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Monday, Nov 9, 2009
In contrast to the icy-cold pomp of the president's royal "state visit," an exuberant protest march draws 150,000, who march through London and bring a gold-painted Bush puppet to its knees.
Nov 21, 2003 | A 20-foot effigy of George W. Bush was toppled in London's Trafalgar Square last night. Around 150,000 people jammed the square to cheer, whistle and blow foghorns as the statue crashed to the ground under the imperious gaze of Lord Nelson. It was the climax of an exuberant and largely good-natured seven-hour protest against George Bush's state visit to Britain.
Drums and dancing, whistles and songs, foghorns and chanting were the character of the day in this massive anti-Bush rally, with most of the demonstrators completely unaware of the appalling events in Istanbul. Meanwhile, organizers claimed the biggest workday demonstration in the history of the country, as many thousands of people quit work, school or college to flood the capital. And the numbers jamming London's streets for the symbolic march past Parliament and along Whitehall were swollen by over 5,000 police officers marshaling the demonstration. Add twice that number of officers deployed in security measures around the city, while an estimated 400 U.S. Secret Service agents patrolled the shadows and the rooftops. Police helicopters buzzed overhead in constant motion.
The police in their luminous yellow jackets stood guard at the interface of two cultures. On the one hand, the pessimistic culture of Security: paranoid, sullen and suspicious. And on the other, the optimistic culture of those who feel merely Insecure, but who believe they can change things by crowding the streets with their bodies in a carnival-atmosphere affiliation of the people.
Ironically it was supposed to be George Bush, Tony Blair and the queen who were throwing the party. This was the first "state" visit of an American president since the end of the First World War. And what is this "state visit" thing? After all, Bill Clinton used to drop in on an almost casual basis and without all the pomp, never mind the protest. The difference is the "head of state" has invited the president this time. And the head of state in Britain is not the prime minister. It's the queen.
For George Bush this would normally mean red carpets, the paralyzing corset of white-tie dinners, 41-gun salutes by guys in furry hats, the gleaming blond-plumed horse guards, and baroque open carriages trotted along the Mall as tourists and royalty junkies wave paper flags. But this year the carriage has been mothballed and the horses stabled. George was, instead, helicoptered in the dark into the grounds of Buckingham Palace in a modified gunship. A bizarre "welcome" was laid on after breakfast the following morning, with the president driven 100 yards inside the Buckingham Palace compound to be greeted by the queen and her phalanx of retainers in 18th century livery.
This exhibition of depressed panoply took place so that he wouldn't have to see the tumultuous and ebullient demonstration about his presence going on outside.
But that doesn't deter the marchers, many of whom have traveled great distances to join this protest. One contingent has made a grueling 10-hour overnight journey by bus from Glasgow, Scotland, but they're buoyed up by enthusiasm for the march. Parading screen-printed orange flags bearing the slogan "Globalise Resistance," Liam Gotch is among them, carrying his 3-month-old daughter, Rebecca, in a sling. "I'm here with my daughter to say that Tony Blair and George Bush's foreign policy is not acceptable. We're a peaceful group from Scotland and we're here today to make a stand."
Elizabeth Bashir hears us talking. She's 60 and the last demonstration she attended was an anti-Vietnam War march. Her granddaughter found the information about the march for her on the Internet. "I fear for what we're leaving behind for the younger generation," she says, nodding at tiny Rebecca. Is this demonstration any different from those of over 30 years ago? "They used to be so sedate!" This march hasn't even got underway yet and she has to shout over the sound of whistles, horns and constant drumming. "This is chaos. But I'm enjoying it."
Globalise Resistance is typical of many of the groups comprising the march. Gill Hubbard, a striking woman in her 30s, explains to me that, "It's a fusion of antiwar, anti-corporate and anti-capitalist groups and individuals. Bush is the biggest terrorist threat to world peace."
