Cat Rylance attended the latest Stop the War demo

Grand old Duke of York; no strategy

On Saturday October 24 around 5,000 protestors marched through central London on the Stop the War Coalition-organised demonstration against the war in Afghanistan.

Attendance was rather disappointing, especially in view of the fact it seemed virtually to have been promoted by the BBC. The demonstration was the first item on many BBC bulletins in the morning, with newsreaders announcing that “thousands are expected to march in London”. While the standard STWC demonstrations of many tens of thousands often receive little or no media coverage, Saturday’s event was covered as a top news item by the BBC, Channel 4 and ITV, and was featured in several national newspapers, radio stations and online networks.

“For once a Stop the War march got the media coverage it deserved,” declared the STWC (newsletter, October 26). Yet it was one of the smallest for many years. Its significance lay elsewhere. The change in attitude of the media is not a symptom of finally being won over by the sheer force of STWC arguments. Divisions in the ruling class over Afghanistan are becoming more apparent between those who now view the war as unwinnable and a waste of resources, and those who believe it is worth staying to ‘finish the job’. Giving positive coverage to and even exaggerating the likely support for Saturday’s demo is perhaps a sign of a section of the establishment (not least senior figures in the BBC) identifying with the first of those camps.

A further implication of this coverage may be an awareness of the current divisions in the Socialist Workers Party. The former SWP leadership of John Rees, Lindsey German and Chris Nineham is still running the STWC in alliance with Andrew Murray of the Morning Star’s Communist Party of Britain. Last year comrade Rees was booted off the SWP central committee, while German and Nineham stood down in solidarity with him. Now they have hit back with the formation of the Left Platform opposition faction. Comrades German and Rees have accused the current SWP leadership around Martin Smith, Alex Callinicos and Chris Harman of playing down the importance of the STWC and other ‘united fronts’. It is more than possible that the same ruling class elements have noted this internal conflict and can see the benefit of building up the STWC, together with its Left Platform leaders, in the hope of reducing the SWP’s influence over it and eventually turning it into a bourgeois pawn.

According to those SWPers who now willingly accept the designation of Reesite, it appears that the Smith-Callinicos-Harman leadership cynically rated mobilisation for October 24 as a second-order priority for branches and districts. This is confirmed by the pre-demonstration issue of the SWP’s Party Notes. They do not want the STWC to fail. Nor, however, do they want it to succeed. Whereas Rees and his faction bank on ‘united front’ work, the pre-eminent model being their STWC, the Smith-Callinicos-Harman triumvirate look to industrial disputes such as the Royal Mail and rebuilding the SWP’s battered branch structures. So the leadership quietly manoeuvred to ensure that the October 24 demonstration could not be claimed as a triumph. On the contrary, social movements, including the anti-war movement, have to be seen to be on the decline.

However, SWP comrades were certainly there on the demonstration, which swelled by perhaps another thousand in Trafalgar Square for the closing rally. Interestingly,  the Weekly Worker sold very well. Including to SWP members; usually they feel obliged not to be seen even reading our paper. Their willingness to defy the ban certainly lends further weight to reports that the SWP is on the verge of a split. By the end of the day we had more or less exhausted our supply of papers.

Speeches were given by the usual suspects – including comrade German (STWC convenor), who took the opportunity to speak about the anti-BNP consensus that unites everyone from the SWP to Ukip. She said STWC had predicted that wars against Muslim countries would lead to an anti-Muslim backlash and this had given the BNP a big boost.

Other speakers included STWC president Tony Benn, Respect MP George Galloway and Tariq Ali. There was also a brief speech from Joe Glenton, the serving soldier who is being court-martialled after going absent without leave. Indeed he may now face further charges after speaking out against the Afghan war on Saturday. There were further (sometimes naive, but nevertheless moving) speeches from Military Families Against the War. The most inspiring for me was Palestinian rapper Lowkey, who seemed to reflect the discontent and frustration of the youth on the march and made the point – in opposition to speakers who stated or implied that the war was not in Britain’s interest – that Britain does not have a unitary interest: that, while the war in Afghanistan may be in the interest of capital – though certain sections no longer think so – it has never been in the interests of the working people of Britain.

Earlier the march from Hyde Park to Trafalgar Square went smoothly. The only disturbance being an interruption by three youths shouting BNP-type slogans. Around 150 demonstrators broke away to chase them from the area and clashed briefly with the police, who held them at bay with batons raised until the delighted rightwingers had been safely shepherded away.

Despite the depressingly small size of the march – not least when compared to the huge events organised in 2003, it was hailed as a “landmark demonstration” by STWC and the “springboard” to deepening the anti-war movement and putting Afghanistan at the top of the political agenda for the 2010 general elections.

Comrades Rees, German et al could be right about the demonstration’s significance – although, I suspect, not quite in the way they meant.