Beyond Protest

Organizers of Antiwar Movement Plan to Go Beyond Protests

By Glenn Frankel
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, March 3, 2003; Page A14

LONDON, March 2 -- The people who helped organize the largest worldwide peace 
demonstration in history last month say they are not through yet.

More than 120 activists from 28 countries emerged from an all-day strategy 
session here this weekend with plans not just to protest a prospective 
U.S.-led war against Iraq but to prevent it from happening. They want to 
intensify political pressure on the Bush administration's closest allies -- 
the leaders of Britain, Italy and Spain -- and force them to withdraw their 
support, leaving the United States, if it chooses to fight, to go it alone. 
And they intend to further disrupt war plans with acts of civil disobedience 
against U.S. military bases, supply depots and transports throughout Europe.

Finally, if war breaks out, they say, they will demonstrate in towns and 
cities around the world on the evening of the first day, and hold a worldwide 
rally on the following Saturday that they hope will rival or surpass their 
efforts of Feb. 15.

"We still believe we can stop this war before it begins," said Chris Nineham, 
one of the British organizers of this weekend's conference, held at the Stop 
the War Coalition's offices in northeast London. "But if not, we're putting 
the warmongers on notice that there will be massive protests on the day war 
breaks out and the following weekend."

In interviews last week, several of the organizers of the Feb. 15 protests 
traced the origins of the antiwar movement, described how they put together 
that event and discussed where they go from here. For the most part, the 
organizations are tiny, shoestring operations -- the London-based coalition 
operates out of two cubbyhole offices with four desktop computers, a handful 
of phone lines and a half-dozen paid staff members. But they use the Internet, 
cell phones and their connections with trade unions and local governments to 
establish links and coordinate with other organizations around the world.

Their plans might sound grandiose. But these are the same activists who pulled 
off the stunning success of two weeks ago, when between 6 million and 12 
million protesters gathered in about 75 countries to oppose military action.

"We've never really seen a movement like this before -- it's unpredictable 
because it's so unprecedented," said Paul Rogers, professor of peace studies 
at Bradford University in Britain. "But it does seem that a large proportion 
of the people who participated two weeks ago are becoming quite politicized 
just by going on the demonstration. If war begins, and it doesn't have U.N. 
approval, we could see mass demonstrations again."

The huge turnouts that day in cities including Rome, London, Madrid, Berlin, 
Paris and New York reflected popular disaffection with U.S. military power and 
the prospect of war among a broad swath of the public -- from political 
radicals to church groups, trade unions and ordinary citizens. But it was 
organized for the most part by a small network of activists from the 
ideological left, the anti-globalization movement and peace groups. For years 
these activists have stood on picket lines and organized demonstrations 
seeking ways to ignite mass popular support, with mixed results at best. But 
the increasing likelihood of war has given them an issue that resonates with 
public opinion throughout the world.

Many of the organizers confess that they were stunned by the size and scope of 
the demonstrations two weeks ago. "A big part of our meeting was about 
digesting the shock of the earthquake that was February 15," said Larry 
Holmes, an organizer in New York for International ANSWER, one of the U.S. 
groups organizing the rallies. "We were just as surprised as everyone else. 
But you're seeing a new sense of confidence among organizations. People don't 
want this war, and they're giving us a mandate to do whatever it takes to stop 
it."

The organizers say the February rallies were first agreed upon at a small 
strategy session in Florence in November. But their roots go back to the days 
just after Sept. 11, 2001, when activists say they began meeting to map out 
opposition to what they anticipated would be the U.S. military response to the 
terrorist attacks on New York and the Pentagon.

In Britain, according to organizer John Rees, several hundred activists first 
got together the weekend after Sept. 11. Most were from the hard core of the 
British left -- the Socialist Workers Party, the Campaign for Nuclear 
Disarmament and the anti-capitalist organization Globalized Resistance, along 
with Labor Party legislators Jeremy Corbyn and George Galloway. Within weeks, 
they had combined with representatives from two more important elements -- 
Britain's growing Muslim community and its militant trade unions. By October 
they had a name: the Stop the War Coalition.

More than 50,000 demonstrators came out in London for an October 2001 peace 
rally; the same numbers protested in November against the U.S.-led invasion of 
Afghanistan. A demonstration last Sept. 28 brought several hundred thousand 
people to Hyde Park in London to protest war in Iraq and demand "Freedom for 
Palestine." After that, activists decided to push for a worldwide 
demonstration.

About 30 organizers from 11 European countries met on a Saturday morning, Nov. 
9, at the Fortezza da Basso, a 16th-century fortress in the northwestern part 
of Florence, as part of a week of protest activities sponsored by the European 
Social Forum, an anti-globalization network. The Italians pushed for a date in 
December, Rees recalled. But British representatives persuaded them to wait 
until Feb. 15, when the Christmas holidays would be over and universities 
would be back in session throughout Europe.

Originally, the activists believed the Feb. 15 protests might be confined to a 
few European capitals. But at a follow-up meeting in Copenhagen in December, 
representatives of peace groups based in the United States and the Philippines 
pledged their support for the February date. In Cairo that same month, 400 
representatives from several Middle Eastern and Asian countries joined in 
signing a declaration of support for the Iraqi and Palestinian people and 
appointed a coordinating committee headed by former Algerian president Ahmed 
Ben Bella that pledged to join in the February rallies. Finally, in late 
January, the activists got together once more for a gathering of the World 
Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil, where the number of countries from which 
people agreed to take part on Feb. 15 rose from 30 to 74.

"We realized then that this had evolved into a worldwide coalition," said an 
Italian organizer who insisted on anonymity.

Since Feb. 15, the activists have sought to keep up the pressure, especially 
in Britain, where Prime Minister Tony Blair is ranked as President Bush's top 
international supporter. While the House of Commons debated Blair's stance on 
Wednesday, dozens of activists protested outside St. Stephen's Gate at 
Parliament and lobbied Labor Party lawmakers, seeking their commitment to 
oppose Blair. The prime minister won the vote that day in the face of a large 
revolt by Labor backbenchers that has left him wounded politically. Hundreds 
more activists visited lawmakers this weekend at their local offices.

"We know that a lot of [lawmakers] were really rattled by the February 15 
demonstration," said Ghada Razuki, a British Iraqi activist who led 
Wednesday's protest. "We want to keep the pressure on to get them off the 
fence."

Campaigns to disrupt U.S. forces have also been launched. Besides the dozens 
of activists who have traveled to Baghdad to volunteer as "human shields" 
against a U.S. attack, nine Dutch antiwar activists were arrested Tuesday for 
chaining themselves to the gates of a U.S. military center outside Rotterdam. 
In Italy, hundreds of protesters occupied train stations and railway tracks 
for nearly a week to delay trains carrying U.S. military equipment from 
northern Italy to the Camp Darby military base near Pisa. Irish protesters 
broke through the perimeter fence at Shannon airport in January and damaged a 
U.S. Navy plane, causing other planes to divert their flights and refuel 
elsewhere. Trade union movements in Italy and France are pledging work 
disruptions and considering general strikes if war breaks out.

Organizers say they would like to find a way to channel the newfound 
enthusiasm and activism into a worldwide political movement. But they say the 
disparate nature of those participating would make such a movement difficult 
if not impossible.

"This was caused by social forces, and it's not something that organizations 
produced," said Andrew Burgin, a member of the coalition's British steering 
committee. "They're not in our control. . . . You don't lead a movement like 
this, the movement leads you."

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