More than 100,000 people are expected to demonstrate today in central London, the anti-war coalition said yesterday as peace activists continued to protest around the world, stopping airports, blocking roads, holding vigils and burning British and US flags.
Greece was shut down by a four-hour general strike and hundreds of thousands of people demonstrated in Dublin and in Indonesia, Malaysia and the Middle East, with people laying siege to fast food restaurants and British and American banks.
The scale of yesterday's protests in Britain was not as great as on Thursday, when tens of thousands of people, including many students and schoolchildren, disrupted city centres.
But traffic in Parliament Square, London, and Sheffield city centre was brought to a halt by hundreds of cyclists chanting anti-war slogans. Sixteen people were arrested in Manchester for public order offences during a protest which blocked a main road.
Today's march in London is expected to be considerably smaller than the one in February which attracted more than 1 million people.
"We had two months to organise February's protest and just four days for this one. But we expect one of the biggest demonstrations ever held in Britain during wartime," said John Rees, of the anti-war coalition.
He expects protests and vigils to continue throughout the war, but does not expect another national rally.
Protests are expected in more than 2,000 cities worldwide over the weekend, but organisers are unsure of numbers.
"We will not hear of many until much later," said a spokesman for International Answer, a US anti-war group. "But we do know that the protests against the Vietnam war built up over time. We can expect the same."
Meanwhile, Greenpeace dropped thousands of "No war" leaflets over RAF Fairford air base in Gloucestershire shortly before eight of the 14 B-52 bombers based there took off for Iraq.
The environment group said that it had alerted the air base, the civil aviation authority and the police beforehand. Gloucestershire police said they were taking no action over the protest.
"I know the flight time to Iraq and I keep on looking at my watch and when six hours have gone by, I know what will be happening," said Adele Perret, 27, who is with the peace camp outside the base.
"All we can do is pray for the people out there and for the pilots."
In Liverpool, where there have been major protests for three days, peace protesters faced a backlash from a small pro-war rally.
Extra police officers were drafted in to patrol a peace march after word of a rival, impromptu pro-war demonstration was circulated.
Workers across the Irish Republic downed tools at lunchtime yesterday in protest and peace vigils were held outside all post offices in a demonstration organised by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions.
Tomorrow tens of thousands of people are expected to take part in peace marches in towns and cities throughout Ireland.
The strike in Greece shut down airports, banks, roads, and stores. More than 200,000 people demonstrated in major cities and consumer unions called for a boycott of American products, from clothes to films.
Meanwhile, the Electro Hippies collective, an online anonymous group of "hacktivists" specialising in computer demonstrations and sit-ins, was yesterday trying to jam the official websites of the British and US governments.
It called on tens of thousands of people to "stop up the official electronic mouthpieces of the major powers behind the war".
The Stop the War coalition march to Hyde Park starts at midday. Meeting points, as on February 15, are Gower Street and Embankment. Details www.stopwar.org.uk and 020-7053-2153/4/5/6. CND will hold a peace vigil in Whitehall from 11am
