4-02-05, 9:15 am
From People's Voice
Two long and terrible years after an illegal war was unleashed against the people of Iraq, the world still says 'NO' to this criminal aggression. While the corporate media did its best to ignore this truth, large and widespread anti-war actions were held in dozens of countries on March 19-20.
Just days earlier, the government of Italy, one of the few sizable allies of the US and Britain in the occupation of Iraq, announced that its troops would pull out later this year. Since then, Italian leader Silvio Berlusconi has tried to renege on this promise, but time is obviously running out for the occupation. Perhaps most important, hundreds of thousands of U.S. citizens protested against the war on March 19, and not just in major cities with well-established peace movements. Anti-war groups counted demonstrations in almost 800 communities, living proof that the peace movement is deeply rooted in every corner of the U.S., and growing stronger with every crime committed against Iraq and every death of another U.S. soldier.
The largest Canadian demonstrations were organized in Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Vancouver, each in the range of about 3,000 to 5,000.
The Toronto Coalition to Stop the War rally featured a wide range of speakers, from veteran activists to Afnan Al-Hashimi, a 14-year-old student of Iraqi descent who attends Beverley Acres Public School. In Vancouver, the StopWar.ca coalition organized a march across the Burrard Street Bridge to hear speakers at Sunset Beach, including: Father Cortina, one of the few progressive Jesuits to survive the fascist Salvadoran hit-squads of the 1980s; anti-globalization leader Walden Bello; and Baghdad-based web journalist Dahr Jamail.
About forty more peace actions were held across Canada, most on March 19. Reports on these protests are on the Canadian Peace Alliance website, www.acp-cpa.ca. In many cases, the rallies were easily the largest recent political protests in these communities.
Other demonstrations were highly visible expressions of resistance in areas where such actions are rare. For example, in the Nova Scotia town of Annapolis Royal (pop. 550) 'we had 20 people in a rally at the town's only lights. We then went to the local Arts Council and viewed a display of our signs and anti war art... photos, drawings, sculpture and quotable quotes against war and especially the war in Iraq.'
Another typical rally: 'On yet another bitterly cold day in Halifax, 400 500 people turned out for a spectacular rally and march organized by the Halifax Peace Coalition. A banner of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (guess who?) painted by one of our members led the parade as we marched through the main streets. A stop was made outside the office of SNC Lavalin to let them know that we did not appreciate their continuing manufacture of bullets for the US. We then proceeded to the building housing the American Consulate where a `die in' was performed by a dozen people wrapped in blood stained sheets. Each one represented an innocent Iraqi their individual stories were told to a respectful crowd. In what is becoming a nasty trend, CBC once again ignored us in their national coverage.'
Rallies in the United States drew 15,000-20,000 in cities such as New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.
In San Francisco, Trent Willis, President of International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 10, reported that 'When I looked back from near the front of the march, I couldn't see the end. It looked like 30,000 people or more from the stage in Civic Center. I was very pleased with the march, especially with the rain and other obstacles.' Local 10 voted to hold a stop work meeting on March 19, shutting down Bay Area ports for the day.
United For Peace and Justice, the broad-based U.S. anti-war coalition, reported that 'Bad weather throughout the country didn't deter people from taking to the streets for peace. Sister Bay, Wisconsin, saw a doubling in the number of local residents willing to protest publicly against the war, as six people braved a snowstorm to display peace signs to passing cars. Despite pouring rain, more than 300 people took part in a two mile anti war march in Tucson, Arizona.
'There were courageous acts of civil resistance: Thirty five people occupied the office today of Congressman Tom Allen in Portland, Maine, to protest his recent vote in favour of the $82 billion war appropriation. Seventy people shut down a military recruiting center in Eugene, Oregon, for an entire day. In New York City, thirty people were arrested at simultaneous civil disobedience actions at military recruiting centres in Brooklyn and Manhattan.
'Many events featured family members of active duty soldiers, veterans of this and previous wars, and relatives of slain servicepeople, all speaking out against the continued U.S. military occupation of Iraq. In Fayetteville, North Carolina, the home of Ft. Bragg, more than 4000 people joined military families and vets to say real support for the troops means bringing them home. It was the largest protest there since Vietnam.'
In other parts of the world, the largest protests took place in London (150,000), Rome (over 100,000) and Brussels, where an estimated 80,000 people took part in a combined rally against the war and to oppose right-wing economic changes being imposed in the European Union.
