‘Clintonistas’ march in London
The anti-Trump march, supported by various NGOs and a number of activists gave an impression as if Clinton’s campaign is still running.
On 21 January, after US President Donald Trump’s inauguration thousands turned up outside the American embassy in London’s Grosvenor Square to march “for the protection of our fundamental rights and for the safeguarding of freedoms threatened by recent political events”in solidarity with the “Women’s March on Washington”. Nowhere on the “Women’s March on London” website does the name President Trump appear, but as evidenced by the (often foul- mouthed) slogans the march was an anti-Trump protest. It was not a spontaneous event, as the “GoFundMe” campaign was launched on 14 November 2016, planning must have been required as a variety of merchandise, T-shirts, sweatshirts and a tote-bag is available on the website. The recruitment mechanism was efficient as by the time they hiked the two miles to Trafalgar Square, it was announced their number had grown to 80,000. The march was well supported by miscellaneous NGOs, including Amnesty International, Greenpeace, Oxfam GB, Women’s Equality Party, the Green Party, Pride London, Democrats Abroad UK, Stop the War Coalition, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, Syria Solidarity Campaign, Unite the Union, London-Irish Abortion Rights Campaign, Black Pride and a variety of activists organisations with anti-Trump agenda. It was as if the Clinton campaign is still running despite the US having elected a new Commander in Chief.
Asra Q. Nomani, co-founder of the Muslim Reform Movement who voted for Donald Trump, is conducting an online interactive investigation into the partners and funding of the “women’s march”, which suggests that some donors to the march are connected to George Soros and/or Open Society Foundations or are Democratic Party affiliated.
Labour MPs Harriet Harman and Yvette Cooper were present, as was Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, who is known to support Hillary Clinton. The Mayor’s presence at such a protest was generally not considered in Britain’s national interest. The celebrity contingent amounted to singer Charlotte Church, fashionista Alexa Chung, actress and campaigner Emma Watson and Sir Ian McKellen. What all these multipurpose protestors, hoped to practically achieve 3,662 miles from Washington DC, is questionable. Indeed, commentators have asked where are the “women’s marches” when women are raped, stoned and kidnapped thousands of miles from London? However, the march organisers claim to continue their momentum over the next 100 days. They plan to publish 10 actions to draw attention to themselves.
As a contrast to the antiTrump march, Prime Minister Theresa May set off with her Global Britain ideals to meet President Trump. May was the very first foreign leader to meet the new President in an unprecedented seven days after his inauguration. Since 1981, it has taken between 34 and 132 days for new US Presidents to meet incumbent British Prime Ministers.
It is understood Trump and May would have discussed trade deals/tariff ideas that will benefit both sides of the special relationship, which includes US-UK immigration; other areas for discussion might have been US cooperation in UK’s nuclear Trident program and the recent report detailing the misfired missile towards Florida; NATO and Russia/ Ukraine—in Kiev on 20 January, Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon reaffirmed UK’s commitment to Ukraine; perhaps even Afghanistan as May’s government has yet to make any announcements since it was reported in July last year that May and President Ashraf Ghani had a telephone conversation to discuss bilateral relations. Apparently May praised the Afghan government’s efforts at countering administrative corruption and assured President Ghani that UK would honour pledges made to the Afghan government at the Warsaw Summit. To fight militants in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), Pakistan had started Operation Zarb-e-Azb in North Waziristan (predominantly Pashtun) which had become a pit-stop for various terrorist organisations. A large number of people had left North Waziristan already, but in 2014, once the war between terrorists and the Pakistan Army started in the region, the evacuation escalated manifold with international human rights organisations recognising over a million people who were displaced. These Internally Displaced People (IDPs) crossed over into Afghanistan, Khyber Pashtunkhwa (KP) and Balochistan provinces of Pakistan. Some of these Pashtun IDPs have now turned into “separatist leaders” who demand a separate “Pashtunistan”, which will consist of Khyber Pashtunkhwa and some Pashtun dominated border areas of Balochistan and Afghanistan. One such disheartened IDP, Imran.W (name changed), spoke to The Sunday Guardian. Excerpts: Q. Say something about yourself. A. My name is Imran.W (name changed) and I belong to Speen wam tehsil of the war affected North waziristan in occupied FATA. I am living in Afghanistan