| November 5, 2007: This website is an archive of the former website, traprockpeace.org, which was created 10 years ago by Charles Jenks. It became one of the most populace sites in the US, and an important resource on the antiwar movement, student activism, 'depleted' uranium and other topics. Jenks authored virtually all of its web pages and multimedia content (photographs, audio, video, and pdf files. As the author and registered owner of that site, his purpose here is to preserve an important slice of the history of the grassroots peace movement in the US over the past decade. He is maintaining this historical archive as a service to the greater peace movement, and to the many friends of Traprock Peace Center. Blogs have been consolidated and the calendar has been archived for security reasons; all other links remain the same, and virtually all blog content remains intact. THIS SITE NO LONGER REFLECTS THE CURRENT AND ONGOING WORK OF TRAPROCK PEACE CENTER, which has reorganized its board and moved to Greenfield, Mass. To contact Traprock Peace Center, call 413-773-7427 or visit its site. Charles Jenks is posting new material to PeaceJournal.org, a multimedia blog and resource center.
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See NYC March 20th photos (107)
See compilation of press coverage
NEWS FROM UNITED FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE | http://www.unitedforpeace.org
March 20, 2004
Over Two Million People Take to the Streets Around the World in Global
Protest Marking the One-Year Anniversary of Iraq War: End the Occupation
NEW YORK, NY--On Saturday, March 20, upwards of 2 million people took to the
streets around the world to protest the one-year anniversary of the invasion
of Iraq. People in more than 60 countries throughout the world - from Japan
to South Korea to Spain to Australia to South Africa - called for an end to
the occupation, which they believe is only increasing violence and
insecurity in Iraq.
The March 20 global day of protest surpassed the expectations of its
organizers, both in terms of the number of cities and countries that
organized events and the number of people who took to the streets. Under the
banner, The World Still Says No To War, at least 300 U.S. cities and towns
held anti-war events on Saturday, as did more than 275 other cities
throughout the world..
In the United States, notable protests included a 100,000-person march and
rally in New York City, and a similar event in San Francisco attended by
more than 50,000. In Crawford, Texas, where President George Bush owns a
ranch and often vacations, 1,000 protesters converged to repudiate his
militaristic policies and call for a diversion of the billions of dollars
that are being spent on war to domestic programs like schools, health
clinics, and unemployment benefits. Military families and veterans led a
protest that drew 1,500 to Fayetteville, North Carolina, outside the Fort
Bragg military base.
In Rome, one million people took to the streets, in the largest single
protest of the day. In Spain, demonstrations took place in more than 40
cities around the country, bringing hundreds of thousands out into the
streets for the second time since the terrorist attacks that killed more
than 200 Spaniards and injured 1500. London and Tokyo held protests drawing
tens of thousands of participants.
"The unprovoked war against Iraq was a terrible tragedy for the Iraqi
people, thousands of whom were killed during the last year, and for the
close to 600 U.S. soldiers who also lost their lives and thousands of others
who've been injured," said Leslie Cagan of United for Peace and Justice. "It
's time to hold our government accountable for the chaos it's created in
Iraq - and for the fact that the Bush administration lied about the Iraqi
threat to convince the American public of the need for war."
United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ), which initiated the call for a global
day of protest on March 20, is a national coalition with more than 750
groups under its umbrella. Since its founding in October 2002, UFPJ has
spurred hundreds of protests and rallies around the country, including the
two largest demonstrations against the Iraq war.
A complete list of cities that held protest events on March 20 can be found
on the United for Peace and Justice website at http://www.unitedforpeace.org