NYTimes.com Article: Big Protests Planned in Europe

This article from NYTimes.com 
has been sent to you by threehegemons@aol.com.


"From London to Paris to Berlin to Moscow, hundreds of thousands of protesters 
are set to march this weekend in what could be among Europe's biggest ever 
coordinated peace demonstrations. London's could be the most telling of all."

The construction of anti-war opinion as "European" excludes two 
groups--Americans who oppose the war, who are planning protests this weekend, 
most notably, but not only, in NYC, a few blocks from the Times; and the 
anti-war sentiment in the global south, which has been completely discounted in 
this debate.

Steven Sherman


threehegemons@aol.com


Big Protests Planned in Europe

February 14, 2003
By ALAN COWELL 




 

LONDON, Feb. 14 - From London to Paris to Berlin to Moscow,
hundreds of thousands of protesters are set to march this
weekend in what could be among Europe's biggest ever
coordinated peace demonstrations. London's could be the
most telling of all. 

In some places, like Paris and Berlin, the protesters will
be marching broadly in step with governments opposed to the
United States-led drive to disarm Saddam Hussein by force.
But in other capitals of this divided continent, including
London, the marchers will be lambasting their own rulers
for supporting Washington. 

The magnitude of the protests, thus, will highlight
different claims to legitimacy in advance of a European
summit meeting on Monday: a huge turn-out in London could
undermine Prime Minister Tony Blair, denying him a show of
consensus in his own country, while mass marches in Paris
or Berlin would strengthen the claims of President Jacques
Chirac and Chancellor Gerhard Schröder to be responsive to
the people who elected them. 

That is where protesters hope Mr. Blair will prove most
vulnerable. "Tomorrow the world will say no to war in
rallies across the globe," said Andrew Murray, the head of
the Stop the War Coalition in a newspaper article today.
"But London will be the most important because ours is the
war leader who can be broken. And if he remains deaf to a
nation's plea for peace, he will be." 

Britain, moreover, is Washington's main European ally,
committing some 40,000 troops to join American forces in
the Gulf far more than any other European nation and thus
central to America's desire not be to seen to be acting
alone. 

"We feel that in Britain that we do have the historic
responsibility," said Lindsey German, another leader of the
Stop the War Coalition, formed after Sept. 11, 2001, as a
grouping of hundreds of organizations from pro-Palestinian
Muslims to hardcore left-wingers with a leavening of
pacifists, politicians, celebrities, environmentalists,
intellectuals and labor unions. "If Blair did change his
mind, Bush would find it very difficult to go to war.
People in the United States are very reluctant to go to war
without allies," Ms. German said, referring to Prime
Minister Blair and President George W. Bush. 

So close have those two men become, in the eyes of many
Britons, that The Daily Mirror tabloid, a sponsor of
tomorrow's march, rigged a Valentine's Day front page
photograph in a heart-shaped frame showing Mr. Bush and Mr.
Blair kissing with the headline: "Make Love not War." 

The sweep of the coalition has made some people uneasy
about marching alongside other organizations with different
long-term aims. One of the official slogan's of the London
march is "Freedom for Palestine", raising fears among some
protesters that the march will be seen as anti-Israeli or
anti-semitic. "What we have always said is that this is a
criticism of the state of Israel, not a criticism of Jewish
people," Ms. German said. 

The march here is co-sponsored by the Muslim Association of
Britain which also has differences with other groups on the
march. "These are not permanent alliances," said Assam
Tamimi, a Palestinian organizer. "These are alliances on
issues where we might find common ground with the left, the
far left even like foreign policy, Palestine and Iraq. We
don't see eye to eye on many other issues." 

"The coalition is about stopping the war on terrorism, the
war that Bush launched after Sept. 11," Ms. German said. So
will that give succor to Saddam Hussein? That is not the
intention, Ms. German said, but "if Saddam Hussein feels
that he's in a stronger position after tomorrow, the
British government has only got itself to blame." 

The sheer breadth of the alliance is one reason why
organizers are anticipating a big turn-out, in excess of
the 400,000 who marched last year to support hunters and
other rural Britons against the government and possibly
over 500,000. 

But another aspect is the sense that many people who would
not usually march in protest have decided to do so this
time, reflecting a wider unease. 

"People do feel it can make a difference in a way that in
some countries it would not affect the international
stage," Ms. German said. "People feel very strongly that
the evidence has not been convincing, conclusive enough to
go to war. But I also think it fits into a more general
discontent. Transport and health services are underfunded,
but there's endless money for going to war." 

The skepticism provided one of the few points of contact
between the two aspects of the city today. 

At Heathrow airport today, police briefly evacuated part of
a terminal because of a suspicious-looking package.
Yesterday, at Gatwick airport, an entire terminal was
closed for hours after a man arrived on a flight from
Colombia with a hand grenade in his luggage. Two people
arrested west of London yesterday were released today, the
police said. The authorities have not, however, explained
the reasons behind the security alert one of the biggest in
memory. And that has left people to ponder the real extent
of the terrorist threat. 

"The threat that has led to this unprecedented security is
not from terrorists but from the peace march," said a
letter to The Guardian newspaper signed by Simon Whitehead
of Suffolk. "I wasn't going to go, but I will now."

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/14/international/europe/14CND-PROT.html?ex=1046264490&ei=1&en=029da98637dfde8c



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