinburgh’s city center, but were kept back from the main street by police on horseback. “My own kids are here because they asked me what I felt about the war and what I should do,” said Richard Venters, a father of two, unfazed by warnings that protesting pupils risked punishment for truancy.
In Wales, around 200 anti-war campaigners marched through Cardiff, bringing traffic to a standstill, before marching on to the Labour party’s Welsh headquarters.
