OneWorld.net (U.S.)

Dear Editors:

I have to take issue with Abid Aslam's article, "Third Iraq Anniversary Finds Publics Weary of War and Protest," particularly the assertion that anti-war activism has waned. I was surprised to see OneWorld joining the trend of playing down opposition to the Iraq war, as so many media outlets have done over the past few months.

Throughout 2005, hundreds of civil resistance actions where activists risked their freedom temporarily shut down hundreds of military recruiting stations, with some groups returning again and again to target stations.

September 24, 2005 in Washington, DC saw the largest anti-war demonstration since the start of the war, organized by United for Peace and Justice with ANSWER. September 26 in front of the White House saw the arrest of 371 peace activists for trying to directly petition the President of the United States to end the war and withdraw American troops; this action was organized by Iraq Pledge of Resistance and the National Call for Nonviolent Resistance.

Since September 2005, Iraq Pledge of Resistance and the NCNR have coordinated a campaign of local actions across the country directed at Congressional Representatives and Senators. In hundreds of towns and cities in the U.S., activists have been arrested for sit-ins and die-ins in the offices of their representatives for refusal to vote against appropriations bills for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Voices for Creative Nonviolence has staged a mutliple-month long series of actions and demonstrations, starting soon after the 2006 State of the Union address, and addressing torture at the White House, war funding in the halls of Congress itself (i.e. the infiltration of the appropriations committee hearings by four resisters), and other events.

All this led up to local and national actions on March 20, 2006, the three year mark since the start of the Iraq war. In the DC area, 51 of us were arrested for attempting to directly petition Secretary of War Donald Rumsfeld at his office at the Pentagon; simultaneously, dozens of civil resistance actions coordinated through Iraq Pledge of Resistance and the NCNR, including actions in San Francisco, New York City, Syracuse, NY, and other cities and towns across the U.S.

There have of course been dozens of other prominent actions of civil resistance against the Iraq war and the general "war on terror," such as Witness Against Torture's march on Guantanamo Bay, which earned the participants calls and visits from the IRS for violating the ban on Americans' travel to Cuba. And lastly, smaller non-resistance vigils and demonstrations take place everyday calling for an end to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

It is my contention that the anti-war movement has far from waned; rather, it is the mainstream media's reluctance to cover anti-war actions, vigils, and demonstrations that gives the appearance of a lifeless resistance movement. Thousands of activists across the United States devote huge chunks of their time to keeping up visible opposition to the wars, including hours and hours spent writing and distributing press releases and granting interviews. Sadly, mainstream media representatives do not respond. In contrast, the people I encounter on the street largely support our efforts enthusiastically; I have even received more encouragement from the police officers performing arrests at resistance actions than I have ever encountered before in the 15 years that I have been engaging in nonviolent resistance to war and militarism.

The antiwar movement is in fact working harder than ever, and risking more and more by engaging in pointed nonviolent civil resistance, rather than spending time on the largely symbolic protests occurring on weekends, past offices in DC or NY that are largely empty on these days. The perception of inaction is due to the laziness or apathy of the mainstream media, among whom I must now count OneWorld, rather than some incoherence of the anti-war movement. While I feel somewhat ridiculous offering this to a major news organization, please see the list of links below for more information about past and upcoming anti-war actions.

Sincerely,

Michael Johnson Baltimore Pledge of Resistance Baltimore, Maryland, USA

http://www.iraqpledge.org/ http://www.unitedforpeace.org/ http://www.vcnv.org/

Editor's Note: OneWorld's Full Coverage on Iraq in English can be seen here.