Mar 29, 2003

WASHINGTON – Behind a banner that read, “Bring The Troops Home Now,” and carrying upside down American flags as a signal of distress, war veterans and families of active duty soldiers marched on the White House March 23 to protest George W. Bush’s pre-emptive war on Iraq.

NEW YORK – Hundreds of thousands of people filled the streets March 22 in a spirited demonstration against the war on Iraq. The huge protest, held just two days after the start of the war, was proof positive that the peace movement – “the other world superpower” – is strong and growing here, one of the sites of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack.

SHAQLAWA, Iraqi Kurdistan – At dawn, on Thursday, March 20, 2003, Iraq suffered what we have always feared and warned against. The U.S. forces launched their first missile attack on Iraq, signaling the breakout of the war they had been threatening to wage under the pretexts of either “regime-change” or the elimination of the country’s weapons of mass destruction.

“It’s all for nothing; that war could have been prevented,” Michelle Waters, sister of Staff Sgt. Kendall Waters-Bey, one of the first U.S. casualties of the Iraq war, said, tears running down her cheeks.

WASHINGTON – Nobel Peace Prize winners and Roman Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish leaders knelt in front of the White House and were arrested, March 26, protesting George W. Bush’s war on Iraq as a “crime against the peace.”

People seeking asylum in the United States from Iraq, Iran and 32 other countries with supposed “ties to al Qaeda” will be held in government custody as part of the “new security measures” announced on March 18.

AUSTIN, Texas – About 1,000 public school teachers and their supporters rallied at the Capitol here March 17 to stop the cuts in public education funding proposed by the business lobby and the right-wing extremists who control state government.

AROUND THE COUNTRY / MILWAUKEE, Wisc.: The heartland goes out for peace / PITTSBURGH, Pa.: Steel city says: ‘Support the troops – bring them home’ / ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.: Cops use rubber bullets, mace and tear gas on residents / DALLAS, Texas: Center of oil country says stop the war / INDIANAPOLIS, Ind.: Hoosiers arrested for sit-in at Senators’ offices

LOS ANGELES – As protests against the war in Iraq grow across our nation, it is not uncommon for leaders to invoke the name of Cesar Chavez, the founding president of the United Farm Workers.

In the wake of last week’s attack on Iraq by U.S. and British troops, millions around the world poured into the streets for practically continuous anti-war actions. A small sampling follows.