3 million in 65 countries
Worldwide movement back in streets
Global day of protest
By John Catalinotto
A coordinated worldwide protest against U.S.
militarism and aggression followed the sun on March 20,
starting in Sydney, Australia, Manila, the Philip pines, and
Tokyo, and moving west across six continents to Honolulu.
Over 3 million people in 600 cities in 65 countries came out
into the streets to demand an end to the U.S.-led occupation of
Iraq.
This movement first sprang to life six months before the
war's onset. It reached its numerical height on Feb. 15, 2003,
when over 10 million marched in a desperate attempt to prevent
the looming U.S. aggression.
Last April many asked whether the move ment would survive
Washington's unilateral aggression and rapid military victory
over the Iraqi Army.
Now, after almost a year of occupation, the Iraqi people
have proven they have the will to resist. In turn, their
courage has stimulated the worldwide movement to continue its
opposition to the occupation.
This movement has not only survived. It has edged in a more
anti-imperialist direction, impelled as well by the increasing
brutality of the U.S.-backed Israeli regime against the
Palestinian national movement.
The call for a March 20 worldwide day of protest won support
at the European and World Social Forums, at the Mumbai
Resistance, and from most national anti-war coalitions,
including the ANSWER and UFPJ coalitions in the United
States.
Anti-imperialism and especially anti-U.S.-militarism was
strongest in protests outside of Europe and North America. In
Calcutta, India, in Cairo, Egypt, in Damascus, Syria, and
Amman, Jordan, demonstrators burned either U.S. flags or
effigies of George W. Bush.
In Manila they fought against water cannons in an attempt to
reach the U.S. Embassy.
In Peshawar, Pakistan, people demonstrated not only to end
the U.S. occupation of Iraq but also to stop Pakistani troops
from killing civilians in Waziristan, a region along the border
with Afghanistan.
In Baghdad itself on March 19, thousands marched from a Shia
mosque to join thousands marching from a Sunni mosque for a
joint demonstration under the slogan: "Yes to Iraq. No to the
U.S. occupation."
In Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Sant iago, Chile; in San
Juan, Puerto Rico, and Santo Domingo, Dominican Repub lic; in
Sao Paolo, Brazil, and Montevideo, Uruguay, demonstrators
targeted not only the occupation of Iraq but also the U.S.
attempt to impose the Free Trade Area of the Americas on Latin
America and the Caribbean. They protested the recent coup and
occupation in Haiti and marched in defense of Cuba and
Venezuela, whose people also joined the worldwide protest.
'Your war, our deaths!'
Some of the biggest demonstrations took place in the main
countries making up Bush's "coalition of the willing." That
means where the local imperialist ruling class was willing to
flout the will of the majority of the people to join Bush's
gang of thieves. For a share of the oil plunder, they were
willing to turn their country's young workers into cannon
fodder for U.S. imperialism.
Tony Blair in Britain, Silvio Berlu sconi in Italy, John
Howard in Austra lia and Jose Maria Aznar in Spain were key
allies in Washington's war. The biggest March 20 protest was in
Rome, where over 1 million people marched. In Lon don, 100,000
were in the streets and two mounted the Big Ben tower to hang
an anti-war banner near the clock's face. Some 150,000 people
marched in Ba r celona, Spain, another 100,000 in Madrid and up
to 50,000 in dozens of other cities in the Spanish state.
Considering that the peoples of Spain have been constantly
mobilized since the March 11 bombings of trains in Madrid, the
turnout was impressive. Spanish voters threw Aznar out of
office in the March 14 national elections. Their slogan was,
"Your war, our deaths." Demonstrators all over the world
cheered the decision of the people in the Spanish state to
eject Aznar from office.
In other countries where Bush has arm twisted the local
regimes to send troops to Iraq, this aroused great opposition
and angry protest. In Japan, which sent combat troops outside
its borders for the first time since the end of World War II,
120,000 people demonstrated. There were some 60,000 in Tokyo
alone.
In Chile, which has sent troops to Haiti, 3,000 people in
Santiago chanted, "We are not neutral, we aren't pacifists, we
are in the anti-imperialist trenches."
Hundreds of Hondurans went to the U.S. Embassy in
Tegucigalpa, demanding the return of 370 Honduran troops from
Iraq.
Some 15,000 came out in Lisbon, Portugal. People marched and
rallied in the thousands in Copenhagen, Denmark; Amsterdam,
Holland; and Oslo, Norway, to demand that troops from those
West European countries be returned from Iraq. Smaller but
still significant protests occurred in Warsaw, Poland;
Budapest, Hungary; Sofia, Bulgaria, and other East European
capitals with the same demand.
In some imperialist countries that have not joined the
military occupation--like France, Germany and Canada--the pro
tests were smaller than last year, but still took place in over
100 cities.
Different political currents
Last year's protests had one simple demand: no war on Iraq.
Now the demand depends on different attitudes toward the
occupation and toward imperialism. Different political currents
exist in the anti-war movement worldwide, just as they do
inside the United States.
In Italy, for example, the more anti-imperialist groups and
parties demand an immediate end to occupation "without ifs or
buts" and whether or not the United Nations supports it. They
fought for slogans "against the occupation of Iraq and
Palestine and for the withdrawal of all occupation troops,"
reports journalist Fulvio Grimaldi.
The more social-democratic forces pushed for slogans
"against all wars and terrorisms," a pacifist slogan that does
not distinguish between the imperialist oppres sor and the
oppressed. Grimaldi was pleased to report that "90 percent of
banners and slogans in Rome centered on Bush's wars, on the
occupation of Iraq and mentioned support for the Iraqi and
Palestinian resistance."
In Spain the struggle unfolds around how soon and under what
conditions the new government withdraws its forces from
Iraq.
This political struggle is really over whether or not the
movement in the imperialist countries will stand in class
solidarity with oppressed peoples around the world who resist
the imperialist takeover. The message of March 20 is that this
movement has grown and developed even as the political struggle
continues.
Reprinted from the April 1, 2004, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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