Nouse.co.uk » Marching Against the Warm Wind

Marching Against the Warm Wind

March 10, 2003
Greg Callus

Having spent months preparing for the anti-war demo on the 15th of February, it was something of a relief when it actually came. I was stewarding one of the nine coaches going from the University, so had to be there at 7 am, and check everyone on, give out the itinerary for the day, and generally run-round like a blue-arsed fly until we were all safely back in York.

My only moment of worry came at the Services stop on the way down, where some random guy was encouraging people to occupy the US embassy! Thankfully, no-one on my coach was feeling particularly suicidal, and didn’t even get themselves arrested.

With nearly 2 million people, it took us a couple of hours to reach the starting point on Gower Street. The most remarkable thing was the sheer diversity of the marchers – OAPs, toddlers, teenagers, every possible colour, creed, and political denomination. It was like a Benetton advert gone mad. The placards were a good laugh as well. "Make Tea Not War", "The only Bush I trust is my own!", and "Australian-Jewish Fans of Postman Pat against War" were amongst my favourites.

The Samba Band from Sheffield Uni were a great crowd pleaser, but were perhaps upstaged by several semi-naked students (who had first floor apartments overlooking Gower Street) conducting the crowd to their CD player as it pounded out "All You Need Is Love". It was great to see so many friends from other parts of the country there as well, and fairly remarkable that I ran into them, given the volume of people.

The Hyde Park rally (what I saw of it) seemed to be fantastic. I had to run and find my coach, so we could leave before the traffic caught us.

Our drivers (Gilly and John) were hilarious, and made my day infinitely easier. Pulling stunts like following ambulances, and pretending to have pregnant women on board, we left London at 6.45 and were back at Goodricke before 11 pm.

Because I was stewarding, I wasn’t able to participate in the mass sit-down planned in Piccadilly Circus, because of the risk of arrest. Instead, I ended up helping various lost marchers locate coaches going to Burnley, Carlisle, and Hastings. The chaos was reflective of quite how big the event had been. It was one of the more stressful days I’ve had since coming to university, but being part of something so huge left me with a feeling of deep satisfaction.