Manchester, 23 September: 60000 put New Labour under Siege!

Report of the anti-war demonstration in Manchester , 23rd September 2006

//WORLD REVOLUTION //International Coordination Comittee //2006-09-25

Last Saturday, a massive demonstration was held as the warmongering, profiteering Labour Party held its annual conference in Manchester . This was the biggest protest that Manchester had seen for years, attracting 60,000 demonstrators who came from all over the UK to show their disgust at the Labour Party's policies of war, privatisation and racism.

REVOLUTION Manchester were joined by members from around the country, including London , Leicester and a big group from Leeds . All together, there were around 70 of us and we formed an excellent contingent behind our anti-imperialist banner which read “ Iraq – Afghanistan – Palestine – Lebanon – Victory to the Resistance” along with our traditional “World Revolution” banner.

Nearly everyone in the contingent held a red “Revolution” flag and our excellent stewards made sure that we all kept together as we marched through the city, while Rosie, Laura, Josh and Luke led chants on the megaphone making sure that everyone got an earful of our anti-imperialist politics.

The key demand of the demonstration, organised by the Stop the War coalition and others, was for an end to the brutal occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan by US, UK and Coalition troops. But there were many issues besides this to be angry about, including the recent support given by Blair and Bush to Israel's disgusting invasion of Lebanon, the “public sector reform” policies Blair is pushing through for schools and hospitals which in reality mean privatisation, and the increased powers Blair has given to police allowing them to oppress ethnic minorities, young and working class people even more than before.

These policies have led working class people, who traditionally have voted for Labour to desert them in droves; the party's membership is now down to only 1,900 from more than double that when Labour were elected in 1997. The way the Labour Party has been changed by Tony Blair has pleased nobody but the fat cat business owners and the middle classes. But when Blair (finally!) resigns and is succeeded by Gordon Brown, will this mean the Labour Party adopting policies that are more “socialist” and in the favour of the working class? Some people in Britain might think so, but very few on the demonstration were under those illusions: Brown has never opposed the “war on terror”, and has done more to privatise the British economy than even Margaret Thatcher. If he gets into power, we'll see more of the same attacks. That's why Revo's contingent did not stop at condemning Tony Blair, but chanted “Down with Blair! Down with Brown! Drive New Labour out of town!”, “Tony Blair – Murderer! Gordon Brown – Murderer! George Bush – Murderer! Get out of Iraq , get out of Iraq , get out of Iraq now!” and “Gordon Brown – we know you! You support Iraq war too!”

We were also clear about how we could get these criminals out of the Middle East – and that wasn't by asking them nicely. The US and UK troops will need to be defeated by mass resistance movements. We chanted “Baghdad, Beirut, Kabul, Gaza – Victory to the Intifada” and “Global Intifada, Global Revolution”, showing our understanding that the aggressive policies of New Labour will only be put to an end by a revolution against their system, capitalism. These kinds of chants attracted radical young people on the demonstration, who were welcomed into our contingent.

The demonstration passed the G-MEX conference centre, where we boo-ed and hissed and the party leaders inside and chanted “Come out Tony Blair, face your people if you dare!” – funnily enough, he didn't. The march then continued through Manchester , pausing for a short sit-down protest and eventually arriving in Albert Square where a rally was held and we distributed our Revolution magazines and leaflets. We hope that Blair will get the message and get out, but we know that any capitalist government will produce the same kinds of attacks and aggression. That's why we need a mass movement of radical young people to lead the working class to revolution!

All in all it was a great day,

Nat, REVOLUTION Leeds