------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the Feb. 13, 2003 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------
ACROSS THE U.S., AROUND THE WORLD: PEOPLE RISE UP TO STOP THE WAR By Greg Butterfield The biggest threat to the Bush administration's plan for war and domination in Iraq is the culture of anti-war resistance blossoming in the United States and throughout the world. Mass demonstrations on Jan. 18 in Washington, D.C., and San Francisco- initiated by the International ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) coalition--and in cities worldwide brought hundreds of thousands of people into the streets to demand, "No war against Iraq." For tens of thousands of labor unionists and other workers, college and high school students, and community members, it was their very first anti-war protest. This kind of massive mobilization is vital. It contains the seeds of more militant mass resistance to war, racist repression, and the state- sponsored terrorism of the Bush White House, Big Oil and Wall Street. More big street protests are planned for Feb. 15 and 16--global days of anti-war action initiated by European groups. Demonstrations are planned in at least six dozen cities worldwide. In the United States, protests are scheduled in New York City and Chicago Feb. 15 and in San Francisco Feb. 16. ANSWER, Not In Our Name, United for Peace & Justice, and other anti-war groups are building for the actions. Even as the Masters of War prepare for "A-Day"-the plan of air strikes to bombard Baghdad's civilian population with 3,000 to 4,000 bombs and missiles in a single day, according to the New York Times-they can't ignore the momentum generated by mass anti-war actions. A climate of open resistance is being felt in every part of the globe. It is taking many creative forms. 57 MUNICIPALITIES SAY 'NO WAR' City and county councils in at least 20 states have passed anti-war measures in recent weeks. They include big cities like Chicago, Philadelphia and Detroit. In the last week of January, resolutions in Cleveland; Tacoma, Wash.; Nederland, Colo.; Amherst, Mass.; and Topanga, Calif., brought the number of municipalities to 57, representing 13 million people. The Institute for Policy Studies in Washington reports that 70 more cities and counties, as well as Maine's state legislature, are considering resolutions. This resistance to the war drive reflects the economic crisis that is creating record unemployment, homelessness and cutbacks while the Pentagon basks in burgeoning billions of dollars. Former South African president and anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela again spoke out forcefully against George W. Bush's war plans on Jan. 30. "It is a tragedy what is happening, what Bush is doing in Iraq," Mandela declared. "What I am condemning is that one power, with a president who has no foresight, who cannot think properly, is now wanting to plunge the world into a holocaust." Mandela charged Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair with manipulating the United Nations in a racist fashion. He also thanked the U.S. anti-war movement for its strong showing and urged South Africans to follow suit. Dem onstrations are planned in South Africa's urban centers for Feb. 15 and Feb. 19. PEACE BLOCKADE & HUMAN SHIELDS For six days in late January members of the environmental group Greenpeace carried out a "peace blockade" at Britain's Marchwood military port in South ampton. The group's flagship, the Rain bow Warrior, dropped anchor directly in front of the port, where a military supply vessel was loading tanks, jeeps and helicopters bound for the war against Iraq. The British high court upheld Green peace's right to carry out the protest, which effectively cut off military supplies for six days. But the British military brass flagrantly defied the court order on the night of Feb. 1. "The Rainbow Warrior was surrounded by six Ministry of Defense and police boats and up to 20 police boarded the ship just after 10 p.m. Saturday night," Green peace reported. "By 3 a.m. they had cut the anchor chain and towed the ship out of the way." Teams of anti-war activists from Europe, the United States and other countries continue to converge on Iraq to act as "human shields" against a U.S.-led war. On Feb. 2 Kyodo News reported on a meeting of a group of 40 Japanese acti vists who plan to fly to Iraq Feb. 16 to act as human shields. They will attend a youth conference and visit schools and hospitals. Some 60 activists from the Truth Justice Peace Human Shield action group left London en route to Baghdad Jan. 27, according to The Star, a South African newspaper. And the Lebanon Daily Star reports that 140 Palestinians and Lebanese flew from Beirut to Baghdad on Jan. 30 "to express their solidarity with the Iraqi people." "We're going to Baghdad to give psychological support to the people there," said Palestinian engineer Hisham Zaatari. "It's the least we can do as Arabs, after seeing that many people from Europe and the United States have already flocked there in masses." Nayef Sharqieh, a construction worker, said many Palestinian refugees were going on the trip. "We feel that we can't do anything for Palestine, we can't go there, but we can do something for Iraq, so we're ready to do anything to try to prevent the war or to act as human shields," he said. POETS, BISHOPS & VETS Laura Bush canceled a White House poetry symposium scheduled for Feb. 12 after learning that some poets were planning to bring poems against the war and turn the party into a protest. When poet Sam Hamill from Port Townsend, Wash., received an invitation to the event, he was "overcome by a kind of nausea." On Jan. 26, he sent an email to 50 friends asking them to compose anti-war poems. He planned to bind them and present them to Bush. He decided to reconstitute a "Poets Against the War Movement." By Jan. 29-just three days later-Hamill had received more than 1,500 submissions. Poems came from some of the country's most prominent poets and writers, including W.S. Merwin, Ursula Le Guin, Galway Kinnell, Marilyn Hacker and Adrienne Rich. When the White House caught wind of the outpouring of anti-war sentiment, the symposium was "indefinitely postponed." Poets Against the War has now set Feb 12 as a national "Day of Poetry Against the War." (www.poetsagainstthewar.org) Also striking close to home for President George W. Bush is a new anti- war television ad featuring Bishop Melvin G. Talbert, a leader of the United Methodist Church, which is the Bush family's religious denomination. In the ad, Talbert says: "Iraq hasn't wronged us. War will only create more terrorists and a more dangerous world for our children." Hundreds of military veterans have issued a "Call to Conscience to Active Duty and Reservists." Their statement to U.S. troops says in part: "We are veterans of the U.S. armed forces. We stand with the majority of humanity, including millions in our own country, in opposition to the United States' all out war on Iraq. ... "Our experiences in the military caused us to question much of what we were taught. Now we see our REAL duty is to encourage you as members of the U.S. armed forces to find out what you are being sent to fight and die for and what the consequences of your actions will be for humanity." It continues: "In the last Gulf War, as troops, we were ordered to murder from a safe distance. We destroyed much of Iraq from the air, killing hundreds of thousands, including civilians. We remember the road to Basra--the Highway of Death--where we were ordered to kill fleeing Iraqis. ... "The use of depleted uranium weapons ... pesticides, experimental drugs, burning chemical weapons depots and oil fires combined to create a toxic cocktail affecting both the Iraqi people and Gulf War veterans today. One in four Gulf War veterans is disabled." For the full statement, see: www.calltoconscience.net. GOV'T, CORPORATE CENSORSHIP GROWS As the anti-war ranks continue to swell, pro-war governments and corporate giants are increasing censorship and, in some cases, trying to ban protest outright. The cable monopoly Comcast, for example, refused to show an anti-war ad sponsored by the Peace Action Education Fund. The ad was to have aired on CNN the evening of Bush's State of the Union speech and on subsequent nights. The Rev. Robert Moore called it "an outrageous infringement on our First Amendment rights." Protests sparked by Bush's war speech continued on Feb. 1. Big demonstrations were held in cities throughout Germany and in Madison, Wis. In New Zealand, police attacked protesters, arresting 23 who were trying to scale the fence around the U.S. Embassy. The activists carried mock metal detectors and said they wanted to check the premises for "weapons of mass destruction." "The World Says No to War!" events to take place on Feb. 15 promise some important confrontations between activists and governments over the right to protest war with Iraq. British Prime Minister Tony Blair's government has officially banned the Stop the War Coalition and the Muslim Association of Britain from using Hyde Park, the traditional site of mass demonstrations in London, where hundreds of thousands are expected to gather. After a strong public campaign by anti-war groups to defend the right to protest, the Guardian of London reported Feb. 1 that Blair may have to reverse the decision or face the international embarrassment of a half- million-strong demonstration outside Buckingham Palace instead. In Hungary, the Citizens for Peace Initiative is urging protests against the Budapest police for banning a planned Feb. 15 march from Liszt Ferenc Square to the Hungarian Parliament building. Hungary, formerly a part of the bloc of Eastern European countries with planned economies, is now dominated by a U.S.-puppet capitalist regime. The Bush administration has touted the support of Hungary and other counter-revolutionary governments as "proof" of European backing for war with Iraq, even as the governments of imperialist rivals Germany and France continue to drag their feet. Public sentiment in Europe is overwhelmingly against war and against Bush. New York police and city officials have so far refused to grant permits to the coalition United for Peace & Justice for a march and rally on Feb. 15. All the anti-war coalitions building for the Feb. 15 protests say they will fight to ensure the right to assemble and protest. Readers in the New York area are asked to call Mayor Michael Bloomberg at (212) 788-3040, Police Commissioner Ray mond W. Kelly at (646) 610- 8526 and Gov. George Pataki at (518) 474-1071 to demand that permits be issued. For more information on the global Feb. 15 protests and other upcoming actions, visit: www.internationalanswer.org. - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe wwnews- [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] Support the voice of resistance http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php) ------------------ This message is sent to you by Workers World News Service. 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