PROTESTS SPRING UP AROUND THE WORLD
By G. Dunkel
10/4/01--Major anti-war rallies took place the last week of September in countries that are close military and political allies of the United States. The media here generally ignored them.
In Britain, the U.S.'s closest ally, about 5,000 people waited hours in a driving thunderstorm to protest at the Labor Party's annual conference in Brighton, where Prime Minister Tony Blair gave a pro-war speech wrapped in vague promises to "change the world."
The cops, fearing another Gothenburg or Genoa, brought in heavy reinforcements, put sharpshooters on the roofs, created a five-mile air exclusion zone, and set up crash barriers, all as part of the biggest security operation they have ever mounted.
Police searched all coaches and vans heading for the demonstration, delaying the start of the protest march by two hours.
The protesters chanted slogans condemning Britain and the U.S. "Blair, Bush, CIA: how many kids did you kill today?" they shouted in reference to the British and U.S. bombings of Iraq.
They waved signs with the message "No to war" and "People, not profit--peace, not war," while listening to an impassioned demand for Britain and the U.S. to avoid the mass slaughter of innocent people in Afghanistan.
Italy saw two major protests; one in Naples on Sept. 27 drew 30,000 protesters, according to the organizers; one in Rome on Sept. 29 drew 100,000 people.
The protest in Naples was aimed at the military buildup and threat of a global conflict in the wake of the attacks in the United States. Naples, which is home to NATO's Southern Command, was supposed to play host to an important NATO meeting, but it was moved to Brussels, Belgium. The demonstration, however, was not called off.
The marchers were mostly students and blew whistles when they weren't chanting anti-war slogans. Those at the front chanted in English, "One, two, three, four, we don't want another war. Five, six, seven, eight, stop the violence, stop the hate."
Many carried portraits of Karl Marx and Che Guevara.
Two days later, on Sept. 29, the Refoundation Communist Party (PRC) called out 100,000 people to march "for peace and against war." The procession wound through the streets of Rome to the sound of music that has disappeared from the U.S. airwaves since Sept. 11--"Sunday, Bloody Sunday" by U2 and "What a wonderful world" by Louis Armstrong.
The leadership of the PRC, including Fausto Bertinotti, and representatives of the Palestine Liberation Organization in Rome all walked behind a banner with the slogan "Another world is possible."
The demonstrators, mostly young, came from all over Italy and sang fighting songs of the Italian partisans made popular during the resistance to fascism--"Bella ciao" and "Bandiera rossa"--as well as the International.
Some 10,000 marched on Sept. 27 in Athens, Greece, against being dragged into a U.S. and NATO war in the Middle East.
On Sept. 29 police in Istanbul, Turkey, arrested some 50 people trying to hold a protest against plans for a military response by the United States.
The protesters gathered in the Bakirkoy, on the European side of the city, under a banner reading "Anti-war platform," before police arrested them. Among the slogans shouted by the group were "No to war" and "Curses upon American imperialism."
Those arrested included the head of the Istanbul branch of the Turkish Human Rights Association (IHD), the lawyer Eren Keskin.
Substantial demonstrations were also reported in Montreal, Canada; Amsterdam, the Netherlands; Berlin and Frankfurt, Germany, and Barcelona, Spain.
Over 1,000 anti-war protesters marched in Sydney Sept. 29 calling on the Australian government to limit its military role in the U.S. war. The protesters carried banners: "Stop this racist war" and "Money for jobs, not war." Also see: Thousands gather in Melbourne for peace rally
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