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Having had months to focus on the
buildup toward conflict with Iraq, America's anti-war activists say they
are ready to mark the first days of war with protests in dozens of cities
coast to coast.
They vow to block federal buildings,
military compounds and streets in a rash of peaceful civil disobedience.
They say they will walk out of college classes, picket outside city halls
and state capitols, and recite prayers of mourning at interfaith
services.
"It is sort of an acknowledgment that
we are probably not going to be able to stop the war," said Joe Flood, who
is helping to plan a student walkout from classes at Harvard University,
in Cambridge, Mass. He said more than 1,000 people have pledged to
participate.
Some plans for the first day or two
of war are writ large, like paralyzing traffic with bicycles and cars and
disrupting commerce in San Francisco's financial district. Others are
small, like showing a single lit candle on a Web site of the United Church
of Christ.
Some are meant to be noisy, like a
march in Portsmouth, N.H., with clanging pots and pans. Others will be
quiet and solemn, like a vigil in Ann Arbor, Mich., with Christian, Jewish
and Muslim prayers.
Many groups intend to carry out
die-ins, where activists lie on the ground to symbolize war victims and to
block passers-by. Some students at Swarthmore College, in Pennsylvania,
intend to lower campus flags to half-staff.
However, in Columbia, S.C., activists
hope to serve up satire, making fun of the government's anti-terrorism
advice to homeowners. They want to plaster a federal building with duct
tape and plastic sheeting.
Gordon Clark, the national
coordinator of the Iraq Pledge of
Resistance, said acts of
civil disobedience - with the risk of arrest - have been set up at more
than 50 cities. "When you get to the point that the war actually begins,
that's a point when many ... feel they have to take the strongest action
they can personally take," he said.
With President Bush signaling that
war could be imminent, some anti-war groups were pressing supporters
Monday to begin civil disobedience immediately.
Eight opponents of a war were
arrested Monday in Traverse City, Mich., when they tried to block an Army
Reserve convoy headed to a training area. One handcuffed himself to a
truck and the other seven locked arms in front of the vehicle, police
said.
In San Francisco, anti-war protesters
(http://www.actagainstwar.org/) shrouded themselves in body bags Monday in front of the British
consulate, chanting "no killing civilians in our name." Some blocked
traffic in the city's financial district. Police in riot gear cleared an
intersection, and about 40 arrests were made.
San Francisco anti-war groups have
laid out similar plans on a larger scale for the outbreak of war,
including an effort to shut down the Pacific Stock Exchange and some
high-profile commercial buildings.
"The bare bones of the plan is to
basically shut down the financial district of San Francisco. The way we
see it is that we basically unplug the system that creates war," said
Patrick Reinsborough, one of the organizers.
Tim Kingston, a spokesman for the San
Francisco-based Global
Exchange, says his anti-war
group has kept away from organizing civil disobedience, though some
members expect to take part on their own. He said some worry about
stirring more resentment than sympathy with such disruptive
tactics.
But he added, "What else are we
supposed to do? Sit and say nothing ... and be silent? That's not very
American."
It was not clear how many supporters
would follow through with illegal actions, faced with possible arrest.
However, in Philadelphia, organizer Robert Smith said at least 50
activists, both young and middle-aged, were ready to block entrances of a
federal building.
"The statement we're conveying is
that there can be no business as usual for a government that would trample
on democracy and international law in order to kill thousands of people
for the sake of superpower status," Smith said.
Some groups are focusing on
defense-related sites. Protesters plan to block traffic at Buckley Air
Force Base in Aurora, Colo., and sit in at the gates of Truax Field in
Madison, Wis., which houses state guardsmen.
In Baltimore, anti-war protesters say
they will wash off an American flag splashed with red paint and oil to
symbolize the blood and oil of a war with Iraq.
In a gentler mood, peace activists
expect to converge on an Islamic mosque in Birmingham, Ala.
Some anti-war activists say their
efforts will demonstrate support for American soldiers, because the best
way to help them is to bring them home. But counter-demonstrators say
they, not anti-war protesters, will be voicing genuine solidarity with the
troops.
Michigan State's College Republicans
intend to organize a rally to back President Bush and the troops, said
chairman Jason Miller. John Georges, a member of the College Republicans
at the Rochester Institute of Technology, in New York, said his group will
hand out American flags.
Barbara Kerr of Schenectady, N.Y.,
who works at an American Legion office that helps soldiers' families, said
she simply plans to get down on her knees and pray for her own son in the
service.
� 2003 The Associated Press
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