George,

Big success [at the London Rally] it appears. Yesterday they were talking about 500,000 people. After the fact they are saying lots of different estimates between 750,000 and 2 million. "The biggest political demonstration Britain has ever seen".

What felt good to me was that the people there were there not out of direct self-interest. I mean, it wasn't like protesting against the poll tax or congestion charging or something nimbyish (lately lots of local protests about centres for asylum seekers). Each person there wasn't defending his or her "rights" or protesting against the loss of some benefit, we were all there out of conviction, out of a sense of the stupid injustice of it. As I said, it felt good.

Jesse [Jackson] was fun to hear, although in my opionon he did go on too long (most of the speakers were wonderfully brief, he was the final star speaker), and his Southern Baptist preachifying was a bit odd in Hyde Park.

Helen Lianos (electronic mail, February 16, 2003)