Olympic Torch Relay Counter-Protest in London

Taimur Rahman

On Sunday the 6th of April the Olympic Torch was being carried through the streets of London. For some time now the procession of this Torch had become a focal point for demonstrations. On the one hand were those who, egged on by the imperialist media wanted to see a boycott of the Olympics. On the the other hand were those that supported the first Olympics to be held in a formerly colonial country.


CMKP comrades in UK who have been writing on the subject for the past few weeks, decided to join the protests on April 6th. We joined these protests against the so-called Free Tibet Movement and against imperialism' s efforts to undermine the national sovereignty of China.


When we arrived at Trafalgar Square, we were delighted to see thousands of Chinese students gathered. They were waving red flags and banners. Trafalgar square fills out with about 20,000 people. It seemed to be at least half full. My estimate is that there may have been about 10,000 people present. There were also pro-Tibet protesters within the crowd as there were people who had just come to see the torch. However, the vast majority of young people had come out to defend China.


As soon as we got there, we unfurled our flags and banners and began to raise slogans. At this point we were standing, unintentionally, in the middle of Free Tibet protesters. Hence there were only a few of us shouting slogans. We also had a short heated argument with some British people who were protesting in favour of Tibet (99% of Free Tibet protesters were British, we saw only one or two Tibetans). However, the police came and broke us up. We decided to move to another spot.


We went in the middle of Chinese students and began to raise slogans. The response was unbelievable. From then on there was no stopping us. Chinese students formed a ring around our slogans, sang songs, raised their voices, beat their gongs and drums, and jumped up and down with the slogans. It was absolutely amazing and with incredibly high energy. Shahram was in the middle of the ring shouting slogans and waving the CMKP flag with one hand when he got an idea. He grabbed the Chinese flag from me and holding it in his other hand, started spinning around to the cheers of the crowd with the flags held high. It looked beautiful and the Chinese went nuts!


We then walked down towards Downing Street. The march was a sea of red flags. I think there may have been five thousand Chinese students. On the opposite side of the road were mostly British people supporting the Dalai Lama. But they were completely outnumbered nearly 10 to 1. At one point a small group of pro-Tibet protesters tried to provoke the Chinese students by marching into their side of the demonstration with their placards etc. If this had been Pakistan I can assure you that it would haveresulted in a scuffle. But to my surprise, the Chinese students did not touch them. They raised slogans and voiced their discontent but they did not even lay a finger on them. Chinese students repeatedly sang their national anthem and shouted "Tibet China, Is One", "Long Live China" and "Dalai Lama, CIA". We then marched down past the PM's office to the parliament, went along the river and came back up to Trafalgar square. The march lasted at least about 3 hours during which time students were almost constantly raising slogans. CMKP comrades also made an impassioned speech standing on the street corner, explaining to the Chinese students that we were present out of a sense of internationalism. That we the people of the Third World must stand with each other against imperialism. There was rapturous and sustained applause.


Hundreds of Chinese students came up to us and asked us our names, where we were from, and thanked us again and again for charging up the crowd. They said "you are very professional. How did you learn all this". We smiled and said that a year of mass movements against dictatorship in Pakistan had taught us much about leading rallies and marches.


This was the first time that we also attended a mass demonstration that involved people from China. We were extremely touched by their warmth, openness and friendliness. Here we were, a small group of Pakistani communists, leading a giant march of Chinese students. And they all supported us, and followed us, and thanked us profusely. It reminded me of that famous saying by Karl Marx "workers have no nation, you cannot take from them what they have not got".


We came home to look at media reports. One would have thought that a march of some five Chinese students in central London would receive some coverage. Not a word. The imperialist media completely blacked out this news. Instead they only focused on the pro-Tibet protesters. Their selective coverage made it seem like all of London was out against China. There were some incidents where Pro-Tibet protesters (who were mostly all British people) tried to snatch the Torch or extinguish it. But they were puny in comparison to the pro-China protesters. Yet the entire media only focused on one side of the picture. Here are some Youtube clips that catch glimpses of this giant protest.

(http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=-ehT6GslKJM)