Moscow theatre LONDON: Over 500 students from all over London packed a meeting on October 16 to discuss the war and the mobilisation for the October 31 Day of Action, and beyond.
Jeremy Corbyn the left wing Labour MP gave a message of support and said he was inspired by this diverse multi-ethnic, multiage coalition against the war.
The main speakers were Pandit G from Asian Dub Foundation, Tariq Ali and Mark Steel from Radio Four. For most of the students this was the coming together of two different generations of anti-war activists. Tariq Ali, probably one of the most well known activists from the 1960s, spoke of the unequal struggle and how the US government has said it will challenge any country that challenges the US • hegonmy over the world.
This as Tarig said, "is a declaration of war against the whole world".
Many on the left have spoken about the new radcialisation of youth and students since Seattle but the anti-war protests and proPalestinian demos have in many way outstripped even the 1960s - in fact the Stop the War demo on October 28 was bigger than all of the Vietnam demos put togeth-. er.
What has changed is that the anti-war movement is not just to be found in the • FLORENCE: OVER 10,000, mainly youth and students demonstrated on the streets of Florence in an anti war demonstration called by the Florence Social Forum. This was part of a national day of action which saw over I million demonstrate against the war on Iraq.
The protest called by the Florence Social Forum was the beginning of a series of Universities and colleges but it can be found in the workplaces: proof of this can be found in the trade union support for the Stop the War coalition.
For the first anti-war demo last November it was hard to get union leaders to appear on the platform: but now they are lining up. Straw in the wind
Pay Pa protests leading up to the European Social Forum in November.
The Florence Social Forum will hold antiwar demonstrations in each of the five districts of the city. This will end with a march on the local US consulate.
The march was made up secondary students, who had taken the day off school, and trade Women students join one of the many US anti-war protests that have
In many ways it is an unequal struggle - but we are not a minority. We can make a difference and we will.
As Helen Salmon for the NUS Executive said:
*The war in Vietnam was not lost in Vietnam but on the streets of the USA. We have to win the battle on the
I donh dring hi ors on in force. The atmosphere was carnival-like, with this new layer of students radicalised by the war and the growing anti-capitalist movement which has been built out of the local social forums since the Genoa protests.
The slogan of 'one, two, three Genoas' has been raised. And with the mass strikes in Italy there is a new force unionists were also out, emerging, s not a home front - and break Blair from Bush".
But the most important part of the meeting was not what the speakers said - but what the students were planning.
Many ideas were discussed and debated. From getting up on stage in every theatre across London and Thousands march against war in US A COUPLE OF DAYS Golden Gate Park, hosted before the US Congress began discussing the administration's war bill, tens of thousands of ant-war protesters made their views known the streets of the USA. On October 6, marches and rallies took place around the United States under the slogan "Not in our Name"
In the largest action, a crowd of nearly 45,000 filled the Central Park in New York. In Los Angeles over 10,000 people joined in the largest anti-war protest in the city since the Vietnam War, and marched to the headquarters of the National Guard.
In San Francisco, 8,000 packed into Union Square, for a rally in the heart of the city's hotel and shopping district.
This rally came on the heels of a march the week before, September 28, in. which over 4,000 took part, and a rally/music copcert in. IMF and the World Bank.
1711 "stopping the show. blockading bridges and streets, student occupations, and even occupying Parliament!
A forum such as this gives a chance for students to explore new ideas on not just how to organise but why.
One student from LSE who described the September 28th demo as "the best feeling of my life -better that Genoa" summed up the mood of the students.
This may be an unequal struggle and meetings such as these might be small in relative terms: but the struggle continues.
Lessons have been leamt and re-learnt. There is a mass movement of opposition, and we must build that movement against war - the true expression of capitalism. by rap singer Michael Franti from Spearhead a few weeks earlier, which about 7,000 attended.
In Portland, Oregon, in the largest ant-war action seen there in years, some 6,000 marched to the federal building on October 5.
2,000 anti-war protestors marched in late September to the federal building in Denver, Colorado.
And there were also demonstrations in other major US cities, such as Chicago, as well as many smaller cities and communities.
In, Washingbon, some 10,000 marched September 29 against a new war against Iraq and against the World Bank and IMF policies.
The Washington demo marked the convergence of many protests focused by the annual meeting of the