In Chicago’s broadest anti-war coalition to date, more than 90 organizations are pooling their resources to be part of an international day of protest against Bush’s war on Iraq—probably the largest set of such protests to date. Besides Chicago, large-scale protests are planned in Amsterdam, Athens, Bangkok, Barcelona, Berlin, Brussels, Cairo, Copenhagen, Dublin, Glasgow, Helsinki, Istanbul, Jakarta, Johannesburg, London, Manila, New York, Oslo, Paris, Ramallah, Rome, San Francisco, San Juan, Stockholm, Tallinn, Tokyo, Vienna, Warsaw and a host of smaller cities.
The Feb. 15 protest will take place six days before the ‘registration’ deadline for Chicago’s Pakistani community, the same ‘registrations’ which led to the arrests of more than 1,000 Iranians in Los Angeles a recently. Chicago will join the international day of protest with a march on a dual theme: Opposition to war on Iraq, and opposition to scapegoating of certain groups.
Organizers of the protest see the targeting of immigrant communities as doing nothing to diminish terrorism, but instead as part of the Bush administration’s attempt to stampede the nation into war by fanning irrational fears towards people from other races, countries and cultures.
Chicago’s LGBT community and allies are organizing one or more buses from the Broadway United Methodist Church, and there will be an LGBT contingent in the march led by the Chicago Anti-Bashing Network (CABN) and Queer to the Left. Adding to the LGBT presence at the event, among the four co-emcees of the rally will be Ifti Nasim, president of Sangat, a south Asian LGBT organization, and CABN co-founder Andy Thayer.
The protest will begin with a noon rally at 2200 W. Devon, Chicago, followed by a solidarity march. For more information visit the www.ChicagoAntiWar.org/Feb15Mobilization website, CCAWR@aol.com, (888) 471-0874