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The
first round of U.S. and U.K. demonstrations to focus on
the need to end the war in Afghanistan were mounted in October.
At
least 10,000 marched in London on Oct. 24, motivated by
the appearance of Lance Corporal Joe Glenton,
the first serving soldier in the British Army to join an antiwar
action. Glenton rallied the crowd in favor of
British withdrawal from the conflict, while defying direct orders from
the army brass against joining the Stop the Wars Coalition and facing court
martial for refusing to return to Afghanistan.
In
the United States, where actions took place
in more than 50 locations on Oct. 17, the movement was grounded by the
tour of Zoya, a leader of the Revolutionary
Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA), who argued forcefully
that ending the occupation was the prerequisite to the advance of
democratic forces in her country.
Within
a week of the demonstrations, U.S. diplomat Matthew Hoh,
a former Marine who was serving as the senior civilian representative
for the U.S. government in Zabal province
made public his resignation with the statement: “The U.S. and NATO
presence and operations in Pashtun valleys
and villages, as well as Afghan army and police units that are led by
non-Pashtun soldiers and police, provide an
occupation force against which an insurgency is justified.”
Public
figures like Glenton and Hoh
are a reflection of the deepening opposition to the war among those who
have not yet taken to the streets or the airwaves. Recent polls
have shown that 37 percent of the U.S. population thinks it was a
mistake to send troops to Afghanistan, and two-thirds of the
British public want troops withdrawn.
The
Oct. 17 actions were called by the July conference of the National
Assembly to End the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars and
Occupations. In many areas, the coalitions that put together the
marches were the united project of most of the different formations and
tendencies that make up the current movement.
The
demonstrations held around the United States on Oct. 17 were relatively
small—only approaching 1000 in two cities, San Francisco and Boston. It seems clear that
illusions regarding the intentions of the Obama
administration still have a hold on the population. The brutality of
the economic crisis has left many people disoriented and demobilized.
On
the other hand, a substantial layer of young activists attended their
first march and became part of the movement to end the wars. The
geographic spread of the actions indicates that determined organizers
are busy from one end of the country to another.
The
National Assembly-initiated Oct. 17 demonstrations were crucial to the
process of retooling the antiwar movement, and making possible the
future moment when revulsion toward the human and economic costs of Washington’s imperial adventures will
once again be expressed by hundreds of thousands in the streets.
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