Rohan Pearce
Many have spent their time since the November 2 US presidential election bemoaning the "stupidity" of US people for "re"-electing President George Bush, instead of voting for John Kerry, the alternative pro-war candidate favoured by the supposed peaceniks of the "Anyone but Bush" campaign.
But while the self-appointed brains trust of the movement predicts whines and predicts imminent apocalypse under the second Bush jnr administration, anti-war activists, notably in the countries of the British-Australian-US "coalition of the willing", have continued to organise against the US occupation of Iraq. In response to the brutal assault on Fallujah, activists have stepped up their campaign of solidarity with the Iraqi people.
On November 7, the US anti-war coalition International ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) issued a call for protests against the Fallujah assault. The statement explained: "This is no time for anti-war and progressive people in the U.S. to 'mourn', dwell and lament on the failure of the Democratic Party candidate to defeat the Republican Party candidate, at least not those who are really committed to ending this criminal war and securing justice at home.
"If nothing else, we all know that if Kerry was President-elect, nothing would be different for the people of Iraq right now. Kerry has not condemned the bombings of Fallujah at any point, nor the attacks on the Iraqi people, nor the use of U.S. soldiers as cannon fodder in this war of aggression and conquest. Now the people of Fallujah wait for the next attack, and the U.S. soldiers wait for their orders to carry out actions that they will have to reconcile for the rest of their lives, if they survive."
The US anti-war movement has already held a string of demonstrations that show, while the movement hasn't reached the level of the historic February 2003 protests prior to the invasion of Iraq, activists aren't taking Bush's re-election as a signal to give up.
On November 3 — the day after the US elections — some 1000 demonstrators took part in an anti-occupation protest in Chicago, condemning the US presence in Iraq, as well as Haiti and Afghanistan and Israel's occupation of Palestine. The protest, called by Iraq Peace Pledge, was intended to be a candlelight vigil, but, according to activist reports, the angry and defiant mood led to a spontaneous march. Marchers joined a protest by Chicago City College Student Strike Solidarity Committee called in support of striking teachers in Millennium Park.
According to a November 4 report by NBC5.com, "Cook County College Teachers Union president Perry Buckley spoke in Millennium Park and thanked the anti-war protestors for joining in. 'You are fighting for dignity and what's right,' Buckley said."
An anti-war activist in Portland posted a report on Indymedia of a similar sized anti-war protest held the same day — "I was out in the streets tonight. About 1000 people showed up to protest Bush, the war in Iraq, and the election results. The spirit was good, and so was the turnout."
In Los Angeles on November 10 hundreds of protesters attended an ANSWER-initiated protest. According to ANSWER's report of the event, the protest was attended by activists and leaders from groups including the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, Coalition for World Peace, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Free Palestine Alliance, Not in Our Name, US Labor Against the War and Women in Black. Protesters chanted "George Bush, we say no — the occupation has got to go!" and "The people of Fallujah are under attack. What do we do? Stand up, fight back!"
ANSWER reported: "As the demonstration was winding up, two large U.S. military tanks drove past the protestors on Wilshire Boulevard two times. The second time, the tanks stopped directly in front of a group of about 50 protestors for nearly five minutes. Police attempted to provoke a confrontation with the crowd, but the people resisted. Instead, they chanted 'Bring the Troops Home Now!'
"We do not know where the tanks came from, where they were going or why they drove past the demonstration. It is an outrage to see military tanks rolling through the streets of Los Angeles."
In Chicago, even before the election Vietnam Veterans Against the War had begun organising a post-election protest against the war and for veterans' rights for November 11.
In Britain, protests were held in some 30 towns and cities on November 8. In Brighton an army recruitment centre was trashed. Protests ranged from anti-war street theatre to candlelight vigils. "Every Iraqi killed during this invasion is just as tragic as the death of someone in the UK, but you can bet that the corporate media will give far more coverage per head to anyone in the UK who meets an untimely end than to the thousands of Iraqis who will be killed by invading foreigners", explained a Swindon anti-war activist in an Indymedia posting.
According to Scottish Indymedia, four people were arrested in Edinburgh after they used red paint to "blood stain" the steps of the local US consulate and spray-painted the building with anti-war slogans
Anti-war activists in the US, Britain and other countries are organising further protests in late November and December. One of the next major nationwide protests in the US will be a January 20 anti-war "counter-inaugural" demonstration in Washington DC marking the inauguration of US President George Bush's second term, with solidarity protests being organised in San Francisco, Los Angeles and other cities.
"The Call of the Assembly of Social Movements" issued by the European Social Forum, held October 15-17 in London, called for Europe-wide protests to mark the second anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, on March 20, 2005. A central protest will be held in Brussels on March 19 against the meeting of the European Council.
The call stated: "Today war represents the harshest and most real face of neo-liberalism. The war and the occupation of Iraq, the occupation of Palestine, the massacre in Chechnya, and the hidden wars in Africa are crushing the future of humanity. The war in Iraq was justified by lies. Today Iraq is humiliated and destroyed. Iraqis are prisoners of war and terror. The occupation brought neither freedom, nor better conditions of life. On the contrary, today the supporters of the thesis of 'clash of civilisation' are stronger.
"We are fighting for the withdrawal of the occupying troops in Iraq, for an immediate halt to the bombing and for the immediate restitution of sovereignty to the Iraqi people. We support the right of the Iraqi people to resist the occupation."
The call for protests on March 19 and 20 has been endorsed by anti-war groups around the world, including ANSWER in the US, where there will be protests in Washington DC, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Bush may have won the election, but his defeat of his pro-war challenger hasn't changed the US population's deep-seated unease at the course Iraq warm, feelings that are likely to increase as the reoccupation of Fallujah costs the lives of more US troops and Iraqis.
Half the participants in a New York Times/CBS poll conducted October 28-30 disapproved of the way Bush was "handling the situation with Iraq". Asked, "Do you think the Bush administration did a good job or a poor job thinking through what would happen in Iraq as a result of the war?", 59% indicated they thought the Bush regime had done a poor job.
In Britain, distrust of the Labour Party government is running high and the country's participation in the occupation of Iraq is extremely unpopular. Fourty-six per cent of the population consider the country's participation in the war on Iraq as unjustified, compared to 43% who consider it justified, according to a poll conducted October 22-24 by the Guardian newspaper. An even higher proportion — 61% — disapprove of the government's decision to relocate British forces in Iraq from the south to the west of the country in order to support US troops.
From Green Left Weekly, November 17, 2004.
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