By Allan Thompson
Toronto StarDecember 9, 2002
Jane Coe says she cannot sit home any longer and listen to the drums beating for war against Iraq. So, tomorrow, she'll take to the streets of the U.S. capital to join this country's growing anti-war movement. "I'm not an activist really. I much prefer letter-writing to marching,'' the 64-year-old anthropologist said this weekend. "But I just couldn't sit at home any longer amid this drift, and all the buildup to a war in Iraq that we don't need."
Coe is helping to organize a peace march in downtown Washington on International Human Rights Day, a rally expected to bring together faith groups, seniors and peace activists.
"The public discourse is: `Bomb 'em. Gear up for war.' But in terms of Iraq, they didn't have anything to do with Al Qaeda, so linking them to terrorism is stretching it. And we need to give weapons inspections a chance to work. That's a chance, that's a hope,'' Coe said.
(The Bush administration blames Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda terror network for the Sept. 11 attacks against America that killed about 3,000 people in New York, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania last year.)
Saturday morning, Coe attended a meeting of the Washington, D.C., chapter of the Gray Panthers, a group dominated by seniors that has lobbied for decades on social justice issues. It's part of a growing coalition against war with Iraq.
In an auditorium foyer at the University of the District of Columbia, about 20 people pulled their chairs in a circle for the meeting; the Gray Panthers moved their chairs closer together when one complained she could not hear.
"My motto is health care, not warfare,'' said Abe Bloom, 89, from his wheelchair, a magnifying glass hanging on a cord around his neck to help him read the handouts.
"It seems to me that Bush is determined, no matter what, to get a war out of this; but we're not about to send our children to die for oil,'' said Ethel Lubarsky, 85, who sat next to Bloom and leaned on a cane.
As the Gray Panthers met, President George W. Bush used his weekly radio address to make clear he believes Iraq is hiding weapons of mass destruction, despite its submitting thousands of pages of documents disavowing such weapons to U.N. inspectors last week. "Inspectors do not have the duty, or the ability, to uncover terrible weapons hidden in a vast country,'' he told listeners.
Largely below the radar of mainstream media, the anti-war coalition is gaining momentum and members. They range from key labour unions, religious movements, campus groups and such groups as Black Voices for Peace to traditional Marxists.
John J. Sweeney, president of the 13-million strong AFL-CIO labour union has joined the movement, as has the National Conference of Catholic Bishops and the National Council of Churches, representing 36 Protestant and Orthodox denominations.
United for Peace, the Web site a San Francisco-based human rights group set up to track events commemorating Sept. 11, now has evolved into a clearing house for anti-war groups.
Pat Elder, who owns a real estate title company in Bethesda, Md., says he got involved with a Quaker group after attending an anti-war protest in October. "A third of the people there were over 50 and I thought, `Jesus, man, that's not what I remember from Vietnam. I'm 47 and I was a teenager when the big Vietnam demos were going on."
Now, he said, it merges "the person in the suburbs, the conservative crowd and the traditional activists ... to strike a tone that is more palatable to middle America. So we're not 20-year-olds in bandanas, shouting that Bush is a bastard."
More Information on NGOs
More Information on Protests
More Information on Protests Against War on Iraq
More Information on Iraq Crisis
FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Global Policy Forum distributes this material without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. We believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C § 107. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
