Marches and protests change history

Lindsey German of Stop the War Coalition on the importance of protest and a similar view from Johann Hari. In the context of this week's student demo, did the anti-war protests fail? As someone who went on about 12 of them since the big one in 2003 and who is on the Steering Committee of Stop the War Coalition, I think that it is too early to say. To paraphrase Chou En Lai when he was asked if the French Revolution had been a success, "it is too early to know." The marches may not have stopped the war and at a time when the Afghan war continues relentlessly it appears that they were ineffective but on the other hand they have changed many minds and did huge damage to Blair and others. One of the reasons why I will be marching tomorrow week in the Time to Go march in London calling for withdrawal from Afghanistan.