A report from Hong Kong
IT HAS got to be the only instance in modern history where there was a peace movement off the ground even before a single shot in the war had been fired. Following the attacks of September 11, as supposedly ‘sovereign’ governments around the world line up like sheep to follow the United States in its dubious ‘War on terrorism’, many of their citizens are out on the streets declaring that WAR IS TERRORISM!
From non-governmental organizations and religious groups to green and left activists, the concern is that the ongoing US war on Afghanistan, coming at a time of deepening economic recession, can only cause widespread grief and misery all over and increase social and political tensions within their own countries. Many organizations on the left, of course, clearly see this as the beginning of yet another US imperialist war – with terrorism as the excuse – and probably much more dangerous than any since the Second World War.
The global anti-war mood
Demonstrations and rallies calling for peace and saying no to any US retaliation for the terrorist attacks were off the mark within a few days of the terrorist attacks in major cities of the United States itself. Peace rallies and meetings were organized in over 100 US universities within the first week, including a gathering of over 2000 people in New York – the site of the worst attack which claimed seven thousand lives.
Since then similar rallies have taken place in virtually every major Western capital from London, Paris and Rome to Montreal, Sydney and Auckland. With the actual commencement of the war on October 7, the size of the rallies has only increased with an estimated 50,000 people turning up at a massive rally in London on October 13. One popular slogan at the anti-war rally was the one that said ‘No War but Class War’.
Just a few days earlier, over 10,000 people turned out in New York City to oppose the Bush administration’s so-called war on terrorism. The demonstration, which had been planned for several weeks by a coalition of pacifist and activist groups, was expected to draw only a few thousand but grew in size as word spread that the US had begun bombing Afghanistan.
Speakers there included Ruben Schaffer, whose grandson Gregory Rodriguez was killed in the WTC collapse, reading a letter from Mr. Rodriguez’s parents to President Bush: “Your response to this attack does not make us feel better about our son’s death. It makes us feel worse. It makes us feel that our government is using our son’s memory as a justification to cause suffering for other sons and parents in other lands.”
In Asia and Africa the anti-war sentiment has been even more militant with citizens in countries ranging from Egypt to the Philippines taking to the streets by the thousands, often pitted against their own governments for lending support to the US war. The international media has chosen to highlight anti-US protests by supporters of Islamic fundamentalist parties in Pakistan and Indonesia and deliberately ignored the widespread anger that is there in the region against US actions.
In the Philippines, for example, the left-wing, church and students have led a barrage of protests outside the US embassy in Manila almost everyday since the September 11 attacks condemning terrorism but also strongly opposing US plans to go to war on the issue.
“We do not believe that war can be a solution to terrorism. War – such as what the United States and the NATO forces are initiating – is in fact organized terrorism on a much higher scale, with a much higher casualty figure,” said Sonny Melencio, Chairperson of the Socialist Party of Labour, a left organization in the Philippines.
In South Korea, on October 10, over 756 citizens groups, including the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions and People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy, signed a petition urging government not to aid the US attack on Afghanistan. In a statement, the groups said, “Terrorism cannot be justified in any way; neither can any retaliation war be. The war killing innocent civilians of Afghanistan should be stopped immediately.”
There have been similar statements and protest rallies outside US embassies against the war in Hong Kong, Bangkok, Tokyo, Kuala Lumpur, New Delhi and Islamabad.
In Pakistan, close to the epicentre of the ongoing war, there have been numerous rallies for peace organized by secular trade union and citizens’ groups.
A large number of women activists took out a peace rally at Lahore on 25th September chanting slogans against terrorism and religious fundamentalism but also warning the US not to bomb Afghan cities. The rally was organized by the Women Workers Help Line, in collaboration with the Labour Party of Pakistan and the Joint Action Committee for Peoples Rights.
Speaking at the peace rally, Asma Jahangir, the former chairperson of Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said the Pakistani people do not need any advice from the US to fight against terrorism. “As victims of terrorism for long time, we know it very well what does it mean to humanity. We have all the sympathies with the victims of the September 11th victims. But we do not want more bloodshed of innocent people.”
From anti-globalization to anti-war
There can be no doubt at all that the rapidity with which the peace movement has been able to take off since September 11 is significantly due to the ethos created worldwide by the rising anti-globalization movement. For the past several years now various people’s organizations have been mobilizing citizens against neo-liberal economic policies imposed by the IMF, WTO and World Bank, the plunder of the Earth’s environment by consumerist capitalism and the unilateral bullying of imperialist powers like the United States on various global issues.
The anti-globalization movement captured the imagination of the world with the spectacular demonstrations of Seattle, Prague, Melbourne, Quebec and Genoa in the process reviving the traditions of public protest for progressive causes that had been undermined in the eighties and nineties. The rainbow coalitions that made anti-globalization movement possible are now quickly changing their slogans and tactics to take on the long-standing menace of US imperialism.
This trend was clearly evident in Brisbane, Australia, for example, where a large protest mobilisation meant to take on the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) on October 6 turned into an anti-war rally when the meeting got cancelled because of the September 11 attacks. The alliance of activist groups decided the protests would go ahead with the original five demands: a treaty between black and white Australia; cancel the Third World debt; no new World Trade Organisation talks; action on climate change; and respect for human rights. To that list they added a sixth: no to war and racism.
Choices before the anti-war movement
One of the problems with any movement with an ‘anti’ prefix to it is that it is obviously a defensive one i.e., guided largely by what the other party does or does not do. For example in the case of the current anti-war movement also a number of groups involved are not interested in going beyond the pacifist agenda of merely stopping the US bombing of Afghanistan or putting an end to violence.
The problem with this approach is clear when one considers that the true intention of the US government is to seize the September 11 attacks as an opportunity to declare ‘war not just on terrorists but also on an alleged list of 60 countries accused of harbouring terrorists – in other words complete freedom to carry out military strikes anywhere, anytime against anybody. One must also remember that the US has been going to war repeatedly since the Second World War on one pretext or the other – after all there were no Korean, Vietnamese, Iraqi or Serbian ‘terrorists’ attacking New York and yet, over the years, the US military has been involved in major wars in all these countries.
There can be absolutely no doubt that what the world is witnessing right now as part of the so called ‘war on terrorism’ is an attempt by the US elites to terrorize all people’s movements into silence and openly subjugate much of the world to their own imperialist political, economic and military agendas. But the war is not just in the defence of the interests of the US elites but in fact for the defence of a large coalition of elite forces from around the world – no wonder our own Hindu Taleban government is trying to jump on board even before anybody sent them an invitation.
So the battle of the anti-war movement will have to be against both international and domestic elites. And in this battle their allies will be progressive movements both international and domestic.
In fact, around the world there is clear evidence that anti-globalization activists are today faced with the choice of taking their struggle to its logical conclusion – demanding not just the closure of the IMF, World Bank and WTO but also the military front of imperialism – NATO and finally the overthrowing of global capitalism. The war in a sense has become an opportunity for exposing the real nature of imperialism and raising public resistance to it like never before in many, many decades. Today, by creatively combining domestic struggles with those on the global stage the anti-war movement can bring about a lasting peace that does not collapse as easily as the ill-fated twin towers of the World Trade Center.
--Sundaram