Worldwide protests condemn U.S. occupation of Iraq

New York City, March 18.

Hundreds of thousands of people worldwide demonstrated on March 18-20 to mark the third anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and three years of occupation of that once-sovereign country.

The protests began first in Sydney, Australia, Tokyo, Japan and Manila in the Philippines. They then spread like a wave across the globe: Indonesia, Thailand, Viet nam, Malaysia, Pakistan, Turkey, South Africa, Greece, Cyprus and Hun gary, Spain and Portugal, Brazil, Vene zuela, Nicaragua, Cuba, Mexico, the United States and Canada.

Some of the largest actions were national protests in the capitals of countries with large contingents of troops supporting the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq: 50,000 in Rome, Italy, and a similar number in London, England. Good-sized demonstrations also took place in Warsaw, Poland, and in Seoul, Korea on March 19. There were groups in at least 40 countries in all that reported their protests on the Internet or were covered in the media by March 21. There may well have been more in the Arab world and Africa that will be reported later.

There is a temptation to compare the anniversary protest with those of Feb. 15, 2003, when over 10 million people came out on the streets worldwide in a desperate attempt to stop Washington from launching its war of aggression. But it is a false comparison because three years ago masses of people wanting to avoid war came out in the belief that their action would be heard in the White House. The Bush administration pushed on with the war as it is now doing with the occupation.

Now the people who demonstrated know that they are involved in a protracted struggle with a powerful enemy—U.S. imperialism and its allies in Western Europe and Japan. Many people, even from these imperialist centers, are in open solidarity with the armed Iraqi resistance. This was shown by the successful speaking tour of Abdeljabbar al-Kubaysi, a spokesperson for one of the resistance groups, who toured Portugal and Spain before addressing the crowd at Piazza Navona in Rome on March 18.

Tacit support for the resistance was also demonstrated by the calls for immediate and unconditional withdrawal of the occupation troops. Other demands warned against imperialist intervention against Iran, North Korea, Cuba and Venezuela.

The call to organize protests first came last fall from anti-war coalitions in Britain and the United States. Support for the actions on the anniversary of the invasion of Iraq won international support at the European Social Forum in Vienna, the World Social Forum meetings in Bamako, Mali, and Caracas, Venezuela, and at regional meetings in Asia.

The international call was clearly for immediate withdrawal and expressed appreciation for the heroic efforts of the Iraqis to drive out the occupiers. This was seconded by 55 communist parties, who signed a statement—an initiative of the Communist Party of Greece—with similar demands supporting the March 18-20 actions.

In January, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez in Caracas called for the formation of an international anti-imperialist organization to take united actions. No such permanent group has been established. But the worldwide anniversary protest of the occupation of Iraq gives an early picture of what such a movement could do.