Saturday’s anti-war demo in Rome was well-attended despite the right-wing calls to stay away. After an anti-fascist protest in Milan the weekend before had finished in fighting between police and anarchists, the likes of Prodi and the DS had decided to stay away. That’s despite the fact that the L’Unione policy is to withdraw Italian troops from Iraq. The biggest trade union, CGIL, also refused to support the march. There's been a newspaper strike today in Italy so I haven't seen the figures for how many people marched, but I would say at least tens of thousands.
This was the banner at the front of the demo: “Peace First – Troops Out Now”.
This was Rifondazione leader Fausto Bertinotti at the start of the demo, looking serious.
Peace and red flags were the order of the day.
Despite CGIL’s decision not to back the march, the engineering workers’ union FIOM, which is linked to CGIL, did support it.
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There was a sizeable Kurdish contingent.
These are American demonstrators just in front of the Colosseum.
leonora
Just to say...we share your views, there was quite a big anti-war demo in London that day as well.