NION: Rumor of Vote on Iraq Draws Protesters to NYC

An anti-war rally was staged in Central Park Sunday, fueled by the possibility of a Congressional vote for war.

On Thursday, Stanford students protested; on Friday, UPenn students. This weekend, Columbia and Barnard students and New Yorkers joined in—protesting the possible invasion of Iraq in a rally that included over 20,000 people in Central Park.

The Central Park rally was one of many organized yesterday in the United States by the grass-roots organization, The Not In Our Name Project. Weighing heavily on the minds of the rally's organizers and participants is the possibility that Congress will vote within the week to grant President Bush war powers for use against Saddam Hussein's political regime, which the Bush administration considers a terrorist threat.

"I went because I'm strongly opposed to a war in Iraq. I wanted to participate in the strong voice of the demonstration. There's no justifiable reason to go to war and no U.N. support. [War] endangers more people than in the end it will help," Rachel Cohen, BC '03, said.

The rally, which took place between 1 p.m. and 5 p.m., featured a steady stream of speakers, some of whom showed up unannounced, such as actors Gabriel Byrne, Susan Sarandon, and Tim Robbins.

The crowd chanted provocative statements: "Impeach Bush" and "Don't attack Iraq." Most people rose to recite Not In Our Name's "pledge of resistance," which reads, "It is our responsibility to resist the injustices done by our government." Kate Hallinan, CC '03, said the crowd's enthusiasm was inspiring but not consistent, because "Americans are not used to saying what we think."

For the most part, participants listened to the speakers: communist and feminist activists, American politicians, celebrities, and artists—such as slam-poetry star Saul Williams and Colombian vocalist virtuoso Lucia. The speakers used various intellectual and artistic approaches to speak out against war with Iraq, often criticizing American government and society in more general terms as well.

Most speakers moralized about a war with Iraq, decrying the loss of lives in unjust wars. Reverend Peter Laarman of Manhattan's Judson Memorial Church called resistance to a war with Iraq a "refusal to surrender our moral imagination."

Sami Al-Arian, a University of South Florida professor who was fired by his university after allegations arose that he raised funds for terrorists, referred to a breakdown in domestic political morality as an indication of general political immorality in the United States. Al-Arian said that "intolerance" and "bigotry" have led to a suspension of Constitutional rights in America, and he encouraged Americans to acknowledge this opinion in civic dialogue in order to prevent political immorality from becoming acceptable.

"To be patriotic is to question authority in times of crisis," Al-Arian said to resounding applause in the audience.

Most speakers suggested war with Iraq is a distraction from America's problems—corporate scandal, a slumping economy, and ineffective elimination of dangerous terrorist groups like Al Qaeda. Many called the potential war "a weapon of mass distraction," playing on the military term, "weapons of mass destruction."

In rousing impromptu speeches, Gabriel Byrne and Tim Robbins said war with Iraq would distract Americans from the real issues at stake.

Byrne referred to the unresolved threat of Osama Bin Laden and asked the audience, "what happened to Osama Bin Laden?"

Robbins said, "[A war with Iraq] only distracts us from the Enrons, Halliburtons, and other corporate scandals."

Robbins' comment was a specific expression of his more general belief that war with Iraq only serves to protect America's "business fundamentalism." Like Robbins, other speakers related American warfare to what they consider a variety of problematic issues within American politics and society.

A member of the Revolutionary Communist Youth Brigade called a war with an Iraq a "global grab for a lockdown world of global capitalism," expressing the Communist belief that economic hegemony leads to the undesirable spread of capitalism.

Abby Martin, BC '03, said that the complexity of all of the systematic world views presented at the rally was difficult to process. But, she said, tackling the issues and participating in the rally was important to her.

"I think political protests have been more effective since Sept. 11. But maybe I feel that way because I am a college student, and students are most interested [in American political problems]," she said.