Who demonstrated on February 15? Some preliminary results of a survey of anti-war protesters in Glasgow

On 15 February 2003, there were large-scale demonstrations in many European and American cities against the prospect of war on Iraq. In the UK, demonstrations were held in London and Glasgow. These were widely claimed in the press to be the largest gatherings of their kind. The London march was claimed by the organisers to top two million although police estimates are much lower. For the Glasgow demonstration, which will be the focus of this paper, police estimates of numbers were as low as 27,000 but organisers claim that nearer 80,000-100,000 participated. The organisers were the Scottish Coalition for Justice not War, which includes groups ranging from trades unions to the Muslim Association of Britain, and which has administrative support from Scottish CND. The demonstration took the form of a gathering in Glasgow Green, then a march through the centre of town to a rally at the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre (SECC), where the Labour Party annual conference was being held.