Worldwide the People Resist…

At the first signs of a murderous revenge by the US imperialists for the 11 September events the resistance of the people around the world began to take shape. Even before the bombs started to fall students, artists, intellectuals and other progressive and revolutionary groups and individuals organised protests and found ways to oppose the belligerent arrogance of the US and European bourgeoisies and their various lackeys, many of whom tried from the very beginning to outlaw or suppress opposition to this new crime in the making.

As usual, the bourgeois media actively played its role in widely blocking out the outrage and organised protest against the war and in solidarity with the peoples of Afghanistan.

People in New York City were among the first to raise their voice against this war of retribution. On 21 September, 5,000 marched in Manhattan against the US going to war. On 22 September, 100 artists wearing black with white masks filed into Union Square, staging an hour-long silent performance with placards stating, “Our grief is not a cry for war”. Other early demonstrations took place in Portland, Oregon, Chicago, Seattle, Washington, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Honolulu, as well as smaller towns around the US. On 20 September, students organised a national day of action on 140 campuses across the country to protest the US’s military response and to oppose the backlash against people of Arab and Muslim backgrounds.

Across the world protests erupted in anticipation of the US war during the week of 21-29 September in places such as Baghdad, Manila, Istanbul, Tokyo, Calcutta, Jakarta, Johannesburg and several cities in the UK and Canada. In Athens, 8,000 marched to demand the government refuse any support to the US; whilst in Naples, 20,000 marched against the build-up of NATO forces in Italy.

Going against the ugly tide of forced patriotism in the USA, at least 10,000 people descended in the streets of Washington DC to protest US war preparations on 29 September. A large banner read, “Destroy imperialism not Afghanistan”.

After the US and British imperialists launched their vicious attack on Afghanistan, resistance against them within the US and other parts of the world escalated. In New York, 10,000 joined a march on 7 October organised by the coalition “Not in our name”. Community and religious leaders of different faiths and family members of people killed in the World Trade Center spoke, along with Arab-Americans and long-time anti-war activists and well-known intellectuals.

After the first bombs fell, protests were quickly organised in other US cities and towns and across Europe and Asia during the weekend of 7 October. In Toronto, a march against the war on Afghanistan took place each week.

Early activities opposing the war in the large cities of Europe – London, Rome, Berlin, Paris, Lisbon, Amsterdam and many others - brought out people from broadly different social strata and different political views. In Britain, the US’s closest ally, political meetings and pickets were held in various cities around the country, and towards the end of October 20,000 marched in London. One month later, this number swelled to 40,000 under the theme, “Not in our name”.

Hundreds of students, mainly women, mostly from the University of London marched on November 4. A speaker from the Eighth of March Organisation (Iranian and Afghanistani) exposed the imperialists’ war goals and their role in the oppression of women in Afghanistan at a conference following the march.

At the end of October, there were several demonstrations in Italy, including a massive one in Rome on 10 November against the World Trade Organisation and the war on Afghanistan. On 18 November, one thousand people protested the departure of Italian warships for Afghanistan at the Taranto naval base.

Germany saw an enormous outpouring from a wide range of political forces and peace activists on 13 October, with over 40,000 people in Berlin and 5,000 marching in Stuttgart. The lead banner read: “USA, [dripping with blood] out of Afghanistan!"

On 15 November, the day before the parliament decided to send 3,900 German solders to Afghanistan, anti-racist and anti-war groups occupied the office of the Green Party in Gotingen. On 10 November 5,000 people gathered in Berlin against the war in Afghanistan and the WTO and denounced new "anti-terrorist" bills. Demonstrations in Frankfurt burned the German flag and ended in clashes with security forces. On 8 December, a large demonstration took place in Cologne.

Demonstrations against the war were held on 8, 9 and 27 October in Copenhagen, Denmark, followed by a march of several hundred through the city on 2 December. Youth blocked a bridge to stop people and inform them about the effects of the war on the people of Afghanistan. Others took action against a Danish arms factory. A demonstration of 5,000 people took place in Bern, Switzerland.

Many of these protests throughout the world linked up directly with anti-globalisation struggles. In early November 2001, hiding from the world’s protestors they could no longer control, the World Trade Organisation met in Dohar, Qatar (which wasn’t issuing tourist visas), provoking demonstrations in more than 40 countries around the world against globalisation and the US imperialists’ war, including New Delhi 50,000, South Korea 20,000, Rome 150,000, Berlin 5,000, Geneva 10,000, Barcelona 1,000, as well as other actions in England, France, Philippines, Thailand, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Africa, Iran, Bolivia, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Turkey and Bangladesh.

In Canada on 16-18 November, many thousands gathered for a successful determined protest in Ottawa against the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. Another action in solidarity with Ottawa brought 10,000 people to Fort Benning, Georgia to demonstrate against the US School of the Americas (popularly known as the “School of the Assassins”, or “training school for terrorists”), where the military trains soldiers and police from Latin America.

On 14 December a colourful crowd of 25,000 anti-capitalist globalisation demonstrators gathered to march against the European Union summit in Brussels. One of the most highly spirited contingents was a group of refugees from Nepal who carried a bright red banner that read “For a world without imperialism!”, played drums and danced and chanted slogans in English and Nepalese along the march route while others handed out statements by RIM and the Communist Party of Afghanistan.

Asia, Latin America and the Middle Eastprotests were organised and the masses turned out in large numbers, burning US flags and other symbols and effigies of imperialist domination. In Patna, the capital of Bihar, India a demonstration of thousands of peasants, labourers, students and youth carrying red banners angrily chanted, “US decoits [bandits], hands off Afghanistan! America is genocidal”. The action united the Maoist forces in an area where there had previously been clashes amongst them.

On 1 October, 250 people marched in the rainy town of Moga, in the Punjab to protest against the impending attack on Afghanistan by the US and Britain. After the attack was launched one week later, 1,000 people gathered to protest in Jalandhar. Other rallies and demonstrations were organised by this coalition on 8 November in Moga District, on 9 November in Guruhar Sahai and on 11 November Bhatinda, as well as in other district headquarters.

In late November and early December in three Punjabi towns revolutionaries organised a series of seminars against the war of aggression in Afghanistan, as well as the reactionary Indian BJP government’s complicity, including its using the “war on terrorism” to go after revolutionary movements in India.

In Hyderabad, India an October anti-war demonstration ended in street fighting with Indian police.

In South Korea, the memorial demonstration of Jung Ta Ill (the worker who in 1970, in protest against the exploitation of the workers, burned himself) was combined with protest against the war. In Tokyo, Japan and Melbourne, Australia some 1,500 people took part in initial demonstrations against the war.

When US troops were deployed in the Philippines in mid-January 2002 to train Filipino troops, massive protests in Manila greeted them demanding, “US troops out now!” Signs read, “Arroyo, coddler of terrorists, US imperialists N° 1 terrorists!”

A statement by the Communist Party of Afghanistan, along with many other RIM parties’ statements, were translated into many languages and distributed in many countries.

Amongst the many political meetings organised to expose and debate the war were those held in Canada and Europe by supporters of the Communist Party of Afghanistan and the Communist Party of Iran (Marxist-Leninist-Maoist). Programmes in the Netherlands, Germany, England and Canada formed part of a tour organised by the Eighth of March Organisation (Iranian and Afghanistani). Immigrant associations held a forum in The Hague where a Communist Party of Afghanistan supporter exposed US crimes.

In January 2002, three Americans who lost family members in the “twin tower” atttack made a courageous visit of “reconciliation” with families of victims of US bombardments in Kabul, to the chagrin and trepidation of the US State Department.

In New York City from 31 January to 5 February, 25,000 people took part in 6 days of anti-globalisation and anti-war protests against the World Economic Forum. Far from a separate cause, the war has fuelled hatred and fury against the US ruling class, linking this crime against the people to others. As one protestor said, “Every day 19,000 people die from malnutrition, while in the past five years the top 200 corporations have doubled their profits…We’re out here in the streets and we’re fighting for people to unionise in Colombia and Mexico, we’re fighting for people who have had their villages bombed in Afghanistan and who have had their country invaded in the Philippines…”

On 16 February 2002 a demonstration was held in Vienna to oppose sending Austrian troops to Afghanistan.

In Barcelona, Spain in March 2002, some 300,000 people marched against the European Economic Summit. Prisoners inside a large cage included Afghan women, Guantanamo prisoners and Palestinians. Representatives of “capital” guarded the cage. Immigration police stopped at least 1,000 people at the French-Spain border, where an impromptu demonstration was held.