GEORGE BUSH, HANDS OFF IRAQ!

Mumbai Witnesses Anti-US Demonstration

P R Krishnan

MUMBAI witnessed a militant morcha and demonstration on January 27, organised to express solidarity with the people of Iraq who are threatened by the United States and its supporting nations with an imminent war. Those who came to take part in the morcha, that was scheduled to proceed to the American Consulate in South West Mumbai, first assembled at August Kranti Maidan near Grant Road railway station in Central Mumbai.

The programme was organised under the banner of Platform Against War  And Terrorism. The platform comprises political parties like the CPI(M), CPI, Janata Dal(S), Samajwadi Party, CPI(ML-Red Flag), Lal Nishan Party and Kamgar Aghadi, as well as trade union organisations like the CITU, AITUC, Sarvashramik Sangh, Kamgar Aghadi’s trade union wing, IFTU, TUCI and Trade Union Solidarity Committee, etc.

The choice of the famous Agusut Kranti Maidan for the people to first assemble here and then to start in an anti-war anti-imperialist morcha, was a conscious decision. For, it was from this maidan in the year 1942 that the historic call for the Quit India movement went out, and the British rulers had to quit the nation in 1947.

By 4 in the evening, more than 500 people had assembled in the August Kranti Maidan, ready to march in a procession to the American Consulate in South West Mumbai. They carried anti-American placards and banners and started in a procession, shouting anti-imperialist and anti-American slogans like “George Bush, Hands Off Iraq!” Among them were women, students, youth, teachers, professors, artists, writers, journalists, lawyers, doctors, political functionaries and trade union activists, representing a cross-section of the Mumbai citizenry.

However, as if something terrible was going to happen, a large number of the police force had taken positions at all the entry and exit points of the maidan. The steel helmeted police accompanied the procession from left, right, front and behind. Then a few kilometres away, at Kemps Corner, additional convoys of police joined the police force accompanying the procession and stopped the latter from going ahead. The police then began to arrest the demonstrators and throw them into police vehicles in order to take them to the nearby Gamdevi police station. Those arrested were subsequently released.

Those who led the morcha and courted arrest included leaders and activists of the parties and organisations which constitute the Platform Against War And Terrorism. The CPI(M) and CITU plated a prominent role in organising this anti-war programme.