Broad for ten minutes and again outside Islington Town Hall where council workers were standing with anti-war banners.
Many of us were in no mood to go back to work or class. So some 80-100 of us marched on towards Parliament making a big splash of noise and colour and attracting support and interest as we went.
Across the entrance to Parliament Square hung a banner behind which many young people had reclaimed the square from the traffic as a space of protest.
Today was our day. For some it was an inspiring first day of protest. And it won't be their last. Tomorrow will be our day too. Leeds Paul Hubert More than 5000 people marched through Leeds on March 15 in one of the biggest demonstrations the city has seen for a long time. As in previous marches participants were a mixture of members of peace groups, radical left organisations, Muslims and others. There was a relatively small showing from the organised labour movement but significant numbers of students and young people.
Speakers included former Labour MP Dave Nellist and current MPs John Trickett and Harold Best. While Best has been a one-man awkward squad, Trickett has been a generally loyal Blairite backbencher. However he affirmed his intention never to vote for what would be not a just war but an "imperialist war".
Other speakers included two Iraqi exiles. 16 year-old Wasan Al-tikriti told the rally: "I'd like to see the back of Saddam Hussein and his Ba'athist regime... I'd also like to see the back of Bush and Blair and their criminal policies." Glasgow Campbell McGregor George Square, the main square in the centre of Glasgow, was blocked by hundreds of people stopping the traffic at the various junctions in the square. Once Queen Street was completely blocked, some people went down Queen Street to find the nearest unblocked junction. There were people of all ages and communities in these protests, although there were a lot of school children and Muslims. The police looked on but did not try to stop the protests. Should Labour Party members form a new party or fight to reclaim the old one? Labour Against the War's conference discussing this issue was attended by 500 delegates. Karen O'Toole reports.
Since war broke out thousands of • Labour members have ripped up their party cards in disgust. This was the backdrop to the polarised debates which took place on March 29. Most speakers from the platform addressed the question of getting rid of Blair. One; George Galloway MP, went further and questioned the very future of the party.
Billy Hayes, CWU General Secretary, was the first to respond to whether Blair should go. He argued that it was wrong for antiwar MPs to raise the question of leadership of the party, and warned that people must not narrow the issue of the war down to 'personalised politics'
GMB leader John Edmonds also fired a warning shot to delegates not to retreat into a 'comfort zone' and internalise the difficulties in the labour party. 'Overturning the prime minister may give some satisfaction but it will not stop the war. There is a case for yelling at government, but it won't stop the war. Even if we were to be able to disconnect the UK from the US, it wouldn't
Instead, he claimed that the antiar section of the Labour Party must concentrate its energies and anger on an increase in humanitarian aid. Harry Barnes MP argued that the humanitarian argument was the soft underbelly of the third way debate; *Blair is trying to reconcile the irreconcilable, trying to bomb but as nicely as possible. It's the freedom of the market with social justice attached."
This is true, but Edmonds' argument can only depoliticise the debate faced by Labour Party members, none of whom argued that humanitarian aid would in itself provide a solution. On the contrary, Labour Party members want Blair out because he has caused the humanitarian crisis in Iraq and elsewhere.
But it was George Galloway who set the whole tone of the conference, not only was he condemning Blair, but questioning whether the Labour Party actually had a future. He started by saying that the conference was small. He then went on;
'If I thought we could (reclaim the Labour party) I would be happy. I've been a member for 35 years... We do not have a Labour Party in our country. The vast majority of Labour MPs do not support us. Can the Labour Party be reclaimed for peace?
Is there enough of us left inside to reclaim it, or have most already gone? No country can afford to be without a Labour Party.
"I'm not talking about a Leninist Party, or a Marxist Party. I'm talking about a social democratic, trade union based broad party. If we can't show signs quickly that it can be done, then someone will have to form the Labour Party that we no longer have.'
From the chair, Alan Simpson MP - responded that if a new party were
to be formed it would have to be formed by the trade unions.
Alice Mahon MP, having acknowledged the scale of destruction being waged in the name of Labour Party members, argued that raising the question of leadership was a distraction from the real issue.
If the majority of the country, let alone the Labour Party are opposed to war, then the democratic logic would be to elect someone who represents the majority. The real problem for the advocates of the do nothing but oppose the war' argument is that they see no mechanism for getting rid of Blair because of the erosion of democraGalloway: "We do not have a Labour Party in our country. The vast majority of Labour MPs do not support us. Can the Labour Party be reclaimed for peace?" cy within the party. She summed up her own dilemma in her closing remarks; We have the opportunity to reclaim our party as a peace party. I've spent 50 years in the Labour Party and I'm not leaving: A minority of older delegates, including former MEP Stan Newens, echoed this view by saying there was nowhere else for them to go.
Many of the speakers from the floor were much more critica Speaker after speaker in the debate condemned the Labour government and responded to the debate raised by George Galloway and Alice Mahon. One Sheffield delegate argued to 'boot out Blair, go on the demonstrations and recruit to the Labour Party, 'I don't agree we don't criticise. Even delegates who disagreed with Galloway still found resonance with the slogan 'Blair Out'.
A NATHE delegate from North East London College who had taken students to the 15th February demonstation said that there were no young members of the Labour Party; 'Hundreds (of members) had left in recent weeks.
"Unless we link up with young people we cannot grow or build. We must demand the removal of Blair the henchman. Unless we do that we won't inspire young people. Talking won't inspire them, we need action.'
One delegate who agreed with getting rid of Blair put the case very succinctly by defining the Labour Party as; 'not a broad
NO! church but a coalition of incompatibles."
This is the contradiction the active members of the Labour Party are facing in the run up to the local elections. Some said when they had put leaflets through letterboxes they were being pushed back out again with the words 'not in my name' written on them.
Many of the platform speakers including Mark Seddon, Tony Benn, and John McDonnell MP all put out calls to; reclaim the Labour Party' The strategy of the members who wish to 'reform' the party is to reclaim the unions as fighting unions and rebuild the party at local level.
-his is where George Galloway has 1 are when may he peo.)
late, when many of the best peo ple have left and the direction of members is out of the party, not in and new people will not join Labour because they see it as the party of warmongers.
George Galloway raised the debate among the best of what is left of the Labour party. An indicative vote was taken towards the end of the conference which overwhelmingly endorsed the view that getting rid of Tony Blair should be a key plank of Labour Against the War.
This is the beginning of a real debate with Labour Party members on what sort of a party do we need - in an age of imperialism, neoliberalism and racism signed, sealed and delivered by the most right-wing Labour government in history. Members know this will not be the last war waged by Blair if he is allowed to remain.
This makes the debate an urgent one which socialists outside the Labour Party can help define by a combination of com mon action and debate with Labout Party members.
• A fuller version of this report can be found on www.so
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14 socialist resistance April 2003 Anti-war movement