TENS OF thousands took to the streets of London on Saturday 24 September to protest against the occupation of Iraq.

Socialist Students and International Socialist Resistance contingent (see next section) marched under the banner of 'unity against war, terror and racism'.

Feeder marches came from East London and South London where the local community organised after the police shot Jean Charles de Menezes.

Had the national demonstration been held in the immediate aftermath of the shooting and terrorist attacks, as we argued at the time, the turnout could have been many times greater.

EVERY DEMO has its high points and the sight of bystanders singing along as we marched past, singing the Internationale, on Saturday's anti-war demo certainly stood out for me.

Our red and energetic International Socialist Resistance (ISR) and Socialist Students contingent on the demo grabbed the attention of loads of young people who then marched and chanted with us.

The 400-500 young people who joined with us wanted to see an alternative put forward - an alternative to the war and occupation, an alternative to Blair and Brown and their policies both domestic and foreign and an alternative to capitalism.

They had very important questions such as "is it possible to avoid civil war?" and "how could socialism be achieved?"

So the ISR and Socialist Students contingent met after the demo to discuss the way forward and to address some of these questions. This discussion attracted many who were not getting these questions answered by speakers on the platform.

We linked the need to end the occupation with the urgent need for the Iraqi working and oppressed masses to unite and organise for their own security and against privatisation and unemployment.

We explained the socialist alternative to war and terrorism, to low pay and exploitation and outlined how the working class needs to organise itself to make capitalism history.