Time To Go
The UK’s anti-war movement and its message for Tony Blair.
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A train departs from one of London’s busiest train stations. It is filled with hundreds of passengers heading for a demonstration in Manchester. Their slogan is a message for Tony Blair: It is time to go.
The demonstrators are continuing a great tradition of campaigning. Time To Go takes a look at this long history of protest in Britain; from working class demonstrations at the end of the nineteenth century, to the suffrage movement at the beginning of the twentieth and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) marches in the decades after World War Two.
The US-led ‘war on terror’ with its invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq reignited the British spirit of protest and the country’s anti-war movement, firing up a new generation of objectors and activists.
People returned to the streets and squares of Britain’s cities and an ‘axis of peace’ was created.
On February 15, 2003 an alliance between the CND, the newly formed Stop the War Coalition and the Muslim Association of Britain – a group that had never before been involved in the anti-war movement – succeeded in mobilising two million people to the streets of the capital. It was the largest demonstration Britain had ever seen.
Time To Go tells the story of that demonstration, the sentiment behind it and its message for Tony Blair.
Director: Hany Beshr
Co. Script & Narration: Jamal El-Shayyal
Time To Go airs on Al Jazeera English at:
Sunday 24 June (19:00GMT), Monday 25 June (06:30GMT), Tuesday 26 June (11:30GMT), Wednesday 27 June (02:30GMT)
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