Bristol in Manchester: A last goodbye to war-monger Bliar?

bristol | protests | news report

Sunday September 24, 2006 16:14

by Lee

An 8am start is wearing on any day of the week, but on a Saturday it is particularly grinding. Nevertheless this Saturday saw a large contingent of protesters representing a variety of causes make the trip from Bristol to the Labour Party conference in Manchester to remind Tony Blair and friends that they are not wanted.

Time to Go

An 8am start is wearing on any day of the week, but on a Saturday it is particularly grinding. Nevertheless this Saturday saw a large contingent of protesters representing a variety of causes make the trip from Bristol to the Labour Party conference in Manchester to remind Tony Blair and friends that they are not wanted.

As usual the police gave a very low estimate for the total number of protesters in Manchester: their spokesperson put the figure at 20,000. A more realistic figure can be garnered from Stop The War Coalition and the British Muslim Initiative, who put the figure at 100,000 and 50,000 respectively. Thus we can say that at around 70,000 protesters, this was the biggest ever lobby of a party conference and the biggest demonstration in Manchester for 150 years.

The Bristol contingent numbered 4 coaches and a large number of people who made their own way up. Simon Guy, a spokesperson for the University of the West of England’s Stop The War coalition said that he was ‘pleased with the turnout from UWE. It marked a good start for the university Stop the War movement’.

‘Students came together about midway through and were the most lively part’, though Guy may not have heard the raucous Samba band that is so often the life and soul of any demonstration. He added that it was important that students were able to comprehend the ‘link between war and the lack of welfare spending, especially in education’

A spokesperson for Bristol Stop The War said that the ‘point about the demo was not to build an illusion that getting rid of Blair would be the end of it’ but that ‘the bigger the movement is the harder it is for his successor to follow his policies.’

He added that the demonstration reflected people’s ‘growing anger at what Labour has not done for people. People are pissed off at the cuts in expenditure and the privatisation agenda and are beginning to realise that this is linked to the war’

Big Blair - slave to WMD