ANTI-WAR campaigners are still fighting for peace, 20 years on from the mass mobilisation against the Iraq war.

On February 15 2003, at least 1.5 million people took part in the Stop the War Coalition (STW) demonstration in London against then Labour prime minister Tony Blair’s threat to join the US in the invasion of Iraq.

The lie that was told at the time was that the Middle Eastern country and its leader Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction: an assertion later disproved by the United Nations and other bodies.

Some half a million people died in the war.

The protest, which was echoed by other mass demonstrations around the world, is thought to be the biggest ever mobilisation bringing together the peace movement, trade unions, students, religious groups and the left, and it prompted hundreds of thousands in Britain to protest for the first time.

Despite the war in Iraq going ahead, the demonstration had a profound and lasting effect on the participants — and on British politics, organisers say.

Twenty years on, campaigners are still having to stand up against government warmongering.

A national demonstration will be held outside the BBC’s Portland Place headquarters in central London at noon on Saturday February 25 to demand a de-escalation of conflict in the war in Ukraine.

Stop the War vice-chairman Chris Nineham tweeted: “Twenty years ago [today] we marched against the Iraq war. In 11 days, we march against the Ukraine war.

“We were proved right in the most tragic way last time.”

Speaking at an international online rally on Monday evening, Stop the War Coalition convener Lindsey German condemned the British government for its role in Ukraine, “pumping arms and ammunition to prolong the conflict.

“It’s very important to stand up to this warmongering and fight back,” she said.

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament general secretary Kate Hudson, writing on the group’s website, called the Iraq war “illegal, immoral and devastating.”

She said: “That the British government took us into that war [based on] a tissue of lies demonstrates the extraordinary moral bankruptcy of our political system.

“The establishment did everything it could to prevent the march and rally going ahead, but we refused to be deterred, and with political determination and huge backing, we were victorious.

“It is our responsibility to be united, to continue to learn the lessons of those days — and to continue the fight against neoliberalism and war.”