The Blairite leadership of the Labour Party are completely out of touch with
what is going on in Britain today. They are out of touch with the real everyday
living conditions of ordinary people. This is now emerging within the Labour
Party itself.
On the question of war against Iraq Blair likes to portray himself as
representing the opinions of the majority of people in this country. Opinion
polls actually show the opposite is true. On Saturday, September 28, this was
confirmed when the biggest anti-war demonstration ever seen in London took place
with around 400,000 people taking part. This shows the real mood in Britain
today.
Originally the police were claiming only 40,000 people had turned up for
Saturday’s anti-war demonstration. Actually that is the figure they had been
expecting and had planned for. They were very soon forced to admit that there
were 150,000 on the demo. But even this is a gross underestimate.
The real figure was much closer to 400,000. The demonstration left Embankment
at about 1 pm. At 6 pm people were still filing into Hyde Park when all the
speeches had already finished! Jeremy Corbyn, a left Labour MP, pointed out that
the anti-war demo took as long to file past as the Countryside Alliance
demonstration a week earlier, so they were probably of the same size. The media
claimed that the Countryside Alliance demonstration was 400,000-strong. The
media and the police always try to play down the size of left-wing
demonstrations. In the case of the Countryside Alliance, because it was backed
by rich Tories, they probably played up the size of the demo.
The anti-war demonstration attracted people from all walks of life. Some
newspaper reports tried to play down the significance of this demonstration,
trying to get the message across that ordinary people in Britain are not really
bothered about this issue. But they are very wrong. There were many trade union
banners on the demonstration. Important national trade union leaders had
actually given their official backing to the protest.
Such a huge participation in Saturday’s demonstration is part of a wider
process taking place in Britain. It shows that a huge wave of subterranean
opposition is now coming to the surface. The next period will be completely
different to the one we have been through. A new period of class struggle is
opening up in which millions of workers and youth will be looking for an
alternative to this rotten capitalist system.
October 1, 2002
