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Over 20,000 march in Belfast national |
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news report
 Monday February 17, 2003 11:26 by Davy Carlin W/Belfast SWP and Anti War Movement carlindavid at hotmail dot com
 Tens of thousands take to Belfasts streets Some of the media headlines: 'It was the largest demonstration of its kind Northern Ireland has seen'. It was Belfasts biggest ever anti war demonstration'. One simply said 'Historic'. Whatever the case it was a brilliant demo that brought Belfast centre to a standstill. Just a few brief notes on the demo. The march brought together many different trade union, student, community, political and minority groups amongst others from across the 'divide. A number of feeder marches took place with one organised by the W/Belfast anti war group. We marched down the Falls with over 400 marchers in attendance on our way to the main rally. There were a number of speakers at the start which were a Sinn Fein Representative, a member of the IPSC and myself. As we marched down the Falls road others joined us, cars and taxis hooted their horns and huge banners hung out the Windows of the Falls Rd womens centre which read 'Don't attack Iraq. When we marched up Royal Avenue in the City centre, by chance the Derry March was coming down another street after their historic four day march. The thousands of people amassed in the art college first applauded then cheered then joined in with our chants, a truly brilliant experience. We all then marched to the city hall where the speakers were Mairead Maguire ,Jamal Iweida President of the Belfast Islamic centre, Also E McCann whose line used by Paisley in 1985 of 'Ulster says no' received huge applause and has feature widely in the press. Shool Students against War {SSAW} spoke representing the youth of the North and again they have featured much in the press. Finally the Irish Congress Of Trade Unions {ICTU} assistant general secretary spoke and amongst his speech in an unprecedented statement he personnally named and thanked the Socialist Workers Party {SWP} from the platform for their work within the coalition. The march may have been historic but we now need to continually build it bigger. |
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Comments (7 of 7)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7Davy the local press said that there was up to 1000 on the west Belfast feeder march not 400. I know you were leading it of with the chants and might not have had time to count. At one stage there was about 300+ but this grew to over 700. It is good to see that the SWP in the North try to give an accurate figure but if even the press are putting it at 1000 we should not down grade ourselves. The demonstration in the South was 100, 000+ at a stretch it could go to 120,000 but people North and South will just laugh if people attempt to try to stretch it to 150,000. Most are in agreement to this.
How many "Tens" of thousands marched in Belfast
today? I don't know. When you're in the middle of an enormous crowd it's hard to judge the number of people surrounding you.
"How many do you reckon are here?" a friend asked. "Don't know," I replied, "Over 20,000...maybe even 30..or 40 thousand...COULD be even MORE!!"
My friend laughed, as did I, "Now, don't get carried away...this is Belfast...not even a pin-prick on the world map..." He grinned. And on we marched, waving our plackards and chanting our chants, happy that all the hard work we, and so many others, had put in, however small, had produced such a wonderful, successful result.
Sure..what's a few thousand between friends.
Inwardly, I wished I were a bird, so I could fly overhead and accurately count the number, the huge, huge number, of people who braved Belfast's bitterly cold, biting winds,to send a loud, clear message to the US/UK war coalition.
If you go to war, Mr Bush and Mr Blair,
it is without OUR consent and not in OUR name.
My mistake
by Davy Carlin W/Belfast SWP & Anti War movement Mon, Feb 17 2003, 2:00pm
1000 at west Belfast feeder march
Checked it out and both the cops and the press have stated that there were around 1000 on the W/Belfast feeder march, if they stated 1000 there probably was even more. As I was at the front I asked someone who usually gives good estimates but on this occassion they were wrong. 1000 from the West, a good start for the local anti war group
Davy some of the press are saying it could have been as much as 30,000 I don't know but it was huge
I just got off the phone to a friend of mine who reckon's there was 1500+ going down the Falls.
For the record he's not a member of the SW.
Nice one comrades...
If you'd told me at the beginning of this whole thing that we would get 20-30,000 people on the streets of Belfast against a war which hasn't officially started yet, I'd have said you were dreaming.
Now it's happened. Even Belfast pulled out thousands against the war. Well done everyone!
It was a great success, and greater than the expectations of anyone on the left-wing who has had experiences of anti-war marches before. Congratulations to everyone involved; the battle for socialism, and indeed the battle against the empire of the United States starts here!