A special broadcast at York’s City Screen cinema on Thursday will recall the day when millions of ordinary people - including 1,100 from York - took to the streets of London to protest at the war against Iraq. STEPHEN LEWIS reports.

ON February 15, 2003, a convoy of 21 coaches and a minibus set out from York bound for London.

On board were 1,100 ordinary people from York and the towns and villages around united by a common purpose: to protest at Tony Blair and George Bush's proposed war against Iraq.

They arrived in a capital city which had been brought to a halt by the sheer weight of protesters from all over the country.

Rivers of demonstrators - up to 2 million of them, by some counts - converged on Hyde Park, bringing traffic to a halt. Across Europe and the rest of the world millions more took to the streets in protest on the same day: in Rome, in Madrid, in Germany and France, even in mainland China.

Now, the story of that protest - one of the biggest in history - has been turned into a film by acclaimed documentary-maker Amir Amirani.

And on Thursday, in a live premiere, it will be broadcast live by satellite at cinemas across the country - including City Screen in York.

Hazel Gallogly, Treasurer of York Against War, was among the York demonstrators who took to the streets of London on that day in 2003.

"So many people from York wanted to go to London to protest that we had to organise fundraising events to get them down there," she recalled. "In the end we filled 21 coaches and subsidised people to go by train too!"

Filmed across seven continents over nine years, We Are Many looks at the 2003 protest, and at the 'people power movements' that have swept the world since.

During Thursday's live broadcast, Channel 4 newscaster Jon Snow will host a live discussion with guests including the director, Amir Amirani, and the comedian and film's producer Omid Djalili.

For Hazel Gallogly, it will be a screening not to be missed.

"I think it's really important to keep the memory of that day alive as a reminder of how many people were against the Iraq war and what a disgrace it was that Bush and Blair didn't listen to us," she said. "The public haven't trusted politicians since that day."

• We Are Many will show at City Screen, York at 8pm on Thursday (May 21). For tickets, visit https://www.picturehouses.com/cinema/York_Picturehouse/film/we-are-many-plus-satellite-qanda

York Press:

 

Press feature writer Stephen Lewis joined the protestors in London that day. Here is an extract from the piece he wrote. [Full version]

THE man with the megaphone had good news.

"I am unreliably informed that even the BBC - yes, even the BBC - are saying that one million people are on the streets of London," he joked, his voice eerily amplified.

A resounding cheer went up from the stupendous mass of people that was streaming through the gates into Hyde Park.

"I have also been unreliably informed that ITV and Sky News are saying 1.5 million people on the streets of London," megaphone went on, shouting even with his amplification to make himself heard above the swelling roar of the crowd. "You have been on the biggest demonstration in UK history!"

The cheer this time had to be heard to be believed, a physical upwelling of sound that combined klaxons, horns, whistles, shouts, and a curious ululating wail of exultation that had been passing up and down the length of the mighty marching column all afternoon: a Mexican Wave of sound that brought the streets of the capital to a grinding halt.

If ever there was a time when the people made their voices heard, this was it. By 3pm on Saturday, Tony Blair could have been in no doubt - even if he had been up until then - just how much the British people did not want this war with Iraq.

"I have never been in anything quite like this," said 70-year-old Lawrence Gadsden, as the York Against The War contingent poured through the gates of Hyde Park, an eddy of people swallowed up, enveloped, by the flood all around. "It is rather overwhelming."