In the 1980s the RUC went through a phase of attacking the funerals of IRA volunteers. I came up with a plan which involved shooting a RUC man, finding out where he would be buried and putting a bomb that would detonate when the coffin was put in the grave. For reasons that still don’t entirely convince me I was told that this was stupid and a bit ultra-left. What the Israeli butchers are doing in Lebanon provokes similar stirrings. If there had been a plan to storm the Israeli embassy and raze it to the ground I’d have been up for it, probably skulking somewhere in the middle of the assault ranks.

I can only guess at the numbers but my estimate is that there were 10-15000 people at today’s demonstration in protest against the Israeli war crimes. It looked like there were lots of people of Lebanese origin. Hizbollah was very popular. George Galloway gave a speech “glorifying” (his word) the organisation and some others spoke in similar vein. It is right to give Hizbollah unconditional support in their fight against the Israeli state but politcal leadership also involves a bit of critical comment too. Lobbing random missiles at towns is a wrong tactic.

There was an awful lot of religion. Christian this, Muslim that, Jewish the other. My concentration at these things does tend to wander but there was little mention of imperialism or anti-imperialism.

The cops were confiscating posters like the one pictured with images of wounded children. They are likely to cause offence.

This was an impressive demonstration, organised at very short notice which drew a new layer of people into the anti-war movement. I’ve got a horrible feeling we will have to go on a few more in the coming months.

(I don’t mind people using photos from this site on socialist, anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist sites. None of anti-socialist, pro-imperialist sites which have nicked them before have my consent to do so.)