End the War on Freedom

UK Indymedia Center reports that there were over a million protesters on London, 500,000 in Berlin, 200,000 in Melbourne, 1.5 million in Italy, 1 million in Barcelona. Plus close to half a million in New York City. Tens of millions across the world. There are QuickTime^® videos from NYC here. As usual, the Amerikan kops stirred up trouble, but the rest of the world had peaceful demonstrations.

Maureen Godwin at NYC IndyMedia Center - Today they came - posted below a bunch of pictures. I'm including the whole thing, as it's the best description of the behavior of the pigs that I've read.

Today they came. They came to NYC. The young, the old, the middle aged. They bought their children, they bought their grandmothers. The rich, the poor, all colors, all shapes, all sizes. They came in the bitter cold and biting wind. They came to a rally that they couldn't get near. Closed off by police barricades and a federal judge's ruling. They came to hear speakers and music, only a few blocks away, that they wound up only being able to listen to on the radio. They got penned in like cattle, they got herded like sheep. They came to say NO to war and YES to peace.

Today I have never felt more proud or more disgusted to be a New Yorker. Proud that so many of us were out on the streets saying no to war, proud that so many people from all around the country, all around the world came here to exercise their rights, to voice their opposition to Mr. Bush's insanity. And yet disgusted. Disgusted that my city would treat it's citizens and it's visitors the way that it did.

We arrived in midtown around 11:30. The rally at the UN scheduled for 12. Luckily we were able to find parking at 48th Street and Park Avenue. From there we started our journey trying to get near the rally on First Avenue and 51st Street, a journey that ultimately failed. Along with hundreds of thousands of others, we made our way past the primary barricades to Third Avenue and then to Second. At 48th and Second, we found the streets to First Avenue totally blocked off. The police there told us to head North to 51st Street where the streets were open. At 51st, they told us to go to 53rd. At 53rd, they told us to go to 61st. We walked up Second Avenue, to the chants of "What do we want, Peace. When do we want it? Now!" At around 59th Street, near the entrance to the Queensborough Bridge and the tramway to Roosevelt Island, we ran into the first wave of police imposed people "jam". It was here that we got our first glimpses of the NYPD sharpshooters on the roofs of apartment buildings and stores. With barricades all across Second Avenue, and thousands of more people streaming from the West, the streets were impassable. Traffic was halted by the spillover from the sidewalk. We got delayed there for about 15 minutes until finally the police tape came down and we were allowed to walk in the street. At 61st Street, more and more people were jammed into the middle of the street and yet still the NYPD would let no one East to First Avenue. With car traffic to the North, a sea of stalled humanity to the South and the West and not being able to go to the East, we were stuck there for over an hour. It was here that the peace chants were replaced with another chant, "Let us through!". At one point a metal gate was passed over our heads, I heard later that people had broken through the blockades at 65th Street. A police van incredibly drove through the crowd, turning west onto 61st Street. People were crushed together trying to get out of the way. I was pushed up near the barriers where many were trying to reason with the police. One man who I had seen earlier with a group of schoolchildren was imploring an officer to let them through. Telling him that they had not just children but also elderly people with them, the cop still would not allow passage. Above us on one of the roofs, a man with a megaphone appeared. "You have a legal right to demonstrate. A legal right to walk down the street." The police went wild, the First Amendment forgotten, ramming apartment building doors in an attempt to gain access to where the man was shouting on the roof. Shortly after this, an announcement came that 72nd Street was open to First Avenue. The crowd started to thin out and we were finally able to move and breath again. Instead of heading further uptown where we were sure to meet with more closed blocks and more frustration, we headed away from the crowd and walked down to 55th Street. Standing on the sidewalk getting our bearings we watched as a cadre of mounted police galloped through the traffic on the street towards another crowd that was penned in on the corner of 54th. It was disgraceful to watch as they charged into the crowd. The horses were panicking along with the demonstrators. Disgusted we turned to the West again and moved up to Third Avenue. As we crossed back over the barricades there a police officer stopped us and asked how and where we had gotten through to the East side. He wanted to know so that he could tell people where to go. It's a sad state of affairs when a New York City policeman who has been told to direct people can't even tell them which way to go. I told him that his superiors should be ashamed of themselves and the way that this demonstration was handled and he wholeheartedly agreed............

You would think that leaving the demonstration today that I would feel downtrodden and beaten. Believe me I do not. I would go back again tomorrow and do it all over again. Heck, I'd go back again right now. I left with even more resolve then I went there with. Resolve and strength that massing with others and speaking out against this war, IS the RIGHT thing to do. I will live with the determination that I will not rest until this country stops the war talk and starts speaking peace. That I will not rest until I know that my children will live in a world of peace, that they will never have to fight for peace as we have to today.

Maureen Godwin
NYC - February 15, 2003

Brooklyn Antiwar Chant =
1-2-3-4 We Don't Want No Stinking War

SchNEWS - When War Starts - a good, practical idea for a protest after the war starts.

After a year of sabre rattling following the September 11 attacks on the United States, millions of people around the world are already jaundiced with the Bush agenda of war on terrorism. The looming threat of an attack on Iraq makes many nauseous. But the moment the bombs really do start flying, well, it looks like there will be a widespread epidemic of sickness. Ordinary people from all walks of life, workers and students, the unemployed and the disenfranchised, the teachers and the trunants, will be taking to their beds in a mass call-in-sick protest against this murderous policy. In the grand tradition of making love not war, we are calling on people to take to their beds in protest against the war. Whether married or single, casual or committed, you too can make your voice heard by the joining the Stop the War Sick Day.

By calling for this action to take place on the first Monday after war is declared, we aim to show that it is possible to take effective action against the war. When the ruler of the most powerful country in the world threatens global peace in the name of free markets, it is time to give him a lesson in simple economics. How long can they wage war without the workers who make the wealth? With this mass refusal of work, we can not only let Bush and his oil business buddies know what ordinary people really think, but also throw a spanner in the works of the war economy. Joining the Sick Day is not the only way to protest against the war. We also urge you to support the acts of civil disobedience that will be taking place in every town and city in the country. The Sick Day is a small first step to achieving a general strike as the most effective weapon that we have to stop the warmongers.

Scott R. Burnell at Jewish World Review - Surviving a Chemical attack, Part I: Act fast - gas masks and, um..., duct tape, are out. Common sense and quick thinking are your best protection. [scopeny]

Scott R. Burnell at Jewish World Review - Surviving a Chemical attack, Part II: Bioattack manageable - and a little common sense on biological attack. [scopeny]

Garry Reed, The Loose Cannon Libertarian - Conscripting for Freedom - the absurdity of drafting young men into the army in a "free" country.

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