"Turn up the heat"

Rev Jesse Jackson urges UK millions to "Back peace not war" in Iraq

Adored as the most eminent orator in America and friend of the dispossessed around the world, there is one man who has a deep understanding of the public's outrage at warmongering. In London for the "Stop the War in Iraq" rally in Hyde Park, Rev Jesse Jackson, 61, made an astonishing contribution to the anti-war debate. The US Democrat and civil rights leader called on President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair to "give peace with Iraq a chance".

Rev Jesse Jackson & Ms Dynamite

Massive protest
Jackson's intervention at the biggest ever protest in British history strengthened the anti-war movements' message to both governments. Marchers came from all parts of the kingdom and political spectrum: from Middle England conservatives and working class housing estates, and from the leafy suburbs as well as the low-income districts of inner cities. Police estimated at least 750,000 taking part, although organizers, the Stop the War coalition, put the figure closer to two million.

Addressing the rally in London's traditional arena of free speech, where public meetings have been held since 1855, Jackson recalled that his mentor, the slain human rights campaigner, Dr Martin Luther King, Jr., was a committed peace campaigner in the Vietnam conflict.

"Martin Luther King always preached that evil could be fought with peaceful resistance and debate. [Leaders] have sold themselves to corporations and big business. They have forgotten that people have the power. They exist because of us", the Observer 16/2/03 reported. Jackson continued: "Our government wants to divert attentions from problems at home to a war that no-one wants".

Peace leader
These words from the one-time US presidential candidate, who met Saddam Hussein in 1990 and wants to lead a peace mission to Baghdad, were not without significance. The scale of the protest, and the astonishing diversity and size and composition of the London peace march, threatened to disrupt US and British diplomatic plans at the UN security council, the Guardian reported 17/02/03.

Rev Jackson said he had come on the march to show the president and the prime minister that there was unity among people across the world against the war, reported the Sunday Telegraph 16/2/03. The massed ranks of protestors were Jackson's largest congregation since the "Million Man March" on Washington in 1995 (called by the Nation of Islam's Minister Louis Farrakhan).

Moderates as well as Labour Party loyalists were in the Hyde Park gathering, along with many first-time "virgin" protestors new to the public arena. A whole range of backgrounds, ages, colours, causes and faiths - Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, and Jewish - were represented. And, two main slogans dominated the march: "Don't Attack Iraq" and "Freedom for Palestine".

The radical tone was underscored by featured speakers. Bill Morris, highest ranking Black trade unionist and leader of the transport workers, warned "that the anti-war movement could galvanize public opinion against the Prime Minister Tony Blair", reported The Sunday Telegraph 16/2/03. Ms Dynamite, one of the most talented and socially conscious Black British performers, poetically reminded protestors "of previous US debacles in Vietnam, Guatemala and Nicaragua, said the Guardian 17/2/03.

Pro- and anti-war
Press reports after the protest march are divided in their judgement. The Times veteran conservative columnist William Rees-Mogg said: "I respect the good intentions of those who marched. But in all honesty, they were still Saddam's useful idiots". The paper's editorial cartoonist pictured a defiant Tony Blair giving the mocking two-fingers-up gesture to the banner-bearing protestors.

On the other hand, "It would be a very foolish government which was not alarmed by this manifestation of public anger", said the Daily Mail 2/17/03. "Blair's "moral" case for war in Iraq is shot full of holes", said the Guardian. "Marchers have the power to make a difference," concluded Jonathan Freedland, award-winning Guardian reporter. The Voice, Britain's largest Black newspaper, applauded Rev Jackson's "no war" message saying: "he embodies the power of popular movements".

Nigerian writer Ben Okri endorsed these anti-war views saying: "Politicians must listen to humanity when it speaks so loudly and from so deep inside. If they are deaf to this, they are deaf at their peril". Putting to shame her non-political contemporaries in the burgeoning urban garage music scene, Ms Dynamite says: "War is never the answer. Our leaders claim they fight for justice. They should remember that an eye for an eye makes the world blind".

In retrospect, Jesse Jackson, the icon of resistance, believes the march was a minor victory in the long journey towards peace in the Middle East, of which the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is a part. The march unmasked the myth that leaders know best and that people are uncaring mutants. Undoubtedly, it strengthened the ties, evident on the streets, of Black rights activists and peace campaigners. Famously, Britain's historic peace march help slow the sprint towards war.

Hopes - but no illusions
The organizers - the Stop the War coalition of 450 organisations - are under no illusions. They accept that the march will not have deflected US-British preparations for war against Iraq. In that event, anti-war campaigners plan massive civil disobedience and direct action protests to try and bring Britain to a halt on the day any bombing of Iraq begins. In a final judgement, not void of moral consideration, Jackson adds, "We are generating some serious heat. Blair can feel it. Bush can feel it. Turn it up."