October 26, 2002:More Than 100,000 March in Washington, DC: Antiwar Protest Largest Since '60s
Tens of thousands of people marched in peaceful protest of any military strike against Iraq yesterday afternoon, in an antiwar demonstration that organizers and police suggested was likely Washington's largest since the Vietnam era.
~snip~
Organizers said they easily eclipsed that figure yesterday, assessing attendance at well more than 100,000. D.C. Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey also said he figured yesterday's rally turnout exceeded that in April, but he didn't provide a specific number.
~snip~
Shoulder-to-shoulder crowds filled the streets for several blocks. When marchers at the front of the procession returned to Constitution Avenue on their way back, they had to wait to allow demonstrators at the tail of the march to pass.
~snip~
"I think maybe people have different thoughts on things, but one thing is clear," he said. "Peace."
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/1027-06.htmJanuary 18, 2003: When it comes to Sunday's demonstrations, my favorite headline was from the British Independent, "A World Against the War"; my favorite image, the "Human peace sign from Antarctica" ("Today people from McMurdo Station in Antarctica joined with the millions of others around the world in calling for peace not war. With the Antarctic Mt Range in the background we laid on the ice in a symbolic call for peace. Seven continents united." Click here to see these images My least favorite "question" was on CNN's call-in Sunday night ten o'clock news: "Are antiwar protests unpatriotic?"
It's all a matter of how you frame things, after all. My hometown paper, the New York Times, had a front-page photo, "Antiwar Rally in Washington," but the actual story was on page 12, headlined "Thousands Converge in Capital to Protest Plans for War," even though paragraph one made it clear that "tens of thousands" were there. Perhaps it's understandable that the editors tucked the article on the largest peace march since the late 1960s (maybe larger) away inside, what with "Gains on Heart Disease Leave More Survivors, and Questions" or "Fearful Saudis Seek a Way to Budge Hussein" panting for front-page attention. Imagine, however, this front-page headline: "Fearful Americans Seek a Way to Budge Bush." (Nor, by the way, was there an editorial about the demonstrations, though on the editorial page was "Along With a Super Bowl, the N.F.L. Needs a Farewell Bowl.")
You would expect National Public Radio to be better, but here's an interesting comment off the Democrats.com website: "While Pacifica radio devoted the entire day to coverage of the antiwar protests in DC and SF, "listener-supported" NPR spent exactly 2 minutes of its evening news coverage on the story. What did they cover instead? 10 minutes of idle transatlantic chitchat with a British journalist about the Queen's shocking public appearance in slacks following knee surgery. Send your complaints to
[email protected], and tell them you'll remember at pitch time."
The demonstration's hometown papers did do better: The San Francisco Chronicle actually claimed a staggering 500,000 demonstrators for Washington and 55,000 to 200,000 (depending on whether you believed the police or the organizers) for San Francisco. And the Washington Post quoted the Metropolitan Police Chief as saying that the local march was "bigger than October's," which was estimated by the same paper at 100,000. Police pegged a demonstration in Portland, Oregon at 20,000, "far above the 12,000 who turned out to protest the Persian Gulf War in January of 1991."
~snip~
Sea of Faces Extended for More Than Mile up First Avenue
From New York to Melbourne, Cries for Peace
by Robert D. McFadden
Confronting America's countdown to war, throngs of chanting, placard-waving demonstrators converged on New York and scores of cities across the United States, Europe and Asia today in a global daisy chain of largely peaceful protests against the Bush administration's threatened invasion of Iraq.
Anti-war protesters gather on Third Avenue and 59th Street to protest a possible U.S. - led attack on Iraq Saturday, Feb 15, 2003, in New York. Demonstrations and protest marches against the war drew millions of people in cities around the world Saturday.
Three years after vast crowds turned out around the world to celebrate the new millennium, millions gathered again today in a darker mood of impending conflict, forming a patchwork of demonstrations that together, organizers said, made up the largest, most diverse peace protest since the Vietnam War.
On a freezing winter day in New York, a huge crowd, prohibited by a court order from marching, rallied within sight of the United Nations amid heavy security. They raised banners of patriotism and dissent, sounded the hymns of a broad new antiwar movement and heard speakers denounce what they called President Bush's rush to war, while offering no sympathy for Iraq's dictator, Saddam Hussein.
"The World Says No to War," proclaimed a huge banner over a stage on First Avenue near 51st Street, the focal point of a vast crowd that filled the avenue between 49th and 72nd Streets and spilled over into the side streets and to Second, Third and Lexington Avenues, where thousands more were halted at police barricades, far from the sights and sounds of the demonstration.
~snip~
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0215-12.htmMarch 20, 2004: March 20: The World Still Says No to War
21-Mar-04
Iraq Protests
"March 20, 2004 - the one-year anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq - witnessed a massive Global Day of Action against War and Occupation. In more than 575 cities around the world, people took to the streets to say YES to peace and NO to pre-emptive war and occupation. Together, we called for an end to the occupation of Iraq and Bush's militaristic foreign policies, in one of the largest-ever outpourings of grassroots action for peace. In the US, notable protests included a 100,000-person march and rally in NYC, and a similar event in San Francisco attended by more than 50,000. In Crawford, Texas, where Bush owns a ranch and often vacations, 1000 protesters converged to repudiate his militaristic policies and call for a diversion of the billions of dollars that are being spent on war to domestic programs like schools, health clinics, and unemployment benefits. Military families and veterans led a protest that drew 1500 to Fayetteville, NC, outside the Fort Bragg military base."
http://archive.democrats.com/preview.cfm?term=Iraq%20Protests New York, NY--On Saturday, March 20, upwards of 2 million people took to the streets around the world to protest the one-year anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. People in more than 60 countries throughout the world - from Japan to South Korea to Spain to Australia to South Africa - called for an end to the occupation, which they believe is only increasing violence and insecurity in Iraq. The March 20 global day of protest surpassed the expectations of its organizers, both in terms of the number of cities and countries that organized events and the number of people who took to the streets. Under the banner, The World Still Says No To War, at least 300 U.S. cities and towns held anti-war events on Saturday, as did more than 275 other cities throughout the world. In the United States, notable protests included a 100,000-person march and rally in New York City, and a similar event in San Francisco attended by more than 50,000... ~snip~
http://www.codepinkalert.org/article.php?list=type&type=242August 29, 2004: 500,000 March Against Bush in Largest Convention Protest Ever
Hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets Sunday in the largest demonstration ever at a political convention. Organizers with United For Peace and Justice estimated more than a half million protesters marched past Madison Square Garden where the Republican National Convention opens today.
In New York, major protests against President Bush began on Friday when 5,000 bikers took part in a Critical Mass bike ride. Some 15,000 marched on Saturday in one of the city’s largest women’s marches in history. Today two more large demonstrations are scheduled to mark the start of the convention.
Over the weekend police arrested some 400 protesters. Four activists who participated in a banner drop on Thursday at the Grand Plaza hotel now have 25 years in prison. They were each charged with assault because a police officer was injured while responding to the incident.
Meanwhile Vice President Dick Cheney arrived in New York Sunday and spoke at Ellis Island in an event closed off to the public. He spoke with the background of the lower Manhattan skyline as a backdrop.
We’ll have much more on the protests throughout the show. ~snip~
http://www.democracynow.org/2004/8/30/headlinesSeptember 26, 2005: Military Families Join Hundreds of Thousands of Anti-War Protesters Rallying in Washington
Between 100,000 and 300,0000 people took to the streets of Washington D.C. on Saturday to protest the ongoing war and occupation of Iraq. It was the largest anti-war protest in the nation’s capital since the invasion and the first in a decade that federal officials allowed to go past the White House. The day began with a rally and march and ended with 11 hours of rock, rap, folk music and speeches which lasted until early Sunday morning. Protests were also held in other U.S. cities and around the world including London, Rome, Toronto and San Francisco. The D.C. march drew veteran anti-war protestors and those who had never before attended a protest. It also drew more than 250 military families, hundreds of veterans, and even a few active-duty Army soldiers just home from overseas. We go now to some of the speeches from Saturday’s march. We begin with Cindy Sheehan, whose son Casey died in Iraq last year. Last month she helped invigorate the anti-war movement by staging a month-long vigil outside President Bush’s estate in Crawford Texas. She spoke shortly before the march began on Saturday. ~snip~
http://www.democracynow.org/2005/9/26/military_families_join_hundreds_of_thousandsApril 29, 2006: 300,000 March in Manhattan at Anti-War Protest
by Desmond Butler
NEW YORK -- Tens of thousands of anti-war protesters marched Saturday through Manhattan to demand an immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq just hours after an American soldier died in a roadside explosion in Baghdad - the 70th U.S. fighter killed in that country this month.
"End this war, bring the troops home," read one of the many signs lifted by marchers on a sunny afternoon three years after the war in Iraq began. The mother of a Marine killed two years ago in Iraq held a picture of her son, born in 1984 and killed 20 years later.
~snip~
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0429-08.htmSeptember 15 to October 27, 2007: … October 27, 2007: …about 100,000 or more people took to the streets in more than a dozen cities including Boston, New Orleans, Los Angeles, Orlando, Ft. Lauderdale, Chicago, New York City, Seattle, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Jonesborough and Chattanooga (Tennessee), Salt Lake City, Denver, Rochester, and elsewhere….
On September 29, 2007 thousands of anti-war protesters participated in the Troops Out Now Coalition's anti-war march on Washington. The protest took specific aim at Congress, demanding that it cut off funding to the war and bring it to an end. The march was the culmination of a week-long encampment in front of Congress where protesters set up booths, erected a large billboard demanding that Congress stop funding the war, listened to musicians and speakers, and attended vigils and workshops…
On September 15, 2007 between 50,000 and 100,000 people participated in an anti-war march sponsored by the ANSWER coalition. A large turnout by veterans and veteran families, as well as mass civil disobedience, signaled a turning point for the anti-war movement. .. ~snip~
http://www.zcommunications.org/zmag/viewArticle/16099 Pictures of Anti-War Protests from around the World:
http://www.ccmep.org/2002_articles/Iraq/102702_pictures_of_anti.htm
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