Tajudeen’s Thursday Post card: The great no to Bush

Feb 19, 2003

THE last time I was in a million-person March was 1995, in Washington, DC. Minister Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam (NOI) had called for “a million-man march” on a day of atonement and reconciliation.

THE last time I was in a million-person March was 1995, in Washington, DC. Minister Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam (NOI) had called for “a million-man march” on a day of atonement and reconciliation. In spite of controversies about Farrakhan's politics, many came out because the march was about them and the issues were theirs. By being there I earned my certificate and T-shirt that carried the slogan: I was one in a million.
Last Saturday I earned my second 'One in a million' honour. This time it was more than a million but we will settle for a million because it sounds and reads well. I was with my wife, our two daughters, friends, neighbours and comrades in the UK at the anti-war demonstration organised by the Stop the War Coalition and the Muslim Association of Britain in London.
It had been a long time since I participated in a demonstration from start to finish. This time I did without cutting corners. After a life time of agitation and championing so-called lost causes you become demo-wise to know how to strategically insert yourself in a march half way through or calculate the time it will take to get to the convergence point where the speeches will be made therefore make plans to arrive there early enough and wait for the real marchers to arrive. I am of course talking about marching in the United Kingdom where I was a kind of veteran from the early 1980s through to the 19990s.
Marching in Africa takes different preparations and
often leads to many casualties. They are mini wars and a battle of wills between the government and the demonstrators (more often than not students and organised Labour). Unfriendly and panicky Security establishment and unyielding and insecure governments
have always combined to make the democratic exercise of 'the right to peaceful demonstration' a bloody matter.
Even in the older democracies the civil space is constantly under threat as is evident in the silencing of anti-war voices in America since 9/11. Tony Blair had to leave town, conveniently addressing his party’s winter conference in Glasgow on the day of the demonstration. The organisers, the police and the media (while disputing final figures) agreed that it was the biggest demonstration in the history of Britain. The London marchers were not alone. In 600 cities across the world including the USA demonstrations were simultaneously taking place.
The noticeable 'quiet' cities were glaringly in Africa and the Middle East. Only in Johannesburgh, Cairo and
Tel -a-viv were there demonstrations. That of Tel a viv showed the courage of peace lovers who have refused to be cowed by butcher Sharon, the linesman, co-cheer leader with Tony Blair, for Bush in this blood spilling enterprise.
In Cairo about 600 protesters braved the emergency laws and vicious security system. 3000 police surrounded the 600 protesters, a ratio of 5:1 in
favour of the Police! Jo' burgh had a decent turn out because post apartheid South Africa is a beacon of democratic rights and freedoms on this continent.
There is no doubt that the majority of Africans oppose the attack. It is even possible that most, if not all our governments, are opposed too but they are too scared to let either their own views and much less those of their citizens be too loud for fear of getting on the wrong side of the Americans. Also many of them are so insecure that they know that a demonstration against the attack on Iraq could easily turn into popular protests against their own unjust wars and unjust rule. The same is true for the Middle East countries and their largely unelected and unelectable leaders.
They appeal for moral and political support on so called 'Arab issues' but are fearful of their own people therefore provide logistical and strategic support to the US.
It is easier to focus
attention on the US;
but peace activism
must now shift to the Arab states that are
aiding and abetting US arrogance, militarism and unjust war.
The peaceful matches may not change the minds of Bush and Blair but like Jesse Jackson observed in one of many interviews 'political careers can change'. In Britain, Anthony Eden lost his premiership due to the Suez Canal crisis. In the US, Bush's father 'won' the Gulf war but lost the election afterwards.
The matchers were not condoning Saddam Hussein's atrocities against his own people but articulating a different approach that is less costly in human and material terms and more enduring: allowing more time for the inspectors to do their work.
It is possible to retain, through the UN,
the threat of war without having to use it. The Bush /Blair not-so-hidden
agenda for regime change is another matter.
They cannot be using
the suffering of Iraqi
people to justify their own selfish designs given their country's connivance in maintaining Saddam in power for a long time and perpetrating unjust sanctions since the first Gulf War. As one of the placards on the Match stated: 'regime change begins at home', 'drop Blair not bombs'. There were many other slogans on the march that competed for one's attention. Take a sample: “Make love not war”, “Make tea not love”, “don't attack Iraq, Victory to Palestine”, “No war for Ool”. My favourite ones included: “Not in my name” and “Blix, not blitz”. Of course, there were some rude ones too like “Bush/Blair, Arse holes of evil”; or “George Bush, we know you! Daddy was a killer too!” and “Tony Blair, we know you! Daddy was
a poodle too!'”

tajudeen28@yahoo.com

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