Stop the War Demonstration

Thousands of protesters from all over the UK descended on Manchester and gathered at All Saints Park on Saturday for the Stop the War demonstration with the aim of sending a message to the Labour Party, who are hosting their annual conference in Manchester this week.

The Stop the War Coalition marched with an aim to persuade the government to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and to stop the spread of War. They urged the people to “March with us and become part of the worldwide movement for peace”.

The police estimated that there were around three to five thousand protesters (notably smaller than previous protests) although the eventual turnout seemed much greater as the demonstration took over the city centre streets. The protest progressed slowly down Oxford Road, which was closed for the event, towards St Peter’s Square and then past Manchester Central, where the Labour conference is taking place. The demonstration eventually arrived at the Castlefield Arena, where high profile anti-war speakers such as Tony Benn and Moazzam Begg addressed the crowds.

The demonstrators were from a wide range of political groups. Many groups from the Stop-the-War Coalition arrived in coaches and the political parties of the Left were also represented as well as members of the No2ID campaign, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, anarchists plus many more. Despite the fact that the main theme of the demonstration was against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the slogans on the many different placards highlighted the general dissatisfaction with the actions of the Labour Government.

Although the university term has not yet begun, there were a large number of students including some from the universities in Manchester as well as veterans from the Stop-the-War movement, young families. Recognisable faces included Walter Wolfgang, who was thrown out of the Labour conference in Brighton in 2005 and arrested under anti-terrorism laws for shouting “nonsense” during Jack Straw’s speech on the Iraq War.

Despite the heavy police presence including dozens of mounted police, the Stop the War march was a relatively peaceful protest, with the exception of a couple of incidents where the police attempted to arrest some Anarchists who were wearing masks.

View all of our photos from the event. (Video coverage will be online within a few days).

Photography credits James Maskell