The Movement

"When former military liberation movements come to power, the very 'command character' that ensured success against the enemy tends to become the structural flaw which impedes their building of the democratic institutions required by civil society ... The much-celebrated attainment of formal peace with the north and, maybe eventually, independence for the south, should not be equated with liberation, and certainly not with the creation of lasting democracy." [more]

"Marcos has said the rebels will embark on a cross-country, pre-election tour aimed at uniting workers, students and activists around a leftwing agenda. The new phase of Zapatista action 'is not to draw lines, is not to promote the armed fight in another state', Marcos said. He added: 'It is to go and ask the people what they think and how their problems are being resolved.'" [more]

"Horizontalism is not an ideology, however, it is a relationship — a way of relating to one another in a directly democratic way while at the same time creating through the process of discovery. What has resulted is the creation of an amazing complex of movements, all linked." [more]

"Now, suddenly, in June 2005, the Zapatistas proclaimed a red alert, calling all their communities to leave their villages and come into the forest for a massive "consultation" of the base. The reason? They said they could no longer afford simply to wait indefinitely as the Mexican state ignored the promises they had made a decade earlier in the truce agreements. ... The Zapatistas declared that they had ended the first phase of their struggle, and that it was time to move on to a second stage, one that would be political and not military." [more]

"The Eco-village was the epicenter of brilliant tactical coordination. This was a result of months of reconnaissance work and a chaotic yet functional plan of blockading that provided both fluidity and agility. As soon as a report would come in that one blockade was breaking or being threatened by the police, the transportation team would have vehicles ready to take people to the location and reinforce the blockade." [more]

"Once you sign a plea you cannot appeal it. I was threatened with 20 years in prison under an additional terrorist enhancement if I didn't take a plea, and I didn't have the financial resources to acquire the appropriate legal council for trial. I was railroaded." [more]

"I looked at IMC sites based in cities where I knew there were actions, and found nothing. Eventually, I found what I was looking for—on the BBC. The experience, unfortunately, is not uncommon. Each time I try and find news among the Indymedia drivel, I ask myself the same question: What happens when—in our attempts not to hate the media but to be it—we end up hating the media we’ve become?" [more]

"The public anger has dented Mr. Putin's ratings and rattled his government ministers, who responded slowly and confusedly to the first wave of protests over pensions before retreating in part on changes that the Kremlin had pushed through a pliant Parliament last summer. Mr. Putin's appointees have attributed the demonstrations to a disgruntled few, incited by agitators, but the protests show little sign of dissipating. A coalition of political, social, environmental and labor organizations has called new rallies across the country for Saturday, including two in Moscow." [more]

An eyewitness report from the 2004 Presidential Inauguration protests in Washington, D.C. [more]

"Today, as in the years leading up to the Russian and French revolutions, the eruptions of ‘68, and the fall of the Soviet Empire, the economic and political pressures are building up to boiling point." [more]

"The Palestinian nonviolent movement is as old as the Palestinian liberation movement itself. As far back as the 1930s, Palestinians engaged in nonviolent protests and demonstrations against the British Mandate authorities. This form of protest peaked with the breakout of the 1987 intifada." [more]

"Last Thursday morning, Natalia Dimitruk, an interpreter for the deaf on the Ukraine's official state UT-1 television, disregarded the anchor's report on Prime Minister Viktor F. Yanukovich's 'victory' and, in her small inset on the screen, began to sign something else altogether." [more]

"Six days on and still they chant, still they march, still they seek to overturn the election result that cheated them. The crowds and the momentum are on their side, but nothing in Ukraine is that simple." [more]

"While the gains of the orange-bedecked 'chestnut revolution' are Ukraine's, the campaign is an American creation, a sophisticated and brilliantly conceived exercise in western branding and mass marketing that, in four countries in four years, has been used to try to salvage rigged elections and topple unsavoury regimes." [more]

"Many Ukrainians, disenchanted after a decade under the scandal-ridden outgoing presidency of Leonid Kuchma, have drawn courage from the Georgian example. Some protesters have called for a Chestnut Revolution — after Kiev's renowned chestnut trees — in emulation of the Rose Revolution and Velvet Revolution that forced out the Czech communists in 1989." [more]

"A senior Western diplomat in Kiev, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the political situation, portrayed the Ukrainian leadership as being at an impasse, stung by public and diplomatic reaction, and unsure of how to react to the growing protests." [more]

"Many of the arguments wedding the war in Iraq with a strategy for neoliberal expansion are not readily convincing. They risk reading causality into tangential relationships. And, in their drive to connect, they overlook important disjunctures between the Bush administration’s foreign policy and the policy preferred by many business elites." [more]

"In most key areas—Iraq, the 'war on drugs,' Israel/Palestine, free trade, corporate taxes—[Kerry] will be just as bad. The main difference will be that as Kerry pursues these brutal policies, he will come off as intelligent, sane and blissfully dull. That's why I've joined the Anybody But Bush camp: Only with a bore like Kerry at the helm will we finally be able to put an end to the presidential pathologizing and focus on the issues again." [more]

"The world will help Zimbabweans, but they must first help themselves. And helping themselves must mean going far beyond tame protests 1,000km away from Harare." [more]

"I agree that Bush should be kicked out of the White House ... but I don't believe that will be meaningful unless there emerges in the United States a significant anti-empire movement. ... This doesn't mean voters can't judge one particular empire-building politician more dangerous than another. It doesn't mean we shouldn't sometimes make strategic choices to vote for one over the other. It simply means we should make such choices with eyes open and no illusions." [more]

"By nominating Cobb, the Greens have a candidate 'with zero name recognition,' said Dean Spiliotes, a fellow at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics. 'It may be a good exercise in building up the party on the local level, but it means the party will drop off the radar. It's a shock, but it is great news for Kerry.'" [more]

"They also demanded the United States stop undermining public confidence in generic anti-AIDS drugs, stop limiting access to condoms and reproductive choices through family planning, and give the promised $15 billion for AIDS prevention and treatment to the Global Fund." [more]

The body bags have been shipped in, locals are running scared, and foreigners are being arrested and deported. Organisers of this week's G8 Summit are taking no chances with security... [more]

"There is no social entity called Iraq that benefited from some self-sacrifice it suffered for its own greater good, like a patient who voluntarily endures some pain to be better off than before. There were only individual human beings living in Iraq before the war, with their individual lives. Sacrificing the lives of some of them for the benefit of others killed them and benefited the others. Nothing more. Each of those Iraqis killed in the war was a separate person, and the unfinished life each of them lost was the only life he or she had, or would ever have. They clearly are not better off now that Saddam is gone from power." [more]

Font, [his lawyer], told jurors the soldier believed that "because he had become a conscientious objector, he would not be required to serve in Iraq anymore." [more]

"It is only through continuous struggle, which will lead to revolution, that we can today find true freedom. To create a world where equality and welfare will not be a dream, where the essence of progress will not be connected with the modern brutality of high technology. Instead, it will find its reward in the ability of society to guarantee equality in front of the law, and the power of each person to participate in the formulation of its social and financial role." [more]

City Hall may want to declare Manhattan to be a no-free-speech zone for convention week, but critics have a right to gather in the same borough as the conventioneers they are protesting. [more]

"In 1992, founder and presidential candidate Ross Perot received over 19 million votes. Four years later, Ross Perot received over 8 million votes. Today, the Reform Party USA has over 1 million active supporters...This year, with your help, Ralph Nader can win the office of the Presidency, since over 80 out of every 100 registered voters did not vote for Democratic or Republican candidates in the 2004 Primaries." [more]

"The communist resistance fighter said that it is comical to call them terrorists. He said that this is a war of independence. He said, "Just like what Mustafa Kemal Ataturk did". By now, I firmly believed that they were resistance fighters. He introduced his friends, who are fighting together in the Al-Fallujah region, with their professions: Architect, computer engineer, officer, and medical student." [more]

"Demonstrator Abby Puls, 24, a Spanish interpreter at the Kent County Courthouse was singled out by undercover police officers and told she could be fired for 'choosing sides', she was also threatened with arrest for 'hindering and opposing' police if she identified any of them. Grand Rapids police chief Harry Dolan confirmed Puls's statement saying he feared for his officers' safety at peace demonstrations." [more]

"A protest march on a Spanish coalition base near the holy city of Najaf ended in violence in which a coalition soldier from El Salvador and one from the US were killed along with about 20 Iraqis. Many more were injured." [more]

"The resulting machine, dubbed FlashMob, would have needed to perform a rigorous benchmark calculation called Linpack at a rate of at least 403 billion flops (floating point operations per second) to be ranked as one of the top 500 supercomputers. But FlashMob only reached a relatively modest peak performance of 180 billion flops." [more]

"Although it is clear that Telestreet begins as television, the centrality of social and technical networks in its development makes it a far more interesting hybrid. As the telestreet manifesto declared 'Television must be considered a new prosthesis and an extension of the net: but to avoid another media alternative 'ghetto', the horizontally of the net must meet the 'socializing' power of television.'" [more]

"The lists were previously made public by the media, but Internet users have been adding additional information, such as party affiliations, electoral districts, phone numbers, fax numbers, pictures and e-mail addresses, and uploading them onto bulletin boards and weblogs." [more]

"The only way to fight terrorism, according to Castro, is 'to seek sincere cooperation' because war 'is not going to put an end to it, it is going to make it worse and worse, it is going to sow ever more hatred, more dissatisfaction, more tragedy.'" [more]

"'Humanitarian' interventionism, based on the right of interference, ultimately rallied most US liberal intellectuals, who identified with the neoconservatives in criticizing former President Bush for his lack of interest in Bosnia's Muslims, and Bill Clinton for his prevarication." [more]

"The analogy between the picket on the highway with piquetero TV is almost perfect, because it cannot be understood as simply an interruption of radio frequencies. It is not only about trying to take control of the space that is usually dominated by the communication monopolies but also creating a new relation between the common person and mass media." [more]

"We don’t have to get the shit kicked out of us like we did in Miami. Instead, we grow the power and sophistication of our networks and rachet up our disobedience. We attack in the dead of night and under the noonday sun. We hit them before, during and after world events. Bit by bit, hit by hit we bend them to our will." [more]

"And yet, the majority of people don’t think that they live in a police state, a situation – it is said – that would require a massive and constant presence of troops in the streets, with tanks at intersections and helicopters in the sky. A conviction that conceals a monstrous misunderstanding. A true police state is characterized by the vast efficiency of its techniques of control, control that can be entrusted to the physical omnipresence of agents (as in the old dictatorial regimes), or to the omnipresence of their technological instruments – as occurs today in all the democracies." [more]

"An RFID tag consists of a microchip the size of a grain of sand attached to an antenna that transmits information whenever it passes in front of an RFID reader." [more]

"Ms. Gun's arrest last March and her assertion that she had acted out of conscience to expose what she regarded as an attempt by the United States to undermine the debate at the United Nations, has attracted broad attention." [more]

"We encourage all interested parties to attend the April 24, 2004 National Convention at the campus of Dartmouth College, where such issues, and a united plaftform will be drafted." [more]

"Under a preliminary plan floated by convention organizers, the 'free-speech zone' would be a small plot bounded by Green Line tracks and North Washington Street, in an area that until recently was given over to the elevated artery. The zone would hold as few as 400 of the several thousand protesters who are expected in Boston in late July." [more]

"The Bl(A)ck Tea Society plans no marches or rallies, although it hopes to arrange an open-air concert and an 'alternative village' that would disseminate information on politics and current issues. Members dismissed the stereotype of unruly activists running around breaking windows or creating havoc — although they acknowledged that a little street theater or traffic disruption would not hurt." [more]

At least 20,000 rallied yesterday in freezing weather against the signing of a free trade pact with Chile. "Violence erupted as their voices of dissent were silenced. Carts were set on fire, police busses and barricades were attacked, and police were fended off with steel pipes, stones and other small objects." [more]

The dirt on the so-called "Democrats." Dean won't cut the Pentagon budget, Kerry voted for the war, and Clark is a war criminal. Asking folks to rethink their "Anyone but Bush" stance. [more]

"A subpoena compelling Drake University to provide information about an antiwar forum on its campus on Nov. 15 was also withdrawn, as was an earlier court order that barred Drake officials from speaking publicly about the case." [more]

"So with food, life. In elementary school my 5th grade teacher told us about our country, how we were the great giant-killers, first expelling the Brits, chinking the armor of the greatest empire of them all...And who (I grew-up up North) abolished slavery, an empire of chains and whips? We did, of course. We’ve been told all our lives that empire is bad, just like red meat. But the craving just won’t go away. We know it's bad for us, but hell, we like it." [more]

"In what may be the first subpoena of its kind in decades, a federal judge has ordered a university to turn over records about a gathering of anti-war activists." [more]

"The law is clear that the use of the grand jury to investigate protected political activities or to intimidate protestors exceeds its authority. The government has no business investigating legal conferences held in academic institutions." [more]

"When Bush was elected, activists had employed irony ... we'd deconstructed traditional protest models, reaching the limits of play and camp. By the time Resolution 909 came along, we were faced with the painful question: What do you do after post modernism? You can't live on irony alone; there is too little to show for it. So we re-embraced a canonical narrative of 'straight' protest ... If we are going to suggest that another world is possible, we'd better be able to suggest that this world is more than simply ridiculous." [more]

"For progressives to submerge ourselves within the ABB tidal wave is a complete abdication of our responsibility as global citizens to agitate around the issues facing this country and the world, rather than once again believing that our work is limited to simply voting for the president every four years." [more]

"Chief among the discoveries that led him to see Vietnam as a mistake, McNamara said, was his realization that the United States could not, by itself, properly analyze the actions and ground-level conditions necessary to achieve the complex and ambiguous goals of a war — reversing the influence of communism in Asia, in Vietnam's case, or bringing democracy to the Arab world, in Iraq's." [more]

John Nichols takes to task the recent decision to ban commercials from MoveOn.org, a major anti-war player, and PETA, the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, from the Super Bowl, claiming they are too controversial. This has generated a major call-in and e-mail campaign against CBS. Howard Kurtz, a media expert with the Washington Post, states shutting activists groups out from broadcasting rights is the rule rather than the exception. Nichols explores the relationship between CBS and the Administration at a bit more depth. [more]

"Openness – as an organising principle and political ideology – has become an article of faith across networked social movements. From its role as a central tenet of free and open source software production to its current popularity within activist circles, the concept of openness is attracting enthusiastic adherence. Here, as part of our series on the politics of alternative media structures, JJ King takes a less credulous view of what lies beneath the dream of organisational horizontality." [more]

"The Man clearly has co-opted punk's glorious nihilism. Flanking Chris No. 2 was Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack (who conceded that he preferred Phil Collins) and political organizers from the United Auto Workers and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. They all said they hoped to help attract young people to politics." [more]

"Digitization of transactions and instruments has been central to this multiplication of types of derivatives and their increased complexity. The overall result has been a massive increase in the extent to which the financial industry has been able to securitize various forms of what were previously considered untradeable assets or were simply not considered as assets, e.g. many forms of debt." [more]

"We do not support the sentiment expressed in the two Hitler submissions. They were voted down by our members and the public ... Contrast this with the behavior of the RNC, when supporters of President Bush used TV ads morphing the face of Sen. Max Cleland (D-GA) into that of Osama Bin Laden during the 2002 Senate race." [more]

Young political songwriter Evan Greer has made a name for himself in Boston by gracing stages with the likes of Howard Zinn and Tim Robbins. Erin Osgood of Flamejolt Magazine reviews his music, his politics, and his message. [more]

The vast majority of Americans do not believe the war with Iraq has made them any safer, a new poll revealed. The same majority feel the UN should be allowed to take a more prominent role. [more]

"It is being billed as the perfect place for celebrations during the Republican National Convention next summer, with shows, fine works of art, health clubs, bars, cafes, amazing views, luxury staterooms and restaurants serving cuisine from around the world. And it is just a short walk to Midtown." [more]

A trip to Iraq, organized by peace and justice organization Global Exchange, will give the parents of troops stationed in Iraq a first-hand look at military activities and the civilian population there. For some of the parents, it is a chance to become more vocal about their opposition to the war. [more]

" 'We signed up to fight our nation's enemies and we are fully prepared to do that,' [the soldier] said. 'But if they're going to usurp the laws of this country at the expense of our most precious asset, our soldiers, then I will not stand for that, not for a minute.' " [more]

The Black Tea Society is organizing efforts to resist the Democratic National Convention when it comes to Boston this summer. The Society says that the Democrats are equally culpable as the Republicans for putting profit in front of people and perpetuating corporate domination. [more]

In addition to other egregious civil rights violations, police in Miami prevented 20 busloads of seniors from attending a permitted AFL-CIO march in Miami against the FTAA. [more]

"The abuses of the Hoover era, which included efforts by the F.B.I. to harass and discredit Hoover's political enemies under a program known as Cointelpro, led to tight restrictions on F.B.I. investigations of political activities. Those restrictions were relaxed significantly last year, when Attorney General John Ashcroft issued guidelines giving agents authority to attend political rallies, mosques and any event 'open to the public.' " [more]

"Bush was driven from the back of the palace to the front in his own armored Cadillac for the official welcoming ceremony—a made-for-TV election commercial that no one could get close enough to watch. This was the new empire condescending to the old while borrowing a little of its glitter-and-paste glamour." [more]

In "liberal" New York City, 100 people attending a fundraiser for APOC, an anti-racist group of activists of color was attacked by police with nightsticks and pepperspray after police responded to an officer who claimed he had seen someone with an "open container" outside the venue of the fundraiser. 8 activists have been arrested, charged with disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, and inciting riot. [more]

" 'Liberals remember Watergate — conservatives remember Waco and Ruby Ridge,' said Timothy Edgar, an ACLU Legislative Counsel. 'All were the result of overzealous — and unchecked — federal power. Giving the FBI carte blanche to initiate highly invasive and super-secret intelligence investigations, without any indication of actual wrongdoing, invites a repetition of these past abuses.' " [more]

"The best minds in the computer-security world contend that [electronic] voting terminals can't be trusted." [more]

"The students say that, by trying to spread the word about problems with the company’s software, they are performing a valuable form of electronic civil disobedience, one that has broad implications for American society. They also contend that they are protected by fair use exceptions in copyright law." [more]

"A growing number of computer scientists are now warning that [electronic voting], far from solving America's voting problems, may actually make things worse. 'If you look at the consequences for democracy, it's terrifying,' says David Dill, a Stanford University computer-science professor." [more]

" 'The computer science community has pretty much rallied against electronic voting,' said Stephen Ansolabahere, a voting expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 'A disproportionate number of computer scientists who have weighed in on this issue are opposed to it.' " [more]

"Swarthmore College students embroiled in a legal battle against voting machine-maker Diebold Election Systems have received a ground swell of support from universities and colleges nationwide." [more]

"Diebold will continue to send copyright-infringement notices to Internet service providers that host the company documents, including the four other institutions — the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Purdue University, the University of Southern California, and the University of Texas-Pan American." [more]

"The coalition does not intend to recruit from the grassroots, where a number of existing movements opposed the war on Iraq. It will instead focus on the recruitment of foreign-policy specialists and analysts who can help frame the context for public and media debate." [more]

"Many of the same demonstrators gathered here months ago to urge the White House not to go to war in Iraq. The demonstrators reassembled here in the shadow of the Washington Monument because they said they wanted to let the president know that they remained deeply opposed to the American military's continued presence in Iraq." [more]

"The central point of contention is whether the United States should quit Iraq completely and at all costs or hand off the occupation to some sort of international/United Nations security force, with or without US participation. In light of these splits, what is most impressive is that the movement has managed to maintain as much tactical, strategic and ideological coherence as it has." [more]

"The demonstration reflects the mood of many Americans, who are becoming increasingly concerned about the cost of the occupation and the rising number of casualties." [more]

"To chants of 'Impeach Bush,' thousands of anti-war protesters rallied in the nation's capital Saturday and delivered a scathing critique of President Bush and his Iraq policy." [more]

"Peace activists, many carrying placards, said increasing concerns about casualties in Iraq have spurred the U.S. anti-war movement back into action after months of relative quiet." [more]

"Yesterday, the Delaware County school's dean, Robert Gross, asked a pair of student groups to remove Internet links at their Web sites to a trove of damning memos that activists believe reveal potential security flaws in new electronic voting machines." [more]

Forty-one Australian Labour Party federal parliamentarians have written an open letter to George Bush, explaining why so many Australians opposed the war on Iraq. [more]

" 'We're advocating freedom of information and open-source standards," Smith said. "If there's anything the public has an inherent right to look in on, it's voting technology. That's why we're pushing this.' " [more]

"Not only is the law being used to prosecute one of the administration's most vocal critics in an unprecedented attack on the 1st Amendment, but it appears to be part of a broader campaign by Ashcroft to protect the nation against free speech, a campaign that has converted environmentalists into 'sailor-mongers' and nuns into terrorists." [more]

"[Ebadi] criticized U.S. military intervention in Muslim countries. Asked about Iraq and Afghanistan, she said in English, 'In Iraq and Afghanistan — especially in Iraq — people do not have water and electricity. And it is very important for people. How can we talk about human rights and freedom?' " [more]

"In a four-paragraph statement issued Thursday, [Fresno County Sheriff Richard Pierce] defended his department's legal right to send undercover officers to community meetings. 'For the purpose of detecting or preventing terrorist activities, the Fresno County Sheriff's Department may visit any place and attend any event that is open to the public, on the same terms and conditions as members of the public generally.' " [more]

" 'According to the most recent CBSnews/nytimes poll [sic], 77% of Democrats do not know enough about Dennis Kucinich. Since we can not expect the media to provide this information I decided to help them out,' the hacker page read." [more]

"The Justice Department is looking into an allegation that administration officials leaked the name of an undercover CIA officer to a journalist," with the intent of intimating others from speaking out about the intelligence scandal. [more]

" 'We refuse to participate in air force attacks on civilian populations,' said the letter, which was sent to the head of the air force, Maj. Gen. Dan Halutz. 'We refuse to continue harming innocent civilians.' " [more]

"This spring, the 62-year-old retired schoolteacher decided to travel to Iraq as a human shield. To many she is a humanitarian, but in the eyes of the US Government she is a criminal." [more]

"Clusters of scientists shut the laboratory door on the military half a century ago in reaction to the horrors of atomic bombs, and again decades later in disgust with the Vietnam War. But today such refuseniks are rare and scattered—in large part, they say, because so many of their colleagues doing basic research are addicted to military money." [more]

"It's time to try to influence the very culture against which this year's record 30,500 Burning Man participants rebelled, the phenomenon's founder and resident visionary said in an interview." [more]

"The Pentagon has been making it increasingly clear that while the war is over in Iraq, the peace is far from won. But now some Americans have had enough, and have started the campaign to bring the troops home." [more]

"[The US Treasury] has been contacting an undisclosed number of protesters who placed themselves in harm's way before the war, warning them that they face $10,000 fines for violating U.S. sanctions that forbade most travel to Iraq and commerce with Saddam Hussein's regime. If they don't pay, the human shields face up to 10 years in prison." [more]

"MSNBC hosts asked viewers to urge MCI to fire actor and anti-war activist Danny Glover as a spokesperson - the long-distance telephone giant refused to fire him despite the ensuing hate-mail campaign - and one host, former politician Joe Scarborough, urged that anti-war protesters be arrested and charged with sedition." [more]

"Remember, fascism and a police state doesn't come all at once, it comes piece by piece. How far will we allow it go until we are all locked up in concentration camps? If we don't take matters into our own hands and do something about this now, then we are already prisoners of war." [more]

"Veterans for Peace, New York Labor Against the War, Global Exchange, United for Peace and Justice, Public Citizen’s Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program, and other groups have signed on to the campaign’s founding statement, as well as well-known activist authors Noam Chomsky, Jim Hightower, and Howard Zinn." [more]

A federal judge sentenced a man to a year in prison Monday for creating an anarchist Web site with links to sites on how to build bombs. [more]

"[Feb. 15, 2003] sent a clear message about the grassroots organizing power of the net: It enabled the antiwar movement to turn out its base quickly and cheaply, do an end run around corporate-controlled media and reach into the politically disaffected American mainstream." [more]

"Protests against Bush's war on Iraq drew more students than any other recent protest movement, and they were younger, more working-class and more racially and geographically diverse. Now it looks as if that protest energy may provide momentum for the 2004 elections." [more]

"They searched by bag and one officer found my copy of the constitution and asked if I always carried it with me. I told him 'Yes, you never know when you might need it.'" [more]

"It is impossible to know for sure who might be on the list, or why. The ACLU says a list kept by security personnel at Oakland airport ran to 88 pages. More than 300 people have been subject to special questioning at San Francisco airport, and another 24 at Oakland, according to police records. In no case does it appear that a wanted criminal was apprehended." [more]

"I think this is the worst government the US has ever had in its more than 200 years of history. It has engaged in extraordinarily irresponsible policies not only in foreign and economic but also in social and environmental policy. This is not normal government policy. Now is the time for people to engage in civil disobedience." [more]

"While Rheingold said he was amused by the latest reincarnation of this phenomenon, he believes it is proof of a more significant movement. / 'The 2004 elections are going to be a watershed moment. The use of text messaging and mobile communications will be pivotal in get-out-the-vote drives. It will allow groups to disperse the resources most efficiently in the days before the election.'" [more]

"Gunther Anders wrote in the 1950's, 'Hiroshima is everywhere,' and in the 1980's, 'Chernobyl is everywhere.' Some rebels against the technologized world in the 1990's said, 'Mururoa is everywhere' (at the time when the French government subjected that island in the Pacific to murderous nuclear tests). Two years ago, other comrades claimed, 'Genoa is everywhere.' Because revolt explodes without limits and against every spectacle, because the Apparatus expects an enemy that is not there and reveals its totalitarian character still more, we say Riva is everywhere. But we will not be in the streets against the summit of the European Union ... The real conflict is elsewhere." [more]

"Just as all spontaneous, renegade forms of expression are hijacked by corporate culture, jamming is now being appropriated by corporations in its efforts to sell product." [more]

"Public opinion polls published during the first week of July indicate that 60% of the American public believes that the United Nations should take leadership in post-war Iraq." [more]

"John Brady Kiesling may have a promising future as a trivia question. But for one brief, undiplomatic moment, his resignation from the Foreign Service crystallized the opposition to the Iraq war." [more]

"Think of how in 1965 two-thirds of Americans supported the war in Vietnam, and a few years later two-thirds opposed the war. What happened in between? A gradual realization of having been lied to, an osmosis of the truth, of information seeping more and more through the cracks of the propaganda system. That is beginning to happen now. Today, all over the country, there is a growing awareness of the shortage of teachers, of nurses, of medical care, of affordable housing, of cuts in human services in every state of the union." [more]

"The Roman Catholic nuns cut a fence and walked onto a Minuteman III silo site last October, pounding the silo with hammers and painting a cross on it with their blood. Officials said they caused at least $1,000 in damage." [more]

"Naomi Klein expressed concern about the focus on anti-imperialist discourse, because 'it's no longer about the US building empire in a traditional sense, but rather a multinational imperialism. Europe is laughing at empire discourse because it lets them off the hook. They enjoy the idea that they're a counter-power — Chirac playing the hero of the oppressed — when what Europe is doing on the international stage is 90 percent the same as the US. What we need is an analysis of empire that understands that the forces are genuinely transnational. They can't be tied to the nation-state, and the class of global managers within the developing world are part of the same class as their northern counterparts.' " [more]

"For organizations that opposed the war, these are busy days. Not since hundreds of thousands of people across the country marched in antiwar rallies in the weeks before the U.S.-led invasion has the rationale for the preemptive war come under such fire." [more]

"If the greatest injustice in the world is U.S. imperialism, the world's greatest injustices must be found where U.S. imperialism is strongest. And, here, Africa poses a problem. Africa, after all, has less contact with the United States than any other part of the world ... the United States has avoided acting like an empire in post-cold-war Africa, and, thus, the hard left has found little cause for moral concern." [more]

"At the Green Party's national meeting, state delegates endorse resolutions calling for impeachment and an end to the U.S. occupation of Iraq." [more]

"Everybody on the left should go listen to Republicans and try to figure out what makes them tick. I would tell people, 'Good God, most people are not like you!' I'm reminded of people in 1972 in Manhattan who said, 'Jesus, but I didn't know anyone who voted for Nixon.' Wake up! Parochialism is never a platform for understanding, and this is another kind of parochialism." [more]

" 'I'll tell you what, Marc. Someone in the shop that day saw you reading something, and thought it looked suspicious enough to call us about. So that's why we're here, just checking it out. Like I said, there's no problem. We'd just like to get to the bottom of this. Now if we can't, then you may have a problem. And you don't want that.' " [more]

" 'They are putting some money into it,' says Johnson about the systems, which he estimates could cost about $2,000 each." [more]

"Instead of shouting 'US Out,' those who opposed Washington's unilateral war must get serious about creating an international vision of their own." [more]

"Voices of dissent from military personnel and families are surfacing every day. One of the most poignant so far comes from a young Marine — he was killed in late June, fighting a war he didn't believe in." [more]

"Officials say the LRA has abducted hundreds of children in northern Uganda in recent years, forcing them to fight as child soldiers if they are boys, or to become sex slaves for rebel commanders if they are girls." [more]

"Much of the Internet is a cricket chorus of disaffected voices, and Raisethefist.com, which Austin still operates, is no different from any other of the woollier one-man sites on the left and right. Perhaps, in another time, the feds would have merely regarded Sherman Austin as a minor irritant, marginally worth watching. But then 9/11 hit, and the rest, as they say, is hysteria." [more]

"There is a naivete among some advocates of nonviolent means. They think that if you've had one nonviolent struggle, you are not going to have any more serious problems. I have heard people say that all the nonviolent struggles for independence in India and all of Gandhi's work was a waste. They still have the caste system, they still have poverty, they have an Indian Army, and so forth. As though one series of struggles for independence from a colonial power could have possibly solved all these problems! That's nonsense. They set much higher standards for evaluating effectiveness and success of nonviolent struggle than for violent struggle." [more]

"A huge puppet of Bush feeding the Bill of Rights into a paper shredder was stationed at the rally-site entrance with a sign reading: 'Defend our rights, repeal the Patriot Act now.' " [more]

Government Information Awareness "hopes to create a self-sustaining community where, as occurs with popular Web sites eBay and Google, the users keep it running and credible." [more]

"Operating under the auspices of the American anti-war coalition, United for Peace and Justice, the group intends to publish details of contracts obtained by corporations such as Halliburton and Bechtel and act as a clearing-house for information on allegations of civil rights abuses." [more]

"The tactics of appropriation have been co-opted. Illegal action has become advertisement. Protest has become cliché. Revolt has become passé. These disputes have reached the definition of rhetoric. They are the usual suspects. Having accepted these failures to some degree, we can now attempt to define a parasitic tactical response. We need a practice that allows invisible subversion. We need to feed and grow inside existing communication systems while contributing nothing to their survival; we need to become parasites. We need to create an anthem for the bottom feeders and leeches. We need to echo our voice through all the wires we can tap but cloak our identity in the world of non-evidence, and the hidden." [more]

"The 'Nader factor' then, is akin to the antiwar movement of the last year in that they both robbed the 'victors' of moral legitimacy. Nader drove Democrats to get out the vote and kept Bush from winning election outright, much like the antiwar movement in the US, and much more so around the world, kept the UN from giving legal sanction to the Iraq invasion. Nader didn't stop Bush, but he helped put a cloud of illegitimacy over him; the antiwar movement didn't stop the war (which was unlikely in any event), but made Bush go ahead with it despite the opposition of practically the entire world." [more]

"By making use of inclusive structures that allowed diverse individuals to collectively reclaim social and political space, the direct action wing of the anti-globalization movement had forged a desire for self-organization. Even after the anti-capitalist movement's promise seemed to be eclipsed by a draconian 'war on terror' and a top-down antiwar movement in response, the decentralist sensibility was not forgotten." [more]

"Nearly two thirds of all sources, 64 percent, were pro-war, while 71 percent of U.S. guests favored the war. Anti-war voices were 10 percent of all sources, but just 6 percent of non-Iraqi sources and 3 percent of U.S. sources. Thus viewers were more than six times as likely to see a pro-war source as one who was anti-war; with U.S. guests alone, the ratio increases to 25 to 1." [more]

"The Atlanta Police Department routinely places under surveillance anti-war protesters and others exercising their free-speech rights to demonstrate, police officials acknowledged this week." [more]

"Many acknowledge feeling powerless and weary after standing up against a military campaign that rolled over both Iraqi defenses and the antiwar movement. However, many are already rechanneling their energy into other social causes or party politics, often with a mind to unseating President Bush in next year's election." [more]

"Turley thinks the District of Columbia police deliberately encircled large numbers of protesters for mass arrests at last September's World Bank-International Monetary Fund demonstration in Washington. The goal, he thinks, was to break the protest by removing as many people as possible from the streets without giving them a chance to disperse." [more]

"The outbreak of war makes our work more important and necessary than ever. It creates enormous new challenges, but it also offers new opportunities. We must organize a broadly based campaign to address the causes and consequences of this war and to prevent such misguided adventures in the future." [more]

"Thanks to the most crudely partisan decision in the history of the Supreme Court, the nation has been given a President of painfully limited wisdom and compassion and lacking any sense of the nation's true greatness." [more]

"Denver police will no longer photograph, record license plate numbers or intercept e-mail of peaceful demonstrators, under terms of a settlement reached on Thursday between the city and the ACLU." [more]

"Far from being on the verge of destroying Western civilization, Saddam and his 21st century Gestapo couldn't even muster a half-hearted defense of their own capital. The hawks' cakewalk disproves their own dire warnings." [more]

" 'Peace' means more than just 'anti-war.' It summarizes in a word the concepts of economic and environmental justice, civil rights, equality, democracy and compassion. With that understanding in mind, peace organizers can broaden the call for a massive [voter] registration." [more]

"Protesters and dockworkers were hit with wooden bullets when Oakland police opened fire to clear an anti-war demonstration at the Port of Oakland this morning." [more]

"If this were a year or two from now, these could be the people fighting Operation Iraqi Freedom. [Some are] afraid of being sent to the Gulf to fight for — as they say — the 'punk' who calls himself their president." [more]

"On the broadest level, the movement didn't offer the most important alternative to war: hope. Newly skeptical patriots have been ... depoliticized rather than mobilized by the failure of the antiwar coalition either to address the moral complexity of the conflict or to offer a coherent alternative to it." [more]

" 'When cities like Cleveland and Lorain pass antiwar resolutions, you know they think about that at the White House. This isn't people demonstrating in Paris. This is local elected officials, who know what the mood is in their towns, and they are taking an antiwar stand.' " [more]

"What does America's war plan offer [Iraqis]? An uncertain chance at freedom, and then only if they survive a war in which they will be the targets. But what has the peace movement had to offer? Millions of people chanting 'no blood for oil'? It's a start, but the new politics of empire, sprung from terror, demand a more robust response." [more]

President Bush linked war on Iraq to his global anti-terrorism campaign in a speech to the US Coast Guard, and argued that Saddam Hussein or his terrorist allies may try to strike America in retaliation for the US-led fighting. Several hundred protesters questioned this threat and accused the Bush Administration of waging a needless and destructive war. [more]

"Tens of thousands of people from across New England and beyond converged on a damp, windswept Boston Common for a massive antiwar rally yesterday, then marched through the city, saying they hoped to show the world that not all Americans support President Bush and the war in Iraq." [more]

"Activists have been quick to dismiss charges that protests are unpatriotic when troops are at risk. But at the same time, they've been waging a nuanced internal debate, struggling with how to transition from peace to wartime." [more]

"Anti-war protesters took to the streets again Monday, with more than 100 arrests in the city's financial district and noisy student demonstrators crowding the hallways of an administration building at San Francisco State University." [more]

"For all its ragged edges, the movement against war in Iraq mushroomed into a global force unprecedented in speed and scale. Never in the history of the world had so many marched in common cause." [more]

"Thousands of anti-war demonstrators, stretching across several blocks of midtown Manhattan, marched down Broadway today to voice their opposition to the ongoing war against Iraq." [more]

"A day after antiwar 'anarchy' shut down city streets, San Francisco cops keep a tight rein on smaller but still angry crowds." [more]

"Anti-war protesters swiftly answered the onset of war with a national campaign of civil disobedience, including a seemingly spontaneous march by an estimated 10,000 people that shut down Lake Shore Drive Thursday night, leading to arrests by the busload." [more]

"Anti-war protesters blocked morning traffic in Washington, San Francisco and Philadelphia and chanted 'no blood for oil' outside the White House on Thursday in reaction to U.S. military strikes against Iraq." [more]

"Police in San Francisco arrested 116 anti-war activists as a fresh round of rowdy protests erupted on the US West Coast at the start of the US 'shock and awe' air war in Iraq." [more]

"Galvanized by the American attack on Iraq, thousands of anti-war activists around the country set off their own barrage of street protests, chaining themselves together, blocking workers and traffic, walking out of classes, and parading in mock chemical suits." [more]

"About 500 servicemembers filed for conscientious objector status during the Persian Gulf War, according to the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress. Peace groups say as many as three times that number refused to fight, and many served prison sentences up to 18 months." [more]

"Four people were shot dead and dozens more were injured Friday as police clashed with demonstrators trying to storm the U.S. Embassy in Yemen, witnesses told CNN, on a second day of worldwide protests against the war in Iraq." [more]

"Braving the cold and nasty rain, hundreds of protesters converged on the building before 9 a.m. Supporters cheered as protesters were hauled away by the uniformed federal officers. Workers in the building had not been able to enter." [more]

"As the deadline for the war on Iraq drew closer Wednesday, some 300 people demonstrated in Manhattan against a U.S. invasion and called on others to leave work and school to increase the voice of protest." [more]

"Given how continually Bush plays the fear card, we might acknowledge that Americans have some reasons for fear. And then make clear that reckless zealotry and a willingness to make entire populations expendable does nothing to bring real security." [more]

"Why is it now so urgent that we should take military action to disarm a military capacity that has been there for 20 years, and which we helped to create? Why is it necessary to resort to war this week, while Saddam's ambition to complete his weapons programme is blocked by the presence of UN inspectors?" [more]

"In Rafah, Gaza Strip today Rachel Corrie, a 23-year old American woman from Olympia, Washington, who was a volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement, was killed by the Israeli Army." [more]

"Robin Cook has won an unprecedented standing ovation in the [British] House of Commons after telling MPs why he resigned from the government over the looming war with Iraq." [more]

"Demonstrators are planning to shut down San Francisco's Financial District, to gather by the thousands in New York's Times Square, to stage sit-ins in Washington, D.C. [and] to try to breach security at Vandenberg Air Force Base ... They're going not just to protest, but to interfere." [more]

"Hundreds of Web sites — many cross-linked to sympathetic groups in a grassroots effort to drum up support — are urging Americans and people worldwide to take action." [more]

"More than a thousand high school and college students walked out of their classrooms and gathered in Union Square Park in Manhattan at noon yesterday to protest the possible war in Iraq. The protests were part of a nationwide effort that organizers said included as many as 400 campuses." [more]

"Organizers said the actions were typical of what was taking place or planned across the country and that mass rallies and campus 'teach-ins' reminiscent of the Vietnam war protest era were called elsewhere. The student actions followed on protests worldwide in recent weeks that have drawn millions in opposition to the U.S.-led campaign to disarm Iraqi President Saddam Hussein." [more]

"Thousands of children have walked out of their schools across Britain to stage anti-war demonstrations, [and] more than 200 children — some as young as 13 — are protesting outside the Houses of Parliament." [more]

"Thousands of Australian high school students will take to the streets in an anti-war protest today, in what could be one of the largest student demonstrations since the Vietnam War." [more]

"Students in colleges and high schools across the United States gathered in rallies Wednesday to oppose a war against Iraq. At more than 360 schools across the country students walked out of class in protest." [more]

"Anti-war activists, determined to continue the momentum from last month's massive global rallies, were preparing for another day of marches and demonstrations expected to draw students around the city and country." [more]

"More than 1,000 readings of Aristophanes' comedy — or adaptations of it — were scheduled to take place Monday in all 50 states and 58 other countries [to protest the war]." [more]

"The anti-war movement is escalating into a new phase, where those opposing a U.S. attack on Iraq are being asked to cross the line they haven't yet crossed." [more]

"From the Brooklyn Academy of Music to a coffeehouse in northern New Mexico to the National Theatre of Iceland, actors are planning a day of international theater protest against a possible war with Iraq." [more]

"Students at hundreds of high schools and colleges nationwide are planning a walkout on Wednesday to protest the Bush administration's plans for war in Iraq." [more]

"The nation's largest labor federation declared its opposition Thursday to war against Iraq at this time, saying President Bush has not made a case for an attack without broad support from U.S. allies." [more]

"If U.S.-led forces attack Iraq, anti-war activists around the country plan to blockade federal buildings and disrupt major business districts with large protests and nonviolent civil disobedience." [more]

"Our fervent pursuit of war with Iraq is driving us to squander the international legitimacy that has been America’s most potent weapon of both offense and defense since the days of Woodrow Wilson. We have begun to dismantle the largest and most effective web of international relationships the world has ever known. Our current course will bring instability and danger, not security." [more]

The Supreme Court ruled that federal racketeering laws cannot be applied to aggressive protesters. The suit, brought by anti-abortion activists, applies to protests of all sorts. [more]

"In the event of war, American and allied forces could not assure the safety of civilians who deliberately position themselves as human shields against attack on Iraqi targets, the U.S. general who would run the war said in an Associated Press interview." [more]

"Hundreds of thousands of opponents of a U.S. war against Iraq called and faxed their senators and the White House on Wednesday in a 'virtual march on Washington', jamming many congressional telephone lines for several hours." [more]

"The Mall was quiet, but the switchboard on Capitol Hill was swamped today as anti-war protesters conducted what they called the first 'virtual march' on Washington." [more]

"Mayor James K. Hahn signed the antiwar resolution late in the day, making Los Angeles the biggest city to take a stand against a unilateral U.S. invasion of Iraq. About 100 other cities, including Chicago, Detroit and Philadelphia, have approved similar measures." [more]

"U.S. media outlets — operating in an environment in which anyone who questions the administration's foreign policy is accused of being unpatriotic — have taken it as their assignment to sell the war, not to present a mix of information that might call the justification for war into question." [more]

"It would be a cheap shot to write off last weekend's demonstrations — or the larger European unease about war — as knee-jerk pacifism. It isn't just Western Europeans who took to the streets on Saturday; there also were anti-war demonstrations in Russia, Ukraine, South Africa, Australia and New York." [more]

"What can anti-war activists do as a follow-up? Where does the drive to stop the war go from here? Given the history of protest movements, how much opportunity is there now to sway public opinion? And why is it that the opposition, any opposition, finds it so difficult to counter a president once his mind is made up?" [more]

"After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, a French newspaper ran the now-famous headline, 'We are all Americans.' Now, with growing resistance worldwide to the idea of a US-led war in Iraq, a new slogan — 'We are all French' — is dotting antiwar protests" [more]

"The United States and Britain have indicated they will press on with a second UN resolution preparing the way for war against Iraq — in spite of a weekend of unprecedented worldwide peace rallies." [more]

"The fracturing of the Western alliance over Iraq and the huge antiwar demonstrations around the world this weekend are reminders that there may still be two superpowers on the planet: the United States and world public opinion." [more]

"At least 150,000 people marched through the city's financial district, chanted antiwar slogans and listened to John Lennon's 'Imagine' sung in Arabic." [more]

"In what may be the largest U.S. protest against war in Iraq to date, at least 200,000 people massed in San Francisco on Sunday as activists tried to build on the momentum of Saturday's turnouts around the world." [more]

"And indeed, many protesters came Sunday because they were actively recruited for the first time. While the total was modest compared with Sunday's overall turnout, the large number of newcomers pleased organizers, who face several challenges in organizing communities that have not turned out in large numbers for anti-war protests since the Vietnam War." [more]

"Ringing cowbells, banging temple drums, chanting, singing, dancing and waving colorful signs, puppets and placards, the marchers moved slowly up Market in a huge anti-war demonstration. While most simply walked the route, many pushed baby carriages, underscoring the argument that war would threaten the future of children most of all." [more]

"Protesters hit the streets from London to Rio de Janeiro and New York to New Zealand, but the largest rallies were in countries where the governments support Mr Bush's war plans — including Britain, Spain, Italy and Australia." [more]

"The protesters joined a worldwide wave of demonstrations, not seen since the Vietnam War, with about 6 million anti-war protesters, some estimate up to 10 million, in more than 600 towns and cities from Auckland to San Francisco to Seoul." [more]

"As marcher Jackie Woods had said earlier: 'Who knows if it will achieve anything?' She had to march, though, like the 250,000 others. 'I feel like it's out of control and this is the only way I can express how I feel.' " [more]

"What differed from the protests of three and four decades earlier was the palpable fear that this time global annihilation is possible." [more]

"The demonstrations continued yesterday. And so did the rain. But this time it was children who marched in protest of war." [more]

"Attempts are being made to close the international divisions over what to do about Iraq. Although new UN resolutions are in the works, the prospects for war remain high." [more]

"The larger-than-expected crowds that rallied around the world fed a renewed confidence among peace activists that the message of signs carried at one of the weekend's first rallies — in Auckland, New Zealand — might yet turn out to be right: 'We can stop this war.' " [more]

"As the streets are being snowed over, I can’t help thinking that the voice of the people is receiving a similar snow job." [more]

"With 11 leading American poets, the event — dubbed 'A Poetry Reading in Honor of the Right to Protest as a Patriotic and Historical Tradition' — capped a long weekend of antiwar demonstrations around the world and across the country." [more]

"So far the atmosphere had been one of stalwart good cheer, but the physical experience was not unlike that of commuting where you often find yourself shuffling along en masse ... We were surrounded by thousands of stationary people. The only thing we needed was a banner saying 'Queue Against the War'." [more]

"Confronting America's countdown to war, throngs of chanting, placard-waving demonstrators converged on New York and scores of cities across the United States, Europe and Asia yesterday in a global daisy chain of largely peaceful protests against the Bush administration's threatened invasion of Iraq." [more]

"Wearing skeleton suits topped with Uncle Sam paper hats, a dozen musicians, and several dozen more marchers tooting kazoos and banging plastic buckets or aluminum pots, turned this city's protest into an upbeat parade, as thousands of people high-stepped to patriotic tunes like 'You're a Grand Old Flag.' " [more]

"Armed with a kaleidoscope of hand-scrawled placards and a few choice words for Mr. Blair, hundreds of thousands of protesters braved frigid weather and descended on the heart of London today to oppose a war with Iraq in what is being described as the largest demonstration in [Britain's] history." [more]

"From the parks of London to the piazzas of Rome and the avenues of Paris and Berlin, more than 1.5 million Europeans marched today in a huge protest against war in Iraq. It was the Continent's biggest coordinated peace demonstration in memory and left many protesters jubilant at the show of antiwar sentiment." [more]

"Although yesterday's demonstration against war was speckled with professional peace activists, leftist doctrinaires and a kaleidoscopic array of malcontents advocating the end of capitalism, imperialism, sexism and taxation, a great many of those who converged on the East Side of Manhattan were the unaligned and the unaffiliated." [more]

"The largest rallies were in London, Rome, Berlin and Paris — the heart of Western Europe — where the generally peaceful demonstrations illustrated the breadth of popular opposition to U.S. policies among traditional allies." [more]

"A sea of protesters poured through the frigid streets of midtown Manhattan today to protest a possible United States invasion of Iraq, as police hurriedly closed avenues to make way for the chanting, sign-waving, horn-tooting thousands." [more]

"Over the last several days, ANSWER's politics have created a rift within the leadership of the antiwar movement that demonstrates the difficulty in having such a small, radical group play a prominent role in organizing the peace effort." [more]

"This is not an America we recognize. When we recited the pledge of allegiance in our long-ago scout meetings, it was to a different America, one with different principles. It was an America that lived by the rule of law. An America that was a land of compassion and brotherly love. An America that took seriously a promise to be a good neighbor, both across the street and around the globe." [more]

"The organizers of the recent Washington and San Francisco marches refuse to say anything critical of Saddam Hussein ... Whatever their views on Iraq, no one in the current peace movement has put forth a moral vision that might unite and sustain it beyond the precipice of war." [more]

"In an exhilarating expression of the anti-war movement's profound decentralization and spontaneity, peaceful demonstrators filled the streets, marching in whatever direction they could. It was the best anti-war protest yet, everyone agreed. Who needed to stand still in the cold and listen to the (at least 30) boring speeches, when so much of the city was one enormous, intoxicating, unpredictable protest march?" [more]

"It was only the remarkable restraint of protesters accustomed to obeying the law — a diverse array of families from the boroughs, twenty-something Manhattanites, and retired couples from Westchester — that prevented the day of peaceful dissent from turning into a riot." [more]

"The immediate hypocrisy was maddening! The cops had instigated the violence by penning people in and then pushing them back when they had nowhere to go. Sending a message for the long-term, I'd say." [more]

"More than 250 people were arrested during a massive demonstration against possible war in Iraq as tens of thousands of protesters packed a 20-block area north of United Nations headquarters, New York police said Sunday." [more]

"The antiwar mood in Europe seemed to crystallize Friday after Hans Blix, the United Nation's chief weapons inspector in Iraq, told the Security Council that he had not uncovered any weapons of mass destruction." [more]

"Millions of protesters — many of them marching in America and the capitals of America’s traditional allies — demonstrated Saturday against possible U.S. plans to attack Iraq." [more]

"The United States and Britain considered giving diplomacy more time on Sunday in the face of resistance at the United Nations to their plans for war to disarm Iraq and after vast weekend peace protests." [more]

"Yesterday, a new diverse, anti-war movement was born on the streets of New York." [more]

"Police last night said the arrests were mostly for disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. To manage crowds that were larger than expected, the Police Department's highest ranking uniformed official, Chief of Department Joseph Esposito, declared a Level 4 mobilization, the force's largest emergency deployment." [more]

"It's a strategy of the stockyards applied to people, and called, appropriately, 'the pens.' " [more]

"The US on Sunday dismissed millions of anti-war protesters around the world and European-led efforts to delay a conflict with Iraq, saying they strengthened Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi leader, and made war more rather than less likely." [more]

"Thousands rode BART into the city this morning for anti-war rallies and a march that organizers said could be one of the biggest in recent memory." [more]

"While huge anti-war demonstrations have been taking place around the world, the streets of the Middle East have been relatively quiet. Political analysts say one reason is because governments in the region have don't want large demonstrations, fearing they could turn into anti-Arab government rallies." [more]

"Rallies and marches have been held in hundreds of towns and cities worldwide, attracting millions of people opposed to a US-led war against Iraq." [more]

"Tens of thousands of people thronged the streets of Sydney and other Australian cities on Sunday, beginning a second day of global marches against a possible U.S. war on Iraq. In a massive wave of demonstrations not seen since the Vietnam War, more than six million peace protesters took to the streets in towns and cities from Cape Town to Chicago on Saturday." [more]

"Despite intense pressure from the Bush administration, French President Jacques Chirac continues to maintain that France will veto a United Nations Security Council resolution authorizing a war in Iraq. Today, I witnessed firsthand why Chirac maintains his firm antiwar stance." [more]

"While other major cities around the world held peace rallies Saturday, a demonstration planned in San Francisco was held back a day to make way for the city's traditional Chinese New Year's parade." [more]

"The unprecedented turnout had shocked the organisers, shocked the marchers. And there at the end before them, high on top of the Wellington Arch, the four obsidian stallions and their vicious conquering chariot, the very Spirit of War, were stilled, rearing back — caught, and held, in the bare branches and bright chill of Piccadilly, London, on Saturday 15 February 2003." [more]

"The big crowd yesterday was in New York City, but people in dozens of cities across the country held peace demonstrations as well." [more]

"From New York to Hollywood via Chicago and Colorado, anti-war protestors took to the streets in the broadest display so far of American public dissent to a military strike on Iraq." [more]

"Seattle lent its voice and lots of feet to peace demonstrations around the world yesterday, with thousands of marchers turning out for what might have been the biggest anti-war march in the city's history." [more]

"In an extraordinary day of protest evoking the anti-war fervor of the 1960s, at least 100,000 people massed in Midtown Manhattan yesterday, demanding a peaceful end to the U.S. showdown with Iraq." [more]

"They have done all the things that anti-war activists normally do. They marched on Washington. They requested meetings with the president. They prayed. 'We want justice, not retribution,' said Bethke, a Methodist pastor from Freehold whose brother Bill died [in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks]." [more]

"More than 100,000 people hit the streets of San Francisco on Sunday to join the voices around the world this weekend protesting a possible U.S. invasion of Iraq." [more]

"Thousands of people opposed to a war with Iraq protested across the United States on Saturday, staging rallies in New York, Southern California, Detroit, Miami, Chicago and other communities that recalled the peace demonstrations of the 1960s and '70s." [more]

"Protests in Europe included some of the largest antiwar demonstrations in decades, authorities said. And the biggest marches took place in nations that are strong U.S. allies and whose governments support President Bush's confrontation with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein." [more]

"To Nile Delta villagers, a war on Iraq would be unjust — and a disaster for Egypt's economy." [more]

" 'Peace! Peace! Peace!' screamed South African Bishop Desmond Tutu from a platform in the middle of Manhattan's First Avenue. The Nobel Peace Prize winner exhorted President Bush, 'Listen to the voice of the people because, many times, the voice of the people is the voice of God.' " [more]

"[The] message was shared Saturday by thousands of protesters in Chicago and millions around the world: No war in Iraq. The rally was part of a global wave of protest that started early Saturday in New Zealand and rolled west to North America." [more]

"On a global scale, the demonstrations were among the largest in decades, and, taken as a whole, may have been the largest simultaneous, single-day antiwar protest in history." [more]

"Philadelphia police estimated the crowd at 10,000, making the gathering one of the largest peace demonstrations in city history." [more]

"Demonstrators said they are anxious that time is running out to stop an attack on Iraq, but they said they hoped the massive rallies coming on the heels of a rebuff of the US position at the United Nations on Friday will make things particularly uncomfortable for the Bush administration." [more]

"Weekend protests worldwide by millions of anti-war activists delivered a stinging rebuke to Washington and its allies on their hard-line advance towards war." [more]

"This is a the charge sheet and lexicon of the 'antiwar' movement. Whatever possible benefits might flow from military action are, it seems, rejected and disparaged, either on grounds of the means (the cure is worse than the cold), or on grounds of America and Britain's corrupt and hypocritical motives." [more]

"Yet even as demonstrators declared that they were standing with the world — and especially with Germany and France, whose opposition to war with Iraq in the U.N. was commended on sign after sign — the event was filled with the burnished spirit of New York. Although there were marchers from across the country, locals predominated, many angrily rejecting the way they say the administration has hijacked their city's grief." [more]

"As diplomatic and military preparations continued toward a possible war with Iraq, anti-war protests stretched around the globe yesterday And although the demonstrations in the United States paled in comparison to those in Rome, Berlin and London, marches and rallies took place in more than 150 American cities." [more]

"Anti-war demonstrators packed the streets north of the United Nations headquarters Saturday, filling police-barricaded protest zones for more than 20 blocks as civil rights leaders and celebrities energized the banner-waving crowd." [more]

"While the rest of Rome was deserted, the streets of the city center were flooded with colorful rainbow peace flags and joyful demonstrators." [more]

" 'We are the seeds of conscience," [one minister said]. 'The church must be prophetic or it will be pathetic.' " [more]

"One ... beautiful movement now being organized world-wide [is that] people are being asked to send small packets of rice to President Bush with a simple note asking that the rice be sent to feed the Iraqis. As it says in the Old Testament: 'If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat' (Proverbs 25:21)." [more]

"Officials cannot decide that from now on marching will be limited to ethnic parades. Protests that move down the street have a symbolic power that stationary rallies do not, and delivering a message at a location like the United Nations can have far greater impact than saying the same thing in a small park." [more]

"There was no burgeoning grassroots anti-war movement in Los Angeles a year ago. But now, in this spread-out, segregated, traffic-bogged, indifferent metropolis, enough people have signed petitions and gathered with signs at street corners to get the City Council paying attention: Resolutions on a war in Iraq are now before the council." [more]

"About 30 elected officials from more than 80 cities and towns opposed to a preemptive attack on Iraq lobbied the White House and Congress Thursday, trying to reverse a course toward war." [more]

"In the current campaign against a war with Iraq, large rallies are a valuable publicity tool for antiwar groups whose attempts to woo undecided Americans are frequently drowned out by a government that argues that it may be necessary to go to war. Given the disparity of antiwar groups and how some have tried to promote agendas that go beyond Iraq, swaying ordinary Americans on the issue isn't always easy." [more]

"Particularly given the Bush Administration's ferocious attack on reproductive rights, now would be an especially bad time to reinforce traditional gender stereotypes or to exalt the cult of compulsory motherhood. The notion that women are biologically – or even culturally – destined to breed and to nurture could feed the forces of reaction. As radical feminists have long suggested, denying women's capacity for aggression – and militancy – also denies our power." [more]

"Six House members, members of the military and parents of servicemen went to federal court Thursday to try to prevent the president from launching an invasion of Iraq without an explicit declaration of war from Congress." [more]

"In an overflowing school auditorium Monday night, at a forum with their congressman, a two-star Marine general and an assistant secretary of Defense, the citizens of Alexandria spoke of overwhelming concerns about war with Iraq, and particularly its aftermath. Their antiwar sentiments sounded like those heard in France and Germany." [more]

"War is not always inevitable. It is always a defeat for humanity." [more]

"Antiwar demonstrators may not march past the United Nations complex on Saturday, or anywhere else in Manhattan, a federal judge ruled yesterday." The judge agreed with city police that "it could not maintain safety at a traditional, peaceful protest march, [but this] was rejected yesterday by a number of First Amendment experts who found the court's decision a bad precedent." [more]

"Cairo played host last week to an international gathering protesting war against Iraq. Though participants sparred over whether the launch of the International Campaign against US Aggression on Iraq was a whimper or a bang, the meetings pulled Arab activists into the fold of a growing anti-war movement worldwide." [more]

"The British peace movement's alternative to war has historically been a patriotic endorsement of Western intervention - with consequences that are no less dire for those on the receiving end." [more]

"Where the smashed window or street fight is what makes the television screens, anarchism as a philosophy does not require violence. For every smashed window, there are a dozen or more meetings about the fine points of collective decision-making and regional democracy." [more]

"Anti-Americanism is an emotion masquerading as an analysis, a morality, an ideal, even an idea about what to do. When hatred of foreign policies ignites into hatred of an entire people and their civilization, then thinking is dead and demonology lives. When complexity of thought devolves into caricature, intellect is close to reconciling itself to mass murder." [more]

"In other words, the struggle that aims to transcend capitalism actually improves it. And it is this tendency that obliges the most lucid members of the ruling class to give ground to the workers in order not to lose everything. ... Democratization and integration—we would add—are not irreversible processes, as demonstrated by the social disintegration and marginalization that has occurred in Argentina over the last twenty years." [more]

"Sen. Edward Kennedy said he plans to introduce a resolution on Wednesday calling on President Bush to present Congress with 'convincing evidence of an imminent threat before we send troops to war with Iraq.' " [more]

"The general who commanded U.S. forces in the 1991 Gulf War says he hasn't seen enough evidence to convince him that his old comrades Dick Cheney, Colin Powell and Paul Wolfowitz are correct in moving toward a new war now." [more]

"Forty-one American Nobel laureates in science and economics issued a declaration yesterday opposing a preventive war against Iraq without wide international support." [more]

"While the anti-war march had a wide range of people, its leaders were so extreme and blatantly anti-American that it might have pushed me into the other camp if I had arrived undecided." [more]

"A security researcher has revealed a little-known vulnerability in many locks that lets a person create a copy of the master key for an entire building by starting with any key from that building." [more]

"Seven in 10 Americans would give U.N. weapons inspectors months more to pursue their arms search in Iraq, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll that found growing doubts about an attack on Iraqi President Saddam Hussein." [more]

"Civil rights leaders and politicians around the nation observed Martin Luther King Day yesterday, many of them invoking King's name in arguing against war with Iraq." [more]

"Thousands of people — teenagers, spiritual leaders, parents with young children, veterans of past wars and others, representing several races and religions — took to the streets here on Martin Luther King Jr. Day to support social justice and oppose war in Iraq." [more]

"Fewer than 10 percent want Turkey to allow the U.S. to attack Iraq from Turkish military bases, [yet] Turkey's cooperation would be essential for opening up a northern front on Iraq." [more]

Variations on the crowd estimates from Satuday's peace rally, "from 55,000 to 200,000, are enough to give a statistician whiplash. But even though a police spokesman Monday amended those numbers up to as many as 150,000 marchers, experts say such wild ranges are to be expected." [more]

"This weekend's anti-war protests were the first mass demonstrations in memory to occur before a conflict, a testimony to the organizing power of the Internet, observers say. " [more]

"Arrests came after a youth and student march merged with another demonstration near the park across from the White House. In the days leading up to the demonstrations, some activists said that they planned to go to the White House to carry out acts of civil disobedience to show their opposition to a war with Iraq." [more]

"About 1,000 people from around the country gathered shortly after noon a block north of Pennsylvania Avenue Park in full view of the northern windows of the White House. One group included many older people, some with long experience in civil disobedience. A younger and louder group joined the the older protesters." [more]

"Antiwar demonstrators took to the streets again today on a weekend of protests in numerous European cities, with marchers silently or loudly objecting to America's threats to use its military might against Iraq." [more]

"Protests against war in Iraq took place in cities across the world over the weekend amid growing public unease at plans by Washington and London to topple Saddam Hussein's regime." [more]

"Mr. Bush and his war cabinet would be wise to see the demonstrators as a clear sign that noticeable numbers of Americans no longer feel obliged to salute the administration's plans because of the shock of Sept. 11 and that many harbor serious doubts about his march toward war. The protesters are raising some nuanced questions in the name of patriotism about the premises, cost and aftermath of the war the president is contemplating." [more]

"Tens of thousands of antiwar demonstrators converged on Washington yesterday, making a thunderous presence in the bitter cold and assembling in the shadow of the Capitol dome to oppose a U.S. military strike against Iraq." [more]

"Many of those involved in the rallies say numbers are important because they're often used — rightly or wrongly — to convey the strength of a political movement. Because organizers often see their movements as being at odds with the government's way of thinking, they don't trust public officials to do the counting." [more]

"Temperatures, which didn't break 24 degrees during the day, didn't seem to affect the march much. But as protesters began to move along their route toward the Washington Navy Yard, rally organizers broke into the speeches with warnings about the weather." [more]

"The slogans and banners were different at protests around the world Saturday, but the message to the United States and its allies was the same: Find a peaceful solution to the Iraq crisis." [more]

"A look at anti-war demonstrations Saturday in U.S. cities and around the world." [more]

"In a show of dissent that organizers said 'shattered the false myth of consensus,' for a war with Iraq, tens of thousands of protesters representing a diverse coalition for peace converged here today for a rally and march against the Bush administration's threatened use of military force against Saddam Hussein's regime." [more]

"A sea of people stretching more than one mile long and taking up four lanes of roadway marched through the nation's capitol Saturday in vocal and colorful opposition to the U.S. government's drive to war with Iraq." [more]

"Hopes have been affixed to a revival of progressivism within the Democratic party, when it was the Democrats themselves who proposed the Homeland Security Department, endorsed the Patriot Bill for the most part, and earlier failed to stand up to a stolen election that was predictably going to usher in the dictatorial actions that we've seen this regime engage in." [more]

"Hundreds of people wandered into Pershing Park [in Washington] on the morning of Sept. 27—activists looking for a protest, nurses in town for a conference, lawyers headed to work, and a cyclist training for a race. And there was Chief Charles Ramsey with his troops, ready to arrest them all." [more]

"Revisiting a jarring television commercial from the Cold War era, a grass-roots anti-war group has remade the 1964 'Daisy' ad, warning that a war against Iraq could spark nuclear Armageddon." [more]

"Marches are still a crucial tool, and protest leaders are hoping that tens of thousands will turn out for an antiwar rally here on Saturday. But organizers are also trying to spread their message through the Internet and enlist a diverse range of allies." [more]

"Students took the event seriously, holding meetings with [their principal], attending a training session on nonviolent protest and working with police on a march route." [more]

"Never before in human history has an anti-war movement grown so fast and spread so quickly. It is even more remarkable because the war has yet to begin." [more]

"Clark won fame and glory when he led the movement to withdraw the American forces from Vietnam. Since then he has been a radical peace activist, and today he is one of the key leaders of the American protest movement against an invasion of Iraq. He is also known as a fierce critic of American foreign policy." [more]

"Calling King a 'drum major for peace and justice,' Mahdi Bray, the executive director of the Muslim American Society, noted that King spoke out against the Vietnam War." [more]

"Apart from cease-fire violations, the group called the Mindanao People's Caucus wants to look into the plight of villagers affected by the fighting and reports of displacement of villagers." [more]

"[The author] still can't believe his strip, made for a few friends as catharsis for his unease in the aftermath of the World Trade Center attacks and the onset of the war in Afghanistan, has resonated with so many people." [more]

Thus, it is simply not true that voting is considered to be an expression of the freedom of opinion. For in reality it is subject to what I call the principle of the homogeneous: candidacy is available to anyone, but to be elected to a place pre-coded for potential power you have to conform to a certain norm. [more]

"[M]any Iraqi nationals live in quiet distrust of two governments — one that kills families of critics in exile, another known for jailing immigrants when national security is compromised. Recent reports that Washington is monitoring thousands of Iraqis in the United States as part of its war on terrorism served to underscore the apprehension." [more]

"Pope John Paul II has made a Christmas plea to avoid a war in Iraq: "From the cave of Bethlehem, there rises today an urgent appeal to the world not to yield to mistrust, suspicion and discouragement, even though the tragic reality of terrorism feeds uncertainties and fears," the Pope said. " [more]

"My family and friends may think I'm a coward because I didn't fight. I think I'm a coward because I couldn't refuse." [more]

"D.C. police announced yesterday that they will put up temporary surveillance cameras next month during anti-war rallies and during an antiabortion demonstration." [more]

"Fearing that the 'USA-PATRIOT Act' will curtail Americans' civil rights, municipalities across the country are passing resolutions to repudiate the legislation and protect their residents from a perceived abuse of authority by the the federal government." [more]

"I don't think a war on Iraq should be connected to the war on terrorism. All the reasons I've heard to go to war are not as strong as the reasons I've heard not to go to war." [more]

"The threat of a U.S. attack on Iraq brings unfamiliar faces into the activist crowd." [more]

"Most of the new antiwar groups express an entirely personal opposition to war, one based more on moral revulsion than effective political opposition. Protesters voice a personal distaste for violent conflict, rather than organizing a collective stand against it." [more]

"Bob Taylor, an economist for the World Bank, skipped lunch to join the march to the White House. He took his family to the Washington march in October carrying a sign that read, 'Average American Family Against War With Iraq.' On his way to work, Mr. Taylor said he saw a leaflet for today's rally and decided to squeeze it into his day." [more]

"Anti-war demonstrators rallied across the United States Tuesday, with protests against a possible attack on Iraq ranging from a letter from Hollywood celebrities to a pot-banging march to the White House and coordinated demonstrations that led to scores of arrests." [more]

"From Goshen, Ind., grannies collecting relief kits to a 'die-in' on an Ivy League campus, Americans took to the streets Tuesday in mostly small, low-key events to protest a possible war on Iraq. More than 100 people were arrested." [more]

"Dozens of human rights, church, and peace groups across the United States will spend International Human Rights Day Tuesday taking part in protests against alleged plans by the administration of President George W. Bush to go to war against Iraq, according to organizers of a new coalition that aims to help coordinate the burgeoning U.S. anti-war movement." [more]

"Opposition to the war on Iraq was far greater, he said, than the opposition to the war in Vietnam at a similar stage. But he did not feel that this was reflected by the media. 'The anti-war movement does not have a voice in the national debate equal to our numbers,' he told the gathering. [more]

"These are the new faces of the peace movement, a motley collection of activists who would seem to have little chance of changing popular sentiment but have started to make their voices heard all the same." [more]

"If the inspectors find some materials that might be used for weapons of mass destruction, they destroy them. The inspectors report to the Security Council; then most countries except the US and Britain declare that, whether or not Iraq once had weapons of mass destruction, it no longer does. Enforcement of sanctions begins to crumble and world pressure to lift them builds. To prevent this scenario, the Bush Administration is working frantically to discredit the inspection process." [more]

"Mr. Berrigan saw his protests as "prophetic acts" based on the Biblical injunction to beat swords into plowshares, and that included the "symbolic" destruction of Selective Service records in raids on draft board offices in the Baltimore Customs House in 1967 and in Catonsville in 1968. He was also convicted of smuggling letters in and out of the federal penitentiary in Lewisburg, Pa., while an inmate there in 1970, though the conviction was later thrown out. The end of the Vietnam War failed to silence him; he continued his missions of dissent until the end of his life." [more]

"Activists of every stripe are flocking to cyberspace because of the speed and affordability of Internet communication. Ordinary citizens are swarming there, too, in search of information, dialogue and involvement. The Internet is fast becoming an integral part of grassroots politicking, not only because it's the most efficient organizing tool ever invented but also because it is 'a transforming medium capable of changing how people become engaged with politics.' " [more]

"Prepare a campaign of mass-civil disobedience in defense of peace and the constitutional right to block the chain of command of the political and administrative power that would decide Italian participation in a war. Absolute clarity and discipline are also needed in the initiative: all who are involved should know perfectly well that the goals of the campaign are to be reached strictly through nonviolence; all should have participated in preparation, elaboration, and discussion; all should have participated in the meetings of preparation, explanation, and training; all are aware of the personal risks they run; all should be prepared to personally undergo retaliations and prosecutions; all, finally, are persuaded to act exclusively in a non-violent manner." [more]

"All three were surprised to find that Israeli papers print much fuller accounts of Israeli wrongs and Palestinian reprisals than those here. Peace groups there flourish and stage nonviolent protests. A large majority, there as well as here, favors separate states for Israel and Palestine. This sentiment is not reflected in the surveys of the present election campaign. The yearning for peace does not show up at all." [more]

"Hundreds of students at more than 25 colleges across the country walked out of classes or participated in rallies on Wednesday to protest a possible U.S. war with Iraq, as part of a 'National Student/Youth Day of Action.' " [more]

"Two student antiwar groups — one moving south on Broad Street from Temple University and another marching east along Chestnut Street from the University of Pennsylvania — made a minor mess of Center City traffic yesterday before they converged on City Hall for a rally opposing a possible war with Iraq." [more]

"The magnitude of popular dissent to the impending war — before the United States has so much as begun its first (official) bombing campaign — is exceptional. The country was five years into the Vietnam War before such large numbers of protesters began to hit the streets. Groups from the traditional left have experienced exceptional growth. And new coalitions have formed in direct response to the war on terror." [more]

"[W]hen compared with the status quo in the '60s, today's activists are in a much better position to lead the way forward. Anyone familiar with the Vietnam era can attest to the stuttering, confused arc of involvement and understanding that characterized the early years of resistance. The largely white, naïve, campus-centered movement of the 1960s had an incredibly steep learning curve." [more]

"After Sept. 11, 2001, the feds embarked on an unprecedented and brazen campaign of domestic spying. Leading the charge, Attorney General John Ashcroft signaled his intent to spy on law-abiding religious congregations and political groups." [more]

"The resolution against a war could still be overturned should a government member file a motion for a new vote. So the antiwar students continue to make their case." [more]

"Although students are marching, they probably won't play the crucial role they did 30 years ago, observers say. So much has changed — students' perspective on college as a means to a job rather than an education; the nation's tendency to be more critical of government; a greater number of activist groups. And there isn't a draft." [more]

"A crowd of about 400,000 protesters from across Europe marched here today against a presumptive war on Iraq and plenty of other things as well — globalization, cultivation of genetically modified foods, commercial control of the Internet, copyright laws, Israel's policies toward the Palestinians and liberalization of employee layoff rules." [more]

"Emboldened by a weekend antiwar protest in Washington that organizers called the biggest since the days of the Vietnam War, groups opposed to military action in Iraq said they were preparing a wave of new demonstrations across the country in the next few weeks." [more]

"National Public Radio and the New York Times arrived at the same conclusion about the anti-war rally in Washington, DC this weekend: The turnout was disappointing. But neither report matched reality." [more]

"Eli Pariser, 21, who directed international campaigns for MoveOn.org, said the Internet expanded the scope of organizing to people and places that marches can never reach. 'It's a safe and instant way of getting involved,' he said." [more]

"A number of Saturday's marchers also bore placards in memory of Minnesota Sen. Paul Wellstone, the liberal Democrat who died Friday in a plane crash in Minnesota. Wellstone had voted against allowing the Bush administration to use military force in Iraq." [more]

"Several speakers referred to Vietnam era protests, and organizers were eager to compare the current movement with the one that peaked with a rally of between 250,000 and 500,000 people in Washington in 1969. The last large-scale peace protest in Washington was in 1991, when about 75,000 demonstrated during the height of the Persian Gulf War. Unlike those protests, yesterday's rally was different in that it preceded war, and many interpreted that as an indication of a potentially powerful movement." [more]

"Tens of thousands of anti-war protesters circled the White House on Saturday after Jesse Jackson and other speakers denounced the Bush administration's Iraq policies and demanded a revolt at the ballot box to promote peace." [more]

"Anti-war activists plan an anti-war referendum as well, with signed petitions and votes via computer on the Web site www.votenowar.org. An additional rally is scheduled in Washington in January followed by a "People's Peace Conference" to be attended by representatives of organizations that are backing the anti-war effort." [more]

"Hundreds of protesters gathered near the Vietnam Veterans Memorial for the start of what organizers pledged would be a loud, angry but nonviolent protest against war with Iraq." [more]

" 'The American people are saying there is another conversation to be had, and I would frame this march as a new beginning,' said the Rev. Bob Edgar, the general secretary of the National Council of the Churches of Christ who served six terms in the House as a Pennsylvania Democrat." [more]

"Suburban housewives from West Chester have tickets. So do young professionals from Cherry Hill and union workers from Philadelphia." [more]

"Peace groups believe they can still avert a war by convincing politicians that the majority of Americans oppose unilateral action against Iraq. Most polls find that a majority of Americans believe the United Nations should be allowed to try diplomacy first." [more]

"As the guns of war are heard along the Euphrates, the sound at home will be of little cloven hooves trotting up to the trough. When it comes to oil consumption, any sacrifice, however small, will be too big." [more]

"It has emerged from coalition talks between Germany's two governing parties that the $24 billion annual military budget is likely to be maintained for the next four years, [and as] one possible answer to Germany's growing military role, leading Social Democratic and Green politicians this week hinted that they may examine a switch from conscription to a professional army." [more]

"The heads of more than 60 Christian organizations issued a statement opposing a preemptive war on both moral and practical grounds. They included leaders of Bush's and Blair's own denominations — the United Methodist Church and the Church of England, respectively — as well as other major Protestant groups, Catholic men's and women's orders, humanitarian agencies and seminaries." [more]

"College campuses, which served as key incubators for the antiwar protests of previous decades, are spawning a new generation of activists opposed to a U.S. attack on Iraq." [more]

"The polls, far from rationalizing the Democrats' timidity, suggest they might have won a real debate had they staged one. Support for an Iraq war is falling, with the dicey 51 percent in favor in the latest CNN/USA Today survey dropping to a Vietnam-like 33 percent support level if there are 5,000 casualties, as there could well be. But even so, the Democratic leaders never united around a substantive alternative vision to the administration's pre-emptive war against the thug of Baghdad. That isn't patriotism, it's abdication." [more]

"The speed of the antiwar mobilization has struck some longtime college presidents. 'Students are engaging very, very quickly with Iraq,' said Nancy Dye, the president of Oberlin College. 'This morning I was struck by a very large sign on top of an academic building, saying, "Say No to War in Iraq." A new student organization has gotten itself together, and I don't even know if they have a name yet.' " [more]

NPR's full coverage of the events during and leading up to the Congressional debate over a resolution authorizing the use of force in Iraq. [more]

"The various presidents had to deal with the Soviets. They had 50,000 nuclear warheads, and they had tremendous power, and they brought them 90 miles off our shore. And not once did we think that confrontation was a good idea." [more]

"The Democrats who voted in surprising numbers not to authorize military action in Iraq needed some encouragement to withstand the majority's tide, and they found it today in a loose coalition of colleagues whose makeup transcended obvious patterns. [One representative] having agonized over her decision until a few hours before the vote, said she was persuaded by a large number of calls and e-mail messages from voters who were deeply uneasy about the prospect of a new war that could be fought with terrible weapons." [more]

"Despite a media blackout, a nascent US peace movement has gradually been gathering momentum. In September, at least 300 peace events were being held weekly in cities from Pensacola to Fairbanks. Organizers say they're attracting many who oppose the war in Iraq but were ambivalent about, or supported, war in Afghanistan." [more]

"A sudden appetite for war with Iraq seems to have consumed the Bush administration and Congress. The debate that began in the Senate last week is centered not on the fundamental and monumental questions of whether and why the United States should go to war with Iraq, but rather on the mechanics of how best to wordsmith the president's use-of-force resolution in order to give him virtually unchecked authority to commit the nation's military to an unprovoked attack on a sovereign nation." [more]

" 'Our liberal base wants us to stand up and challenge Bush on the war,' said Donna Brazile, who runs the Democratic National Committee's Voting Rights Institute. She said loyal Democrats in low-income areas and black neighborhoods, along with many women and liberal suburbanites, are bitterly complaining that 'no one is talking to us, no one is addressing our issues' on the economy and preparation for war." [more]

"Religious leaders began another phase of an anti-war lobbying effort on Capitol Hill Wednesday, urging Congress to explore peaceful alternatives in its dealings with Iraq." [more]

"As Congress moves this week toward giving President Bush the authority he seeks to make war on Iraq, some of the toughest questions are coming from lawmakers who once were warriors." [more]

"With Congress on the verge of approving the use of force against Iraq, anti-war activists around the country are struggling to generate fervor for peace." [more]

"Members of local peace organizations protested Monday against U.S. involvement in an attack against Iraq. Their message seemed clear: diplomacy over violence." [more]

"Echoes of the Vietnam War era, right down to the music that was performed, reverberated Monday at the entrance to Black Hawk College as about 100 people gathered to protest the possibility of war against Iraq." [more]

"Again daring to go where few of his colleagues venture, Kennedy defined all of this by its proper name: 'The administration's doctrine is a call for 21st century American imperialism that no other nation can or should accept.' The debate in Congress this week is centered on Saddam Hussein and Iraq, but what is really at stake are basic structures of the American idea." [more]

Gestures of solidarity from onlookers "seemed to reinforce what some of those gathered believe — that support for a pre-emptive strike against Iraq ... does not run as deep throughout the country as many of the polls suggest." [more]

"The demonstrations, held on Sunday, the anniversary of the commencement of bombing in Afghanistan, marked the start of what is intended to be a series of actions to mobilise public opinion against American troops being deployed against Saddam Hussein." [more]

"Indeed, in this era of low voter turnout and the Supreme Court arbitrating the 2000 election, there's less '60s-style, make-love-not-war idealism, observers say. Many students 'feel a great deal of alienation from the political process,' says Jeffrey Murer, a political scientist at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania." [more]

"In a sign of growing opposition in the academic world to potential war with Iraq, more than 1,000 students and professors at local colleges spoke out yesterday at rallies, panels, and marches, vowing to step up opposition to a preemptive strike against Iraq." [more]

In addition to protests on Sunday, a Saturday gathering in Seattle was greeted by Scott Ritter, former chief UN weapons inspector. [more]

"Those old enough to know said that yesterday's Central Park rally to protest a United States invasion of Iraq drew a larger crowd than similar gatherings in the early 1960's by those who did not want the United States to get further involved in Vietnam." Includes a picture of Why War? activist Mary Harrison in the foreground holding a sign reading "I Love Peace." [more]

An in-depth independent summary of the Central Park Not In Our Name rally. [more]

"LA police officials said the demonstration there was the largest so far against Washington's Iraq policy. In downtown San Francisco, some 5,000 people protested in the city's Union Square area." [more]

"Anti-war fever awoke over the weekend, as about 8,000 protesters in San Francisco joined brethren across the country in a rising rumble against President Bush's drive to disarm Iraq. Galvanized by Bush's push for military intervention, anti-war sentiment re-emerged Sunday into blazing sunshine and cacophony at Union Square." [more]

"In front of the base's Dale Mabry Highway entrance, 80 protesters gathered to show displeasure with possible action against Iraq. A large mid-air refueling jet took off from MacDill's runway a few hundred yards away, its four engines creating a deafening, ground-shaking roar." [more]

"U.S. Rep. Jim McDermott, recently back from Baghdad, told about 5,000-plus peace activists at a rally Sunday that President Bush is out for blood in Iraq and it will take their efforts to stop him." [more]

"The media, some of which appear to be actually lusting for conflict and the ratings it will bring, is more focused on the drums of war instead of the chants of peace. In Washington, cable networks keep up an incessant chatter about the need and the rationale for punishing Iraq." [more]

"U.S. Rep. Jim McDermott broadened his attack on George W. Bush's war plans yesterday, saying the president is threatening military action in Iraq as part of a plot to crown himself emperor of America." [more]

"Longtime peace activists hope the U.S. government's steps toward military action in Iraq will help galvanize a resistance movement in Seattle and focus scattered groups that have been working on everything from banning landmines to nuclear issues to curbing police brutality." [more]

"As President George W. Bush prepared to address the nation tonight about Iraq, as many as 15,000 anti-war demononstrators filled Central Park's East Meadow yesterday to stage a four-hour rally." [more]

"For Seattle area Congressman Jim McDermott, the reaction he got at yesterday's anti-war protest in his home district was a welcome change from the criticism he's attracted in recent days." [more]

"As the Bush administration whipped up the anti-Saddam Hussein war rhetoric, the opinion polls in the United States are telling the Republican administration that they don't want any preemptive strike against Iraq." [more]

"Both sides parted on good terms. After nearly an hour of debate, education and analysis over state of world since before and after 9/11, one of the disgruntled men parted with 'Thanks man, I'm really glad I stopped by. You know, I've never really thought about it like that...' This seemed to be a sentiment shared by many of his compatriots." [more]

"A diverse pack of students marched from People's Park down Telegraph and Shattuck avenues chanting "No war on Iraq! Let's have a peace talk!" and hoisting signs to the beat of drums before moving across the bay." [more]

"During the rally, Union Square was filled with chanting, energetic crowds who spilled over into neighboring streets. People crammed the windows overlooking the rally from the neighboring Macy’s, some of them just curious, others dangling an anti-war banner from the roof until they were told by police to remove it." [more]

" 'I have such a horror that this is going to go on and on,' said Mabel Dudeney, 76, a survivor of the 1940–41 Battle of Britain in which much of London was destroyed by nightly German bombing. 'Russia is going to go into Georgia. China is going to attack Taiwan. Israel and the Palestinians are going to continue fighting...War settles nothing.' " [more]

"Protesters in such cities as New York, San Franciso and Los Angeles chanted slogans and held up placards bearing slogans such as 'Change the US administration, not Iraq's.' " [more]

"For more than four hours, protesters filled the East Meadow to question why the U.S. should use force to oust Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein — and to rail against the American worldwide offensive against terrorism." [more]

"Thousands of anti-war protesters took to the streets throughout the state Sunday, beating drums, hoisting signs and proclaiming their opposition to the war with Iraq." [more]

The rally in New York "was one of more than 25 rallies organised by the Not In Our Name group to coincide with the first anniversary of the start of the US-led military campaign in Afghanistan." [more]

"Protest organizers said President Bush, motivated by a thirst for power and control of oil reserves, was lying to the country about the need for an attack on Iraq and the war against terrorism. Iraq's oil reserves are the second biggest in the world after Saudi Arabia's." [more]

"The timing of the war, he acknowledged, was bad. The value of his stock portfolio has plummeted. 'But you can't really have wars when they are convenient,' he said." [more]

" 'It's great to see a public debate on such a critical issue,' [Martin] Sheen said, adding that 40 years ago the then President John Kennedy used diplomacy to prevent the Cuban missile crisis sparking a war." [more]

"Hollywood, which banded together after Sept. 11 to raise funds, flags and patriotic fervor, is mobilizing an anti-war front to protest President Bush's plans for an attack on Iraq." [more]

"A rally of people against war filled Chicago’s biggest downtown streetside venue for public events today and overflowed into a parade that shut down six blocks of Michigan Avenue’s "miracle mile." The Sunday rally was the second big protest recently against the Bush Administration’s foreign policy." [more]

"Activists joined the Western New York Peace Center and U.S. Representative John LaFalce in questioning the war posture that the Bush administration is taking us." [more]

"A movement is growing to stop the country from going to war. It needs to be an inclusive citizens' movement that looks beyond the reach of existing peace and anti-war organizations. What's needed is a commitment to civility and persuasion, a reaching out to all citizens no matter where they stand on other issues." [more]

"Behind the increasingly vocal worldwide warnings about an invasion of Iraq lies not so much a resurgent peace movement as a fear America will try to depose Saddam Hussein alone. If Washington waits for United Nations approval for an attack, opinion polls in many countries show that American troops would actually enjoy considerable international public support." [more]

" 'It's extraordinary that, as Senators work with the Bush Administration to draft a war resolution, their constituents are expressing overwhelming opposition an attack against Iraq,' said Amy Goodman, the host of Democracy Now! 'Unfortunately we are hearing very little about this in the media. These calls represent the silenced majority, not the silent majority.' " [more]

"Yet along with the rapidly growing union opposition to war comes a disconcerting non-position to war. The AFL-CIO Executive Council is refusing to take a stand on the topic of Iraq. Their silence on the 'war on terrorism' leaves a gaping whole that local unions are starting to fill. The national labor leadership's silence represents a lack of opposition to Bush's war plans. They might as well be shouting labor's approval of the Bush Administration. Yet all is not lost. Perhaps now that local unions are speaking out against a possible war on Iraq, the national leaders will be brave enough to add their voices to the anti-war movement by following their rank and file members." [more]

"Why now? Why, one year after September 11, is the Bush Administration attempting to overthrow decades of precedents and precepts of international law, along with the best traditions of US foreign policy, in a relentless push to war? As high-level officials try to sell the Administration's case to the American people and the President preparesfor an appearance before the UN General Assembly, the White House continues its attempt to restrict the debate on Iraq to details of timing and tactics while ignoring the basic question of whether an invasion of Iraq should be considered at all. " [more]

"The desire to rush to war glides over the tremendous costs and risks involved, including the dangers for American servicemen and women and for Iraqi civilians, as well as the potential destabilization of the Middle East. War would likely derail any chance at a Palestinian-Israeli agreement, while trampling international law and U.N. principles and setting a terrible international precedent. It would also sidetrack efforts to prevent terrorism. Moreover, it would divert some $200 billion from our own profound domestic needs, including health care, prescription drugs, education and homeland security." [more]

"Here the movement will continue. And when the bombs begin to drop there will be acts of non-violent civil disobedience all over the country. We need the same in the United States." [more]

"Democratic congressmen who are visiting Iraq this week stirred up anger among some Republicans when they questioned the reasons President Bush has used to justify possible military action against Iraq." [more]

"Iraq is a war of choice, not a war of no choice, and it is a war of choice that will require a lot of nation-building if it is to produce a more peaceful Iraq. If the Bush team can enlist the backing of the U.N. and key allies, there is a real chance that such an operation can be successful. If the U.S. can't do that, it should keep Saddam in his box through deterrence and wait for a better strategic environment. Because launching a war of choice in Iraq, with an ambivalent U.S. public and no allies, could make for a frustrating, dangerous and endless Day 3." [more]

"The only reason — the only reason — that Congressional Democrats this past week started speaking out against invasion, in more than their previously token numbers, is because they have been deluged with phone calls, faxes, and e-mails expressing the public's opposition. Polls show widespread doubt. Congressional office intake valves, a measure of the people passionate enough to contact their public officials, has been running more than 90 percent against the planned invasion. And volume has been high." [more]

"Would you favor or oppose taking military action in Iraq to end Saddam Hussein's rule? / Overall ?64 percent favor, but that drops to 33 percent if the United States must act without allies." [more]

"Dozens of congressional Democrats are frustrated with their leadership for rushing to embrace President Bush's Iraqi war resolution and fostering an impression the party overwhelmingly backs a unilateral strike against Saddam Hussein." [more]

"Though members had been participating in vigils since last October, when the bombing of Afghanistan began, many expressed qualms about marching into the thick of their hometown's annual patriotic celebration. But fifty activists showed up on the Fourth and got the surprise of their political lives. Along the mile-and-a-half parade route through downtown Greensboro, they were greeted mostly with applause, and, at the end of their march, they were honored by parade organizers for "Best Interpretation of the Theme."" [more]

"Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., said President Bush's plans to invade Iraq are a conscious effort to distract public attention from growing problems at home." [more]

"Recently, I've had the chance to travel around the country and do some call-in radio shows, during which the question of Iraq has come up often. And here's what I can report from a totally unscientific sample: Don't believe the polls that a majority of Americans favor a military strike against Iraq. It's just not true." [more]

"For leftists like me who had long considered Chomsky as our own beacon of moral clarity, it is hard to say which development is more catastrophic: the fact that Chomsky-bashing has become a major political pastime, or the fact that Chomsky has become so very difficult to defend." [more]

"With some American allies forcefully reaffirming their support for the United States' campaign to persuade the United Nations to bear down on the Iraqi leader, Saddam Hussein, differences with other influential nations emerged sharply today." [more]

"I've taken to constituting myself as an anti-war movement of one—a man of impeccable conservative credentials and long experience in the national-security field, a grumpy old Marine, who has grown infuriated with and appalled by both the conservative embrace of disaster and the enormity of the smallness of what passes for the anti-war movement today." [more]

"There are no large, cohesive peace groups, nationally or locally. Activists are spread among dozens of issues, and coalition building is difficult." [more]

"I have always thought there is a plausible case for going to war against Iraq. But the more I hear from the administration — the more it exaggerates its case and turns a potential threat against the region into an imminent one against Peoria, Ill. — the more I have to wonder if such a case exists." [more]

"Civil liberties were rapidly becoming the domestic collateral damage of the war on terrorism. It almost could be said they died without a fight, except for a brave but ineffective handful of stragglers in their progressive enclaves." [more]

"4. The Gulf War battlefield remains radioactive and toxic. Scientific research funded by the military and released two years ago links exposure to depleted uranium (DU) ammunition with cancer in rats. Solid depleted uranium bullets, ranging in size from 25mm to 120mm, are used by U.S. tanks, helicopters and planes to attack enemy tanks and armored personnel carriers. The Gulf War battlefield is already littered with more than 300 tons of radioactive dust and shrapnel from the 1991 Gulf War. Another war will only increase the radioactive and toxic contamination among U.S. soldiers. As of today, U.S. troops are not fully trained about the hazards of depleted uranium contamination, even though Congress enacted a law in 1998 requiring extensive training, especially for medical personnel." [more]

"Sen. Dianne Feinstein took to the Senate floor Thursday to argue that a pre-emptive attack to oust Saddam Hussein would be positively un-American unless President Bush produces evidence linking Hussein to terrorist attacks against the United States." [more]

"It's unlikely that Democrats, not wanting to look soft on terrorism, will buck the White House's war. So, grass-roots groups are starting to organize." [more]

"Today, Washington's main message to the world seems to be, Take dictation. But truly effective leaders do not work by diktat, even during wars. Previous presidents offered a compelling countervision that inspired the world to their cause. Faced with what seemed to be the breakdown of Western civilization in World War I, Woodrow Wilson declared his plans to build a new world of democracy and open markets in the 'common interest of mankind.' Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, John Kennedy, and Ronald Reagan all may have disdained Wilson's excesses of idealism, but they fought World War II and the Cold War along distinctly Wilsonian lines when confronting alternative world views." [more]

" 'We are really appalled by any country, whether a superpower or a small country, that goes outside the U.N. and attacks independent countries,' Mandela said ... 'No country should be allowed to take the law into their own hands.' " [more]

"A year after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, more people, like Hamdani, question whether war is the answer. There once seemed to be a broad consensus behind the president. But recent opinion polls now show that only 36 percent of Americans believe the country is headed in the right direction as opposed to 60 percent last March." [more]

"As the Bush administration ratchets up its verbal war against Iraq, the rest of the world is talking back ó in statements that contain more skepticism and disapproval than support and that are often determined by domestic politics, economic problems, distrust of the United States and concerns about international law." [more]

"How does activist anti-intellectualism manifest on the ground? One instance is the reduction of strategy to mere tactics, to horrible effect. Take for example the largely failed San Francisco protest against the National Association of Broadcasters ... Never mind the utter non-impact of this aimless march. The point was clear: we marched for ourselves. We were our own targets. Activism made us good." [more]

"If we go to war, we will be the initiators of aggression. It would be a mistake, however, to take this as fresh cause for doubt about the link between democracy and peace. We ought instead to view this imminent possibility as an occasion for raising hard questions about whether, in the critical matter of waging war, we still function as a genuine democracy." [more]

"There is philosophical precedent in deciding whether a war is just or unjust, and hopefully, before a decision either way is made, the proper case will be offered to the public." [more]

"It [is] interesting to wonder why all the generals see it the same way, and all those that never fired a shot in anger and really hell-bent to go to war see it a different way. That's usually the way it is in history." [more]

"Earlier Thursday, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Trubnikov called the idea of an attack on Iraq 'unacceptable,' and British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said his government's policy was to pressure Saddam into allowing the resumption of U.N. weapons inspections. German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has said he would not send troops to what he called an 'adventure' in Iraq." [more]

"He is unlikely to risk his investment in weapons of mass destruction, much less his country, by handing such weapons to terrorists who would use them for their own purposes and leave Baghdad as the return address. Threatening to use these weapons for blackmail — much less their actual use — would open him and his entire regime to a devastating response by the U.S. While Saddam is thoroughly evil, he is above all a power-hungry survivor." [more]

"These senior Republicans include former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger and Brent Scowcroft, the first President Bush's national security adviser. All say they favor the eventual removal of Saddam Hussein, but some say they are concerned that Mr. Bush is proceeding in a way that risks alienating allies, creating greater instability in the Middle East, and harming long-term American interests. They add that the administration has not shown that Iraq poses an urgent threat to the United States." [more]

"This past week confirmed that the American political establishment is not united in support of the Bush Administration's policy of forcible 'regime change' in Iraq. Odd as it may seem, the strongest expression of doubt came from a key member of the GOP's right wing, House majority leader Dick Armey." [more]

"The climate is not propitious for a major U.S. military initiative. Official opposition from Germany, Saudi Arabia and Jordan underlined the isolation of American power. A deteriorating situation in Afghanistan builds the one-war-at- a-time argument. The steadfast Republican voices of Jack Kemp and Brent Scowcroft urge restraint. So do members of Congress from both parties, with House Majority Leader Dick Armey last Thursday warning against an unprovoked attack on Iraq." [more]

"If the Ruckus campers are one vanguard of a growing global resistance to corporate and government exploitation of labor, communities, environment and war, they also need to be on the front lines of protecting and advancing the tools for free and radical communication." [more]

"There may be a case for striking Iraq, despite the regional peril, but the U.S. has not made it. Anti-strike editorials made financial, practical and moral arguments for not following the U.S. into Iraq." [more]

Chomsky analyzes the moral problematic of fighting terrorism for U.S. leaders because of the less than stellar human rights records that the U.S. and its client states have. An insightful analysis of U.S. media coverage of the war on terrorism relates the U.S. political and intellectual culture to this crusade. [more]

"Artists who were once outspoken peaceniks seem to have lost their certainty, or even switched their position. We've seen dozens of acts quietly bury their edgier songs. We've seen radio playlists rewritten so as not to 'offend listeners.' And we've seen Republican officials and the entertainment industry — long divided over "traditional values" issues such as violent content and parental advisory stickering — bury the hatchet." [more]

"The incident, which ended after an hour of questioning, represents more than just a disturbing day for one museum staffer. Across the US, growing numbers of Americans are facing similar interrogations — apparently, they say, because they have criticized the government, President Bush, or the war on terrorism." [more]

"War skeptics such as Richard Gere, Susan Sontag, Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Oakland), Bill Maher and the Berkeley City Council should be congratulated, not vilified, for daring to demur, ever so slightly, from government propaganda. Right or wrong, they have acted as free people in a free society who understand that if our course is correct, it can survive criticism. And if it is not, it is all the more important that we gather the courage to state that criticism clearly and in a timely fashion." [more]

"Hardt and Negri argue that a new global economic regime is emerging, which they call simply 'Empire.' It is a new form of imperial power defined partly by what it is not. It is not a nation-state. It is not an aligned superpower bloc. It is an empire, in the classic sense, but has no seat like the Roman Empire. It is a distributed network, like the Internet, created by international agreements binding nations big and small into relationships that none of them fully control." [more]

Analyzes the role of women in the international peace movement in international organizations and political offices and there affects on security forces and the political process as a whole. [more]

"Democracy thus inscribing itself in polls and consensus necessarily arouses the philosopher’s critical suspicions. For philosophy, since Plato, means breaking with opinion polls. Philosophy is supposed to scrutinize everything that is spontaneously considered as 'normal.'" [more]

"This techno-voodoo rite constitutes the symbolic obliteration of a one-way information pipeline that only transmits, never receives. It is an act of sympathetic magic performed in the name of all who are obliged to peer at the world through peepholes owned by multinational conglomerates for whom the profit margin is the bottom line." [more]

"Computers with desktop publishing software offer many advantages to the modern billboard liberator. Fonts and colors can be matched precisely, professional-looking graphical elements can be added to your text message, and scale and spacing become much easier to calculate. There are many software packages suitable for producing overlays, including PageMaker, Quark Xpress, Illustrator, Freehand, CorelDraw, and various CAD programs. Adobe Photoshop gives you the additional flexibility of being able to preview your hit - just scan in a photograph of the original board and apply your modification over it as an independent layer." [more]