In much the same way, the protest against war in Iraq has had little direct success. But this movement can be accorded some measure of success if judged by other factors. As a worldwide social movement it has eclipsed all others and united like-minded people in an unprecedented series of global displays of solidarity. In the autumn of 2003, the extraordinary dimensions of this global movem

For decades now, demonstrations and protest marches have been recognised as a valid form of political action, although as mentioned earlier the results can differ wildly. It might be reasonable to suggest that core government policy of the kind that entails international co-operation and implications are much more difficult to alter. It soon became clear with the invasion of Iraq that the plans had been premeditated by the coalition’s American leadership for quite some time. The fact that so many protestors turned up to the London protests suggests that there is another motivating factor involved, quite apart from redirecting governmental policy; the protestors simply wanted their presence, and so their opinion also, to be seen clearly by an international audience. The slogan “Not In My Name” richly symbolises this feeling. By their attendance at nationally organised demonstrations, protestors are setting themselves apart from those who would wield power and dictate for the few.

ent have led a journalist of the New York Times to describe it as the “world’s newest superpower.”

So with the anti-war protests, and the more recent demonstrations during President Bush’s controversial state visit to the UK, there has been a huge example of collective behaviour that has organised itself right across the recognised cleavages of modern society. The statue of Bush that was symbolically toppled in Trafalgar Square was created by a group of local schoolchildren under the direction of sympathetic teaching staff, again the Muslim Association of Britain was highly involved, as were those to the left of New Labour: the Socialist Alliance and the Socialist Worker’s Party. Men, women and children representing no other social group than society itself chose to attend to demonstrate their shared antipathy not only to the war in Iraq, but to a whole host of other American foreign policies that they are in disagreement with. From a political context, much has instigated such a physical, visual and vocal response. Not only has the war in Iraq proved to be a highly unpopular move, but also the US non-ratification of the Kyoto Protocol, proposed steel tariffs, the in

Some topics in this essay:
Attack Iraq”, Union Students, Guantanamo Bay, William Gamson, York Times, Mario Diani, Robert Monroe, Worker’s Party, Afghanistan Iraq, Tony Blair, social movement, collective identity, war iraq, opposing camps, muslim association britain, actors identify, della porta, socialist alliance, association britain, iraq proved, collective action,