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IRAQ: Fight Against War Continues
By The IPS North America Team
NEW YORK, Apr 11 (IPS) - Under the banner "Occupation is not Liberation", new marches, rallies and non-violent protests are being organised to keep pressure on the U.S. administration to end its military occupation of Iraq and its strategy of unilateralism after this week's fall of Baghdad.
Anti-war protesters will continue to focus on opposing the occupation, on how to address humanitarian aid and reconstruct Iraq, said Leslie Cagan, co-chair of United for Justice and Peace, a national group.
"On the domestic front, the movement will try to address issues such as the attack on civil liberties and federal budgets ... the question of how come there is money for the marines but never enough for education and health care should lead to the question 'what are our priorities'?"
While rallies are planned for Saturday that organisers hope will produce massive turnouts like those of the Feb. 15 worldwide protests, many groups here shifted their focus after the U.S.-led invasion Mar. 20 to various forms of civil disobedience.
Tactics include blocking traffic, boycotting classes at schools, blocking federal buildings and surrounding offices of U.S. companies profiting from the war. Many groups are currently organising weekly training sessions for those eager to participate in acts of civil disobedience.
Among those willing to be arrested are veterans of the anti-Vietnam war movement of the 1960s and '70s - but there are many others who have only heard stories about those events.
''Enough is enough,'' says Catherine, a young performing artist determined to participate in the civil disobedience, though she has never been to jail before. ''We just can't sit and keep whining about the bombing and bloodshed in Iraq.''
Last week, about 100 people were arrested when the M27 Coalition, an ad hoc alliance of 35 militant anti-war groups in New York, organised a civil disobedience action in front of the corporate office of the global Carlyle Group.
Organisers say they chose to target Carlyle, a 12-billion-dollar investment firm, because it seeks to increase profits from ''the business of war''.
''We hold corporations, including Bechtel, Citigroup and Chevron Texaco, accountable not only for their profits from this war,'' says Kimberly Solynn of the M27 Coalition, ''but the fact that they made this war possible through their investment, operations, weapons and lobbying and drive for unending profits, regardless of the toll of human life, the environment or society''.
This week, thousands of protesters formed a community picket line at a dock in San Francisco to protest the work of APL, a major shipper of military supplies that is believed to have close ties with the Pentagon. In response, police fired rubber bullets on the protesters, injuring about 50 people, some seriously.
Another direct action is planned for San Roman, California, at the headquarters of the Chevron oil company, on Apr. 14.
Those embracing the idea of civil disobedience say they realise that they have little support inside the U.S. Congress or the judiciary than did Vietnam protesters but are not discouraged.
''Historically, civil disobedience does work,'' says Solynn. ''Eventually, it will be successful. It's already producing results at the grassroots level all over the world. People don't want to be silent spectators.''
But they will need extra encouragement now that Baghdad is occupied, said Ruth Benn, organiser of a New York City branch of the national War Resisters League anti-war group.
"It is possible to see reduction of activists. Lots of people were very focused on Iraq," Benn says. To keep the movement strong "will take a lot of work" but "it is not like the war in Iraq is finished ... the Bush administration may pick another country".
U.S. post offices will be a hub for protests on Apr. 15, the deadline for paying income taxes and the day that thousands of activists refuse to pay federal tax because, they say, almost one-half of that money goes to military spending.
''There's no doubt that there will be a lot more people (withholding taxes this year). The question is 'how many'? said Ed Hedemann, author of 'War Tax Resistance, A Guide to Withholding Your Support from the Military', and an organiser for the War Resisters League.
Hedemann, who has withheld his federal taxes since the Vietnam War, says the practice can trigger the Internal Revenue Service (IRS ) to track down and seize bank accounts and even money owed to resisters by their customers, as in the case of Hedemann, who is self-employed.
''Despite the inconveniences and problems of tax resistance, I think there are a lot of people around the world who are suffering far more than I am because of the U.S. military and I don't want to contribute to their suffering and my inconvenience is minor compared to that,'' he explains.
Further north, the Adbusters group is working to transform its Brand America Boycott into 'Uncooling Brand America', says Kalle Lasn, editor in chief of 'Adbusters' magazine and author of the book 'Culture Jamming'.
Although 40,000 pledged on the Adbusters website to boycott U.S. companies, ''boycotts have been by and large a disaster'', says Vancouver-based Lasn.
"This is more of a process. We're (now) asking people to look at their lives and in their own sweet way change their lives. Some people will decide that they still want to go to McDonald's but not drive an American car. Others will decide that they want to wear Levis jeans but not go to McDonald's.''
''I think a lot of people do not hate America, but they realise it needs a counter-balancing force,'' adds Lasn.
According to peace group Move On, "The outbreak of war is not the end of the fight for peace only the beginning ... around the globe, people are joining together in a declaration of our continued commitment to international cooperation ... the momentum built through our opposition to war in Iraq will only keep growing."
(END/2003)
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