PEACE FOR LIFE BULLETIN

2004 March 21

Global Day of Action Against War and Occupation:

The World Still Says NO to War and YES to Peace

People Reject War

On 20 March 2004, exactly one year after the invasion of Iraq by U.S. and U.K.-led forces, nearly 2 million people poured out into cement, cobblestone and dirt roads, held interfaith prayer vigils, lit candles and/or linked arms in front of highly-secured U.S. embassies to express their continued objection to the illegal and immoral occupation of Iraq and to all other wars for hegemonic power and economic profit.

In coordinated protests across the globe, people were united in their demand for the immediate withdrawal of all foreign troops from Iraq and the conduct of free and fair elections under the supervision of the United Nations. They also asked for the cancellation of Iraqi debt and the renunciation of economic and political schemes ultimately aimed at corporate plundering of Iraq’s resources. Other countries’ struggles with foreign domination were not forgotten with parallel calls for an end to the occupation of Afghanistan and Palestine. The creation of a war crimes tribunal was proposed by some quarters so that reparations may be made to the peoples of Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine for the irreplaceable loss of human lives and incessant sufferings inflicted on these countries by the aggressive war policy of the Bush and Blair governments.

More Global Than Ever

Mainstream media drew attention to the lesser numbers of people comprising this year’s mobilisation in comparison to the pre-war 15 February 2003 global assembly for peace. However, analysts have pointed out that the 20 March 2004 protests were in fact more global and widespread, with up to 60 countries and 600 cities in all continents participating in the actions.

“Old and new Europe” divisions were discarded as people demonstrated in Berlin, Germany to Reykyavik, Iceland to Ljubljana, Slovenia to Thessaloniki, Greece. Cape Town and Johannesburg in South Africa, Cairo in Egypt and Damascus in Syria were the major scenes of dissent in the African continent and the Middle East. In Latin America and the Caribbean, countries like Puerto Rico, Mexico, Mauritius, Chile, Brazil, Nicaragua and Cuba led the way in expressing solidarity with the people of Iraq. Many of the demonstrations in Latin America were also a show of support for Cuba’s Castro and Venezuela’s Chavez, both of whom are political outcasts with the United States.

The region of Asia and the Pacific, in particular, witnessed many more countries and cities joining in the protests. Over 130,000 people participated in various rallies in Japan’s leading cities including Tokyo and Osaka. South Korea, the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand and India experienced a second wave of demonstrations from 2003. But, interestingly, smaller countries like Hong Kong, Vietnam, Bangladesh and East Timor also took part in the global actions—a first for most of them. Thousands also marched in Oceania in the Pacific.

Peace activitists in Japan, South Korea, the Philippines and Thailand specifically demanded the recall of their countries’ troops in Iraq. The Japanese government had dispatched 1,000 peacekeepers under the Japanese Self Defense Force to Iraq—the first time it has sent troops to a foreign country since World War II—in spite of the Peace Clause in the Japanese Constitution. South Korea had also approved the deployment of 3,000 troops to Iraq in addition to the 465 military medics and engineers who have been there since May 2003. The Philippines and Thailand had also posted smaller, non-combatant peacekeeping units.

In Iraq itself, where the presence of foreign troops under the control and supervision of the United States and the United Kingdom is causing an escalation of armed resistance, there were demonstrations in the capital of Baghdad and other cities demanding the right of Iraqis to determine the course of their country’s future. The Baghdad protest proved to be a powerful show of unity as the initially separate marches of the Sunni and Shia Muslims merged into one. Since the U.S. government’s declaration of the “end of major combat” in Iraq on 01 May 2003, it is estimated that some 10,000 Iraqi civilians, 500 U.S. soldiers and 41 other nationalities have been killed.

As in the run-up to the war, some of the biggest pro-peace outpourings took place in the countries whose governments comprise the so-called “coalition of the willing”—also known to peace advocates as the “coalition of the killing.” In the United States, protests in 300 cities and towns were spearheaded by the ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) coalition, United for Peace and Justice and Not in Our Name. More than 100,000 people marched in New York, 50,000 in San Francisco, 20,000 in Los Angeles and 10,000 in Chicago. In the United Kingdom, around 100,000 Brits converged at the Trafalgar square in London with placards reading “No more lies!” and “BLIAR”—a play on British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s name. An estimated one million people gathered in Rome, Italy and more than 250,000 in Barcelona and in 40 other Spanish cities. There had been week-long protests in Spain where the horror of the 11 March 2004 Madrid bombings remained fresh. Demonstrations also took place in the capitals of other U.S. allies such as Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Portugal, the Netherlands and Poland. In Turkey, some 10,000 people took to the streets with placards saying “Bush don’t come!” referring to the upcoming NATO summit which will take place in Istanbul in June.

Broad, Multisectoral Consensus

The peace mobilisation on 20 March 2004 was not only more global than ever, the anti-war movement continued to bring together a wide spectrum of people, non-government and grassroots organisations and movements from left-oriented to faith-based groups. The Global Day of Action had the support of the World Social Forum, anti-imperialist leagues and global economic justice movements such as ATTAC. While in Cuba, Hungary and India, communist, socialist and nationalist parties as well as trade unions dominated the protest scene, the bulk of demonstrators in the majority of countries were workers, women activists, students, and environmentalists.

Ecumenical and faith-based organisations, notably in Hungary and the Philippines, took a strong stand against the occupation of Iraq. The Archbishop of Hungary blessed the peace conference in Budapest, where candles glowing in the dark stood as a powerful symbol of protest. In Manila, an assembly for peace, which was attended by Philippine Vice President Teofista Guingona, was organised by the “Justice, Not War” coalition, an interfaith alliance with Muslims. Protestant and Catholic churches in the Philippines also conducted an International Ecumenical Gathering for Peace where the statement of the People’s Forum on Peace for Life was read as well as a candle-lighting ritual in front of the National Council of Churches in the Philippines and the United Church of Christ in the Philippines. Similarly, a silent vigil was held in Pohakuloa, Hawaii for the healing of the land from decades of military bombing, chemical and biological weapons testing.

Overall, the global actions paid tribute to the Gandhian principle of non-violence. However, there were also a few instances of near violence as police fired water cannons at protestors in Manila to prevent them from approaching the U.S. Embassy.

Clearer Analytical Linkages

Oscar Medina of the Mexican Initiative Against Imperialist War noted that while the 20 March turnout could have been better, “the positive side is that we now have a clearer perspective.” The failure of the occupying forces to find evidence of Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction (WMD)—the foremost reason given by the Bush and Blair governments for the invasion, the absence of a clear link between the overthrown Iraqi regime and al-Quaeda and the continuing spate of terrorist attacks in Iraq, Madrid and elsewhere have served to strengthen and consolidate global public conviction on two points. First, far from being a war to ‘liberate’ Iraq and secure the rest of the world from WMD, the invasion could have only been motivated by strategic economic interests with Iraq standing on the 2nd biggest oil source in the world. Second, wars can never be the solution to the tremendous political and economic problems facing the world today, not least terrorism and poverty. On the contrary, as Andrew Burgin of The Guardian and many other analysts argue, the United States and its allies’ war on terror has only made the world a more dangerous and poorer place to live in.

Protests i 10/23/2008 war on Iraq and the occupation of Palestine by Israel, the presence and intervention of U.S. troops in other sovereign territories, the erosion of peoples’ economic, social and cultural rights and freedoms, and the expansion of global capitalism.

According to Waleed Bader of the National Council of Arab Americans, “the people of the Middle East... demand their right to self-determination.” Solidarity with the people of Palestine was also evident in protests in Brussels, Belgium, in Barcelona, Spain, in Dublin, Ireland, in Budapest, Hungary (where demonstrators demanded the demolition of the wall between Palestine and Israel), and in Helsinki, Finland (where placards read, “stop the killing, stop the crime, Israel out of Palestine!”). Likewise, the Iraqi joint statement emphasized, “...we will also walk for our Palestinian and Chechnyan brothers and all oppressed people.”

The statement read by Aderito Soares in East Timor recalled the United States’ support for the Suharto invasion of East Timor. It mentioned that “during 24 years of illegal occupation, more than 200,00 people were killed or disappeared... today we see our friends in Iraq suffer the same fate... we understand the United States’ concept of ‘liberation’”.

In the Philippines, peace activists demanded the immediate pullout of U.S. troops in the Southern part of the country under the guise of joint U.S.-Philippine military exercises. Similarly in Mauritius, the urgent call was for “USA get out of Diego Garcia!”

Denouncing the morally untenable priorities of the Bush government, demonstrators in Texas in the United States called for the diversion of billions of dollars that are being spent on militaristic policies and defense to domestic social programs like schools, health clinics and unemployment benefits.

The association between militarisation and global capitalism was also made abundantly clear in demonstrations in Indonesia and Thailand. According to the statement of United for Peace Chiang Mai, Thai troops were sent to Iraq “as leverage to negotiate free trade agreements and as a ticket for Thai businesses to bid for reconstruction contracts in Iraq.”

Political Reverberations of the 14 March 2004 Spanish Elections

The mobilisations for peace in the Philippines, Hawaii and other countries seeking to elect new leaders in 2004 drew concrete inspiration from Spain’s recent rejection of their old government that had expressed unequivocal support for Bush and the occupation of Iraq. The statement from Hawaii asserted, “it is time to distance ourselves from Bush!”

On 14 March 2004, two days after the Madrid bombings, the conservative party of Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, which had backed the United State’s and United Kingdom’s war on Iraq in defiance of Spanish public opinion, was swept out of power. The newly elected Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero pledged to recall some 1,300 Spanish troops in Iraq, becoming the first ally to renounce participation in the alliance of the “coalition of the willing.” The developments in Spain have made other allies visibly nervous. Poland, a leading Eastern European supporter of the United States, suddenly raised the possibility of withdrawing their 2,400-strong Polish troops if U.N.-supervised elections are not held in Iraq soon. In Italy, which drew the largest nation-wide peace demonstration on 20 March, questions now abound on whether Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi will be headed the same way as Aznar. Under Berlusconi, Italy had dispatched 2,400 Italian soldiers to Iraq.

As the Hawaii statement further declares, “the election makes clear that Spain wants to go in a different direction, a direction people believe will be more just, safe and secure, not only for Spain, but for all the world’s people.” The message should not be lost, especially on those countries that will be voting in new governments in 2004, not least the United States. Of course, a huge question remains on whether or not a win by leading Democratic candidate, Senator John Kerry, will significantly alter the United State’s current foreign policy of no-holds-barred domination, which is heightening injustice and imperiling peace all over the world.

THE SECRETARIAT

People’s Forum on Peace for Life