This topic seems to have been reduced to concentrating on identifying the type of demonstrator and not solutions – unless I’ve missed them. To get the govt to change its stance it needs to be a numbers game. The volume attending this demo may not have been enough for the powers to be to see a sizeable portion of the electorate attending.

Look at the Andrew Sachs matter where it took 30,000 (?) complaints to the BBC to get re-address. I remember the droves of ALL types of people who left flowers, cards for princess diana which allegedly forced blair to advise the royal family to change tactics.

Sadly, this situation does not resonate on a wide enough commonality to get the critical masses participating. What it actually needs is a Bob Geldof figure (not SWP, muslim orgn, activist, Galloway etc) to get the focus on the humanity angle and NOTHING ELSE.

Either that or Simon Cowell who knows how to get the paying masses voting … I think x factor this year got 10 million at one vote

Put a high profile celebrity in the picture & you bring the media along with you too …

Its not what activist’s usually do but it may achieve the outcome desired which is the important thing.

Perhaps activists need to adapt & see that the masses do not go out on cnd marches any more but prefer to stay cosy at home & press a voting button at a premium price.

Sorry for the shameless promotion, Sunny.

I was there – there was a diverse range of people, and I do apologise if they don’t all fit into the equation anti-war movement = Muslimists + far leftists. You think there are even enough old socialists to pack out a demo of tens of thousands? Perhaps some people see only what they want to see – if you read the Guardian’s account, or perhaps HP, some clearly saw it as a Hamas/Hezbollah march.

I saw a lot of middle of the road people – are we getting into semantics here? – neither brown nor old socialist. Less so on the march towards the Embassy, but that was a different matter. As to the intentions of the organisers – I can’t read minds but I’m sure not all of them would intentionally want to keep the marches confined to a small demographic. Where is the logic in that? This might be the view of the SWP, but from the people I’ve met who work with the PSC, and a lot of people who’ve worked as aid workers in Palestine, most of whom are neither brown (your obsession with that word again!) nor Muslim nor socialist, it’s clear what they want is as wide a coalition as possible – and see it purely as a humanitarian cause. I don’t know if you listened to the speeches by Muslims (and socialists) at the rally, but it was clear almost all of them wanted people to take it further than just a demonstration – to build a much wider movement.

They might be going about it in the wrong way (e.g. allowing Muslimists to turn up and sing Muslim chants – shock horror, can’t have that) but then they could probably benefit from being given some advice as to how to build a wider coalition. I’m sure they’re all ears.

Perhaps it is also important to consider the fact that the media is doing a pretty bad job of conveying the human cost of the conflict – emphasising the fact that Israel is after Hamas at every turn, and then as mentioned earlier the Guardian reporting “a sea” of Hamas and Hezbullah flags. Might this have something to do with the fact that the elusive white non-socialist non-Muslims do not turn out in greater numbers?

Later on, I reckon the same teenage boys – started a chant saying “Kill the Jews” – that too died a miserable death.

In our rallies, there was fair amounts of non-palestinians, non-muslims there.

whoops! thanks amrit, will keep that in mind…

Erm, that’s because they’re not there in the first place.

You went… did you not notice the overwhelmingly brown and old socialist content?
There are a lot of middle of the road people who feel for the palestinians and came to the anti-war march too. Where were they? Why were they not there?

You have to, at one point, accept that the people organising these things aren’t interested in building wider coalitions. For the Palestinians, I think that is a shameful let down. The cause has to be a human rights cause and not a religious cause.

And for the record, I’ve found out that’s it’s Capisce (for anyone who cares).

Heh I was going to correct him but couldn’t be bothered…

Damn dodgy comment-edit facility!

Everyone likes to play the victim, and show off their tribal colours, eh?

And for the record, I’ve found out that’s it’s Capisce (for anyone who cares).

Provocative behaviour particularly from young men (regardless of their ethnicity or religion) can be counter-productive, but there were plenty of young men who were trying to calm everyone down after the police had rushed us.

I found most of the speeches spot on…Interpal (the new terrorist org on the american terrorist list)were there as well…

I didn’t hear anyone chant for hamas…and i think the whole hamas line is deflecting from the ordinary men women and children that are being massacred…you can tell how much the israeli spokesppl have been coached…they’re like robots chanting the same shit…

perhaps because the other 27% have left the occupied territories.?]

It is mainly Muslims who are dying, and so you should expect Muslims to feel strongly about it. That’s not political immaturity. That’s just expression of religious solidarity. And before you say so, I’ve been on the climate march a couple of times and there were plenty of Muslims there. So it’s not the case (as is often implied) that Muslims are only politically active when it’s other Muslims who are dying.

Some people might think religion belongs in private, with no public expression of it whatsoever; I believe, however, I have a right to be loud and proud about my identity, religious, cultural, whatever. There are better ways of doing it that shouting takbeer, but I’d rather those “young bad boys” you deride would express themselves that way than with any real violence.

And when the riot police rushed us and many of the younger people were angry (we were all upset), it was Muslim men of all different ages asking people to remain calm.

My report here:

http://rayyanmirza.wordpress.com/2009/01/04/gaza-demo-report-and-six-things-we-can-all-do-to-support-gaza/

Don’t forget that campaigns against Obama were turned into religious claims by white americasn that he was the anti-christ. There are crazy people amongst every race.

http://ingaza.wordpress.com/