Where were you on February 15, 2003? If you were a part of the biggest global demonstration in history against war, which took place that day, I’m sure you remember well.

I was in the streets of Castellon, a small town on the Mediterranean coast of Spain, where I was studying for a master’s in Peace Studies, with some 20,000 other Spaniards protesting the impending war against Iraq. It was really very moving to be a part of such a large gathering.

Now a team is working on a full-length documentary, called “We Are Many,” about that historic day. Although it’s not set to come out until late 2011 or early 2012, they have already completed a very nice trailer for the movie (above).

While I’m all for commemorating that important event, I also think it’s worth looking at critically. Yes, millions of people around the world came out to protest a war that had not even begun yet. Nothing like that has ever happened before. As Noam Chomsky has said, it took years for any comparable protest to develop during the Vietnam War. And there is hope in that.

Nevertheless, it didn’t stop the invasion of Iraq. Bush brushed off the demonstrations with ease. To let the protesters influence his decision to attack Iraq, he quipped, would be like saying “I’m going to decide policy based upon a focus group.”

And unfortunately, when the war began a little more than a month later, many who took part in that global day of protest felt deflated. Afterwards, it took months to build the momentum for action back up and it’s my sense that many people stopped demonstrating against the war for good. Perhaps they felt that it was of no use, since the massive protests before the invasion didn’t apparently bear fruit.

However, the hard truth is that we never should have expected one day of protest, no matter how big, to stop a war. That’s not how nonviolence works. If we actually wanted to stop the imminent attack on Iraq, we would have had to come back the next day, and every day after that, until the administration listened. Almost all nonviolent campaigns that have been successful against such a powerful, determined opponent required this type of sacrifice and perseverance from participants.

Protesters would also have needed to try other, more aggressive tactics – like civil disobedience or even a general strike – that more directly disrupt business as usual. If millions of people indefinitely refused to go to work, blocked roads around the country and filled the jails, then Bush may have perhaps faltered.

Rather than simply celebrate February 15, I would encourage the filmmakers to include some discussion along these lines, so that their very promising documentary can contribute to the building of a more effective movement in the future.

• More than 250 Washington State University Vancouver students staged a “mass walkout” to protest budget cuts to academic programs, the elimination of crucial financial aid, and continued tuition hikes.

• Canadian anti-Olympic protesters are promising a series of protests starting this weekend, culminating in a march on the opening ceremonies Feb. 12.

• Anti-US demonstrations in several Iraqi cities coincided with Vice President Joe Biden’s visit this week.

• Chinese artists have been staging flash mobs to protest the bulldozing of their studios.

• Chinese activist Feng Zhenghu ended his 90-day sit-in at Japan’s Narita International Airport on Tuesday when Chinese officials finally agreed to let him return.

• Customs officials and tax inspectors in Greece are holding a two-day strike to protest government austerity measures, including wage cuts.

• Workers at Fiat plants across Italy held a four-hour strike on Wednesday to protest plans to shut a factory in Sicily.

• Life remained crippled for the fourth day on Thursday in the Kashmir valley due to a general strike protesting the death of a 13-year-old boy by police on Sunday evening in down town city.

At the end of November, just before Obama announced the escalation of the Afghan War, members of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW), with the help of World Can’t Wait, staged a unique and powerful protest at the Westlake Center in Seattle.

As a form of “street theater,” the veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, dressed in their military uniforms and pointing imaginary guns, stormed through the crowd, tossing other protesters – who were disguised as innocent civilians going about their business at the shopping mall – to the ground and arresting them.

The Seattle Post Intelligencer explains the reaction from the passers-by:

But many people were caught off-guard by the unorthodox scene… where lines of young kids waited their turn to ride the carousel and shoppers hurried by with their bags.

As the “soldiers” screamed profanities at the “civilians” on the ground, many frightened young children were asking their parents what was going on. Meanwhile, some adult shoppers walked by – seemingly oblivious to the freaky scene.

Dubbed “Operation First Casualty,” members of IVAW first carried out this unusual type of protest, which gives onlookers just a small taste of what war is like for ordinary Iraqis or Afghans, at various locations in New York City back in 2007. After getting significant media coverage, IVAW took their show to Washington, San Francisco, and to Denver during the Democratic National Convention.

Since I first heard of this idea, and saw pictures and videos of these actions, I thought they were a brilliant and shocking way to dramatize the ugly reality of war for the average American. They also provide great opportunities for those of us in the peace movement to work closely with veterans to resist the ongoing wars.

My only regret is that these types of protest cannot be more widespread. If ordinary people were simply to dress as soldiers and carry out this street theater, critics could legitimately argue that that they don’t really know what war is like. And I wonder if it would offend sympathetic veterans, who are or could potentially be our allies. Any thoughts?

A new coalition of antiwar groups called End US Wars has organized an emergency rally at the White House this Saturday, December 12th, from 11am to 4pm, to call for an immediate end to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the drone attacks (and covert ops) in Pakistan.

Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), former Rep. Cynthia McKinney, former Sen. Mike Gravel, Nobel Peace Prize nominee Kathy Kelly, Chris Hedges and a host of antiwar leaders will take part and speak at the demonstration.

If President Obama does not meet these demands, the coalition promises to step up opposition, which will include supporting real antiwar candidates in the next election.

(One group that seems to be planning more dramatic action beginning this March is called Peace of the Action. Their site says participants will “bring forward a historic escalation of Peace Activism like we have not seen in the United States in a long time.” Without getting more specific, they plan to disrupt “business as usual” by committing “courageous deeds of civil resistance [on a daily basis] until our demands are met.”)

If you live in DC or can make it there, the protest this weekend will be a good opportunity to voice your opposition to our never-ending wars. And if you can’t get there, organizing a rally in your local area in solidarity with this action would be just as important.

Click here for the Event Guide, including map and transportation arrangements.

Get regular updates here as a Facebook fan of End The Wars.

Click here to read the Open Letter to the President.

As the President mulls over how many additional troops to send to Afghanistan, in a recent article for Truthout, Jeff Leys wrote that the antiwar movement seems to have gone missing over these past several months. Apart from the action on October 5, in Washington and other antiwar events around the country on October 17, he unfortunately seems to be right.

Nevertheless, we can and must step up the pressure. For those interested in taking action, Leys suggests joining the Peaceable Assembly Campaign (PAC) – the latest effort by our good friends at Voices for Creative Nonviolence to challenge the militarism that is so pervasive in our country.

From January 19 through February 2, the PAC will maintain a two-week vigil at the White House and engage in regular acts of nonviolent civil disobedience, starting on the day President Obama enters his second year in office, continuing through his anticipated State of the Union address to Congress, and concluding on the day he is to submit his budget for 2011 to Congress.

Then after February 2, the Peaceable Assembly Campaign will focus its work upon Congress. Similar to the Occupation Project effort of 2007, the PAC will organize lobbying – both legal and extralegal (i.e., civil disobedience) – in the home offices of representatives and senators who do not commit themselves publicly to oppose additional funding for the wars and occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as the occupation of the Palestinian territories.

You can become involved with the Peaceable Assembly Campaign at www.peaceableassemblycampaign.org.

A recent AFP article looks for answers to this question by talking with activists from the Vietnam War-era and students involved in opposing the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

There are of course many reasons for the decline of activism at universities, which have historically been a hotbed for anti-war activity.

Mounting economic and academic pressures on today’s youth, intimidation by authorities, online distractions and conflicted views about the “good” war in Afghanistan, not to mention other causes such as health care and slashed school budgets clawing for attention, have conspired to snuff out anti-war activism on campus, experts and students say.

Tom Hayden, one of the founders of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) in the 1960s, pinned it squarely on the privatization of conflict.

“Students were the bulwark of the anti-Vietnam war movement because students were being drafted, full stop,” Hayden said. “Ending forced conscription radically diminished the possibilities of future student anti-war protests.”

The article also points out that young people today are “marching with their fingers instead of their feet.”

Some, including myself, question how much pressure this type of activism really puts on those in power to change course.

Stanley Aronowitz, a Vietnam anti-war organizer, insists online petitions do nothing but entrench users in the “anti-reality” of Internet activism.

“I don’t believe petitions do anything,” he said. “They are what middle-class people and intellectuals do to convince themselves they’re getting somewhere.”

Aronowitz, now a sociology professor at City University of New York, acknowledges that new social technologies on the Web — Facebook, Twitter, YouTube — have mass mobilization potential.

“But they also privatize people’s lives to much more of a degree than when people had to go to meetings and act collectively.”

A student who runs the Student Peace Action Network also suggests that the use of new “non-lethal” weapons, like the taser, keeps some from taking to the streets or speaking out.

If that is the case, however, I think it simply reveals the lack of conviction of young people today, because activists in the 60s often risked their personal safety to challenge to the war in Vietnam.

In Syracuse, more than 150 picketers protested Sunday afternoon at the New York Air National Guard base against the use of unmanned drones in Iraq and Afghanistan, which will be flown from the base starting next fall. (Mike Greenlar / The Post Standard)

• Human rights activists protesting torture being carried out by the United States marched to the main gate at Fort Huachuca Army Intelligence Center in Arizona on Sunday. Five crossed into the base and were taken into custody.

• In Finland, 750 Finnair pilots went on strike on Monday after weekend negotiations over a labor contract between the airline and the pilots’ union failed. The industrial action on first day grounded at least 215 international and domestic flights, which would have carried about 15,000 people to destinations.

• The prominent Western Saharan human rights activist Aminatou Haidar, dubbed the “Saharan Gandhi,” has launched a hunger strike at a Spanish airport, accusing Morocco and Spain of preventing her from entering Western Sahara.

• Eighty-seven Tamil political prisoners in Sri Lanka began a hunger strike protest from Saturday morning demanding that their lives be better protected following an attack on fellow Tamil prisoners Friday by Sinhalese prisoners in the presence of prison officials.

• Last Thursday, several dozen SEIU 1021 members and staff occupied San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom’s office, while hundreds more cheered them on inside and outside City Hall. The action was to highlight the solutions 1021 has been proposing over the mayor’s latest attempt to decimate public services.

• In Lebanon, Zahle residents, backed by MPs from the capital of the Bekaa as well as popular and student delegations, on Monday staged a daylong sit-in outside the government Serail in protest against increasing armed robbery and assaults in their city.

• More than 40 Kurdish political prisoners are continuing with their hunger strike to protest the execution of Ehsan Fatahian.

• Students took over the Science and Engineering Library at the University of California at Santa Cruz Friday night to keep it open that night and Saturday — as had been the case before budget cuts limited its hours.

• In Sri Lanka, the petroleum sector trade unions vowed to continue their strike, which began on Friday, after politicians threatened to take action against the protesting employees.

In case you aren’t convinced that the Tea Party Movement gets disproportionately more media coverage than protests waged by those on the Left, I submit the following as evidence:

Hundreds of African Americans marched on the White House Saturday to protest the policies of President Obama in what the AFP called, “the first public demonstration by African Americans against the Obama administration since his historic inauguration in January.”

It seems the French news agency was the first to cover it. But, as best I can tell, no mainstream American newspaper or news show has followed their lead. Most telling, perhaps, is that Iran’s PressTV and Tehran Times seem to be two of the more prominent news links.

Why is this protest being ignored by American media? I would wager it has something to do with their message. Protest organizer Omali Yeshitela, a civil rights leader with the Black Is Back coalition, summed it up best by saying, “We recognize that Barack Hussein Obama is white power in black face.”

According to the AFP, the protesters also “slammed the president for continuing what they described as Washington’s ‘imperialist’ agenda around the world” and demanded that he “bring US troops home.”

So, I guess the lesson here is: if you ever want to do something that’s highly visible and involves large numbers of people without drawing media attention to yourself, make sure to mention these issues.

Noam Chomsky gave a talk in London last week in which he explained how protests against the Iraq War actually had a positive effect:

“There is a lot of comparison between opposition to the Iraq war with opposition to the Vietnam war, but people tend to forget that at first there was almost no opposition to the Vietnam war,” said Chomsky.

“In the Iraq war, there were massive international protests before it officially started… and it had an effect. The United Sates could not use the tactics used in Vietnam: there was no saturation bombing by B52s, so there was no chemical warfare – (the Iraq war was) horrible enough, but it could have been a lot worse,” he said.

“And furthermore, the Bush administration had to back down on its war aims, step by step,” he added.

“It had to allow elections, which it did not want to do: mainly a victory for non-Iraqi protests. They could kill insurgents; they couldn’t deal hundreds of thousands of people in the streets. Their hands were tied by the domestic constraints. They finally had to abandon – officially at least – virtually all the war aims,” said Chomsky.

“As late as November 2007, the US was still insisting that the ‘Status of Forces Agreement’ allow for an indefinite US military presence and privileged access to Iraq’s resources by US investors – well they didn’t get that on paper at least. They had to back down. OK, Iraq is a horror story but it could have been a lot worse,” he said

“So yes, protests can do something. When there is no protest and no attention, a power just goes wild, just like in Cambodia and northern Louse,” he added.

Not only was this analysis surprising coming from Chomsky—as opposed to, say, Howard Zinn—but it is just surprising in general. When it comes to dissecting the opposition to the Iraq War, one tends to hear more about the way in which it fizzled out after the invasion. While that’s still worthy of despair, this shows that we shouldn’t write off the power of protest, no matter how small or scattered.

As mentioned on this blog before, President Obama’s frequent citation of nonviolent leaders as his heroes is completely inconsistent with, well, just about every aspect of his job. The most obvious, of course, is leading the military. And unfortunately Obama has not approached the task any differently than his predecessors. He is dead set on maintaining our presence in Iraq, bombing Pakistan and increasing troops in Afghanistan. So, to show just how inconsistent this is with the beliefs of his heroes, Rethink Afghanistan compiled a video that combines clips from the movie Gandhi, Dr. King’s Beyond Vietnman speech, and a documentary on Cesar Chavez.

An estimated 500 people gathered at the White House yesterday to protest the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and to request a meeting with President Barack Obama. Some of the demonstrators chained themselves to the White House fence and some lay prone on the sidewalk as if they were dead, while others chanted "mourn the dead, heal the wounded, end the war". Sixty-one were arrested.

• Some 800,000 teachers, medical workers and other public-sector staff went on strike in Romania yesterday to protest pay cuts imposed by the government under pressure from the International Monetary Fund. Hospitals only dealt with emergencies and teachers supervised children without conducting lessons.

• About 10 people were involved in the blockade of a coal loading depot in South Lanarkshire as part of a protest against open cast coal mines in the area and 13 new mines due to open in Scotland. Five were arrested.

• About 110 protesters sang and spoke about the need for health care reform in front of UnitedHealth Group’s corporate headquarters in Minnetonka, Minnesota yesterday. Six were arrested for blocking the entrance.

• About 200 D.C. high school students skipped classes yesterday morning to march on the offices of Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee and protest the layoff of 229 teachers last week.

• Hundreds of Palestinians gathered in the West Bank capital of Ramallah yesterday to protest the Palestinian Authority’s support for delaying the endorsement of a UN report on possible war crimes committed during Israel’s Gaza offensive.

• Around 700 expatriate labourers held a protest in downtown Kuwait on Sunday to demand payment of their salaries they say are three months overdue.

Over at Alternet, I have a new piece about Obama’s schizophrenic relationship to protest. Over the years, he has repeatedly pointed to Gandhi as an inspiration. And during Obama’s presidential campaign, he used the perhaps apocryphal story of FDR’s constructive relationship with the grassroots, to urge his supporters who wanted their progressive goals met to go out there and “make me do it.”

Nevertheless, on the eve of the G-20 summit last week, President Barack Obama told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that even during his days as a community organizer in Chicago he was never a big fan of mass protests.

With the clear intention of discouraging those who might join the looming demonstrations against the G-20, Obama explained that he was always a believer that “focusing on concrete, local, immediate issues that have an impact on people’s lives is what really makes a difference; and that having protests about abstractions [such] as global capitalism or something, generally is not really going to make much of a difference.”

I go on to argue that these comments were really disingenuous on Obama’s part for many reasons.

It would not have taken an incredible investigative feat to discover that the protesters descending upon Pittsburgh were doing so for very “concrete” reasons that touch their daily lives in very real ways.

They came to advocate for greater assistance for everyday people during these tough economic times, for more serious government action on global warming ahead of the U.N. climate talks in Copenhagen, Denmark, and for an end to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that have already taken such a staggering human and financial toll.

In fact, as a general rule of thumb, most people — whether they are diehard activists or not — don’t normally travel great distances to face ominous riot police firing rubber bullets, pepper spray and deafening sound cannons, unless they have been deeply, personally affected by the issues being protested.

Also, given the surge of right wing protests in recent months, Obama unfortunately missed an important opportunity to encourgage pressure from the left to help forward a more progressive legislative agenda.

Legal specialists in Cairo continue their sit-in,which began on July 6, in front of the Ministry of Justice to demand better pay and working conditions, as well as changes to laws that make their work more difficult.

• During last Wednesday’s demonstration in Bil’in, the Palestinian children of the town carried banners and chanted slogans like “We want to sleep,” “No more night raids,” “Let us live,” and “We want Peace.”

• Cindy Sheehan and other like minded activists are traveling to Martha’s Vineyard to demonstrate against the continuing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as President Barack Obama and his family vacation on the island.

• A separatists-sponsored strike to protest against a statement made by Prime Minister’s Manmohan Singh paralysed normal life across Kashmir on Saturday.

• Five parishioners of Mision de Jesus Obrero Catholic Church in Fort Myers have gone on hunger strike to protest both of their priests being moved to new parishes.

• In Honduras, an estimated 5,000 people marched in the capital Tegucigalpa last Thursday in support of the ousted President Manuel Zelaya.

• In Nepal, locals staged a sit-in in front of the Basantapur Area Police Office of Madi to protest the misbehavior on Saturday night by inebriated police personnel with the locals.

On August 6, the day started off with a vigil outside of Camp Williams Volk Field. An estimated 30 anti-war activists were organized, holding placards calling for, in-short, the ouster our military-industrial complex and the rebuilding of what the U.S. has destroyed. The fenced-in U.S. Army base loomed in the distance while police watched us with cameras in hand. This would set the tone for the next three-day Walk for Peace through Tomah, Camp Douglas and Tunnel City, Wisconsin before ending at Fort McCoy’s main gate.

Hailing from Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota and New York, the protesters ranged from war veterans to activists affiliated with Voices for Creative Nonviolence (VCNV) and Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT). By the third day, 50 civil resisters turned out at Ft. McCoy to remind others of the lack of concern the government has shown for the U.S. troops. With 21,000 additional U.S. troops being redeployed to Afghanistan – along with 130,000 still remaining illegally in Iraq – the proof of the military empire’s unwillingness to desist shows with each passing day. There’s also the skewing of Afghani and Iraqi civilian death tolls along with the widening death rate of American troops.

With each step closer to our destination, we faced more opposition. People driving by yelled out, “We’re fighting for a reason!” But none of them told us what those reasons were. Why are American soldiers risking their lives for us? The Public Affairs Officer, Linda Fournier, at the base told reporters “the soldiers that are here training at Ft. McCoy and come through here, they are fighting for the rights of the people to protest.” But were we not already free before we invaded Iraq and Afghanistan? So is it for freedom? Safety? Women’s Rights? Democracy? Or is it because if U.S. soldiers were to refuse to follow unjust orders they’d risk being lambasted by their fellow officers and face punishment?

While at a hotel, a woman came up to one of us and said, “My son’s being redeployed into Kandahar, Afghanistan.” When asked if she and her son believed in what he’s doing, she replied: “Initially, we believed in the governments cause, but now we’re not sure what’s going on. He’d rather be home.”

The nine activists who trespassed and were arrested at Ft. McCoy demonstrated how we all felt. The message was clear: We’re no longer afraid. We’re tired of the wars, the lies, the threats against peace. We’re not going to go passively into quietness. You’re going to have to physically deal with us. There will be no white flags in our hands, but just a peace banner lifted above our heads in solidarity.

A column of about 10,000 anti-coup protesters marched into Tegucigalpa on Tuesday to demand the return of ousted President Manuel Zelaya. An additional 4,000 Zelaya supporters gathered in San Pedro Sula, the country's second largest city. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

• A peace rally of some 26,000 people brought the New Caledonia capital Noumea to a standstill on Wednesday to protest against recent violence between striking workers and police in France’s South Pacific territory.

• In Washington state, more than 80 people participated in a vigil and nonviolent direct action against the Trident nuclear weapons system at the Bangor nuclear submarine base on Monday to mark the 64th Anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Nine were arrested.

• In Wisconsin, nine peace activists were arrested this week at the US military base Mount McCoy. The activists had completed a three-day walk to protest the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan and the US nuclear stockpile on the anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

• For the third time in the last week, faculty members of the Government College in India boycotted classes on Tuesday and staged a demonstration against the delay in the implementation of the revised pay scales recommended by the University Grants Commission (UGC).

• On Monday, four protesters entered the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (WVDEP) and locked themselves to the office entrance. They demanded that the agency hand over control of key programs to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Office of Surface Mining, Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE) and that WVDEP Secretary Randy Huffman resign.