-The fourth anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq on 20 March 2003 drew hundreds of thousands of people throughout the world to demonstrate against the war, in Canada, Australia, Turkey, and across Europe, where the largest march an estimated 100,000 was in Spain. However, March also saw America mounting a huge number and variety of peace demonstrations. During the anniversary weekend of 17-18 March, over 1,000 US protests took place nationwide, including a march on the Pentagon that drew tens of thousands of people despite freezing rain and snow and a vicious windchill factor. In another event in Washington, DC, nearly 3,000 people from all over the US gathered at the Washington National Cathedral in an event sponsored by more than two dozen religious groups. Protestors included Christian peace activists, about 100 of whom were arrested as they prayed for peace in a planned act of civil disobedience. Participants heard speakers including Celeste Zappala, whose son was killed in Iraq in 2004. "I am here tonight as a witness to the true cost of war," she said, "the betrayal and madness that is the war in Iraq. We lay before God the sorrow that lives in all of us because of the war." Over the weekend, more than 150 Christian and interfaith peace vigils and actions were held around the country, together with large-scale acts of moral civil disobedience. Some active-duty members of the military joined the Washington, DC, protest, under rules that allow them to demonstrate but limit what they can say. Petty Officer Jonathan Hutto, on active duty with the Navy, told the crowd that the US people had voted against the war in the November 2006 elections and "we're here to cash the check". "Too many people have died and it doesn't solve anything," said Ann O'Grady, who had driven through appalling conditions from Athens, Ohio, with her family. "I feel bad carrying out my daily activities while people are suffering, Americans and Iraqis."
Demands to cut war funding But US protestors' actions were not limited to the anniversary weekend. Throughout March, a wide variety of actions demonstrated the strength of American antiwar feeling. One major initiative is an ongoing nationwide attempt to persuade lawmakers to vote against funding for the Iraq war, with campaigners staging `occupations' in congressional offices on Capitol Hill and in their home communities. "We really see it as an extension of lobbying," Jeff Leys, a co-ordinator of Chicago-based Voices for Creative Nonviolence, said. "The aim is to keep going back time and time and time again." The protesters, numbering from a handful to a few dozen, may stay for minutes or hours before police move in. They sit, stand, sing, chant, pray, ring bells, read letters from American troops sent home to their families and perform antiwar satirical theatre sketches. Among the many political figures targeted were Presidential hopefuls John McCain and Hillary Rodham Clinton, and Democrat House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whose office was occupied and Pacific Heights home the venue for week-long `Camp Pelosi', a vigil mounted by protesters with tents, signs and displays urging her to fight against continued funding of the war. In a wide range of events the funding debate was brought to the fore. Thousands converged on a New York park opposite the United Nations, carrying placards reading "Drop Bush, Not Bombs" and "Not one more dollar, not one more death". And, in a protest directed at major defence contractors Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Halliburton, General Electric and others, demonstrators lay down in front of the entrance of the New York Stock Exchange, chanting "Stop the money, stop the war". Forty-four were arrested. "US service members and Iraqi civilians are dying so that an elite few can profit," said teacher Fabian Bouthillette, who served for two years in the US Navy. Calls for impeachment Hundreds of other actions focused on calls for the impeachment of President Bush. In Vermont, following a four-day tour by antiwar campaigners including Cindy Sheehan, 36 towns in the state voted to urge state lawmakers to support a bill currently in the House Judiciary Committee which calls for Congress to begin impeachment proceedings against President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. "This is clearly not a cry of protest, but the start of action an impeachment insurrection that will lead to the reclamation of our Constitution," said impeachment resolution organizer Dan DeWalt. Protestors on the Capitol steps called for the President's impeachment, citing "criminal acts" including justifying the US invasion of Iraq with false information, while in Salt Lake City, Mayor Rocky Anderson told a state Senate committee that, in stark contrast to former Presidential impeachments, when it comes to President Bush, "Never before has there been such a compelling case for impeachment and removal from office of the president of the United States". Grass roots action Local protests were many and varied, including: Natick, Massachusetts: protesters gathered to support the `Sherborn Five' antiwar campaigners charged with breaching the peace on 10 January 2007, the day President Bush announced a new "troop surge" in Iraq. Before sentencing them to 10 hours of community service each, Judge Singer gave all five time to make a cogent and hard-hitting statement widely reported in the media about the reasons for their actions. "I hope we inspired people to take to the streets, to fill the jails and get in front of the judges," said Randa, head of the Peace Abbey in Sherborn. Port of Tacoma: a week of protests against the shipment of Army equipment for the war in Iraq. Winona, Maryland: Protesters transformed the US Armed Forces Recruiting Center at the Winona Mall into `the US Peace Forces Recruiting Center', under a sign that read "3,210 is too many". Louisville, Kentucky: Volunteers erected 4,000 flags in long rows at the city's Waterfront Park, in commemoration of US military and civilian war dead. St Paul, Minnesota: Local protests were timed to include the nationwide travelling exhibit of shoes "Eyes Wide Open", intended to represent Iraqi and military war dead. Philadelphia: Demonstration outside a Lockheed Martin plant, accusing the defence contractor of improperly profiting from the Iraq war. Dallas, Texas: Here, Bill McDannell, walking across America in protest at the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, was more than 1,000 miles into his walk, with about 1,500 signatures in a petition to end the wars, which he believes are immoral. A former Methodist minister, he began walking in November 2006 and expects to finish in late June or early July 2007. Orangeburg, South Carolina: Arrival of `Books not Bombs', a 16- city, month-long `hip-hop' tour of schools and colleges organized by bereaved war mother Elaine Johnson. "The purpose is to educate young children on what is going on about the war and voting because that will be a big issue when it comes to ending this war," she said. "It is about their future and their education." Rockville, Maryland: Parents and peace activists protested against military recruiting initiatives on high school campuses. Edmonton, Alberta: A peace march was joined by US Army deserter Kyle Snyder, who deserted in Spring 2005, four-and-a-half months into his tour of duty. "It was enough for me to make an educated decision on whether it was right or wrong," he said, describing seeing a fellow squad member shoot an innocent Iraqi civilian in the leg an incident never investigated by the US Army. "He was no threat to me, the convoy or the major we were escorting," Snyder said. "I don't think the United States' involvement in Iraq was ever about peacekeeping." (Source: The Washington Post, Associated Press, USA; BBC News, UK; www.michaelmoore.com, www.answerla.org, www.indymedia.org) For more information, olease see: http://www.shareintl.org
