There has been a mountinggrassroots movement against any military action in Iraq brewing in universitiesand cities throughout the country and the world, yet there has been littlemention of it in the mainstream press. Rallies and protests last month inWashington, D.C. and San Francisco were large compared to anti-Vietnam Warprotests thirty years ago. More protests have been scheduled for January yetthe Bush administration continues to aggressively push towards war in Iraq.
The grassroots movement for peaceis growing rapidly despite the lack of coverage in the mainstream media. Ananti-war demonstration in Central Park on October 6, 2002 drew a crowd of about20,000. On Nov. 21, 2002, there was a local protest against war at HofstraUniversity with a turnout of about 150 students and faculty members. Also,there was a rally here at Stony Brook on Oct. 16, 2002 that included 350 ofyour peers and faculty members.
Oct. 26, 2002 was a day ofsimultaneous international protests in D.C. and San Francisco as well as inRome, Berlin, Copenhagen, Tokyo and Mexico City. The U.S. rallies, which wereorganized by ANSWER, a non-profit organization composed of a coalition ofseveral anti-war organizations, drew an estimated 100,000 people in SanFrancisco while 200,000 protesters marched for peace on the Capitol.
‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ Theprotesters were very diverse by age, gender, race, and ethnicity andrepresented a cross-section of Americans. Some were singles; others joined theprotest with their families, or arrived with groups such as PeoplesOrganization for Progress, International Socialist Organization, VietnamVeterans for Peace, and New Yorkers Say No to War. Stony Brook University also was represented by a busloadof students organized by the Social Justice Alliance and Students for Peace andHumanity.
Numerous mass protests against theplanned war in Iraq and the stalling of the peace process between Israel andthe Palestinians have been conducted already for some time in several countriesabroad, including those considered close U.S. allies, such as Great Britain,France, Spain and Germany. But the protest movement in the U.S. is nowincreasing, as well. People across the country are organizing themselves toform peace groups that will surely make themselves heard at the next peacerallies in D.C. in January 2003. In addition, anti-war groups are reportingthat membership is on the rise as never before.
‘Stony Brookstudents interested in learning more about the war on terrorism, the UnitedNations, globalization and the role of the U.S. and its allies shouldparticipate in the Federated Learning Community Program on Globalization(http://www.stonybrook.edu/flcglobal) or contact Professor Hermann Kurthen([email protected]).’]
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