International Peace Movement Adopts March 15 as Date of Solidarity Actions Worldwide

Dear VoteNoWar Member:

Tens of thousands of people walked out yesterday to protest war against Iraq. Youth, students, and others left high school, left college campuses, left their workplaces and walked out into the streets carrying out hundreds of anti-war actions in communities around the United States, yesterday, March 5. It is undeniable that the anti-war movement emanates from every community now, and it has become a powerful force demanding a halt to Bush's war drive. VoteNoWar members and ANSWER youth and students participated in many of these actions.
 
 The reason the anti-war movement is growing so fast is that the world recognizes that the Bush Administration is not only planning to carry out an illegal unprovoked assault but that it intends to use methods that constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity. The reign of terror and violence is no longer a secret but the declared policy and strategy of the Bush administration. Fearful that a large number of U.S. casualties will intensify a political backlash at home, the war planners are openly admitting that they intend to create maximum terror among the Iraqi population.

A front page article in the New York Times yesterday reported the Pentagon's plans for "unleashing 3,000 precision-guided bombs and missiles in the first 48 hours of the campaign. General Myers warned that the American attack would result in Iraqi civilian casualties...'But we can't forget that war is inherently violent,' he said. 'People are going to die. As hard as we try to limit civilian casualties, it will occur. We need to condition people that that is war. People get the idea this is going to be antiseptic. Well, its not going to be.'" ("U.S. General Sees Plan to Shock Iraq Into Surrendering" New York Times, March 5, 2003)
 
 Those of us who are unwilling to be "conditioned" must do everything in our power in the next days to make March 15th a day that tells the Bush administration they cannot launch this slaughter.
 
 More than 120 representatives from the anti-war movement in 28 countries convened in London this past weekend to strategize and coordinate international efforts to stop the war on Iraq. The U.S. was represented by a delegation from the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition.
  The London Meeting issued a statement of international coordination that called for "a massive escalation of action in the next weeks to try to prevent war," and announced demonstrations, protests and mass actions on March 15 in solidarity with the Emergency Convergence on the White House. (The text of the London Statement is below.)
 

 Reuters/ Molly Rilley
 

The worldwide anti-war movement is working together in an unparalleled effort of coordination and solidarity as people around the world fight for peace and justice, not just each for themselves, but for each other.
  We need your help to build the March 15 Emergency Convergence at the White House.