Alternate media gets out message ‘No war on Iran!’

On Aug. 1-3, anti-war activists in 100 U.S. cities, several cities in Canada, and even in Kolkata, India, took to the streets in coordinated actions to protest Pentagon preparations for a U.S.-Israeli war on Iran. This anti-war response was very significant. The Stop War on Iran Campaign’s call for the protests had been issued only a few weeks prior, and the protests occurred in the dead of the summer, when schools were out, and many activists were on vacation.

New York, Aug. 2. WW photo: G. Dunkel

The corporate media, however, turned a blind eye, and hardly covered the protests. This is not surprising. The establishment media, which claim to value objectivity, are really heavily biased, with deep ties to capitalist corporations and the U.S. government. For example, mainstream media coverage of the U.S. wars on Iraq and Afghanistan hardly shows Pentagon destruction of Iraqi and Afghan homes and local communities, or the tens of thousands of civilian casualties, or even the thousands of U.S. veterans disabled from these wars.

During a time of war and economic instability the media act as an arm of the government, hiding the real issues behind headlines concerning the lifestyles of the rich and famous.

However, the voice of the people Aug. 1-3 was not silenced. Independent outlets such as local community media and YouTube carried news of these protests to many thousands through the World Wide Web. Using alternative sources, protesters not only expressed their resistance to another U.S. imperialist war, but also demanded that the U.S. government fund measures to relieve the pressing economic crisis at home, instead of giving money to the Pentagon and the banks.

The writer is an intern at the Stop War on Iran office in New York.