15 February 2003 anti-war protests

Coordinated day of protests in over 600 cities against the War in Iraq

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". According to BBC News, between six and ten million people took part in protests in up to sixty countries over the weekend of 15 and16 February.

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. The proposed war was controversial with many people questioning the motives of the US government and its rationale. One poll which covered 41countries 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. Anti war groups worldwide organised public protests. According to the French academic Dominique Reynié, between 3 January and 12 April 2003, 36million people across the globe took part in almost 3,000anti‑war protests, the demonstrations on 15 February 2003 being the largest and most prolific. 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." 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". 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." 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. 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. 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 1,000people. In Switzerland in order to "concentrate the movement" most activists agreed to organise a single demonstration for the whole country in Bern. On the day roughly 40,000 people joined the protest in front of the Bundeshaus, the seat of the Swiss federal government and parliament. The demonstration, which ran under the slogan (No to war in Iraqno blood for oil!) was the largest in Switzerland since 1945. In Slovenia, roughly 3,000 people gathered in Ljubljana's central park of Kongresni trg, supported by the mayor Danica Simšič, and marched the streets in one of the largest demonstrations since independence in 1991.

The Benelux countries had large demonstrations for their total population size. In Belgium organisers had expected around 30,000 people to attend a demonstration in Brussels, which is the home of the European Parliament. They were shocked by a turn out of approximately 100,000 people (WSWS and GLW estimate). The march took over 3hours to cross the city.

Bosnia and Herzegovina saw around 100 protesters gather in Mostar. This protest spanned the sectarian divide with both Muslims and Croats attending. In Helsinki, Finland, an estimated 15,000 people participated in one of the largest mass protests in the republic's history.

There was a demonstration in Warsaw, Poland of 10,000 people (SW estimate). The demonstration through central Warsaw passed the US embassy. Another protest, organized by the local Wrocław Anti War Coalition (WKA), was held in the city of Wrocław in the market square by the town hall, with 400–500 people participating.

In Lisbon, police estimated that around 35,000 people gathered to march through the city. Three former Portuguese prime ministers were in attendance.

In Russia, which had several demonstrations, the largest occurred in Moscow, with 400 people (WSWS estimate) in attendance.

Spain saw demonstrations in around 55cities and towns across the country; joining a demonstration which moved from the Passeig de Gràcia to the Plaça de Tetuan. Spain also had demonstrations of approximately 500,000 in Valencia (GLW estimate), 250,000 in Seville (GLW estimate) (200,000 Government sources estimate), 100,000 in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (GLW estimate) and 100,000 in Cadiz' (GLW estimate) as well as over fifty other towns and cities across the country (WSWS estimate).

The main demonstration in Turkey took place in Istanbul, thousands (SW estimate) demonstrated. The local authorities had banned the protest claiming to have worries about national security, however the protest organisers went ahead with the rally under the cover of calling a press conference. There were also demonstrations in Adana, Ankara, İzmir, Zonguldak, İzmit, Antalya and Muğla. The negotiations for this plan faltered when the Labour government's Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport Tessa Jowell initially instructed the Royal Parks agency to deny permission for the rally in Hyde Park for safety reasons and to protect the grass. Trafalgar Square was suggested by Jowell as the alternative venue, but the Mayor of London Ken Livingstone insisted it was of insufficient size. The government's decision was reversed by 5 February. Sections of the media supported this demonstration. The Daily Mirror gave large coverage in the lead up to the march and provided thousands of placards on the day. The demonstration also received sponsorship support from Greenpeace and Mecca Cola.

The British Stop the War Coalition (Stop) claimed the protest in London was the largest political demonstration in the city's history. Police estimated attendance as well in excess of 750,000 people and the BBC estimated that around a million attended. The weather, on the day of the protest was grey and cold, but reports noted that people remained "in high spirits" as London became gridlocked and protesters were stuck for hours at Gower Street and the Embankment, the two starting points for the march. The police began the march earlier than intended on safety grounds because of the number of people who had arrived in central London. Hundreds of coaches brought protesters from 250 towns and cities across the UK, Many commentators noted the diversity of those attending the march. Euan Ferguson noted in The Observer that:

All police leave in the capital was cancelled for the event, though Scotland Yard later said that it passed off almost without incident. Protesters who managed to reach Hyde Park in time heard various speakers, including Harold Pinter, George Galloway, Tony Benn and Bianca Jagger however many were not able to reach the rally as those travelling home by coach had to leave before completing the march route. Protesters at the back end of the march did not reach Hyde Park until hours after the speakers and performers had finished. Charles Kennedy, then the leader of the Liberal Democrats, was a late addition to the list of speakers. There was some media speculation that he only decided to speak after a lead article in The Guardian was critical of his absence from the planned speaker list. There had been some controversy within the StWC over allowing Kennedy to speak since his party was committed to opposing the war only in the absence of a second UN resolution, but the coalition decided that failing to invite him "would have been divisive for the movement and would have fragmented anti war opposition to the war." and the biggest taking to the streets since the Golden Jubilee weekend in 2002. In an ICM poll for The Guardian (14 February 2003 – 16 February 2003), 6% of people claimed that someone from their household went on the march or had intended to. The Stop claims that this translates into 1.25million households and thus supports the estimate of two million people, assuming that more than one person could come from each household. RadioVague in conjunction with the now defunct CableRadio broadcast speeches, music and interviews from the event to the internet throughout the day using a satellite uplink provided by Psand. net. A sole person demonstrated in opposition to the march outside the Iraqi section of the Jordanian Embassy on the dayJacques More a writer from Croydonwith a placard saying that, although a last resort, war is necessary "hen evil dictators rule and murder their own people". Ten years on writer Ian Sinclair assembled an oral history of the demonstration. Journalist Ellie Mae O'Hagan, a UK Uncut activist, told Sinclair that despite its size "it did absolutely nothing". Other witnesses, such as Milan Rai, are of the opposite opinion: "We achieved a lot, and a hell of a lot more than we realise". Tariq Ali, one of the speakers in February 2003, said at the tenth anniversary: "I didn't quite tell them 'Blair is going to go to war regardless of today' but I knew that". "It was a huge show of anger but that's about it. It left no lasting legacy in my opinion." "One demonstration never overturned government policy overnightor very rarelyand on something as strategic and massive as that", commented Seumas Milne in an interview with The Quietus online magazine in October 2012. "So if people imagine one demonstration is going to change everything of course that's wrong, but demos, protests, social organisation, trade union organisation, political organisationall these things are part of the process by which things are going to shift."

In addition to the demonstrations in England, the United Kingdom also saw protests in Scotland. Anti war activists planned a demonstration in Glasgow which ended at the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre (SECC) where the Labour Party was holding a conference for party members. The Labour Party requested that the SECC refuse permission for a stage and PA system outside the conference hall. In response to this the then Scottish Socialist Party MSP Tommy Sheridan tabled a motion in the Scottish Parliament to allow the event to take place, condemning what he claimed were attempts to "stifle all opposition to warmonger Blair". The Labour Party was unsuccessful in blocking the demonstrators' plans. Tony Blair was due to give a speech at the same time as the protesters would have arrived outside the conference centre, but the speech was rescheduled to an earlier time to avoid this.

The Northern Irish march was held in Belfast, where 10,000 (Guardian estimate) to 20,000 (SW estimate) protesters from across the sectarian divide joined the demonstration. The march started at the Arts College at 14:30 and moved through that Royal Avenue towards Belfast City Hall. Prominent politicians from Sinn Féin, the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) and the centrist Alliance Party joined the protest. Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams spoke from the platform at the end rally saying "If President Bush and Mr Blair want war, it should be war against poverty and for equality." There was also a rally in Newry in County Down attending by hundreds of protesters (BBC estimate).

Canada saw protests in 70 cities and towns (WSWS estimate).

Organisers of the New York City protest had hoped to march past the headquarters of the United Nations. However, a week before the march, police claimed that they would not be able to ensure order and District Court Judge Barbara Jones ruled against allowing the route. Instead, protesters were only permitted to hold a stationary rally. According to Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York City Civil Liberties Union, judicial denial of a permit for a protest march was an unprecedented restriction of civil liberties, as marching and parading through streets to express various points of view is "a time honoured tradition in our country that lies at the core of the First Amendment". As people tried to reach the rally area they ended up constituting an unplanned march, stretching twenty blocks down First Avenue and overflowing onto Second and Third Avenue. Other activists in California originally planned to hold a protest in San Francisco on the Saturday but they changed to the Sunday in order not to conflict with the city's Chinese New Year's parade. The protest was held on Sunday 16 February. The BBC estimated the crowd size to be 150,000 people, while protest organisers and police agreed that the crowd count was 200,000 people. However, a San Francisco Chronicle photographic investigation estimated that the number in attendance at the peak period was closer to 65,000 people, although it did not state how many people were in attendance for the duration of the demonstration. There was some controversy over Rabbi Michael Lerner not being selected as a speaker for the rally at the end of the demonstration. Lerner claimed that he was not picked to speak for reasons of antisemitism due to his support for the existence of the Israeli state. The organisers responded with a statement that he was not picked because of an arrangement between the groups that organised the demonstration that there would be no speakers that had publicly attacked any other anti war group and that "since he had publicly attacked A. N. S. W. E. R. in both The New York Times and Tikkun community email newsletters, his inclusion in the program would violate agreement." They also noted that two rabbis with views similar to those of Michael Lerner would be speaking. In Austin, Texas, 10,000 protestors marched down Congress Avenue from the state capitol building. In Colorado Springs, 4,000 protesters were dispersed with pepper spray, tear gas, stun guns and batons. 34 were arrested on failure to disperse and other charges

Demonstrations also took place in Philadelphia, where thousands (CNN estimate) joined a march to the Liberty Bell, There was also a demonstration of 900 people (USA Today estimate) on the island of Puerto Rico. In Brazil, a protest led by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was attended by 1,500 marchers (Police estimate).

In Iraq, the country in which the war would take place, protesters marched down Palestine Street in Baghdad where several thousand Iraqis—many carrying Kalashnikov rifles—joined in the global protests. Unlike the vast majority of protests across the world the protest in Baghdad was also in support of the Baathist regime; it was called by Saddam Hussein as "World Anger Day". Protesters carried posters of Saddam and burned US flags. The demonstration was coordinated with a similar demonstration which took place in Ramallah.

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. In Cape Town 5,000 (USA Today estimate) to 20,000 protesters (WSWS estimate) joined a demonstration march which started at 10 in the morning on Keizersgracht road and ended at the offices of the US consulate general which was guarded by a ring of riot police, where there was a rally with speakers. Protests were organised by the Anti War Coalition and the Stop the War campaign of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu). Protests of thousands of people also took place at Durban and Bloemfontein.

A protest of around 3,000 (SW estimate) in the Tunisian city of Sfax was attacked by police who beat the protesters with batons and truncheons, injuring at least 20.

A group of scientists at the US McMurdo Station held a rally on the ice at the edge of the Ross Sea.

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 planetthe United States, and worldwide public opinion". 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 determination to confront Saddam Hussein and help the Iraqi people". 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. 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. 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. 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?". 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. It also explores the theme of old age, depicting age positively as something which grants the protagonist freedom.