One million in Italy say: 'NO to Bush's war on Iraq'
By John Catalinotto
A vast sea of humanity surged through the beautiful Italian
city of Florence on Nov. 9 to denounce Washington's intention
to wage war on Iraq.
The protest was the high point of the Nov. 6-10 European
Social Forum, which drew over 30,000 social and
anti-globalization activists from all over Europe to discuss
pressing social questions and prepare for actions. Other
hundreds of thousands, mostly from Italy itself, joined for the
Nov. 9 protest.
Organizers said 1 million had demonstrated. The authorities
said 500,000. The truth is either figure was much more than the
number expected--and enough to swamp Florence, normally a city
of 300,000 residents along with many tourists.
Workers World spoke about the demonstration with John
Gilbert, a U.S. expatriate and union activist teaching in
Florence. Gilbert was one of the General Confederation of
Labor's (CGIL) security force of 4,000 volunteers at the
demonstration.
"The media had waged a campaign for days warning that
demonstrators would destroy the art of the city. Many of the
shopkeepers boarded up their shops. The ones that stayed open
did lots of business, and nothing was destroyed.
"Our security force was at the end of the march. The last
contingent was of CGIL unionists, maybe 120,000 strong. As we
marched nothing was left behind but the police," said
Gilbert.
The crowds carried demands for social justice and slogans
like "Drop Bush, not bombs" and "Bush=Hitler, [Italian Prime
Minister Silvio] Berlusconi=Mussolini," referring to the two
World War II fascist leaders.
The beauty is in the streets
Writing of her view of the demonstration, former member of
parliament Angeles Maestro of the United Left of Spain noted:
"Beauty with the face of the people, of all ages, different
countries, was not seen in the museums this day. It occupied
the streets of one of the loveliest cities in the world with a
peaceful force representing the massive presence of hundreds of
thousands of people.
"It tore down walls of prejudice and ignorance and declared
before all the powers dominating the world, before all the
politicians and the great majority of the media, that the war
can be stopped."
Reports in the German daily newspaper Junge Welt said there
was a large presence of people from Greece at the
demonstration.
Speaking about the European Social Forum, a continuation of
the Social Forums held in Porto Alegre, Brazil, and elsewhere,
Gilbert estimated that about 3,000 came from France, 2,000 from
Britain, over 2,000 from Germany, 1,000 from Spain, hundreds
from Hungary, Poland and the rest of Europe, as well as
hundreds from Africa, Asia and North and South America.
They discussed questions "touching on war, labor,
immigrants' rights, the environment and social justice."
This ESF took a step forward in uniting the
anti-globalization movement with the struggle against this
imperialist war. Its position, however, is not unequivocally
against the war, but is contingent on the fact that the U.S.
administration is isolated diplomatically and acting
unilaterally. While drawing broad participation, the social
forums have been dominated by social-democratic forces in the
past. For example, groups engaging in armed struggle, like
those in Colombia, were barred from the Porto Alegre forum.
After the Berlusconi press had baited the ESF for
"terrorism" and for threatening to tear Florence apart, much of
the media remarked on how peaceful the half-million to a
million people were.
They were in the street, taking direct action of symbolic
character to express their opinions. Such an action outweighs
elections and diplomatic maneuvering.
The arrogant gang around the Bush White House appears poised
to launch a war, which will no doubt turn peaceful opposition
to plans for slaughter into furious anger at imperialist war
and the forces that order it and carry it out.
Reprinted from the Nov. 21, 2002, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyrighted
under a Creative
Commons License.
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