[R-G] 'World's biggest protest against Iraq war'

[ProletarianNews]

Independent. 10 November 2002. Florence engulfed by world's biggest
protest against Iraq war.

FLORENCE -- The biggest demonstration in the world so far against war in
Iraq engulfed Florence yesterday, at least doubling the city's
population of 350,000 and turning the city's inner ring-road into a
mighty river of protest.

he organisers claimed that more than 400,000 people took part.

Rumours of violence planted by Italy's right-wing parties over recent
months persuaded most city businesses to close for the day and many
Florentines to leave the city. But the enormous march was resoundingly
good humoured.

Some participants carried signs reading "We love you Florence"; citizens
responded by hanging white banners of peace out of their windows and
throwing confetti on to the marchers.

"This is the first all-Europe demonstration against the war on Iraq,"
Vittorio Agnoletto, the Italian organiser, told The Independent on
Sunday.

"But it won't be the last: tomorrow we are meeting to plan future
protests. We are Italy's real opposition -- more than 300 different
Italian organisations are taking part. And I am sure there will be no
violence. Look, we are laughing. We cannot change the world with our
anger, only by building consensus."

The protest was more like acarnival than a confrontation. The police
were invisible. Huge contingents from Italy, Britain, France, Germany
and Greece marched alongside striking Fiat workers, brass bands and
giant puppets.

The demonstration brought to a resounding conclusion Florence's four-day
European Social Forum.

"The war on Iraq is the beginning of a new grand strategy for the United
States," said Susan George, the American vice-chair of the French group
Attac, "the first war not justified by the containment of aggression.

A member of Vietnam Veterans Against the War said: "We, soldiers in
previous wars, are telling the soldiers of today, don't fight."

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

ProletarianNews
http://www.utopia2000.org
with (incredible) photos



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