Gaza demo report

Just want to write a cheap and cheerful report on the demo in London today and I'll fill in the blanks later.

It seemed big to me, well over 50,000 people turning out on a very cold day (it didn't snow the whole time though) to protest against Israel's actions in Gaza. I heard the organisers claimed over 100,000 - that's too many I think, but that should not detract from the fact that there was a very strong turn out.

It was also pretty angry and one of the liveliest demonstrations I've ever been on. I early on had a conversation with someone about whether there would be anti-semitic chants or placards so I kept my eyes peeled and didn't see a one.

In fact I've been on Palestine protests before and the use of the swastika in conjunction with the Israeli flag (which in my view is stupid, offensive and lazy - although not anti-semitic in itself) has been something that always crops up. This time I only spotted this twice, which is a welcome development if it means this particular use of symbolism is dying out.

We (the Greens) had some placards and leaflets, although I still think we need to get better at organising this sort of thing so more people can lend a hand as I think a lot of the work fell on a few shoulders. Personally I gave out approximately a bazzillion leaflets, partly as a misjudgement on my part picking up so many that meant it was almost going home time when I finally got rid of my last one. But I done my duty Sarge! Not a single one binned.

There were two flash points that I remember.

Firstly there was the point where a side road could have led to the back of the Israeli embassy. The police had locked the gates and had a team of cops lined up to prevent people taking that route. A crowd quickly gathered when we reached that point and that crowd became more aggressive and angry as time went on.

There was quite a bit of shoe throwing and people (young nibble people) climbed up on the walls around the gate and led chants against the Israeli actions. There was flag burning (which produce loads of smoke) and someone told me they were also burning shoes although I didn't see this and frankly I'm really sure it makes sense - but there was a column of smoke after a bit! There was also the throwing of red paint and a number of the police were splashed by this.

It was then that some sort of flare or firework was let off towards the police with an almighty bang. It is my understanding that the police don't like to have explosives fired in their direction and reinforcements soon arrived. To be honest that moment was a turning point for this flash point as a large number of people moved on at that point as we were nowhere near the end of the march and people probably didn't fancy getting shot at (or whatever people imagined might happen).

The second flash point was at the end at the nearest point to embassy where the crowd gathered. The policing at this point seemed pretty restrained although I'm sure the size of the crowd had more than a little to do with that. I went for a coffee at one point with the infamous stroppy (it was very cold in our defence) and when we returned there was a fair deal of thrown objects, the horses were drawing up and the police were bringing in the tall shields in preparation for hemming the remaining part of the demo in.

Having seen this before I stood outside the ring of police not wanting to get boxed in for hours. It looked like a classic standoff and it seemed unlikely that the protest was going to be able to make any more kind of headway although they were making the point that we are angry very, very clearly. We stood there for a while without much movement and although I think things would have got more hairy later on it was at this point I decided to get the train back.

All in all it was rather exciting and I'm very much taken with flag burning. Let's do this more on other kinds of demos. The level of protests, particularly local protests has been extremely inspiring, I'm pessimistic about how much they are achieving, but I know for a brief time I feel like I've done something - although I accept this may well be a false feeling.

Further reports from London by Harpy, Sunny, Septicisle, Lenin, Daily Quail, Fridge Magnet, Blue Meanie, Vicky, David Rosenberg, Socialist Worker, Permanent Revolution, BBC, Cardiff CAAT, Indymedia, Stephen Glenn, Liam, Ed Rooksby, Pics from Paddy one of which I've pinched.

And the Edinburgh demo from Cat, and BBC, and Indymedia, Belfast from BBC, Sheffield from Indymedia, Athens from Indymedia,