Thousands Join
Renewed Antiwar Protests Around The World
By Mike Head
World Socialist
Web
29 September 2003
Hundreds
of thousands of people in more than 20 countries and 60 cities spanning
five continents joined demonstrations last weekend demanding an end
to the ongoing US-led occupation of Iraq. While the protests were smaller
than the millions-strong demonstrations before the war, the internationally-coordinated
day of action marked a re-emergence of global opposition to the militarism
of the Bush administration and its allies.
Despite a virtual
blackout in the mass media on any news of the planned protests, marches
and rallies were held from Korea and Japan in East Asia, to Europe and
the United States. Most media outlets also buried coverage of what are
the first major antiwar demonstrations since President Bush proclaimed
an end to the war on May 1.
The protests occurred
amid the collapse of all the lies told to provide a pretext for the
invasion. Banners and chants pointedly noted that no weapons of
mass destruction had been found in Iraq, no evidence of Iraqi
links to terrorism had been unearthed, and the Iraqi people had not
welcomed the coalition troops as liberators.
Significantly, the
marches were largest in Britain and Italy, where the Blair and Berlusconi
governments were among Washingtons staunchest backers, in defiance
of massive popular opposition at the time. Some 100,000 people participated
in Rome, while estimates of the London rally ranged from 20,000 to 400,000.
Demonstrators in
many countries opposed plans for their governments to send troops to
shore up the beleaguered US and British forces in Iraq. Another recurring
theme was denunciation of the Bush administrations green light
for the Israeli regimes violent repression of the Palestinian
people.
In South Korea,
about 2,000 people marched in Seoul to oppose a US request that South
Korea send combat troops to Iraq. Protesters chanted No war!
and held banners and signs that said: We oppose the dispatch of
troops, End the occupation of Iraq and Dont
make young Koreans perpetrators of massacre in Iraq.
Warm applause greeted
an American exchange student who took the microphone to denounce Bush
and the Iraq war as immoral, illegal and racist. Please
do not confuse Bush with the American people, he said. President
Bush is a very rich and powerful American, but do not be fooled. George
Bush is a terrorist and must be stopped, and we can stop him together.
Many South Koreans
fear the spread of Washingtons methods to North Korea, provoking
a possible nuclear confrontation. Similar concerns were voiced at a
rally in Tokyo.
Demonstrators in
Lebanon and Egypt linked the plight of Iraq and Palestine. Thousands
of Lebanese and Palestinian protesters in Beirut demanded that US forces
leave Iraq and that Israel to stop its attacks in the Palestinian territories.
Palestine Authority chairman Yasser Arafat addressed the crowd by phone
from his headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
In Cairo, about
50 political activists and journalists staged a peaceful protest against
the occupation of Iraq and Israeli attacks on Palestinians.
Some 4,000 protesters
in the Turkish capital, Ankara, unfurled banners against sending troops
to neighbouring Iraq. They shouted slogans in support of the Palestinian
cause and to demand an end to the US takeover of Iraq. Hundreds more
gathered at a similar rally in Istanbul and burned American and Israeli
flags.
Outside the US Embassy
in the Greek capital Athens, demonstrators hurled bottles and yoghurt
at riot police during a rally to protest the occupation of Iraq and
the Palestinian territories. About 3,000 protesters chanted Occupiers
Out and Freedom for Palestine.
Protests were also
staged in other parts of Greece and on the island of Crete, outside
an American naval base at Souda Bay, which hosts the US 6th Fleet and
spy planes.
In Rome, the turnout
appears to have been boosted by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconis
declaration last week that Italy had a duty to support US efforts to
disarm Iraq. Speakers referred to opinion polls showing that almost
70 percent of Italians are against the idea of going to war with Iraq.
Many marchers carried red flags and chanted antiwar slogans.
Some 3,000 people
marched in Paris, where a wide banner read, American Imperialism:
Take your bloody hands off the Middle East. Others held posters
that read Wanted: George W. BushWar Criminal. They
also condemned Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, shouting: Bush,
SharonAssassins.
Several thousand
demonstrators in the French Mediterranean port of Marseille marked the
second anniversary of the Palestinian intifada, condemning Israels
apartheid policy.
An estimated 1,200
demonstrated in Brussels, Belgium, while about 400 people marched to
the Reichstag parliament building in Berlin, Germany. Iraq and
Afghanistan are all part of a big game. It is all about oil, one
demonstrator told reporters.
In Stockholm, Sweden,
police said about 250 people staged a demonstration. Vienna, the Austrian
capital, saw about 200 protesters gather in a central square.
In Warsaw, Poland,
100 young people protested the Polish military presence in Iraq, marching
with banners saying: Down with the global US terrorism and
We dont want to occupy with Bush.
Across Spain, thousands
of people carrying antiwar banners, banging drums and wearing white
smocks marched through the streets of Madrid, Barcelona, Seville and
Malaga. Oil kills, read a banner in Madrid, where more than
7,000 protesters condemned Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznars support
for the war. Marching behind a banner calling for the withdrawal of
1,300 Spanish soldiers sent to bolster US troops in postwar Iraq, the
crowd chanted: No to war and Bush, Aznar out of Iraq.
A rally in Belfast,
Ireland, was told that the millions who marched against the war earlier
this year had been proven right that the war was unjust, unjustified
and illegal.
Little-reported
rallies were held in many US cities to demand the withdrawal of troops
from Iraq. Some 3,000 people took to the streets of Hollywood on Sunday.
George Bush, Uncle Sam, Iraq will be your Vietnam, demonstrators
chanted while walking down Sunset Boulevard. The march drew a wide group
from war veterans to parents with children in strollers. Some demonstrators
carried signs saying, Lying Son of a Bush, Recall
Bush and Iraq Equals Quagmire. After the march, the
rally chanted: Bring them home now!
Smaller demonstrations
were held in Boston, New York, San Francisco and other cities large
and small. In some places, the rallies marked the anniversary of the
initial protests against the war. They included Santa Barbara, Minneapolis-St
Paul and Fairbanks, Alaska, where signs read: If you love America,
demand the truth and WMD = weapons of mass deception.
Protests also occurred in several Canadian cities.