People's Democracy

NO TO US WAR WITH IRAQ

500,000 Anti-War Protesters Demonstrate in Washington

HALF a million people marched through the streets of Washington on January 18 and 200,000 more demonstrated in San Francisco on the same day to protest the impending US war with Iraq, in the largest anti-war demonstrations in US since the Vietnam war era. Simultaneous demonstrations took place in Seattle, Portland, Honolulu, Albuquerque, Des Moines, Ann Arbor, Lansing, Tampa, and many other US cities.

Sponsored by the International ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War & End Racism) Coalition, the protests were endorsed by thousands of organisations. Similar demonstrations were held in at least 30 other countries, including Japan, Ireland, Egypt, Spain, Argentina, South Africa, Jordan, Belgium, Syria, Hong Kong, Russia, Germany and Britain.

In both their size and international reach, the demonstrations were indicative of rapidly growing anti-war sentiment in the US and around the world.

“Today’s demonstrations shattered the myth of consensus for war,” said Mara Verheyden-Hilliard of the Partnership for Civil Justice, one of the groups in ANSWER.  “Throughout the whole world, demonstrations today showed the kind of people’s power it’s going to take to stop the war in its tracks.”

Announcing a week of anti-war protest for the week of February 13-21 -- and culminating with a Student and Youth Day of Action on the anniversary of the assassination of Malcolm X—organisers of the January 18 demonstration joined the call of the European movement to make Februrary 15 the next step in the worldwide anti-war movement.

The morning of the demonstration, train and subway stations in Washington DC were jammed as hundreds of buses arrived in the city for the massive protest.

The rally featured such speakers as former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark, civil rights activist Mahdi Bray, actors Jessica Lange and Tyne Daly, Representative John Conyers, Reverend Jesse Jackson, former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, author and Vietnam vet Ron Kovic, singer Patti Smith, Reverend Herbert Daughtry, and Elizabeth McAllister.

Ramsey Clark won an enthusiastic response from the assembled demonstrators when he made the case for the impeachment of President Bush. He said, “The Constitution says the president, the vice president and civil officers of the United States shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, bribery and other high crimes and misdemeanors.

“What George Bush is doing now is usurping the power of the Constitution and the people, being above the law. Treating anybody any way he wants to; no civil rights, no civil liberties, nothing... Has George Bush committed impeachable offenses?... The answer is a resounding yes.”

Speakers included ANSWER leaders Elias Rashmawi, Free Palestine Alliance; Peta Lindsay, ANSWER Youth & Student Coordinator; Larry Holmes and Brian Becker, International Action Center and representatives of groups such as New York City Labor Against the War, Maryland and D.C. AFL-CIO, Colombia Trade Unionists in Exile, Queers for Peace and Justice, United for Peace and Justice, Not In Our Name, and representatives of the Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques. Speakers reminded the crowd that the fight against war and racism included the struggles to free political prisoners Mumia Abu Jamal, Leonard Peltier, Jamil Al Amin, and the Cuban Five.

SAN FRANCISCO RALLY

Tens of thousands of demonstrators filled San Francisco’s Civic Center Park on January 18. Peace activists started their march up Market Street at 11 a.m. and started arriving at City Hall at noon to listen to speeches by local and national personalities. Among them was Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, who has gained allies and admirers since her vote on Sept. 14, 2001, as the lone dissenting voice in Congress against giving President Bush open-ended authority to wage war against terrorists.

“The silent minority has become the vocal majority because of you,” she told the cheering crowd. Lee invoked the memory of King, whose birthday is being celebrated Monday, urging the crowd to help eradicate the “axis of evil - poverty, racism and war.”

“It’s not too late for the administration to heed our call,” she said. “It takes leadership to resolve conflicts peacefully. It does not take leadership to drop bombs.” The protest’s organisers estimated the crowd at 200,000.

Peace activists said they plan to increase the size and frequency of protests across the country - even though they believe the president has already decided to send U.S.  troops into battle within weeks or months.

A Newsweek poll released January 18 found that Americans, by 60 percent to 35 percent of those polled, want the Bush administration to allow more time to seek an alternative to war.