Ten years ago something like 30 million people took to the streets across the world in what was an unprecedented international day of action against the looming invasion of Iraq. Not only was this kind of international demonstration unprecedented, in places like London, New York, and others it was the largest ever demonstration to take place.
Three million people marched in Rome, one and half million marched in Madrid, over a million in Barcelona (and dozens of other major demonstrations across Spain), half a million marched across France in numerous demonstrations, 150,000 in Melborne, 100,000 marched in Montreal despite the fact that temperatures were below -30 degrees c! I could go on.
The Italian “pace” flag became popular in this country because of the phenomenal success of the anti-war movement there, leading to the ousting of Berlusconi (who?) and the withdrawal of Italian troops. The Spanish movement also managed to take down their government and withdraw their forces although in many nations, like France and Germany, the governments the anti-war mood was so strong that they felt unable to send troops anyway so understandably their anti-war movements were more modest.
Lessons from Europe
The situation was different in Europe. France and Germany had not participated in the war and both Spain and Italy had center right governments so it wasn’t necessary to invent a new anti-war party in any of these places to ensure their troops stayed at home.
The job of ousting Labour over the war could not fall to the pro-war Tories and the Lib Dems strangely felt they had to support the war once it had started so no pre-existing Parliamentary party (in England) could muster a defenestration, although in Scotland we did see a decisive shift in the balance of power.
The shape of the anti-war organisations in Spain and Italy were very different. In Spain (and the US) there was a multiplicity of anti-war groups/coalitions, in Italy there was no ongoing umbrella group at all. This is quite different from the UK where one group, the Stop the War Coalition, became the national spokesperson and organiser against the war and independent groups were, however reluctantly, pulled into its orbit. All were successful models in my view and it does show there’s always more than one way to skin a cat.
Blair and Bush survived but were not unscathed
In Febuary 2003 Senator Obama made his famous speech against the Iraq invasion that shot him to national prominence, Lib Dem leader Charles Kennedy spoke at the London rally and I even recall a high profile Tory speaking at a StWC national event. The movement against the war was broad by necessity. I personally know card carrying Tories from where I lived at the time who attended the monster demo – when it’s that big it has to be politically broad and those who think those numbers could have been turned into a general strike or whatever are, I think, indulging in wishful thinking without evidence.
Sadly the US and the UK were not able to knock out their leaders but, I think, it’s a mistake to regard the legacy of the anti-war movement in the English speaking world as one of simple “failure”. It is true that with incredible successes the left also found frustration at the fact that their own groups and currents did not seem to be seeing rewards, the Labour left if anything shrank and the SWP’s London based leaders were angrily insisting that the organisation was in a period of historic growth whilst not releasing the membership figures. Ten years on we see just how thin those claims were.
Without that movement it’s perfectly possible that Iran would have been bombed by now, and we may have seen wider interventions in Asia or Africa, possibly even South America, although my thoughts are that would be less likely. I certainly believe we would still have troops in Iraq. That movement saved lives even if it did not stop the invasion.
Where we go from here is a more difficult question. The West’s appetite for new military interventions is growing again but there is no mass anti-war movement to oppose them. If we’re serious about the future we’re going to need to do some serious thinking about how we mobilise popular opinion against new wars in the middle east and Africa or drone strikes in Pakistan because what we have right now can only be part of the solution.
Interesting contributions on the anniversary (tiny selection); Medhi Hassan, Owen Jones, Andrew Murray, Chris Nineham, Salman Shaheen, Kate Hudson, Reconsidering the march that failed.