BLOOMBERG: Anti-War Activists Gather in Washington, Other Cities
``It's an exercise in old-fashioned colonialism,''
quote.bloomberg.com
Anti-War Activists Gather in Washington, Other Cities (Update1)
By John Rega
Washington, Jan. 18 (Bloomberg) -- After three hours of speeches denouncing President George W. Bush's steps toward a possible attack on Iraq, anti-war activists marched from the Capitol in the direction of the Washington Navy Yard.
The rally of several thousand people waving banners and chanting anti-Bush slogans coincided with demonstrations drawing thousands more in dozens of cities from Paris to Tokyo to Damascus in protest of U.S. policy. Events were planned in San Francisco and 25 other countries, according to a Web site for International Answer, the organizing group in Washington.
``All over the country and all over the world, people are looking at us,'' said Larry Holmes, a spokesman for International Answer, or Act Now to Stop War & End Racism. ``We are against this war.''
The demonstrations were taking place against a backdrop of intensifying diplomatic efforts to avert a war as United Nations weapons inspectors seek evidence whether Iraq is complying with UN mandates to destroy weapons of mass destruction. Turkey's new government and several Arab leaders are pushing for Iraq President Saddam Hussein to step down, the Washington Post reported, citing unnamed Arab officials familiar with the discussions.
UN officials prepared to go to Baghdad tomorrow for talks about the weapons inspections, the outcome of which may be the trigger for war. Iraq should be more forthcoming, and it ``sends a bad signal'' when Iraqi officials resist the UN's inspections, said Hans Blix, chief UN weapons inspector, in an interview with Cable News Network.
Charge of Colonialism
Amid choruses of ``No blood for oil'' and ``Impeach Bush,'' leaders of the demonstration in Washington called the American president a captive of U.S. energy companies seeking to claim Iraq's crude reserves. Bush has vowed to disarm Iraq by force if Hussein doesn't comply with the UN mandates.
``It's an exercise in old-fashioned colonialism,'' Holmes, the organizers' spokesman, said in an interview on C-SPAN, a cable channel. Some participants waved U.S, Iraqi and Palestinian flags, and one banner mimicking an American recruiting poster had Uncle Sam saying, ``I want you out of Iraq.''
The activists sought a permit for more than 30,000 to attend today's demonstration, a spokesman for Washington's Metropolitan Police Department said. The police declined to estimate how many protesters were at the Capitol this morning. The same organizing group had assembled 100,000 people for a demonstration in October.
Freezing Temperatures
Protesters in parkas and ski masks huddled and clapped to stave off freezing temperatures. Online weather service Meteorlogix reported a temperature of 20 degrees Fahrenheit at the rally's 11 a.m. start and forecast a high of 28 today. Speakers warned the crowd to bring anyone showing symptoms of hypothermia to a medical tent.
As in the October rally and other recent demonstrations in Washington, organizers linked opposition to war in Iraq with other foreign policy issues, such as denouncing U.S. support for Israel, as well as social concerns.
U.S. foreign aid is a ``tiny fraction'' compared with defense spending, said Medea Benjamin, co-founder of an activist coalition called United for Peace, in a C-SPAN interview. ``Instead of things like bombs and the military, spend the money on education and health care.''
Brenda Stokely, co-organizer of a union coalition called New York City Labor Against the War, said, ``Our fight for injustice in the workplace has to be our fight for injustice in the world.''
The Rev. Jesse Jackson, founder and president of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition for civil rights, said the activists were kept warm by ``a fire in our bellies for peace.''
`Mindless Foreign Policy'
``It does not stand to reason to have a half-finished confrontation with al-Qaeda, ignore the Middle East, and flash forward to Iraq,'' Jackson said. ``We must stop mindless foreign policy.''
Jackson and other speakers invoked the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on the weekend of a U.S. holiday marking the slain civil rights leader's birthday, Jan. 15, 1929.
``If Dr. King were here today to celebrate his birthday,'' said the Rev. Al Sharpton Jr., a possible Democratic candidate for president, ``he would be outside saying, give peace a chance.''
The Associated Press and Agence France Presse reported thousands rallying against U.S. and U.K. policies in France, Germany, Russia and elsewhere in Europe. In Lahore, Pakistan, police blocked protesters from marching on the U.S. consulate. Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and Syrians in Damascus staged rallies, as some shouted for Hussein to bomb Tel Aviv.
Washington Police Moves
In Washington, police planned to close streets along the march route and were ready to deploy a civil disturbance unit, trained for crowd traffic control, said Sergeant Joe Gentile, a department spokesman.
``Demonstrators and organizers have advised us that they expect it to be peaceful. We expect it to be peaceful,'' Gentile said. ``They're just here to exercise their right to voice their opinions.'' Washington police reported no arrests or problems as of 1:50 p.m.
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said yesterday that Bush welcomes the protests as a sign of U.S. freedom and democracy, in contrast to the dictatorship in Iraq. Fleischer said most Americans support the president's drive to disarm Hussein. |
