Peace protesters went to London (From Stroud News and Journal)

Peace protesters went to London

PEACE protesters marched on the capital in their thousands on Saturday and Stroud activists made sure the town was well represented.

With the clouds of war brewing on the horizon three coach loads of marchers from the Five Valleys joined the protest and many others made their own way to the capital.

Stroud's Green mayor, Cllr John Marjoram, organised the coaches and told the News & Journal he believed some 300,000 people had joined the demonstration.

"Police who had been on duty for the countryside march the previous weekend told us there were nearly as many," he said.

"It was one of the best marches I can remember from the point of determination, there was a lot of anger simmering beneath the surface.

"There was a very upbeat feeling from Stroud and people came back determined to do what they could to influence things and get more people involved.

"Whether this is going to have any influence on Blair I don't know, I'm rather pessimistic about that myself, but there was hope.

"It is a resources war, it's all about the oil and American imperialism.

"I think that both Bush an Blair are trying to get a resolution through the UN very fast which would leave Saddam Hussein only seven days to comply.

"They know Saddam Hussein couldn't possibly conform to that so that would justify their attack.

"It is a complete set up. "I don't think anyone's convinced by Blair saying he's a threat to the Middle East.

"Saddam Hussein is the ideal bogey man to legitimise all this but people are concerned about what will happen to the 23 million other Iraqis.

"This won't be a clean war and these people are already lumbered with Saddam and a host of other issues."

Stroud peace campaigner Grace Trevett heralded the event a success.

"Everyone was pleased there was such a large turn out but there was also a lot of anger at the situation.

"There were a lot of new people there too, it wasn't just the usual suspects and people from all levels of society joined together to make themselves heard."

"The man I was sat next to on the coach had never been on a march before but felt so strongly about this issue he'd changed the habit of a lifetime.

Though far from convinced the march would influence Tony Blair's thinking, Ms Trevett thought the march would give the rebel backbenchers like Stroud's David Drew to stick to their guns.

"It was also really empowering to all the people who went," she said. "The numbers showed just how widespread opposition is to this war.

"We saw how there were a lot of good people out there who are upset about this and it's okay to be angry - it doesn't mean you're a freak or a rebel."