Thousands Rally in D.C. Against Iraq War

By CALVIN WOODWARD, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Tens of thousands rallied in the capital Saturday in an emphatic dissent against preparations for war in Iraq, voicing a cry — "No blood for oil" — heard in demonstrations around the world.

A rally in the shadows of Washington's political and military institutions anchored dozens of smaller protests throughout Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the United States.

In Washington, police said 30,000 marched through the streets, part of a much larger crowd that packed the east end of the National Mall and spilled onto the Capitol grounds.

"We stand here today, a new generation of anti-war activists," Peta Lindsay from International Answer, the main organizers, exhorted the spirited masses in a biting cold. "This is just beginning. We will stop this war."

Police reported few arrests in the rally, which preceded the march past Marine barracks to the Washington Navy Yard. The throng slowed near the barracks as some protesters engaged a small group of counter-demonstrators in a shouting match.

"We don't want this war and we don't want a government that wants this war," said Brenda Stokely, a New York City labor activist. A sign branded America, not Iraq, a "Rogue Nation." Another said, "Disarm Bush."

Activists invoked the nonviolent legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. on the long weekend that marks the civil rights leader's birthday, and booed President Bush (news - web sites), who was at Camp David, Md.

King's historic "I have a dream" speech rang out from the opposite end of the mall, the Abraham Lincoln Memorial, before a crowd of more than 200,000 in 1963.

"Mr. Bush hung Dr. King's picture up in the White House last year but he need to hang up Dr. King's words," the Rev. Al Sharpton, a Democratic presidential candidate, told the demonstration.

Added civil rights activist Jesse Jackson: "We must fight back because our lives are at stake. We march today to fight militarism, and racism, and sexism, and anti-Semitism, and Arab-bashing. We fight for one world."

Terrence Gainer, chief of the U.S. Capitol Police, said "about 30,000 people moved out on the march route," a two-mile trek from the huge rally.

Bush believes that protesting "is a time-honored part of American tradition and it's a strength of our democracy," White House spokeswoman Jeanie Mamo said.

Demonstrators hoped the protests and more ahead would win over an American public unsettled by the prospect of an Iraq war yet supportive of Bush's leadership. Some dared hope their activism would give his administration pause.

"Our voices ought to matter." said Joyce Townsend, 69, who came from Detroit on a bus with members of her church. A sign on her back said, "War is Terror."

As with any big Washington rally, the main cause made room for other causes.

"Free Palestine" was one of them. Racism and genocide were others.

"The underlying motives for this government's actions have always been greed and racism," said Moonanum James of United American Indians of New England.

"In the spirit of Dr. King, in the spirit of Crazy Horse," he said, "no blood for oil."

Elsewhere, protesters denounced Bush's Iraqi policy in San Francisco, Indianapolis and other cities.

In Lansing, Mich., several hundred people met at a church before marching 20 blocks to the state Capitol. "It's just great enthusiasm here, and a great spirit of peacemaking," said the Rev. Fred Thelen from Cristo Rey Catholic Church. Signs said: "Peace is Patriotic" and "Iraqis are not evil."

In Des Moines, Iowa, about 125 protesters marched two miles in a bitter wind that made temperatures feel below zero. "Standing out in this kind of temperature is nothing compared to innocent people losing their lives in Iraq," said marcher Eric Kimmer, 32, a credit union worker.

About 400 people, many of them elderly, gathered in downtown Venice, Fla., to listen to anti-war speeches. "America cannot unsheath the sword, and tell the rest of the world to brandish ploughshares," said Methodist minister Charles McKenzie.

Demonstrators staged peace rallies worldwide, events that typically drew hundreds or fewer.

But 5,000 people marched through downtown Tokyo, carrying toy guns filled with flowers and wearing face masks that parodied Bush.

Larry Holmes, speaking for organizers of the Washington rally, said protesters everywhere sense war is close.

"It seems like it has a momentum and a sense of inevitability, and so we're rushing against the clock," he said. "So as they send the troops there and surround Iraq, we're sending the troops into the streets of Washington, D.C., so to speak."

Three dozen people stood by the Vietnam War Memorial to show support for Bush's policy and offer a contrary voice to the blitz of demonstrations.

"The protesters don't understand the threat" of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein (news - web sites), said Scott Johnson, 55, a Navy veteran from Minneapolis. "It's a war of liberation for people."

Overseas, 60 protesters in Hong Kong shouted, "War, no," and in Pakistan, the familiar refrain "No blood for oil" rang out — a refrain that accuses America of wanting to attack Iraq only to control its oil wealth.

Bush says Saddam has weapons of mass destruction and no qualms about using them on the United States, if he could. U.N. inspectors are in Iraq trying to find them.

More than 400 New Zealanders demonstrated in Christchurch. In Moscow, a few hundred people agitated outside the U.S. Embassy.

In the Syrian capital, Damascus, thousands marched with a message that was not all about peace. Many cried, "Our beloved Saddam, strike Tel Aviv," in celebration of Iraq's missile thrusts against Israel during the 1991 Gulf War (news - web sites) and in hope Saddam would strike again. In the Gaza Strip (news - web sites), Palestinians rallied under the same slogan.

Link: Demonstrations story

Hey Maria

You beat me to it - I was just reading this...basically the same as what you just posted.

And thank God, is all I have to say

Love,
Terri

Protests begin across the world against possible American attack on Iraq

By ANGELA DOLAND


Anti-war protesters gather on the National Mall prior to the start of an anti-war protest, Saturday in Washington.

(AP/Charlie Dharapak)

PARIS (AP) - In the French capital, anti-war protesters shouted in English, "Stop Bush! Stop war!" Tokyo activists carried toy guns filled with flowers. And one banner at a Moscow rally read: "Iraq isn't your ranch, Mr. Bush."

At protests worldwide Saturday, the slogans and banners were different, but the message to the United States was the same: Find a peaceful solution to the Iraq crisis. Demonstrations stretched from Sweden to Egypt to Hong Kong, with the global anti-war movement gaining momentum as the United States and Britain build up troops in the Persian Gulf.

In Canada, protests were planned in several cities.

U.S. President George W. Bush also faced peace protests in several cities at home this weekend.

Protesters rallied by the thousands in the bitter cold of Washington against war with Iraq. A rally outside the Capitol, followed by a march to a naval yard, anchored the demonstrations and brought spirited masses together to declare America the "Rogue Nation," as one sign put it.

"We stand here today, a new generation of anti-war activists," Peta Lindsay from International Answer, the main organizers, exhorted the rally. "This is just beginning. We will stop this war."

"We don't want this war and we don't want a government that wants this war," said Brenda Stokely, a New York City labour activist.

A sign demanded, "Disarm Bush"; the crowd chanted, "No war on Iraq."

Activists invoked the non-violent legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. on the long weekend that marks the civil rights leader's birthday, and booed Bush.

"Mr. Bush hung Dr. King's picture up in the White House last year but he need to hang up Dr. King's words," said Rev. Al Sharpton, a Democratic presidential candidate.

"In Iraq today there are weapons inspectors, but here on the west side of the Capitol are the moral inspectors," he said, referring to a bulk of the demonstrators. "We're inspecting the immoral policies that said, 'No, we can't find the weapons in Iraq, we want to go to war."'

In Paris, the 6,000-strong march was the third countrywide rally since October. French public opinion is against war: A Jan. 12 poll in Le Journal du Dimanche newspaper showed 76 per cent of those surveyed didn't want French troops to take part in a U.S.-led operation.

"You can see people are waking up (to the issue) when they see us marching," said Flore Boudet, a 21-year-old demonstrating with her classmates from the Sorbonne University.

In Moscow, Russians chanted "U.S., hands off Iraq!" and "Yankee, go home!" at a march outside the U.S. Embassy. One banner read: "U.S.A. is international terrorist No. 1."

Elsewhere in Europe, a demonstration in Goteborg, Sweden, attracted 5,000 protesters, while a few hundred people marched in the German cities of Cologne and Bonn.

About 100 people from Turkey's Greens party demonstrated in Istanbul, symbolically throwing toy guns into a trash can. Some 1,000 activists marched in Cairo, while several Pakistani cities had small anti-war demonstrations.

In Tokyo, thousands of people marched in the glitzy Ginza shopping district - including a group of students wearing Bush face masks and toting toy guns filled with flowers. Some Japanese demonstrators played island folk songs on traditional string instruments from Okinawa - home to more than half of the 47,000 U.S. troops in Japan.

On Friday in Baghdad, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein proclaimed his country was ready for war and warned that his enemies risked "suicide" at Baghdad's gates. A day earlier, international weapons inspectors found 12 empty chemical warheads in Iraq - a find described by U.S. officials as "troubling and serious."

UN weapons inspectors played down the discovery.

Britain's UN Ambassador, Jeremy Greenstock, said the development showed "there is stuff out there that needs to be found and checked, and every day that goes by that the Iraqis don't offer this freely and proactively, a day goes by of lowered trust for the Iraqis to co-operate."

The United States and Britain are marshalling a large military force in the Persian Gulf to back up their warnings against Saddam to give up any banned weapons. Iraq claims it has no such weapons.

On Saturday, most of the protesters targeted their anger at Bush, who says the United States has the right to attack even without UN backing. Many activists say a war against Iraq without United Nations approval would be illegal and immoral.

"It is illegal because under current circumstances there is no UN mandate for war," Gabriel Carlyle, a spokesman for the London-based lobby group Voices in the Wilderness, said Friday.

"It is immoral because hundreds and thousands of innocent people will die, and it is not about human rights and democracy but replacing Saddam Hussein with a more U.S.-friendly dictator," he said.

from www.canoe.ca

Thanks Terri and Maria

This is indeed a good sign that popular sentiment is shaking itself out of lethargy now, although it may well be the 11th hour. To me, the message in the last quote above is the most important one that folks seem to be getting:

In reply to:

---

"It is immoral because hundreds and thousands of innocent people will die, and it is not about human rights and democracy but replacing Saddam Hussein with a more U.S.-friendly dictator," he said.

---

I think everyone is aware that Hussein is a brutally sadistic dictator, and compassion for the Iraqi people has prompted many to think twice about opposing this war. He DOES need to be deposed and replaced, as do all leaders everywhere in the world who torture and brutalize their own citizens. We SHOULD work toward that goal, and there are a lot of approaches we could take toward helping the Iraqi people rid themselves of that awful yoke and replace him with a leader of their own choice who respects human rights.

But, even though that aspect is being given lip service by the supporters of peremptory attack, everyone knows that's not what the objectives are here. If it were, there are many places on earth where the dictatorships are even more brutal, that would be far easier to "liberate" than Iraq ... but nobody's saying one word about that. This is about military control of an oil-rich country, purchased at the cost of thousands of innocent human lives. This is not the way to solve anything ... and certainly not the way to show the world that the US is a benevolent protector of human rights. Quite the opposite.

NO WAR!

Love,
Greg

Amen (and women) to that Greg... Very well said!

NO WAR!!!

Good Morning Guys

Just wanted to post this follow-up article today, about how global the protests were.

Love,
Terri


Thousands join global march for peace

(AP/Charlie Dharapak)

PARIS (CP) - In the French capital, anti-war protesters shouted in English, "Stop Bush! Stop war!" Tokyo activists carried toy guns filled with flowers.

And one banner at a Moscow rally read: "Iraq isn't your ranch, Mr. Bush." The slogans and banners were different at protests around the world Saturday but the message to the United States was the same: find a peaceful solution to the Iraq crisis.

President George W. Bush also faced similar opposition in cities at home this weekend.

In Washington, police said 30,000 marched through the streets, part of a much larger crowd that packed the east end of the National Mall and spilled onto the Capitol grounds.

"We stand here today, a new generation of anti-war activists," Peta Lindsay from International Answer, the main organizers, exhorted the spirited masses in a biting cold.

"This is just beginning. We will stop this war."

Police reported few arrests in the rally, which preceded the march past marine barracks to the navy yard. The throng slowed near the barracks as some protesters engaged a small group of counter-demonstrators in a shouting match.

"We don't want this war and we don't want a government that wants this war," said Brenda Stokely, a New York City labour activist.

A sign branded America, not Iraq, a "Rogue Nation." Another said, "Disarm Bush."

Activists invoked the non-violent legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. on the long weekend that marks the civil rights leader's birthday, and booed Bush, who was at Camp David, Md.

Bush believes protesting "is a time-honoured part of American tradition and it's a strength of our democracy," White House spokeswoman Jeanie Mamo said.

Tens of thousands also demonstrated in San Francisco - a diverse collection of teenagers, retirees, seasoned activists and first-time protesters. Aris Cisneros, 38, brought his two young children.

"I want Bush to see that his people are against the war," he said.

"I want to show my children that they can stand up to stupidity."

The Canadian peace movement turned out in force, as thousands gathered to protest against the prospect of war against Iraq.

In Vancouver, which assembled one of the country's largest rallies, members of a Unitarian congregation sang the chorus of the anti-war anthem Give Peace a Chance.

After the thousands-strong march, protesters packed the lawn of the Vancouver Art Gallery for a rally and spilled onto a nearby street, where they were greeted by the raucous sound of DOA, the legendary local punk band.

In the sub-zero chill of mid-winter Ottawa, a crowd estimated by RCMP at 2,500 gathered on Parliament Hill and marched to Defence Department headquarters.

In front of the U.S. Embassy, protesters staged a "die-in," falling to the ground after an air-raid siren blared, followed by a moment of silence.

In Toronto, the area in front of the city hall was packed with an estimated 5,000 people demanding the federal government not support a U.S.-led attack on Iraq.

Joseph Comartin, NDP member of Parliament for Windsor-St. Clair, pointed to recent comments by British Prime Minister Tony Blair as proof the demonstrations are working.

Under pressure from his Labour party, Blair called last week for more time for UN weapons inspectors to prove Iraq has weapons of mass destruction before launching military action.

Jack Layton, longtime Toronto city councillor and now a federal NDP leadership candidate, was critical of what he called Liberal government's inconsistent stance on military action in Iraq.

"You can't waffle on a question like going to war," Layton said in an interview.

In Montreal, several thousand demonstrators braved frigid temperatures to wave placards and chant anti-war slogans.

Amir Khadir, who returned from a mission in Iraq last month with the French organization Medecins du Monde (Doctors of the World), told the Montreal demonstrators sanctions imposed since the Persian Gulf War a decade ago are already costing Iraqi children their lives.

He said 4,200 Iraqi children under five years of age died in the month he was there, so "we are already at war."

In Halifax, about 1,500 people marched through the city streets. At a packed rally following the march, former Iraqi citizen Andrews Yeusif said he's constantly worried about his homeland and wants Bush to have a talk with God before he sends his soldiers into battle against Iraq.

More than 200 protesters marched through snow-filled streets of Edmonton to add their voice of dissent.

Brian Mason, a member of the provincial New Democrats, called upon the Canadian government to refuse to participate in any U.S. attack on Iraq.

"This is an unjust war," he said.

In the southern Alberta city Lethbridge, another 200 people took to the streets, chanting, drumming and carrying placards, including one that suggested the United States "Drop Bush, not the bomb."

There were also peaceful demonstrations in Winnipeg, Saskatoon and Prince Albert, Sask.

At a 6,000-strong demonstration in Paris - the third countrywide anti-war demonstration since October - many shouted "Down with war!" and a few people set off firecrackers. A Jan. 12 poll in France's Le Journal du Dimanche newspaper showed 76 per cent of those surveyed didn't want French troops to take part in a U.S.-led operation.

"You can see people are waking up (to the issue) when they see us marching," said Flore Boudet, a 21-year-old philosophy student demonstrating with classmates from the Sorbonne University in Paris.

About 50 smaller French cities also had protests, including Lyon, Marseille and Strasbourg.

In Moscow, Russians chanted "U.S., hands off Iraq!" and "Yankee, go home!" outside the U.S. Embassy.

Many of the protesters targeted their anger at Bush who says the United States has the right to attack even without backing from the United Nations Security Council.

"It is illegal because under current circumstances there is no UN mandate for war," Gabriel Carlyle, a spokesman for the London-based lobby group Voices in the Wilderness, said.

"It is immoral because hundreds and thousands of innocent people will die, and it is not about human rights and democracy but replacing (Iraqi President) Saddam Hussein with a more U.S.-friendly dictator," he said.

At at least one demonstration - in Bologna, Italy - police fired tear gas when the crowd got out of control. Some activists in a 2,000-strong protest tried to break through a line of police who were blocking off a small, unrelated demonstration by rightists. There were no arrests or injuries, police said.

A few protests targeted bases of the British and U.S. military, which are amassing troops in the Persian Gulf to prepare for possible war. In one of several German protests, people sang "We shall overcome" outside the U.S. army Europe headquarters in Heidelberg. Near London, about 200 people demonstrated outside the barbed wire fence of the armed forces' Permanent Joint Headquarters.

Police in the Netherlands detained 90 activists who tried to enter Volkel Air Force Base, where Dutch and U.S. forces are stationed, to conduct a "citizens' inspection of American nuclear arms."

In Istanbul, communist protesters took their anger out on another symbol of British and American influence: They staged a protest outside a theatre showing the latest James Bond movie.

In the Middle East, a march in Cairo drew 1,000 people, while some of the 4,000 protesters in Beirut brandished posters showing Saddam.

Not all protesters were pushing for peace: In the Syrian capital, Damascus, some people shouted: "Our beloved Saddam, strike Tel Aviv," a refrain from the 1991 Gulf War.

In Hyderabad, India, communist workers burned the effigy of Bush, while police stopped about 200 protesters from marching on the U.S. Consulate in Lahore, Pakistan.

Thousands protested in Tokyo's glitzy Ginza shopping district, including a group of students wearing Bush face masks and toting toy guns filled with flowers. Some Japanese demonstrators played island folk songs on traditional string instruments from Okinawa - home to more than half of the 47,000 U.S. troops in Japan.

In Hong Kong, about 60 people chanted "Inspections, yes! War, no!" and "Yankee, go home!" as they marched through the financial district to the U.S. and British consulates.

from: www.canoe.ca

Thanks Terri .

ALL WE ARE SAYING, IS GIVE PEACE A CHANCE.....



LOVE AND PEACE,
RAINBOW

I'm feeling somewhat hopeful. Having this thought that there's really no turning back the clock. So many people: Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., the Berrigan brothers, John & Yoko ... have shown us again and again in modern times that nonviolent actions that make a scene for principles *can* work. If enough people get committed and show it, we as a human family can make progress for peace and justice.

The organization that coordinated these demonstrations this weekend has a website at:

http://www.internationalanswer.org/

Maria

Birds of a feather and what good company they keep too.

http://www.newsmax.com/showinsidecover.shtml?a=2003/1/18/161534

http://www.newsmax.com/showinsidecover.shtml?a=2003/1/18/122001

http://www.newsmax.com/showinsidecover.shtml?a=2003/1/18/111031

Yes, it's true large demonstrations include people who run the gamut from very middle-of-the-road to quite radical. The mainstream press has a propensity to report on what appears to be the most common message that the entire crowd came out to make a statement about. The stories you posted appear to be well reported by journalists most interested in reporting on the most radical voices competing for the crowd's attention. They were interesting stories, and I read every word. Thanks for adding those to the discussion.

Maria

Hi guys,

It's great to see that even in these troubled times, freedom of speech is still protected. (Even if the message is unquestionably unconsionable) I don't think it does anyone any harm to hear how "the other side" feel and to try and understand where they are coming from.

Love,
Terri

I was impressed big time at the numbers.

Here in Montreal, the temperature was -15°C if not lower yet as a friend and I went into the city to join in the demonstration... wow! thousands were marching in too. The newspaper said, around 20,000.

Amazing, and hoping it has an effect... but even if they do go ahead to war. It is good to see that people aren't indifferent!

It's a relief people are beginning to speak up....
and polls for the war show that approval has dropped.

Thats why the powers that be had a big meeting today to discuss strategy for convincing our allies that we need to do this.....the demonstrations made them nervous....good!

The only reason he keeps saying that time is running out...is because time IS running out...before the next election...and who knows if 'good ol cousin Chad ' will be available for the next vote!

Peace and NO WAR!!!!!!!

N.Z.Sparky

Thanks for all of those links Maria and jwhop, I'll have to put that on my list of things to look at on the net the next time I'm in a studious mood.

I love the button Sabra... PEACE

Hi All

Sabra, to go with your "Back by Popular Demand," a friend sent me these, from signs at the demonstrations. Some of these may pet some people's fur backwards (as Dani says ) but they make you think...

> The greatest purveyor of war is our own government. (Martin Luther King Jr.)
>
> If there is no struggle, there is no progress. (Frederick Douglass)
>
> What luck for the rulers that men do not think. (Hitler)
>
> An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind. (Ghandi)
>
> A terrorist act for a terrorist act leaves us all dead.
>
> Pre-emptive war is terrorism.
>
> This War = terrorism with a bigger budget.
>
> This war is a weapon of mass distraction.
>
> Terrorists wear suits.
>
> War orphans make great terrorists.
>
> Fear does not justify war.
>
> Not in my name.
>
> Regime change begins at home.
>
> Inspection begins at home.
>
> The empty warheads are in the White House.
>
> Bush's policies: endangering America, enraging the world.
>
> The war budget leaves EVERY child behind.
>
> Poverty is the enemy.
>
> How many lives per gallon?
>
> The end is near (picture of an empty gas can).
>
> Don't be a fossil fool.
>
> Wake up and smell the oil.
>
> Wake up and smell the Kofi.
>
> Wake up, Muggles.
>
> Peace is possible.
>
> Speak your mind, even if your voice shakes. (Maggie Kuhn)
>
> Fundamentalists for peace.
>
> Republican for peace.
>
> School nurses for peace.
>
> Knitters for peace.
>
> Raiders fans for peace.
>
> You may think that I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. (John Lennon)
>
> Anything war can do, peace can do better.
>
> You can bomb the world to pieces but you can't bomb the world to peace.
>
> Who would Jesus bomb?
>

Wow! Those are great Maria. Thank you .

They do make one think. Some of them I recall, were from the 60's. Speaking of which, do you remember this one?

"What if they gave a war and nobody came . . ."



It could be applied today.

Sabra

Wow Maria

Many a Truth spoken there...

I know it wasn't meant to be funny - but there were a few on that listed that really appealed to my naughty sense of humor. "Wake Up Muggles" and "The empty warheads are in the White House" hehehe

"Astrologers for Peace"

Love,
Terri

Maria

I went to that link that you posted today (about A.N.S.W.E.R.) and voted against the War in Iraq. That site had a powerful energy, and gave me much Hope...

The news stories were encouraging and the pictures moving. The last one in Pakistan with the children holding the cut-out doves really said it all...

Hi to all peacekeepers..
Kel, Ive heard the group ANSWER has its own secret agenda, but would like to find out more about that before posting.
Im certainly partial to the phrase.."Drop Bush, not bombs"!
http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/Northeast/01/26/anti.war.protest.ap/index.html

Hey Kel,

That link that Aries (thank you ) has provided is from none other than your favorite town. The one and only Steel City.


Sabra

Maria, a big giangantic wow! I hadn't enjoyed a post like this for a long time! There all so good and I really love the Ghandi one. " an eye for an eye, leaves the world blind "

I'm glad to hear that my fellow Pittsburgher's are out protesting and having their voices be heard. Thanks for drawing my attention to that link Sabra, I'm sure that Aries posted that knowing that it was from my home town.

I like that saying to A~

Here's what NCR is reporting about the group that organized the demonstrations. This is part of a package of stories in the current issue, January 31, 2003, in the "Paths to Peace" section:

Paths to Peace

------------------------------------------------------------

Antiwar bedfellows

Running mass demonstrations like the Jan. 18 antiwar protest in Washington requires organizational skill: Crowds must be generated, buses chartered, permits secured, and Port-A-Johns put in place. It is a large undertaking.

Heading up the antiwar movement's logistical effort is the New York-based International Answer Coalition -- or "Act Now to Stop War and End Racism."

International Answer spokesman Richard Duncan describes the group as a coalition of many groups and people -- from "liberals to Marxists" -- united in opposition to war with Iraq.

Others see a less benign presence.

"The big national mobilizations have been dominated by International Answer ... which is largely a front group for the Workers World Party, which is a Marxist, Leninist and Trotskyite group which takes really hard-line positions, including refusal to criticize the Iraqi regime," said University of San Francisco peace and justice studies professor Stephen Zunes. "I think the demonstrations would have been twice as big had the organizers been from a wider range of antiwar groups and not so dominated by this tiny Marxist/Leninist faction."

Washington Post columnist Michael Kelly, meanwhile, writes that International Answer "supported the butchers of Beijing after the slaughter of Tiananmen Square. It supports Saddam Hussein and his Baathist torture-state. It supports the last official Stalinist state, North Korea, in the mass starvation of its citizens. It supported Slobodan Milosevic after the massacre at Srebrenica. It supports the mullahs of Iran, and the narco-gangsters of Colombia and the bus-bombers of Hamas."

What no one disputes is the group's organizational skill.

"We're really lucky and fortunate that one group was able to take several months of time to put together a huge mobilization," said Kathy Kelly of Voices in the Wilderness. Said Zunes: "One thing about Leninists is -- with their hierarchy -- they're good organizers."

Still, some peace activists hope the group will soon take a backseat.

"Most [antiwar demonstrators] said, 'Well, this is a drag, but this is the only game in town,' " said Zunes. For the October antiwar protests, said Zunes, a majority of antiwar organizations -- wary of International Answer's control of the event and agenda -- refused to endorse the rally, though most encouraged their members to attend.

"But [for the most recent protests] more groups did formally endorse it, and hopefully by the next round, International Answer will be a clear minority contingent and not have such a disproportionate role. I'm pretty confident the movement will outgrow the ability of any one little faction to control it, but it has definitely been a disappointment," Zunes said.

-- Joe Feuerherd

National Catholic Reporter, January 31, 2003

http://natcath.org/ncr_onli.htm

Wow Maria.....those are awesome...thankyou for posting them here!

"How many lives per gallon?"....wow.......



Dani

Very welcome, Dani.

Here's another interesting story, from the Los Angeles Times today, about making a stand for peace. I remember several months ago when the military approach was gearing up and Greg posted about some intellectuals issuing a news release in favor of peaceful solutions, but it didn't get much coverage in the mainstream press. I remember saying that, in that case, they should take out a full-page ad, like John & Yoko did and like Yoko still does. (They even bought billboards to get the word out and promote peace.) It seems the practice has indeed caught on...

In reply to:

---

February 4, 2003

CULTURE
Building a buzz for peace
Frustrated by a lack of media coverage, antiwar protesters are pooling their resources.

By Hilary E. MacGregor, Times Staff Writer
http://www.latimes.com

One afternoon last week on the Fox Studios lot, a van pulled up at Stage 5. Tyne Daly and Amy Brenneman, co-stars of the show "Judging Amy," leapt out and were met by a cameraman, a boom operator, a director and a couple of lighting technicians, who pulled the actresses inside and swung into action.

The camera rolled.

"I love my country and I want to keep America safe," read Brenneman. "I believe we can contain Saddam Hussein through inspections."

"Attacking Iraq makes us more vulnerable to terrorist attacks in the future," Daly said. "We do not need to go to war, killing American soldiers and innocent Iraqi people."

Brenneman looked solemnly into the camera. "We can win without war," she said.

In 25 minutes, the pair were back in the van, eating box lunches, zooming back to work. Within days, the footage was to be edited into a 30-second television spot, the latest in a series of antiwar ads filmed by Artists United to Win Without War and paid for by TrueMajority.com, a liberal activist group started by Ben & Jerry's co-founder Ben Cohen. The first spot, featuring Susan Sarandon, aired last week, before and after President Bush's State of the Union speech. CNN rejected the spots, Cohen said. But TrueMajority is spending $200,000 to place the ads on local cable stations.

The art of the antiwar protest is conventional, crude, creative and continually evolving, varying with the era and the mass medium of the moment. But the point has always been to raise awareness by getting attention. Today, peace and antiwar groups are protesting not only possible war with Iraq, but also the lack of coverage of the nascent movement in the mainstream media by spending scarce funds on newspaper ads and airtime.

From Republicans to Democrats to Hollywood celebrities, from labor unions to church groups, from middle-class suburbanites to college students, concerned citizens have pooled their resources in recent months to take out full page ads in the Los Angeles Times, USA Today, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and dozens of smaller papers across the country. Some are simply lists of names; others are notices for marches. A group of Republican business executives bought a page in the Wall Street Journal on Jan. 13 for "A Republican Dissent on Iraq." The same week, a group of Democrats calling itself Americans Against War With Iraq ran a full-page ad in the Los Angeles Times. "Who's against a U.S. War on Iraq?" it asked. "2 out of 3 Americans. 7 out of 8 Brits. 1 out of 1 Popes." It included 2,000 signatures.

To generate buzz -- essentially free advertising -- for its own antiwar television spot, MoveOn.org hired Fenton Communications, the same company that promoted Arianna Huffington's recent anti-SUV ads.

The Bush administration, of course, doesn't have to resort to advertising to get its message out, says Robert McChesney, a professor of communications at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. "There is a frustration among peace activists that they feel they have to buy ads to even get news coverage. It ultimately reflects their dissatisfaction and powerlessness, politically and with the press."

John Hanson, 30, is a volunteer organizer for International A.N.S.W.E.R. (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism), a group formed three days after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks as a response to the war on terrorism at home and abroad. It helped organize an antiwar march Jan. 11 in downtown Los Angeles and ran an ad in The Times' California section five days before to promote it. "We have been blasting the media with information about what is going on," Hanson said, "but we have had trouble getting coverage for different events, protests." This approach, he said, was born out of necessity.

Historians and media critics say complaints about a lack of coverage by the mainstream media are nothing new. "Antiwar demonstrations, labor demonstrations, they are the weak spot of traditional journalism," McChesney said. "The problem has only gotten worse in the last 15 to 20 years."

Former newspaper editor Bill Kovach, who heads the Washington-based Project for Excellence in Journalism, said the lack of media coverage is a cause for legitimate concern.

"The most troubling examples I know firsthand are here in Washington," said Kovach, who is also a former curator of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard. "The first antiwar demonstration in Washington last October was abysmally under-covered. The New York Times missed it entirely the first day and had to play catch-up with a story that wasn't good. It was the same with the Washington Post. The coverage was not even pro forma; it was dismissive.

"I went to see the second demonstration for myself a couple of weeks ago, so I could compare what I saw with the coverage.... The thing that disturbed me most, in terms of journalism, was that there were a lot of speakers taking a lot of different positions and perspectives. That wasn't in the coverage. It all was anecdotal, as if they were covering a picnic....

"I can't really figure out why," Kovach said. "Editors with whom I spoke said they'd made a mistake the first time but that they'd catch up. They didn't do that, according to my judgment. It reminded me of when I was growing up in this business in east Tennessee in the late 1950s, and there was some coverage of the behavior of some young blacks at the lunch counters over in Greensboro, N.C. My local newspaper treated it with the same sort of dismissive story they'd given a panty raid at the local college about six months before."

Lila Garrett, founder of Americans Against War With Iraq, said her group was the first to run a national newspaper ad protesting the possible war, back in September 2002. To date, it has spent $90,000 on three full-page ads in major papers, and more are planned. "We felt we were representing the opinion of the majority of Americans and that that opinion was not being represented in the mainstream media," Garrett said.

Other activists say their perspectives are covered by the media, but are often misrepresented, belittled or marginalized. "It's not that there isn't coverage," said Eli Pariser, 22, international campaigns director for MoveOn.org. "It's that the coverage fails to describe the character of the opposition in the terms in which I see it -- as a mainstream and very widespread movement.... If you read the news articles, it still looks like this fringy thing. When you get the Sierra Club and the National Council of Churches and the NAACP and the big unions, when you get them in a room talking and they agree, that is not fringy."

MoveOn.org was formed during President Clinton's impeachment trial as a grass-roots effort to get Congress to "move on" to other issues. It has since reinvented itself as an online civic group that specializes in mobilizing support through the Internet on issues ranging from campaign finance to tax policy and, now, opposition to a war with Iraq.

The group, which claims more than 660,000 members, says it raised $400,000 from 11,000 people, much of it in contributions of $35 or less, to pay for a five-day television campaign in 13 major markets, including Los Angeles.

Its ad, which raises the specter of nuclear war if the U.S. attacks Iraq, is a remake of the classic 1964 Lyndon Johnson campaign ad that suggested electing Barry Goldwater president could lead to a nuclear war. The new ad, which aired last month around the country, shows a little girl counting flower petals in a field of daisies, then cuts to a nuclear explosion. "Let the inspections work," it reads against the background of a mushroom cloud.

Organizers of antiwar protests and grass-roots events say ads are not only a way to be heard, but also a way to reach beyond their core constituency and legitimize their position. "There are a lot of people who are in mainstream, middle-class society," Hanson says, "who think reading the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal brings an air of respectability. They will see that [ad] and feel that it is OK that they have had these feelings.... They are more likely to participate in an event if they read about it in a publication that a lot of people read. They think, 'Maybe I'm not the only one.' "

Other organizers stress that they are not abandoning traditional forms of protest by embracing ads. They are simply adding to the mix.

Wes Boyd, 44, founder and president of MoveOn.org, believes ads allow older, more mainstream Americans who don't want to carry picket signs to express their views. "At $35 a person, for 11,000 people, an ad is a great way for middle-class people to 'march,' to get out and be heard," Boyd said. MoveOn's goal is to show that resistance to war with Iraq is broad, and "nothing is more mainstream than television," he said.

Charles Chatfield, a retired professor at Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio, who has studied the history of antiwar sentiment, says the repertory of protest remains largely unchanged. But the media -- and particularly television -- tend to focus on the newest and most dramatic forms.

During the Vietnam War, for example, there was education in the newspapers, lobbying in Congress, and Southeast Asian specialists all speaking out, Chatfield said. "But nobody paid attention. That wasn't the peace movement. TV had convinced people that the peace movement was marches, young people and the counterculture."

Today, though, "marches are not so novel anymore," Chatfield said, and for that reason, news of demonstrations is routinely "buried."

Not everyone believes ads are the picket signs of the 21st century, however. "Resources are scarce for peace groups," said media critic McChesney. "If you are running them over and over, they start to have diminishing returns." He said the cost of a few full-page ads in major papers could pay for a full-time organizer for a year.

Director-producer Robert Greenwald, co-founder of Artists United to Win Without War, a group of Hollywood actors, producers and directors who followed a celebrity press conference in December with a full-page ad in the New York Times pleading with President Bush to "Let the Inspections Work," said he can see McChesney's point. "Initially, the ad was important to show there was opposition," Greenwald said. "There is no secret now that there is widespread, deep, diverse opposition. We need to think about other tactics now."

But Norman Solomon, author of "Target Iraq: What the News Media Didn't Tell You" (to be published this month iby Context Books) and executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy, a nationwide consortium of public policy researchers, said print ads can be a compelling way to air a dissenting perspective.

"There is a difference between being quoted in a news article or being sound-bitten, on TV or radio, and having an unfiltered opportunity to make a case," Solomon said. "One of the things print ads allow is the chance to convey a sense of logic that is usually truncated, if not shredded, by news accounts."

Those who have placed ads -- especially television ads -- say there is no denying their effectiveness. A week after its TV ad first appeared on the news, MoveOn.org reported that its membership had grown by 100,000. The ad was covered on virtually every major network. It was shown and discussed on news programs in Australia, Pakistan, Russia and Japan. The tally is ongoing, but the ad generated at least 110 television news stories and dozens in print, according to an Interim Media Coverage Report by Fenton Communications.

As MoveOn's Boyd says, "Controversial ads get covered."

Times staff writer Tim Rutten contributed to this report.

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Maria

Hi Maria,

I recall you saying that too . Maybe they heard you. Nothing like the power of advertisement. Let's hope what John & Yoko did is contagious.

Thank you for posting the above .

Sabra

A friend of mine sent me some more slogans....some are repeats of the ones Maria posted.....
others are new.....well worth the read.

Here 'Tis:

> Draft The Bush Twins
> Don't Mess With Mesopotamia
> War Is SO 20th Century
> When Bush Comes To Shove
> Brains Not Bombs
> George Dubya: Weapon Of Mass Distraction
> Beat The Bushes For Peace
> Weapons Of Mass Destruction: Look Under The Bushes
> Drop Bush, Not Bombs
> Bombing For Peace Is Like F*cking For Virginity
> Evolve! Work For A Non-violent Future
> If War Is The Answer We're Asking The Wrong Question
> Killing Innocent People Is The Problem, Not The Solution
> Save America, Spare Iraq, Make Texas Take Him Back
> Real Patriots Drive Hybrids
> Small Print For Peace (on a teensy card held aloft on a stick like any
large sign)
> Drop Names, Not Bombs
> Who Would Jesus Bomb?
> Stop Mad Cowboy Disease
> George Bush Couldn't Run A Laundromat
> Bush Is A Servant Of Sauron. We Hates Him!
> Make Love, Not W
> There Is No Path To Peace - Peace IS The Path
> Justice Or Just Us?
> Sorry Dubya - Have A Pretzel Instead
> Pretzel - It Does A Country Good
> Tame The Tyrant In The Mirror, Then The One In Iraq
> Cheney, Bush, Rumsfeld: Axis Of Weasel
> Go Solar, Not Ballistic
> Faster Trains Not Planes
> Nonviolence, Not Nonexistence
> A Village In Texas Has Lost Its Idiot
> How Many Lives Per Gallon?
> Make Alternative Energy Not War
> How Did Our Oil Get Under Their Soil?
> Out Beyond Ideas Of Right Doing And Wrong Doing There Is A Field. I Will
Meet You There.
> Rumi Regime Change Begins At Home
> More MPGs, Less MIAs Put The Peace Back In No Hitting (held by young
girl)
> No Oilgarchy (Oilgarchy in circle with slash across it)
> God Does Not Bless Only America Rich Man's War Poor Man's Blood
> Has Anyone Seen Our Constitution Lately?
> What If God Blesses Iraq?
> Born To Kill, Born To Drill
> Let's Try Preemptive Peace
> Our Grief Is Not A Cry For War
> Books Not Bombs
> If You Are Not Outraged You Are Not Paying Attention
> Bush Is A Moron Don't Let Him Get His War On
> Make Soup Not War
> Honk If You're A Terrorist
> Smart Bombs Don't Justify Dumb Leaders
> We Have Guided Missiles And Misguided Men
> Who's The Unelected Tyrant With The Bomb?
> Peaceful Solution Not Daddy's Retribution
> Make Tea Not War
> All Humanity Is Downwind
> My President Is A Psychopath
> Relax, George
> Fight Plaque not Iraq!" (and the guy was carrying a toothbrush).



and Peace,

Dani

Good ones, Dani!
(hey, please send me a copy if you haven't already,k?)

I believe I'll be giggling to myself all day everytime I think of "The Axis of Weasel",
I imagine Pauley Shore visiting the White House.... "Dude!! It's The Weee-sol!!!"

War is SO 20th Century......

Lisa

Thanks Dani And thanks Maria for that lengthy article on folks taking matters into their own hands (and pocketbooks) to get the news out.

One thing that struck me was the comment early in the article about placement of TrueMajority's antiwar ads:

In reply to:

---

CNN rejected the spots, Cohen said. But TrueMajority is spending $200,000 to place the ads on local cable stations.

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If that is not enough to show that there is a DELIBERATE media suppression of dissent, I don't know what is! I am not talking here of the individual journalists and commentators who, I agree, by and large have enormous dedication and integrity. I am talking about the big business corporate OWNERS of the media. What possible explanation is there for refusing to air a paid-for antiwar message, other than that the media doing the refusing (CNN in this case) desires to suppress that message? (Or are afraid of reprisals if they don't suppress it.)

You don't have to believe in a conspiracy of journa