15 February 2003 anti-war protests
On 15 February 2003, a coordinated day of protests was held across the world in which people in more than 600 cities expressed opposition to the imminent Iraq War. It was part of a series of protests and political events that had begun in 2002 and continued as the invasion, war, and occupation took place. The day was described by social movement researchers as "the largest protest event in human history".[1]
According to BBC News, between six and ten million people took part in protests in up to sixty countries over the weekend of 15 and 16 February.[2]
The largest protests took place in Europe. The one in Rome involved around three million people, and is listed in the 2004 Guinness Book of World Records as the largest anti-war rally in history. Madrid hosted the second largest rally with more than 1.5 million people protesting against the invasion of Iraq. In Beijing, three smaller protests were held the following day, attended by foreigners and domestic students.[3]
Background[edit]
In 2002, the United States government began to argue for the necessity of invading Iraq. This formally began with a speech by US President George W. Bush to the United Nations General Assembly on 12 September 2002 which argued that the Iraqi government of Saddam Hussein was violating United Nations (UN) resolutions, primarily on weapons of mass destruction, and that this necessitated action.[4]
The proposed war was controversial with many people questioning the motives of the US government and its rationale.[5] One poll which covered 41 countries claimed that less than 10% would support an invasion of Iraq without UN sanction and that half would not support an invasion under any circumstances.[6]
Anti-war groups worldwide organised public protests. According to the French academic Dominique Reynié, between 3 January and 12 April 2003, 36 million people across the globe took part in almost 3,000 anti‑war protests, the demonstrations on 15 February 2003 being the largest and most prolific.[7]
International coordination[edit]
The 15 February international protests were unprecedented not only in terms of the size of the demonstrations but also in terms of the international coordination involved. Researchers from the University of Antwerp claim that the day was possible only because it "was carefully planned by an international network of national social movement organizations."[8]
Immanuel Wallerstein has spoken of the international protests as being organised by the forces of "the Porto Alegre camp in reference to the emergence of global social movements who had been organising around international events such as the 2001 World Social Forum in Porto Alegre."[9] Some commentators claim this is an example of "grassroots globalisation", for example one book claims that "The worldwide protests were made possible by globalization ... But make no mistake—this was not your CEO's globalization. The peace demonstrations represented, not a globalization of commerce, but a globalization of conscience".[10]
The idea for an international day of demonstrations was first raised by the British anti-capitalist group Globalise Resistance (GR) in the wake of an anti-war demonstration in Britain of 400,000 on 28 September. At the time GR was involved in planning for the Florence European Social Forum (ESF) and brought up the suggestion at an ESF planning meeting. According to GR's Chris Nineham, "There was considerable controversy. Some delegates were worried it would alienate the mainstream of the movement. We, alongside the Italian delegates, had to put up a strong fight to get it accepted."[11]
The proposal was accepted and at the final rally of the ESF, in November 2002, the call officially went out for Europe-wide demonstrations on 15 February 2003. This call was firmed up in December at a planning meeting for the following ESF which took place in Copenhagen in 2003. This meeting was attended by delegates from many European anti-war organisations, the US group United for Peace and Justice, and representatives of groups from the Philippines. The decision was taken to set up a Europe-wide anti-war website and to commit to spreading organisational coordination both within and beyond Europe. An email network connecting the different national organisations across Europe, and eventually also the different US groups, was set up.[8][12]
In December 2002, the Cairo Anti-war Conference pledged to organize demonstrations in Egypt and the International Campaign Against Aggression on Iraq (which came out of the Cairo conference) sought to co-ordinate more demonstrations across the world. Around this time, the US anti-war group International ANSWER called for actions in North America supporting the proposed protests in Europe.[13]
Another important platform for the spreading call to demonstrate internationally occurred at the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil which took place at the end of 2002. European delegates sought to popularize the plan for the increasingly international demonstration. They met with some success, including the organisation of an anti‑war assembly which was attended by almost 1,000 people.[11]
The song "Boom!", by System of a Down, had a music video filmed on the day of the protest, showing the many protest locations and people's opinions on the Iraq War.
Americas[edit]
Canada[edit]
Canada saw protests in 70 cities and towns (WSWS estimate).[19] The biggest took place in Montreal where more than 100,000 people protested (SW and WSWS each estimated 150,000) despite windchill temperatures below −30 °C (−22 °F). 80,000 people joined a demonstration in Toronto, 40,000 in Vancouver, 18,000 (by police estimates) in Edmonton, 8,000 in Victoria, 4,000 in Halifax and 6,000 in Ottawa. Some of the other major centres where protests were held included Windsor and Calgary[17]
There were protests in 70 cities in total. These demonstrations took place despite very cold weather, average temperatures were below −35 °C (−31 °F).[11][19]
In Chicoutimi, 1,500 protested in windchill temperatures of −40 °C (−40 °F) wind-chill temperature in what was one of the coldest marches on that global day of protest.
United States[edit]
Protests took place all across the United States of America with CBS reporting that 150 U.S. cities had protests.[24] According to the World Socialist Web Site, protests took place in 225 different communities.[19]
The largest protests took place in the nation's largest cities including Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York City, but there were also smaller rallies in towns such as Gainesville, Georgia; Macomb, Illinois; and Juneau, Alaska, among scores of others.[22][56]
Africa[edit]
South Africa[edit]
In Johannesburg, around 8,000-10,000 people joined in a colorful and peaceful protest. They toyi-toyied and marched, stopping at the U.S. Consulate General where riot police formed a protective chain around the entrance.[72]
Oceania[edit]
Australia[edit]
Friday also saw protests in Melbourne, where around 150,000 people (BBC estimate) joined a demonstration.[76]
On the Saturday protests also took place in Australia's national capital (Canberra), with 20,000 protesters, in the six state capitals with 200,000 protesters (BBC estimate) demonstrating in Sydney, and an estimated 600,000 demonstrating in cities around the country. The Sydney demonstration included a feeder march of 10,000 trade unionists.[14]
Beyond the capitals, many major cities and towns around Australia had protests.[77]
Antarctica[edit]
A group of scientists at the US McMurdo Station held a rally on the ice at the edge of the Ross Sea.[80][81]
Effect[edit]
At the time, many commentators were hopeful that this global mobilization of unprecedented scale would stop the coming Iraq war. The New York Times writer Patrick Tyler claimed that they showed that there were "two superpowers on the planet – the United States, and worldwide public opinion".[82]
The unprecedented size of the demonstrations was widely taken to indicate that the majority of people across the world opposed the war. However, the potential effect of the protests was generally dismissed by pro-war politicians. The Prime Minister of Australia, John Howard, claimed that the protests were not representative of public opinion, saying "I don't know that you can measure public opinion just by the number of people that turn up at demonstrations." In the United States, the then National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice was reported as saying that the protests would "not affect [the administration's] determination to confront Saddam Hussein and help the Iraqi people".[23]
Her view was borne out as the day of protests, along with the protests that followed it, failed to stop the war. However, the protests and other public opposition were seen as a key factor in the decisions of the governments of many countries, such as Canada, to not send troops to Iraq, and of Turkey to deny coalition use of airbases in its territory.[83] The protests have also been cited as a factor strengthening the hand of the "uncommitted six" members of the United Nations Security Council - Angola, Cameroon, Chile, Mexico, and Pakistan.[84]
Though demonstrations against the Iraq war and subsequent occupation continued, none of the demonstrations through to 2011 matched the 15 February protest in terms of size. One suggested explanation for this is that people became disillusioned with marching as a political tactic because of the failure of these demonstrations to achieve their explicit aim. In 2006, three years after the protest day, in an article arguing for people to attend a further march, Mike Marqusee put forward two counter arguments to this. Firstly, he claimed that it was too soon to judge the long-term significance of the demonstrations. As examples, he stated, "People who took part in the non-cooperation campaigns in India in the 20s and 30s had to wait a long time for independence," and "There were eight years of protest and more than 2 million dead before the Vietnam war came to an end". Secondly, he claimed that while the effect of marching may be uncertain, the effect of not marching would make it more likely that the occupation would continue.[85]
Despite failing in its explicit aim, the 15 February global day of anti-war protests had many effects that, according to some, were not directly intended. According to United Kingdom left-wing anti-war activist Salma Yaqoob, one of these was that they were a powerful antidote to the idea that the war was a "Clash of Civilizations", or a religious war, an idea she claimed was propagated both by Western leaders and reactionary forces in the Arab world.[86] This is echoed in the words of former Hizb ut-Tahrir organiser Hadiya Masieh who said of the non-Muslims marching in London "How could we demonise people who obviously opposed aggression against Muslims?".[87]
Howl's Moving Castle by Hayao Miyazaki was influenced by his opposition to the United States' invasion of Iraq in 2003, the film contains strong anti-war themes. Miyazaki stated that he "had a great deal of rage" about the Iraq war, which led him to make a film which he felt would be poorly received in the United States.[88] It also explores the theme of old age, depicting age positively as something which grants the protagonist freedom.