International Directory of Protest and Beyond

See country reports, beginning with Pakistan, Ireland and Turkey.

Keep sending your latest information to mapyourprotest@openDemocracy.net.

ARGENTINA
AUSTRALIA
AUSTRIA
BAHRAIN
BELGIUM
BRAZIL
BULGARIA
CANADA
CZECH REPUBLIC
DENMARK
EGYPT
ENGLAND & WALES
FINLAND
FRANCE
GERMANY
GREECE
HUNGARY
ICELAND
INDONESIA
IRAQ
ISRAEL
ITALY
IRELAND
JAPAN
LEBANON
LUXEMBOURG
MEXICO
NETHERLANDS
NEW ZEALAND
NORWAY
PAKISTAN
POLAND
PORTUGAL
SCOTLAND
SLOVENIA
SOUTH AFRICA
SPAIN
SWEDEN
SWITZERLAND
TURKEY
UKRAINE
USA

ARGENTINA
http://www.madres.org/
Mothers of the Plazo del Mayo. Site of representative organisation for mothers of the disappeared from Argentina’s years of military rule. Multilingual versions available
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AUSTRIA
http://www.friedensnetzwerk.at/stories/storyReader$342
The Austrian Network for Peace. Sister organisation of German Peace Network (in German)

AUSTRALIA
http://www.cpa.org.au/campaign/anti-war.html
The Australian Communist Party: Anti-war webpage
http://www.ajds.org.au/
The Australian Jewish Democratic Society
http://www.aac.org.au/
The Australian Arabic Council
http://www.greenpeace.org.au/nowar/index.html
Greenpeace Australia’s Anti-War Indexpage

A list of the Australian anti-war network’s affiliated organisations can be found here For more see this fact-sheet back to top BELGIUM http://www.stopusa.be Dedicated to campaigning against any aggressive American foreign policy (in English) http://www.cnapd.be National Co-ordination for Action for Peace and Democracy (in French). Established peace campaigners active in the Francophone community and heavily involved in anti-globalisation and anti-racism www.peacerace.be Multilingual site of a network dedicated to ending war in Iraq. They work via schools, community centres and other micro-projects to further their agenda back to top BRAZIL www.mst.org.br The Brazilian Landless Workers Movement. Prominent and effective grassroots movement dedicated toward equitable land reform in Brazil. In Portuguese, but with multilingual links on homepage http://www.rbc.org.br/feijao/Terra.htm Comitê Paulista Contra a Guerra e pela Paz (in Portuguese) The Sao Paolo Anti-War Pro-Peace Committee Manifestoback to top CANADA http://www.fiiq.qc.ca/echecalaguerre.htm Quebecois Federation of Nurses Against War. back to top School-children marching into Copenhagen Town Hall Square to protest the outbreak of war DENMARK http://www.nejtilkrig.dk Danish anti-war movement. Highlights its effort to end Danish government support for war in Iraq (in Danish) ENGLAND and WALES www.stopwar.org.ukThe main UK anti-war coalition – supported by a variety of MP’s, journalists, writers, civil society organisations. Comprehensive nationwide listing of events and actionswww.cnduk.org/campains/iraq.htm The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament – campaign page dedicated to ending war in Iraq from an organisation at the core of anti-war activity in the UK For Critical Mass London discussion list, see: http://cmlondon.enrager.net www.gwi.org.uk The Gloucestershire Weapons Inspectors: seeking to stop the use of Gloucestershire airbase by the US Airforce EGYPT http://www.iacenter.org/j18_cairo.htm The Cairo Declaration: Against War in Iraq, In Solidarity With The Iraqi People back to top FINLAND http://members.surfeu.fi/ewk/eiiskuairakiin/ Finnish pacifists. Site has links in Finnish and English FRANCE www.attac.org Involving ATTAC International, Comité de Paix de La Ciotat, Mouvement de la Paix among others. Attac’s United Appeal Against War in Iraq. Multinational and multilingualwww.mvtpaix.org French Communist’ peace movement website. Features listing of events, actions and ideas GERMANY www.resistthewar.de German anti-war coalition – nationwide, with local branches and links to a variety of allied organisations internally and externally. In German, French and English www.friedenskooperative.de German peace network GREECE www.stop-the-war.org Greek Anti-War Coalition. (In Greek)back to top HUNGARY www.zpok.hu/haboruellen Hungarian "Citizens for Peace" Initiative (In Magyar)http://www.humanista.hu/ Hungarian peace activists (in Magyar) back to top ICELANDhttp://www.fridur.is/ Artistically-oriented peace site - in Icelandic See photos from the 15 February peace demo here and here INDONESIA www.theutopian.org The Utopians - West Javan based philosophical movement advocating social change http://pdsorganiser.topcities.com/ Indonesian Democratic Socialist Party – site is in Bahasa. The IDSP were heavily involved in the February 15 demonstrations in Indonesia back to top IRAQ http://www.humanshields.org/ Hundreds of antiwar human shields made their way to Baghdad over the Winter and early Spring. See also interview http://iraqpeaceteam.org/ Since September 2002, seasoned non-violent activists have been on the ground in Iraq standing in solidarity with the people of Iraq while at the same time working to prevent a US attack. back to top IRELAND www.irishantiwar.org The main Irish Anti-War coalition and network bringing together political parties, NGO’s, activists, church leadershttp://www.pana.ie The Irish Peace and Neutrality Alliance. Dedicated to maintaining Ireland’s military neutrality and to lobbying the Irish government to take a pro-peace stance in international issues. Full Country Report on Ireland back to top ISRAEL http://www.taayush.org/ In English, Arabic and Hebrew, “Life in Common” seeks to overcome discrimination and segregation in Israel and Palestineback to top ITALY www.tavoladellapace.it/ Italian anti-war movement/alliance: English version expected soon for this well-designed and functional sitehttp://www.fermiamolaguerra.it/ Campaign to End War in Iraq (in Italian)back to top JAPAN http://give-peace-a-chance.jp/e215 Japanese pro-peace alliance anti-war page. This group are dedicated to retaining the current status of the Japanese constitution and preventing any remilitarisation of Japan LEBANON http://www.escwa.org.lb UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia http://www.palestinianclub.org/npcc/index.htm Palestinian Culture Club of the American University in Beirut. Seeks to integrate Palestinian diasporas via its own network. Prominent in the anti-war demonstrations in Lebanon LUXEMBOURG http://www.fridden.lu/ Peace alliance from Luxembourg. Focuses on anti-war and green issues. Site in French and German MALAYSIA http://partisosialis.tripod.com/ The Malaysian Socialist Party: organised the demonstration in Kuala Lumpur on February 15 http://www.isrec.org/main Malaysian human rights research group and lobbyists. MEXICO http://espanol.geocities.com/lagotachih/ NETHERLANDS www.wereldcrisis.nlback to top NEW ZEALAND www.converge.org.nz/pma Aotearoan Peace Movement – working against war in Iraq, oppression in west Papua and discrimination in New Zealand NORWAY http://www.ingenkrig.no Norwegians against war have a comprehensive, well laid-out and regularly updated resource on peace activism in Norway and outside (in Norsk) back to top PAKISTAN http://www.labourpakistan.org/camp55.html Secular anti-war committee in Pakistanhttp://www.mma.org.pk/ Recent anti-war rallies in Rawalpindi and elsewhere were organised by the MMA parliamentary alliance Full Country Report on Pakistan back to top POLAND manufaktura.pl/attac/ Attac Poland: anti-war network affiliated to Attac headquarters in France http://pl.indymedia.org/pl/2003/01/274.shtml Polish Artists Against War (in Polish, with links to other such Indymedia sites around the world) PORTUGAL www.bloco.org RUSSIA http://www.aglob.ru Russian-only site of the group at the core of February 15th and peace activism in Moscow SCOTLAND www.banthebomb.org Affiliated organisations: Trade unions, church organisations and political groups. The Scottish version of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. http://www.justicenotwar.net The Scottish Coalition for Justice Not War. Features training information for non-violent peace activism SLOVENIA http://www.acmolotov.org/ Slovenian anarchist group with a focus on the role of anarchist networks in former Yugoslavia. Available in Slovene and English SOUTH AFRICA http://www.cosatu.org.za/docs/2003/warstop.htm South African Congress of Trade Unions Stop The War Campaign. Features a list of 50 supporting organisations including the African National Congress SPAIN www.nodo50.org/upa-molotov/home.htmFasting for Peace: Barcelona, Spain http://www.plataformanuncamais.org Nunca Mas - Never Again: set up to draw attention to the policy-makers and policies that facilitated and failed to deal with the Prestige disaster last November back to top SWEDEN http://www.stoppakriget.tk Swedish Anti-War Network back to top SWITZERLAND www.gsoa.ch Group for a Switzerland Without an Army – they want to have the Swiss National Army abolished. The GSSA are at the core of Swiss anti-war activism in the Iraqi context as well. French and German versions available. back to top TURKEY www.iraktasavasahayir.org Co-ordination network for anti-war activists including, journalists, artists, politicians http://www.peace-initiative-turkey.net/ The Turkish Peace Initiative. Opposes war in Iraq – including any Turkish intervention. Functional and informative site featuring links to and insightful articles on Turkish perceptions on Iraq and war. Deliberately courts international users to sign a pledge for submission to the Turkish government on the war in general and on Turkey’s role. Some sections available in English. Full Country Report on Turkey back to top UGANDAhttp://www.wougnet.org/Profiles/uwonet.html The Ugandan Women’s Network were among the civil society organisations involved in the Kampala demonstration on February 15 UKRAINEhttp://www.antiglobalizm.net.ua/ Ukrainian anti-globalisation activist group (in Russian) USA www.VoteNoWar.org Multilingual site centred around an online vote against war. Supported by a variety of other anti-war activist groups, civil society organisations and church representatives www.unitedforpeace.org Global Exchange’s site against war in Iraq. Lots of resources, links and ties in with Global Exchange’s broader agenda www.internationalanswer.org Anti-war related events throughout USA. Comprehensive, interactive means of supporting peace available in a variety of formats on-site with daily updates http://calgary.activist.ca/view.php?id=0-5375 Calgary Activist Network: Feb 15 homepage Protest in Profile: Country Reports The first in our impending series of short reports on countries where protest has a distinctive character. Here we look at Ireland. Coverage of protest in Italy, Turkey, Pakistan and others to follow Ireland The anti-war movement in Ireland is distinctive for its interaction with an older political debate in Ireland: that of Irish neutrality. The main organisers of the anti-war activities in Ireland, the Irish Anti-War Movement, have been complemented by a variety of other CSO's, political parties and trade unions, including anti-globalisation activists, the old left, anarchist groups and religious organisations The main arena for a domestic confrontation has been Shannon Airport which has added the distinctive national aspect to the movement against the war in Iraq. Shannon Airport on Ireland's southwest coast is a conveniently located stopover point for US and other military aircraft crossing the Atlantic - chiefly for refuelling and stopover purposes on long intercontinental flights. The controversy over its use by belligerents is bound up with Ireland's stance of military neutrality - which means that Ireland is constitutionally-bound to withhold support for any military action that is not sanctioned by the United Nations Security Council and voted for by the Dáil (Parliament) and Executive - the so-called "triple lock" - the enshrining of which in the Seville Declaration was a vital aspect of the government and EU strategy to promote the passing of the second Irish referendum on The Nice Treaty. The anti-war movement in Ireland has been consistently against the use of Shannon Airport by any foreign military - but particularly against its use by the USA in its campaigns in Afghanistan and now Iraq. This is seen as contravening Irish neutrality, as constitutionally-defined. The government takes the view that this is not the case: that allowing foreign military over-flight and landing facilities does not breach neutrality - despite the current conflict not having UN sanction in the governments' eyes - but it did concede that the US and UK had the right to interpret Resolution 1441 as ample justification, in their view, for war. A parliamentary vote on the use of Shannon Airport and over-flight rights was passed by 77 votes to 60 to allow US use of these facilities. However, this was not a free vote, proceeding along party rather than individual lines - but it highlighted the opposition to the motion of the main opposition parties- Fine Gael, Labour, Sinn Féin and The Green Party - in the Dáil. The debate surrounding the use of Shannon Airport and over-flight facilities has been contextualised by broader questions about Irish foreign policy and international relations. As an Anglophone country with a substantial diaspora in and extensive economic ties with the USA and the UK, the fear pervades that opposing the war would be detrimental to an Irish economy heavily-dependent on trade and foreign investment. This has lead to some debate over the viability of Ireland's neutrality - at least in intellectual circles - but has been more than countered by the belief that Ireland should remain militarily-neutral at all costs bar a direct threat to national security. However, the intensity of debate on the use of Shannon Airport has even threatened to divide the anti-war coalition -at least on the methods of protest to be employed - if not on the core rationale of the protests. On March 1st, anarchist group The Grassroots Network Against War planned non-violent civil disobedience as part of a march and rally at Shannon Airport organised by the Irish Anti-War Movement. The civil disobedience plan involved the tearing-down of a perimeter fence as a protest at what they perceived to be Irish governmental collaboration in any possible war on Iraq. The Irish Anti-War Movement did not intend any civil disobedience and restricted their activities to a rally at the airport following the march. Of the total 1300 participants, 1000 of these were with the Irish Anti-War Movement, while around 300 Grassroots Network people were accompanied by around 400 gardaí to the targeted perimeter fence prior to the stand-off which led to 10 arrests. While the Irish Anti-War Movement did take part in all events bar the attempted non-violent civil disobedience - the political parties set to take part in the march advised their members against participation due to the expected clash between Grassroots and the gardaí. These parties included the Labour Party, the Green Party and Sinn Fein. This follows on from the actions of the 5 Catholic Workers Movement activists on the 5th February and the damage done to a US military aircraft by Mary Kelly on the morning of January 29th - both actions taken in the spirit of the Ploughshares movement - but the latter causing criminal damages of €500,000. Direct actions such as these are not condoned by the mainstream anti-war movement, much less by the political parties who oppose the war in Iraq and the use of Shannon Airport. This is despite the historical precedent set by the use of direct action elsewhere and its perceived legitimacy in certain contexts. Clearly the issues surrounding direct action have yet to be fully fleshed-out by peace actors in Ireland, only highlighting the tangled nuances of the antiwar and neutrality debates in that country. Back to directory Pakistan Anti-war protests in Pakistan have been frequent and widespread in the run-up to and during the war in Iraq. Cities such as Rawalpindi, Multan, Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad all featured demonstrations attended by anything from 50,000 to, in one case, an estimated 3-5 million people. Anti-war feeling in Pakistan was and remains high, with the majority of people opposed to war in Iraq – and this on the back of an increase in anti-American sentiment in Pakistan. Before the war commenced, only 10% of Pakistanis had a favourable view of the USA according to a Pew Global Research Poll. In contrast to the protests staged at the US attack on and defeat of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, protests against war in Iraq reflected a much greater depth and spread of opinion in Pakistan. Despite being organised by the recently-formed alliance of Islamist parties, the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), these marches were also indicative of the anti-American feeling that pervades Pakistani opinion generally, regardless of political affiliation or ethnic origin. Socialist, trade union groups and mainstream secular political parties have taken part in some of the marches in Pakistan. Reports also suggest that many of the marchers were unaffiliated civilians participating for reasons of personal conviction – be that religious, ethical, political. While the Islamists apparently tried to use the marches as a platform to advance their own political ends , other participants had different motives, individual or collective. Some of the groups taking part include the Citizens Committee Against War, Benazir Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party, the Catholic Archdiocese of Karachi, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan . Significantly, the Pakistan Muslim League, led by exiled former President Nawaz Sharif, cancelled its own March 21 rally and decided instead to support the MMA “million march” in Lahore instead. However, this does not necessarily indicate subservience to or agreement with the MMA rationale for organising the marches. Rather, it reflects the difficulties posed for all parties in Pakistan by the war in Iraq. The only party in Pakistan to openly confront the MMA over its prolific and intensive protest and rally organising and related publicity has been the Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM), which lost a number of provincial and national assembly seats to the MMA last October’s elections. All of this subverts the cliché that marchers were mainly Islamist Taliban sympathisers from the Pakistan-Afghan border areas, intent on challenging secular rule and the Musharraf-Bush alliance. Clearly, despite the decisive Islamist influence in organising and participating in these marches, there was a heavy secularist, non-Pashtun contribution as well. While marches have generally been organised by the MMA alliance, hostility to war in Iraq has been far more widespread and diverse in origin. The MMA are a coalition of 6 Islamist parties formed to participate as one unit in the Pakistani regional and parliamentary elections of last October. It comprises all the major Islamist groups and nuances in Pakistan, including the Shi’a Islami Tehrik Pakistan. It is dominated by 2 elements – the Jamaat-i Islami, and the Fazlur Rehman led faction of the Jamiat Ulema e Pakistan. Between them, these two captured the majority of MMA seats in both the regional and parliamentary elections last autumn. In practice however, the alliance is really skin-deep – with co-operation at the executive levels only and strictly for the purpose of forging an effective non-secular political presence at the national level. Each unit remains a discrete presence at grassroots level, with sectarian, ethnic, doctrinal and geographical rivalries rife. Despite its image and ambitions to the contrary, the MMA effectively functions as a pro-establishment unit – despite its apparent threat to the established secular order in Pakistan. In western Pakistan, Pashtuns and Balochis who live in the MMA electoral strongholds of Balochistan and the NWFP see the MMA parties as their antidote to the Punjabi-dominated secular military centre. Pashtuns voting MMA think that they make an anti-Musharraf, anti-secularist statement – but do not seem to mind that they are voting for an arrangement that ensures that the MMA remains in cahoots with the military and with Musharraf. For the military government, the MMA role in these machinations is to show the US that the only alternative to military rule is a democracy led by hostile Islamists. The apparently MMA orchestrated protests are part of this tactic. The military, while not exactly pulling the strings behind the MMA, have enough apparent interests in common – tactically at least – to ensure that these marches are part of a larger framework of relations with the US and domestic political control in Pakistan. There is dovetailing of MMA-military interests in Pakistan - with the latter having the upper hand. These protests cannot be divorced from the Pakistan military’s proxy war in Kashmir in this sense. It is certainly safe to say that the anti-war protests are not an immediate challenge to Musharraf’s alliance with the US, or secular rule in general. They are part of the Faustian bargain that underlines Musharraf’s rule domestically and his foreign policy. Similar protests – though not as widespread – occurred in the aftermath of the US attack on and ouster of the Taliban in late 2001. However, the changed domestic and diplomatic climate between then and now has reflected itself in how the Pakistani authorities have dealt with the marches and the MMA. In the aftermath of September 11 and lifting of sanctions on Pakistan in return for co-operation in the War on Terror, the authorities prevented the leader of the JI, (one of the main MMA partners) Qazi Hussein Ahmed from attending anti-US marches. Now there are no such limitations – given that anti-war protests emerged as a global phenomenon in the run-up to the attack on Iraq, and the success of the MMA alliance in last October’s regional and federal parliamentary elections in Pakistan. This time around, protests against war in Iraq reflected a much greater depth and spread of opinion in Pakistan. Despite being largely MMA-organised, and seen by their less-Machiavellian activists as in domestic terms, a means of warning, or potentially destabilising the Musharraf government, these marches were also indicative of the anti-American feeling that now pervades Pakistani public opinion, regardless of political or ethnic affiliation. Back to directoryTurkey While the AKP bargained with the US, Turkey witnessed the ascendancy of a strong anti-war movement. Once identified with the radical left, Islamism and the Kurdish movement, and hence successfully marginalized by the mainstream media, the peace activists of Turkey were so popular that even MTV-style talk shows spoke of them with sympathy. NGOs which had absented themselves from the streets in the past began to attend peace demonstrations. For its part, the AKP declined to mobilize its grassroots network for the demonstrations, but also did not explicitly discourage them from coming out. Hence, Islamists began coming together with leftists to improvise new forms of mass protest, for example, an organized campaign to switch off the lights every day at 8 pm. When the Istanbul governorate, citing "security concerns," prohibited peace activists from gathering in conjunction with the worldwide demonstrations organized for February 15, they held a press conference instead, attracting 10,000 people. Nevertheless, there is a significant gap between the enormous anti-war sentiment among ordinary citizens and the relatively small street protests. The "Turkish street" cannot be compared with the huge crowds assembling in London, Cairo or Damascus. February 15 was also the fourth anniversary of the arrest of Abdullah Ocalan, leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), in Kenya in 1999. Some Kurdish groups resorted to violence to call attention to the state's ongoing refusal to permit Ocalan to meet with his lawyers. Tangible differences in the agendas of the peace activists and supporters of Ocalan contained the potential to divide the anti-war movement seriously, and recriminalize activism in the media. For a while, the media and the secular-nationalist elites of Turkey did not seem greatly disturbed by the increasing momentum of the peace movement, and they actually welcomed the dilemma it posed for the AKP. Because the AKP is the party in power, in their thinking, the public would hold its politicians primarily responsible for any problems that come up during and after the war. These elites further calculated that if they were able to channel the AKP government into staying the course of partnership with the US, the neo-Islamists' political base could only suffer. Parliament's rejection of US demands for land and air bases changed this calculus; since then, the mainstream media has sharply attacked the peace movement. The typical allegation is that a "curious partnership of leftists and Islamists" (described in some outlets as an "axis of evil") had trapped the AKP deputies in a compromising position, leading to the humiliation imposed upon Turkey by the "coalition of the willing" and continual warnings from the European Union against deployment of Turkish forces in northern Iraq. Others accused the AKP itself of deliberately seeking to separate Turkey from her Western allies. (This report comes from an article in MERIP by Yuksel Taskin and Koray Caliskan, reproduced by kind permission of the authors. The links have been added.) Back to directory While all effort has been made to assure the accuracy of information and links, openDemocracy cannot be responsible for the content of external internet sites.