Photo: nik.d

The 2,000 people who took part in the Leicester anti-war march on 29 March were a broad mix of people, including a large Muslim contingent.

The rally at the end, held in a busy pedestrian thoroughfare, was chaired by Steve Score of the Socialist Party, who received a huge cheer for saying: “The best way to support ‘our’ troops is to bring them home!”

A wide range of speakers included Labour councillor Pete Soulsby, a former leader of the City Council. However, he was booed by a large section of the crowd, despite his anti war speech, because of his association with Labour.

Other speeches, including from Josie Nicholls of the Socialist Party were cheered and clapped.

Although the march was totally peaceful, and there were no incidents, the police were very nervous and were there in large numbers including all the video cameras and “evidence gatherers”. The feature of anti war protests in Leicester over the last couple of weeks has been police heavy-handedness. For example, eight school students were arrested on the March 7th strike.

Despite this protest being a legal one, and discussed with the police in advance, they read out “section 14” to the whole crowd at the beginning of the rally claiming they had reason to believe the protest could “result in serious public disorder”. This did not go down well! They imposed conditions, such as a time limit, which if breached would lead to arrests. The officer in charge was virtually pushing Steve off the stage as he summed up the rally!
So unlike Iraq, we do have freedom of speech, but only as much as the police allow!

This is only the latest in a series of protests in Leicester since the war began. This includes  two rallies on 'Day X', the day war started. At lunchtime hundreds of school students rallied along with workers at the Clocktower. This was the 3rd occasion school students have been on strike in Leicester against the war, despite intimidation by the Police and the Education authority

In the evening of day X 300 people rallied from 5pm, again at the Clocktower, and then embarked on a road blockade at St Nicholas Circle to show their opposition to the war. It was finally dispersed by the police at 7pm

Between one and two million people took part in the London Demo against the war on Feb 15th 2003. The Leicester Campaign to stop the War  (which the Socialist Party is part of)  sent 14 coaches, but thousands more went by car, bus and train from Leicester.

This was part of a worldwide weekend of protest that involved up to 30 million people in over 600 different cities. Reports from around the world can be found on the "Committee for a Workers' International" (CWI) website.

For more analysis on the war check the Socialist Party's national website www.socialistparty.org.uk

On Sat 2 November 2002, despite pouring rain, hundreds of people marched through Leicester to protest against the threatened war on Iraq. The march had been proscribed by the Police, banning it from marching through an area with a high Muslim population.

This is the third time the Leicester Campaign the Stop the War has been affected by police bans. The same happened a year ago when we organised a march against the war in Afghanistan, despite the fact that 2,000 people turned out on that one, overwhelmingly Muslims from the very area the police stopped us marching through!

This march had been postponed from its original date because of a 30-day blanket ban on all demonstrations in Leicester, imposed in response to a threat from the National Front to march. Yet again the point that state bans work against the workers movement has been illustrated.

On the national day of action, 31 October campaigners protested outside a police station and went on an impromptu, unauthorised march round the city centre, taking the Police by surprise. The Leicester Socialist Students banner was prominent.

Out of frustration, the organisers of Saturday's demo against the war withdrew formal co-operation with the police, refusing to discuss details or even give the name of the official march organiser. We felt that we would not comply with our own repression.

On the day, the march went without hitch, but there was a heavy police presence to make sure we followed the police imposed route. The rally in the city centre was chaired by Socialist Party member, Steve Score and a had range of speakers including Josie Nicholls on behalf of the Socialist Party, The Worker-Communist Party of Iraq, The Indian Workers' Association, and Muslim organisations.

The 31^st of October is traditionally seen as a day in which all kinds of strange beings come out of the woodwork. This year confirmed the trend. During the National Day of Action, a heated discussion developed when a member of the public took exception to the anti-war rally at the University of Leicester. He claimed that war was justified because "it would free up international markets" and that it would be "a war for civilisation".

The undoubted theatrical gifts of this man drew a crowd of about 250 people; our more reasoned arguments ensured that a queue developed to sign our petitions and discuss individual issues with us. Virtually all students agreed that the war was a case of imperialist aggression by a US administration keen on paying its oil industry backers. Students were angry that top up fees are virtually inevitable at universities such as Leicester and that there is no money for public services, yet there is sufficient money for war (eg the £13bn order for two aircraft carriers for the Royal Navy).