Republican News · Thursday 23 January 2003

Worldwide antiwar protests

On Saturday 18 January, antiwar protests took place all around the world. Over 300,000 people marched in Washington, the same number in San Francisco and 20,000 in Portland as opposition to war against Iraq mounts in the United States.

Speakers at the events evoked the memory of Martin Luther King, calling for a world without violence and for a country that seeks to end hunger among all children rather than terrorising those whom the Bush administration opposes. Speakers also said that Bush was killing the American way of life in this war for oil.

A sea of people stretching more than one mile long and taking up four lanes of roadway marched through the nation's capitol in colourful opposition to the US government's drive to war with Iraq. People had travelled to Washington DC from many parts of the country to participate. Speakers at the rally included former US attorney general Ramsey Clark, actor Jessica Lange, Jesse Jackson and many others.

In the game of estimating crowd size numbers, police estimates ranged from 30,000 to 200,000 people while organisers put the number at 500,000. Many independent observers estimated about 250-300,000 people participating, which made it twice as large as the last anti-war rally in Washington DC in October. Despite this, most media outlets again understated the amount of demonstrators.

Meanwhile, in San Francisco, the crowd stretched continuously from the foot of Market Street and filled the Civic Centre to capacity, with estimates of crowd size ranging from 200-350,000 people.

Later in the afternoon, one thousand people joined a radical anti-capitalist breakaway march and militantly marched through the financial centre, smashing windows and graffitting the San Francisco Chronicle building, the British Consulate, CitiCorp, the Immigration & Naturalization Service building, Starbucks and Victoria's Secret. There were two confirmed arrests.

On the same day, in Portland, Oregon, at least 20,000 people gathered at the South Park Blocks near Portland State University in solidarity against a pre-emptive war against Iraq. This was the third Peace rally, after previous outings on 5 October and 17 November, each larger than the one before it, mirroring the growing dissatisfaction in the US concerning the Bush administration's rush to war.

Along with the call for peace, this event was also a celebration of the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr - on Monday 20 January - who spoke out against the Viet Nam war when it was neither popular,nor safe, to do so.

Meanwhile, in the Netherlands, about one hundred civil inspectors gained access to the grounds of Volkel military air base in the southeast of the country. They cut through the perimeter fence in several places at once. Some inspection teams even used their own keys to enter several gates at the base. Most of them were arrested, but released later throughout the day. The peace groups said there are weapons of mass destruction stored at the site under US supervision.

In Japan, more than 3,000 people gathered to protest against the war in Iraq. The Koizumi administration is looking to assist the US and Britain in the war and to expand Japan's military presence by dispatching the Self Defence Force (SDF) abroad. This would contravene Article 9 of the Japanese constitution.

More than 2,000 people rallied against war in Christchuch, New Zealand calling on the government to take a stand against war and sever its links with the US war machine. This was probably the largest antiwar event in New Zealand since the Vietnam War. Hundreds of persons marched in Dunedin, with many joining as it went along.

In Italy, 4,000 people demonstrated in Roma, 5,000 in Florence, while there were more anti-war protests in Saronno, Pisa, Taranto, Milan, Bologna, and Naples.

In France, 2,000 people rallied in Montpelier, while another 1,500 people protested against the war in Nice. Meanwhile, more than 1,000 people demonstrated in Vienna. Other protests were held in Warsaw and Sweden.

In Ireland, over 1,500 people gathered to witness the US war machine as it passed through Shannon Airport. This demonstration followed more than a weeklong peace camp and months of protest. Appearing at the demonstration were TDs from Sinn Féin, the Green Party, the Socialist Party and the Labour Party, who have joined efforts in their opposition to the Irish government decision to allow US planes to over flight and refuel on Irish soil.

---

104th death in Turkey

Ozlem Turk, a hunger striker in Turkey, died on 11 January in Numune Hospital. She becomes the 104th person to die, either on hunger strike or as part of the wider prison protest against new high security prisons designed to isolate political detainees.

With Ozlem Turk's death, the number of prisoners who have died under the new AKP government has risen to seven.

Ozlem Turk was taken to Ankara's Numune Hospital on 25 August 2002 for forcible medical intervention. She was held in that hospital from that point onwards. On 4 January, after a hunger strike of 400 days, she was force-fed in what was described as 'medical intervention'. The prisoner, who only weighed 15 kilograms, was chained by her hands and feet for the procedure.

Ozlem Turk, 27, spent seven years of her life in prison. Born on 15 April 1975 in Gumushacikoy/Amasya and of Turkish Alevi origin, Ozlem was the child of a poor peasant family.

She took part in a three-day hunger strike in 1993 in protest against the killing of two students, Ugur Yasar Kilic and Sengul Yildiran (they were killed by police while preparing banners for May Day). She was arrested a number of times. On 23 February 1995, she was arrested and put in Samsun Prison, then removed to Ulucanlar Prison (Ankara). In the 1996 Death Fast she took part in the Second Team.

In 2000, when the F-Type Prisons came on the agenda, and after the 19 December massacre of political prisoners, she wanted to be to the fore. In a letter, she wrote:

"It is a great honour and source of pride to be a Death Fast Fighter. I am quite sincere in wanting to experience this honour and pride again. It is very difficult to define all my feelings. It is a great source of pain to see my comrades melting away day by day, being martyred and us being parted from them. What weighs heavily in particular, however, is, not just with my feelings but with my consciousness and my entire heart, confronting death with, or rather, before my comrades."