Around the country and the world, hundreds of antiwar protests took place to mark the fourth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. These included nationwide convergences in New York City and Washington DC called by United for Peace and Justice and International ANSWER, the two major antiwar coalitions. MoveOn, a liberal advocacy group, also held a series of nationwide vigils around the country remembering the US soldiers killed in Iraq. However, the protests by these large nationwide groups were largely stale and predictable, following paths and tactics that have already been tried by the antiwar movement to no success.
In order to advance the debate about how to end the war in Grand Rapids and around the country, Media Mouse has chosen to highlight the following antiwar protests and direct actions as examples of inspired antiwar organizing that takes risks and tries new approaches:
- In Grand Rapids, Michigan, antiwar protestors visited the home of area congressman Vern Ehlers and attempted to get Representative Ehlers to sign a contract supporting an immediate end to the occupation of Iraq by cutting funding. Another protest was held three days later at a recruiting center.
- In Washington, DC, protestors with Iraq Veterans Against the War reenacted the occupation of Iraq, using a powerful series of street theatre actions to show the reality of living in occupied Iraq.
- In Milwaukee, Wisconsin between 30 and 40 people participated in a night march to a military recruiting center where windows were smashed and vandalized with paint bombs.
- In Lansing, Michigan, the office of Congressman Mike Rogers was vandalized by antiwar protestors.
- In New Brunswick, New Jersey, 400 students and supporters walked out of Rutgers University and took part in an unpermitted march that shut down a recruiting center and blocked a highway.
- In Brooklyn, New York City, protestors held a demonstration outside of a military recruitment center.
- In New York, New York, protestors held a series of protests designed to disrupt business on Wall Street to highlight the profits United States corporations have made from the Iraq War.
- In Lawrence, Kansas, antiwar protestors held a march to a recruitment center where protestors blocked entrances with coffins.
- In Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, protestors demonstrated outside of a recruiting center before marching to Carnegie Melon University where protestors targeted CMU’s involvement in robotics research for military. Protestors walked through CMU’s buildings and “graffiti’d anti-militarism messages, threw filing cabinets and bins, and smashed lights and windows.”
- In New York City, one-hundred protestors with Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) occupied a recruiting center and shut it down for two hours.
- In Washington, DC, 222 protestors attending an antiwar service at the Washington National Cathedral were arrested after participating in a civil disobedience action at the White House.
- In San Ramon, California, protestors blockaded the headquarters of Chevron, a company that is attempting to gain control of Iraq’s oil resources.
- In San Francisco, California, protestors held a series of die-ins in the city’s financial district.
Related posts:
- Over 800 Antiwar Protests in the United States Took Place Last Weekend
- Iraq Watch: Antiwar Protests in the United States, Divisions in the Movement, New Infromation in Attack on Italian Journalist
- Headlines: White House Opposes Tax on Wall Street Bonuses; Protests Mark Iraq Invasion Anniversary
- Antiwar Group Calls for Anniversary Protests
- West Michigan Remembers the Fourth Anniversary of Iraq War
