Saturday 23rd September 06 - Manchester Stop the War March (1/2) By Mo with & page Photo Gallery

(1/2), (2/2)

Photograph Gallery   Gallery 1,    Gallery 2,    Gallery 3,    Gallery 4,    Gallery 5,    Gallery 6,    Gallery 7.

After two nights in a row taking pictures at the Adelphi Club; Monkey Boy, Stop it your killing me, Freaks Union on Thursday night and Afterglow, Tonik and The Shine on Friday, I wasn't looking forward to a long day of photos at the Manchester Stop the War protest on Saturday. It's Sunday morning now and my first memory is dropping off to sleep in the East Yorkshire coach as we headed home.

Poor old Zak sat next to me and had to deal with my head plopping in his lap every now and then from exhaustion. He handed me a welcome back to Hull jam donut and that saw me through the walk home from George Street.

I've been scanning Google News and the BBC website for media reports on the march. It's pretty scant, nothing from the BBC yet and strangely, mainly Middle Eastern publications like Aljazeera.net, Gulf Times and The Hundu who report At least 10 000 anti-war demonstrators marched through the northern English city of Manchester on Saturday, protesting the presence of British troops in Iraq and Afghanistan on the eve of the governing Labour Party's annual gathering. It does make me wonder what or who is stifling the western media from reporting on this historic gathering of Anti War protesters, of whom I estimate at least at 50,000 people from my photos anyway.

Probably a third of the numbers that would turn up to a Man United home game there. Although the numbers have grown since we marched in London last March (and got clamped by those shits down there) it does sadden me that people are so mesmerised by football, the Ryder Cup and all the other distractions in the media and TV that they can't wake up to see the truth behind state driven terrorism from Bush, Blair and the rest of the drones they attract.

It was a great day, from the moment we disembarked Martin Dean, our Green Party candidate who, by the way, put up his own money to sort the coach trip out, led our proud band of Ull's protesters to join clans from all parts of Great Britain to gather in Albert's Square. It was like a scene from Brave Heart, but bigger, more powerful and yet we all greeted each other with whistles and drums and smiles of unity.

For those who haven't been on a Stop the War march yet, the feeling of oneness - a single shared consciousness between tens of thousands of people of every age, every colour, is beyond my language skills to describe. It is pure compassion for fellow peoples who we wage war on. It is our shared shame for allowing the greedy, angry and ignorant to lead us down this terrible path.

Continued ...next page (2/2)

Photographs courtsey and Copyright ©  Mo 2006

Photograph Gallery   Gallery 1,    Gallery 2,    Gallery 3,    Gallery 4,    Gallery 5,    Gallery 6,    Gallery 7.

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