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On
the weekend of March 18-20, hundreds of thousands took to the streets
in over 1000 cities throughout the world to demand an end to the
U.S.-led war and occupation in Iraq. The events marked the end
of the Iraq war’s second year.
One
of the largest rallies was in London, where organizers estimated
the crowd at 100,000. Throughout the day in Trafalgar Square, many chanted, "George
Bush, Uncle Sam, Iraq will be your Vietnam." Others carried signs
reading, "After Iraq—Iran? Syria? Cuba?" Rome saw an antiwar
demonstration of at least 100,000 on March 19, following a
demonstration of twice that size the day before of public-sector
workers protesting the policies of the Berlusconi government. Some 100,000 marched in Brussels on March 19 in an antiwar
demonstration that was combined with a march for jobs and free
education. Stockholm, Athens, Warsaw, and scores of other
European cities held protests.
Ten
thousand marched in Buenos Aires, 3000 in Sao Paulo, and 4500 in Tokyo. A crowd of 15,000 in Istanbul, Turkey, marched through the Kadikoy neighborhood, a major commercial and
cultural center of the city. One sign there read, "Murderer Bush,
Get Out!" Protests took place in many cities in Canada, including 5000 in Toronto, 5000 in Montreal (according to CBC radio),
and 4000 in Vancouver.
In
the United States, demonstrations took place
on the March 18-20 weekend in more than 800 cities. The biggest
protests, on March 19, were in New York and San Francisco; some 10,000 to 15,000
people participated in each city.
The
San Francisco march, sponsored by
International ANSWER, stretched 15 blocks and ended in an afternoon
rally at the Civic Center. In New York, protesters marched through
Harlem to Central Park, the rally site that had
been denied by city officials during the August 2004 Republican
National Convention protest organized by United For Peace and Justice.
The
New York City demonstration, organized by
the International Action Center, included a Lynne Stewart
contingent. Stewart, the attorney recently convicted on frame-up
terrorism charges, addressed cheering demonstrators at the rally.
Nearly
4800 gathered in Fayetteville, N.C., near the Fort Bragg military base, from which
10,000 U.S. soldiers have been
deployed. Family members of active-duty soldiers traveled to the rally
from as far away as Ohio, Hawaii, Vermont, and Texas to demand that their sons
and daughters be brought home now. This was the largest rally there
since a 1970 protest against the Vietnam War.
Other
U.S. cities in which protests
took place include Los Angeles, 5000; Chicago, close to 3000; and Minneapolis, close to 1000.
Across
the country, demonstration organizers linked the war in Iraq, whose war dead since 2003
numbers over 100,000, to Washington’s attacks on civil liberties,
health care, jobs, education, and social services at home. This
scenario repeats that of past U.S. wars, in which billions are
spent on weapons while funding is cut for socially beneficial programs.
Although
a majority of Americans oppose the Iraq war (53 percent, according
to a March 15 ABC/Washington Post poll), the U.S. mainstream press largely downplayed
the demonstrations. Some media, such as The New York Times, chose to
focus on the smaller numbers of this year’s rallies compared to those
of the giant demonstrations on the eve of the invasion in 2003. But
this disregards the fact that antiwar sentiment has been growing in the
U.S., and deepening into ever
more diverse social layers, though it has not as yet been effectively
organized into political protest.
Antiwar
sentiment has been magnified because of the images of U.S. military
abuses at Abu Ghraib and the collapse of the
administration’s explanation for going to war (“weapons of mass
destruction”)—not to mention the over 1500 U.S. soldiers killed and
over 11,000 wounded.
These
facts, combined with the persistent anti-imperialist Iraqi resistance,
have the war-makers off-balance. Recent shortfalls in U.S. Army and
Marine recruitment goals underscore the deepening unpopularity of the
war. Protests at U.S. high schools and campuses
have succeeded in forcing out military recruiters.
More
than 5000 soldiers have deserted since 2003 and many others have
refused to follow orders, while more and more GIs and their family
members are speaking out against the war. Meanwhile, the ABC/Washington
Post poll shows that seven of 10 people "call the level of U.S. casualties in Iraq unacceptable."
The
U.S. antiwar movement, led
primarily by United for Peace and Justice and International ANSWER, has
successfully mobilized millions in a matter of two years, but the
leadership remains narrow.
The
movement will become qualitatively stronger and broader with the
introduction of a single, independent “united-front” coalition that can
include everyone opposed to the war in the decision-making process. It
is a realistic goal of everyone wanting to end this war to make sure
that both parties of the war-makers soon feel the strength of such a
coalition.
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Below is the recorded speech by Mumia
Abu-Jamal played at March 19 antiwar rallies around the country. To listen to the speech, go to
www.prisonradio.org.
I
thank you for your kind invitation to speak at this protest against the
war. This war in Iraq isn’t the end; it’s the
beginning of wars to come all around the world at the whim of the
neo-cons in the White House.
This is the Bush Doctrine come to life: war, war, and more war.
War brought to you by the big corporate masters who run the show.
This
isn’t just a war against Iraqis or Afghanis or even Arabs or Muslims.
It is ultimately a war on us all. That’s because the billions and
billions of dollars that are being spent on this war—the cost of tanks,
rocketry, bullets, and yes, even salaries for the 125,000-plus
troops—is money that will never be spent on education, on health care,
on the reconstruction of crumbling public housing, or to train and
place the millions of workers who have lost manufacturing jobs in the
past three years alone.
The
war in Iraq is, in reality, a war
against the nation’s workers and the poor who are getting less and less
while the big defense industries are making a killing—literally. What’s
next? Iran? Syria? North Korea? Venezuela? We’ve already seen the
corporate media play megaphone to the White House to build and promote
a war based on lies.
It’s
been a long time ago, but that great Russian revolutionary, Leon
Trotsky, said, “War is utilized by the imperialists, first and
foremost, to crush internal enemies.” We’re seeing the truth of his
insight when we see the sad state of American education, the rush of
seniors to buy affordable medication from the Canadians because American
drugs are just too expensive, the threatened privatization of Social
Security, and the wave of repression that comes with an increasingly
militarized police. Does the
Homeland Security Department make you feel any safer?
In
Black America things get grimmer every day as resources that are
already scarce begin to shrink even further. Young people feel that
prisons are rite-of-passage, an inevitable place to visit. And a decent
job seems like a distant dream.
This
is a war on all of us, and the struggle against war is really a
struggle for a better life for the millions of folks who are in need
here in this country. The fight against the war is really to fight for
your own interests, not the false interests of the defense industries,
or the corporate media, or the White House.
Down
with the wars for empire! Ona Move! Long live
John Africa! From death row, this is Mumia
Abu-Jamal.
©
2005 MUMIA ABU-JAMAL
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