[Nettime-bold] Re: <nettime> New York City demonstration against war in Iraq2/15/2003

[". __ ." <mail_box@gmx.net>]

I know it might be off-topic but I would be happy if one would let it pass 
this time ;-)

Well, just to show that there are also some other people interested in 
democracy, numbers from other cities around the world:

Austria, Vienna: 30.000 people
Belgium, Brussels: around 20.000 people
GB, London: over 1 Million people (750.000 - 1.5 Mil)
Germany, Berlin: around 400.000 people (300.000-500.000)
France, Paris: around 100.000 people
Ireland, Dublin: 40.000 people
Israel, Tel Aviv: 2.000 people (both Israelis and Palestinians)
Italy, Rome: nearly 1 Million people
USA, NY: around 1 Million people

There were also demonstrations in Ukraine, Bosnia, Cyprus, the Netherlands, 
Spain, Greece, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Japan, India, Bangladesh, 
Hungary, South Korea, Australia, Russia, Malaysia, Hong Kong, China and 
Thailand amongst others...

****** two interesting articles******

Iraq crisis: the peace marches



One million. And still they came

Euan Ferguson reports on a historic peace march whose massive turnout 
surpassed the organisers' wildest expectations and Tony Blair's worst fears

Euan Ferguson
Sunday February 16, 2003
The Observer

'Are there any more coming, then?'

There have been dafter questions, but not many. At 1.10 yesterday 
afternoon, Mike Wiseman from Newcastle upon Tyne placed his accordion 
carefully on the ground below Hyde Park's gates and rubbed cold hands 
together. Two elderly women, hand in hand in furs, passed through, still 
humming the dying notes from his 'Give Peace A Chance'. They were, had he 
known it, early, part of a tiny crowd straggling into Hyde Park before the 
march proper.

Half a mile away, round the corner in Piccadilly, the ground shook. An 
ocean, a perfect storm of people. Banners, a bobbing cherry- blossom of 
banners, covered every inch back to the Circus - and for miles beyond, 
south to the river, north to Euston.

Ahead of the marchers lay one remaining silent half-mile. The unprecedented 
turnout had shocked the organisers, shocked the marchers. And there at the 
end before them, high on top of the Wellington Arch, the four obsidian 
stallions and their vicious conquering chariot, the very Spirit of War, 
were stilled, rearing back - caught, and held, in the bare branches and 
bright chill of Piccadilly, London, on Saturday 15 February 2003.

Are there any more coming? Yes, Mike. Yes, I think there are some more coming.

It was the biggest public demonstration ever held in Britain, surpassing 
every one of the organisers' wildest expectations and Tony Blair's worst 
fears, and it will be remembered for the bleak bitterness of the day and 
the colourful warmth of feeling in the extraordinary crowds. Organisers 
claimed that more than 1.5 million had turned out; even the police agreed 
to 750,000 and rising.

By three o'clock in the afternoon they were still streaming out of Tube 
stations to join the end of the two routes, from Gower Street in the north 
and Embankment by the river. 'Must be another march,' grumbled the taxi 
driver, then, trying in vain to negotiate Tottenham Court Road. No, I said; 
it's the same one, still going, and he turned his head in shock. 'Bloody 
Jesus! Well, good luck to them I say.' There were, of course, the usual 
suspects - CND, Socialist Workers' Party, the anarchists. But even they 
looked shocked at the number of their fellow marchers: it is safe to say 
they had never experienced such a mass of humanity.

There were nuns. Toddlers. Women barristers. The Eton George Orwell 
Society. Archaeologists Against War. Walthamstow Catholic Church, the 
Swaffham Women's Choir and Notts County Supporters Say Make Love Not War 
(And a Home Win against Bristol would be Nice). They won 2-0, by the way. 
One group of SWP stalwarts were joined, for the first march in any of their 
histories, by their mothers. There were country folk and lecturers, 
dentists and poulterers, a hairdresser from Cardiff and a poet from 
Cheltenham.

I called a friend at two o'clock, who was still making her ponderous way 
along the Embankment - 'It's not a march yet, more of record shuffle' - and 
she expressed delight at her first protest. 'You wouldn't believe it; there 
are girls here with good nails and really nice bags .'

Cheer upon cheer went up. There were cheers as marchers were given updates 
about turnout elsewhere in the world - 90,000 in Glasgow, two million on 
the streets of Rome. There was a glorious cheer, at Piccadilly Circus, when 
the twin ribbons met, just before one o'clock.

The mood was astonishingly friendly. 'Would you like a placard, sir?' Sir? 
The police laughed. One, stopping a marcher from going through a barricade 
in Trafalgar Square, told him it was a sterile area, only to be met with a 
hearty backslap. 'Sterile area? Where did that one come from.' 'I know,' 
shrugged the bobby. 'Bollocks language, isn't it?' And the talk was of 
politics, yes, but not just politics. There were not the detailed arguments 
we had had, even during the last peace march in November, over UN 
resolutions and future codicils. This march was not really about politics; 
it was about humanitarianism.

'I'm not political, not at all. I don't even watch the news,' said Alvina 
Desir, queuing on the Embankment for the start of the march at noon. 'I've 
never been on a march in my life and never had any intention. But 
something's happened recently, to me and so many friends - we just know 
there's something going wrong in this country. No one's being consulted, 
and it's starting to feel worrying - more worrying than the scaremongering 
we've been getting about the terrorist threat. I simply don't see how war 
can be the answer and I don't know anyone who does. And, apart from 
anything else, as a black woman in London, it feels dangerous to spread 
racial tension after all that's been done.'

A Cheshire fireman nearby said: 'They will take notice of a protest like 
this. Our MPs, and Blair himself , were voted in by ordinary people like 
those here today. Blair is clever enough not to ignore this.'

Linda Homan, sitting on bench at 9.30 in the morning, watching a bright and 
dancing Thames, had come down early from Cambridge and was wondering at 
that stage whether many would turn up. Palettes of placards lay strewn 
along the Embankment, waiting. A trolley was pushed past filled with flags 
and whistles; there were more police - then, way back then - than marchers. 
'I've never felt strongly enough about anything before. But this is so 
different; I would have let myself down by not coming and I think this will 
be something to remember.'

For Linda, like so many along these streets, it was her first march. 
Twelve-year-old Charlotte Wright, who came up by train from Guildford, 
Surrey, on her own. 'My parents aren't very happy about this but I think 
it's important. Bombing people isn't the right way to sort a problem out.' 
Jenny Mould, 36, a teacher from Devon. 'I drove up last night. It took 
seven hours but it was definitely worth it; the Government should, it must, 
listen to the people, otherwise what's the point in democracy?'

Retired solicitor Thomas Elliot from Basildon, Essex, a virgin marcher at 
73, said: 'I remember the war and the effect the bombing had on London. War 
should only be used when absolutely necessary.' Andrew Miller, 33, from New 
Zealand, whose feeling, echoed by all around, was that 'all the different 
groups that are marching today show the world that the West is not the 
enemy, that British people do not hate Islam and Arabs and the coming 
together of people is the greatest way forward.' Lesley Taylor, a 
constitutional law lecturer who's lived across here for 29 years, holding a 
forlorn placard reading 'American against the war.' Why only one? 'I don't 
know any other Americans here. In the Eighties here I saw a lot of 
anti-American resentment, and now it's back. I accept that the perception 
of George W. Bush has something to do with this, but still... these are the 
same people the thinking middle-classes, who were so shocked and honestly 
sympathetic after September 11: how can they turn so nasty so quickly?

'Because America is making your Prime Minister go against the huge majority 
of the British people. And that won't be forgiven. Look about you. That's 
what this is about; not fierce party politics but a simple feeling that 
democracy, British democracy, has been forgotten.'

Chris Wall, a Nottingham mother who had brought down eight children with 
her: 'They talk about it at school and that's a good thing. Children need 
to be aware of what's happening in the world. And this is, of course, a 
peaceful protest.' It remained so all day, despite the numbers; by five 
o'clock police were reporting only three arrests.

In Hyde Park itself, a long line of purple silk lay on the grass, facing 
Mecca, and Muslims took off their shoes to pray. Beside it, artist Nicola 
Green had set up her Laughing Booth, and was encouraging people in to, 
obviously, start laughing, on their own, and be recorded; it was, she says, 
the most disarming of all weapons. The sky above the nearby stage grew 
dark, and the park grew even more astonishingly full.

Charles Kennedy won loud applause for stating that 'The report from Hans 
Blix gives no moral case for war on Iraq'; George Galloway won both 
applause and laughter for suggesting a new slogan: 'Don't attack Chirac'. 
Mo Mowlam warned: 'We will lose this war. It will be the best recruiting 
campaign for terrorists that there could be. They will hate us even more.'

Will yesterday, astonishing yesterday, change anything? The facts are 
undeniable. Perception is all.

If you look more carefully, in fact, at the warlike Wellington statue, a 
new tale emerges. The driver of the chariot is a boy. The reins are slack. 
The horses are not rearing with anger, but pulling up in mid-charge. 
Behind, the fierce, all-powerful figure is not the Spirit of War but the 
angel of peace, carrying an olive branch.

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2003


****

By Glenn Frankel
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, February 16, 2003; Page A01

LONDON, Feb.15 -- Several million demonstrators took to the streets of 
Europe and the rest of the world today in a vast wave of protest against 
the prospect of a U.S.-led war against Iraq.

The largest rallies were in London, Rome, Berlin and Paris - - the heart of 
Western Europe -- where the generally peaceful demonstrations illustrated 
the breadth of popular opposition to U.S. policies among traditional 
allies. But there were also protests in dozens of other cities on five 
continents, from Canberra to Oslo and from Cape Town to Damascus, in an 
extraordinary display of global coordination.

In London, a sea of protesters estimated by police at more than 750,000 
flooded into Hyde Park and clogged streets for several miles on a crisp, 
clear day in what observers and organizers said was probably the largest 
political demonstration in British history. It was aimed not just at 
President Bush but also at Britain's prime minister, Tony Blair, who has 
been Bush's staunchest ally in the campaign against Iraq but who is 
besieged by opposition at home from virtually every part of the political 
spectrum.

Blair, in a speech earlier in the day, insisted he would stand his ground. 
But he also said Britain would wait for the next interim report from U.N. 
inspectors on Feb. 28 before seeking a Security Council resolution 
authorizing military action.

Nearly 1 million people turned out in Rome, where Prime Minister Silvio 
Berlusconi has also supported the U.S. position. Between 300,000 and 
500,000 people demonstrated in Berlin, at the largest rally since the fall 
of the Berlin Wall in 1989. About 100,000 demonstrators poured through the 
streets of Paris. Germany and France have emerged as the most vocal 
opponents of military action against Iraq.

Demonstrators in London sang, chanted and shouted slogans while carrying 
flags, banners and posters with slogans ranging from "Bush and Blair Wanted 
for Murder" to "Make Tea, Not War."

"Tony, Listen to the People," pleaded one poster, while another read, "I'm 
American and I Care -- Please Don't Think That We Are All Like Bush." 
Posters calling for "Free Palestine" were also widespread.

The demonstrators seemed to represent a cross-section of modern British 
society. There were entire families -- fathers and mothers with small 
children in tow -- and elderly people moving slowly but deliberately. Some 
wore costumes and some were in jeans. There were veteran activists and 
people who said they had never been on a march before.

"We explained to them what this was about and they wanted to come," said 
Julie Isherwood, whose 4-year-old twins, Jack and Robert, walked beside her 
with hand-lettered signs reading, "Boys Against War."

Lisa Rosen, a lawyer from New York who has lived here for five years, said 
she felt a strong sense of anti-Americanism from many in the crowd. "Some 
of my American friends decided not to come, but I thought it was important 
to show that you can be pro-American and antiwar at the same time," she said.

Radicals and moderates shared the speaker's platform. Ken Livingstone, the 
mayor of London and a longtime left-wing activist, called Bush "a stooge 
for oil interests" and said he was presiding over "the most corrupt and 
racist American administration in over 80 years."

"This is a man who has sent his own soldiers to die [but] who got his daddy 
to get him out of national service," said Livingstone. "Where I come from 
we call that cowardice."

Charles Kennedy, leader of the minority Liberal Democrats, the only 
mainstream British party to oppose the prospective war, said he was not 
anti-American but was "deeply worried" by the administration.

"Given the evidence from Dr. Blix yesterday, there can be no just or moral 
case for war against Iraq," Kennedy added, referring to U.N chief weapons 
inspector Hans Blix.

Jesse L. Jackson, who arrived here Friday from the United States, said it 
was not too late to prevent military action. "Turn up the heat," he told 
the crowd. "I say to Tony Blair, please take a step back from war: Hear the 
voices of Britain. This war may be your legacy, Mr. Blair. Surely this is 
not what you want."

A beleaguered Blair, speaking earlier at a Labor Party conference in 
Glasgow, Scotland, warned that the international community still needed to 
be prepared to confront Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

"If we show weakness now, if we allow the plea for more time to become just 
an excuse for prevarication until the moment for action passes, then . . . 
the menace, and not just from Saddam, will grow," he said. "The authority 
of the U.N. will be lost, and the conflict when it comes will be more 
bloody." Blair said demonstrators were expressing an "entirely 
understandable hatred of war," but he added, "If there are 500,000 on that 
march, that is still less than the number of people whose deaths Saddam has 
been responsible for."

In Rome, the protesters massed in the city center in an atmosphere that was 
half-demonstration, half- carnival, the Reuters news agency reported. Young 
and old marched arm in arm, some wrapped in rainbow peace flags, while 
marching bands played and whistles blew.

In Brussels, tens of thousands of protesters braved freezing temperatures 
and fierce winds. Many residents placed white handkerchiefs in the windows 
of homes, stores and pubs as an expression of support.

Patricia Tarabelsi, 23, an American student, said she couldn't help but 
feel uneasy as anti-American sentiment has intensified in Europe. "It makes 
you feel like your country's a target," she said, "and I don't really think 
Americans back home realize just how angry the world is at us right now."

There were also demonstrations in Ukraine, Bosnia, Cyprus, Ireland, the 
Netherlands, Austria, Spain, Greece, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Japan, 
India, Bangladesh, Hungary, South Korea, Australia, Malaysia, Hong Kong and 
Thailand. Many of the rallies were organized by peace groups around the 
world, with the Internet playing a key role in the coordination.

In Baghdad, according to the Associated Press, tens of thousands of Iraqis, 
some carrying Kalashnikov assault rifles, demonstrated in support of 
Hussein. "Our swords are out of their sheaths, ready for battle," read one 
of hundreds of banners carried by marchers along Palestine Street, a broad 
avenue in Baghdad. In Damascus, Syria, protesters chanted anti-U.S. and 
anti-Israel slogans as they marched to the People's Assembly building.

About 2,000 antiwar protestors, both Jews and Palestinians, marched 
peacefully in central Tel Aviv for about 90 minutes early tonight. Many 
waved Israeli and Palestinian flags and carried pictures of gas masks and 
placards reading, "Drop Bush Not Bombs."

"This is part of the war on Islam," said Ibrahim Housseni, 26, an 
unemployed Palestinian from East Jerusalem. "Why attack Saddam and not 
Khamenei, Assad or Sharon?" he said, referring to the leaders of Iran, 
Syria and Israel. "They all suppress their people. Bush should not hide his 
reasons -- this war is against Islam and for oil."

"The U.N. report shows they [the Iraqis] are not hiding anything," said 
Yaron Levy, a Tel Aviv restaurant owner. "Bombing a country to get one man 
is not exactly conventional. This is nonconventional warfare."

A small counter-demonstration of about 20 people from the ruling Likud 
Party's youth wing heckled the antiwar protesters, shouting, "Saddam is the 
next Hitler!" and handing out "No War" signs with the "No" ripped off.

An antiwar protest outside the U.S. Embassy in Moscow drew an estimated 
1,000 people, mostly middle-aged or elderly supporters of the Communist Party.

Ludmilla Likhikh, 52, a factory worker, accused the United States of 
hypocrisy, saying it should focus on disarming itself. "America is looking 
for arms in Iraq while it has so many of its own," she said. "America is 
the number one terrorist nation."

Correspondents John Ward Anderson in Jerusalem, Sharon LaFraniere in Moscow 
and Philip P. Pan in Beijing and special correspondent Steven Gray in 
Brussels contributed to this report.

© 2003 The Washington Post Company

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