Where: Parliament Square, London, England

What: Stop The War Coalition Demonstrations.
It was a cold and windy Saturday as tens of thousands of people gathered in Parliament Square. The Theatre of War enacted a ‘trial’ of Tony Blair and 100,000 blood spots were laid out across the square. The demonstration marked three years since the start of the conflict and was organized by CND, Stop The War Coalition, and the Muslim Association of Britain. There were simultaneous protests held in other cities across the world including Baghdad, Basra, New York, Madrid, Rome, Sydney, Tokyo, Toronto and Dublin. Organizers said it was the first time there have been co-coordinated demonstrations in the US, Britain and Iraq.
The march started along Victoria Street, behind Buckingham Palace and along Piccadilly to Trafalgar Square. Speakers included London Mayor, Ken Livingstone, Tony Benn, Hassan Zargani (Al Sadr Movement, Iraq), trade union leaders, MP’s Jeremy Corbyn and George Galloway, ex-ambassador Craig Murray, Brian Eno and Military Families Against The War.

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Andrew Murray’s Guardian blog reported “a massive foreign media presence and less than overwhelming interest from the BBC. The demo was totally ignored on the evening TV news and when we asked them why were told there were too few people present to make it newsworthy. Questioned about their estimate on numbers the BBC quoted the Metropolitan Police figure of 15,000. Asked whether they always believed the police figures the answer was, No, not always but this time yes. We estimate that this demonstration attracted the support of between 80 - 1000,000 people … “.

Why: “Panoramic photography proved an ideal way to capture the huge variety of participants on the march – from pensioners to schoolchildren, British Muslims to Caucasian middle-aged ladies, reactionaries to conservatives,” says Pearson.

It was just three years ago, on March 20, 2003, when George Bush, Tony Blair and Jose Marie Aznar launched the invasion and occupation of Iraq. The World Social Forum Assembly of the Social Movements meeting in Venezuela on January 29th of this year called for the mobilization as a global day of protest to get the troops out of Iraq. All over the globe protests marked the anniversary of the start of the war and called for its rapid end.

Related Links:
- View more panos from Will Pearson
- An introduction to 911 by David Shayler
- Loose Change - provocative 9-11 documentary
- The British 9-11 Truth Movement
Email: will.pearson[at]eyerevolution.co.uk