Protests Against The 2003 Iraq War

Beginning in late 2002, and continuing after the 2003 invasion of Iraq, large-scale protests against the Iraq War were held in many cities worldwide, often coordinated to occur simultaneously around the world. After the biggest series of demonstrations, on February 15, 2003, ''New York Times'' writer Patrick Tyler claimed that they showed that there were two superpowers on the planet: the United States and worldwide public opinion.

These demonstrations against the war were mainly organized by anti-war organizations, many of whom had been formed in opposition to the invasion of Afghanistan. In some Arab countries demonstrations were organized by the state. Europe saw the biggest mobilization of protesters, including a rally of three million people in Rome, which is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest ever anti-war rally.

According to the French academic Dominique Reynié, between January 3 and April 12, 2003, 36 million people across the globe took part in almost 3,000 protests against the Iraq war.

In the United States, even though pro-war demonstrators have been quoted as referring to anti-war protests as a "vocal minority",Dueling Demonstrations As Thousands March to Capitol to Protest Iraq Conflict, 189 Arrested; War Supporters Take on 'Vocal Minority'
Michelle Boorstein, V. Dion Haynes and Allison Klein, ''The Washington Post'', Sunday, September 16, 2007; Page A08. Retrieved September 16, 2007. Gallup Polls updated September 14, 2007 state, "Since the summer of 2005, opponents of the war have tended to outnumber supporters. A majority of Americans believe the war was a mistake."

From the protests before and during the Iraq War, this was one of the biggest global peace protests to occur in the early 21st century, since the 20th century protest of the Vietnam War. Despite that the United States had already withdrew the troops from Iraq by December 2011, another anti-war protest led by veterans of the Iraq War, took place in May 2012 at Chicago during the NATO Summit at the Hyatt Regency regarding the War in Afghanistan.

Scope and impact in the United States

A March 2003 Gallup poll conducted during the first few days of the war showed that 5% of the population had protested or made a public opposition against the war compared to 21% who attended a rally or made a public display to support the war. An ABC news poll showed that 2% had attended an anti-war protest and 1% attended a pro-war rally. The protests made 20% more opposed to the war and 7% more supportive.Public Opinion and the war in Iraq
P. 178 A Fox News poll showed that while 63% had an unfavorable view of the protesters, just 23% had a favorable view. According to Pew Research, 40% said in March 2003 that they had heard "too much" from people opposed to the war against 17% who said "too little".

Some observers have noted that the protests against the Iraq War have been relatively small-scale and infrequent compared to protests against the Vietnam War. One of the most often cited factors for this is the lack of conscription.

Prior to the invasion of Iraq

These protests are said to be the biggest global peace protests before a war actually started; the peace movement is compared with the movement caused by the Vietnam War.

September 2002

On September 12, 2002, U.S. President George W. Bush spoke to the United Nations General Assembly. Outside the United Nations building, over 1,000 people attended a protest organized by Voter March and No Blood for Oil.

On September 24, Tony Blair released a document describing Britain's case for war in Iraq. Three days later, an anti-war rally in London drew a crowd of at least 150,000.

On September 29, roughly 5,000 anti-war protesters converged on Washington, D.C. on the day after an anti-International Monetary Fund protest.

October 2002

On October 2, the day President Bush signed into law Congress' joint resolution authorizing the war, a small-scale protest was held in Chicago, attended by a crowd of roughly 1,000 who listened to speeches by Jesse Jackson and then-Illinois State Senator Barack Obama. Obama's statement, "I am not opposed to all wars. I'm opposed to dumb wars," was barely noted at the time, but became famous during the 2008 Democratic presidential primaries when the Obama camp used it to demonstrate his courage and good judgment on the war.

On October 7, Bush delivered a major speech justifying the invasion of Iraq at the Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal. Outside, approximately 3000 people gathered to protest the coming war. Later, a few hundred protesters blocking the Museum Center exits were dispersed by mounted police, and six people were arrested.

On October 26, protests took place in various cities across the world. Over 100,000 people took part in a protest in Washington. 50,000 people took part in a demonstration in San Francisco. Both protests were called by the ANSWER Coalition.

On October 31, around 150 protests took place across the United Kingdom, including Critical Mass bike rides, occupations, and mass demonstrations in Brighton, Manchester, Glasgow and London. Protests also took place in the US.

November 2002

On November 9, demonstrations were held against the war at the end of the first European Social Forum in Florence, Italy. According to the organizers, 1,000,000 people were in attendance. Local authorities put attendance at 500,000.

On Saturday, November 16, in Canada an anti-war demonstration of about 2,000 people occurred at Queen's Park in Toronto.

On November 17, a large anti-war coalition held a peace march in Vancouver marching from Peace Flame Park as part of a Cross-Canada Day of Action. In Vancouver, about 3,000 people gathered in the rain. Washington must take any complaints against foreign governments to the United Nations, they said. Many accused the White House of targeting Saddam Hussein in order to try to take control of valuable oil reserves.
About 1,000 marched through a shower of ice pellets in Montreal, and about 500 showed up in a blur of white snow on Parliament Hill. Rallies were held in several other cities, including Halifax, Winnipeg and Edmonton.

January 2003

On January 16, 2003, protests were held worldwide in opposition to a war with Iraq, including in Turkey, Egypt, Pakistan, Japan, Belgium, the Netherlands, Argentina, and the United States, where Americans attended a rally in Washington, D.C. The U.S. Park Police, which oversees activities on the National Mall, stopped providing estimates of crowd size after being threatened with lawsuits by the organizers of the Million Man March, but said that protest organizers only had a permit for 30,000 demonstrators.

On January 18, anti-war demonstrations, focusing particularly but not exclusively on the expected war with Iraq, took place in villages, towns, and cities around the world, including Tokyo, Moscow, Paris, London, Dublin, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Cologne, Bonn, Gothenburg, Florence, Oslo, Rotterdam, Istanbul and Cairo. In New Zealand, thousands rallied in Dunedin and Christchurch, while in Auckland protesters rallied at the Devonport naval base on January 28, opposing the deployment of the frigate HMNZS Te Mana to the Gulf.

NION and ANSWER jointly organized protests in Washington, D.C. and San Francisco. Other protests took place all over the United States, including various smaller places such as Lincoln, Nebraska.

Upwards of 50,000 people demonstrated in San Francisco. The day started with a waterfront rally at 11 am, followed by a march down Market Street to the civic center.

In Seattle, a surprise turnout on a sunny Saturday saw over 45,000 people (Organizer and observers reports) march from the Seattle Center (after several speeches) to King Street Station-the local media all came up with nonsensical crowd numbers, from 200 up to 1,500 people. People were still vacating the starting point at the Seattle Center while the front of the march was piling up at King Street Station, the terminal point of the march; Over 5 miles of solid people-as was evidenced by one aerial photo courtesy KING-TV, showed the true scope of the march. Most of the media downplayed the numbers by taking photos at the front of the parade, on flat ground-which usually showed just a few hundred people. For some reason there was no speaker awaiting to what would have been a crowd of possibly 50,000 people-it simply ended...casual shoppers and walkers joining the crowd-the largest march of any kind in Seattle's history at the time (surpassed by the Women's March in Seattle in 2017).

In Washington, "at least tens of thousands",

people demonstrated through the city, ending with a rally at The Mall. Among the speakers was Rev. Jesse Jackson who told the crowd that ''"We are here because we choose coexistence over coannihilation."''

The protests were planned to coincide with the January 15, birthday of Martin Luther King Jr.

February 2003

On February 15, millions of people protested, in approximately 800 cities around the world. Listed by the 2004 ''Guinness Book of Records'' as the largest protest in human history, protests occurred among others in the United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, Germany, Switzerland, Republic of Ireland, the United States, Canada, Australia, South Africa, Syria, India, Russia, South Korea, Japan, and even McMurdo Station in Antarctica. Perhaps the largest demonstration this day occurred in London, with up to one million protestors gathering in Hyde Park; speakers included the Reverend Jesse Jackson, London mayor Ken Livingstone, and Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy. A large demonstration, also attended by perhaps around a million, took place in Madrid.

March 2003

On March 1, Pete Seeger, Barbara Dane, Sonic Youth, Vietnam Veterans Against the War Watermelon Slim (Bill Homans) and Joe Bangert, and others sang in protest of the second invasion of Iraq on March 19, at Joe's Pub, one of the six entertainment venues in the New York Public Theatre.

On March 8, three separate marches converged on Manchester Town Hall, UK. Official estimates put the number of participants at 10,000 (although this was disputed by organisers), making it the biggest political demonstration in the city since the Peterloo Massacre in 1819.

On March 15, Spanish and Italian cities showed some of the largest turnouts against their governments' pro-war stance, with more than 400,000 protesters in Milan, more than 300,000 in Barcelona forming a mile-long human chain, and more than 120,000 in Madrid. Marches also took place in Seville, Aranjuez, Palencia, and in the Canary Islands.

Many of the protests were said to be smaller than those in the same cities a month ago; exceptions were Montreal, which upped its turnout to 200,000 and Dublin where 130,000 demonstrated. The Montreal turnout may have been related to solidarity against American anti-French sentiment, which was a common theme for many of the protesters. A further 15,000 protested in Quebec City. 55,000 protested in Paris, and 4,500 to 10,000 in Marseilles. 100,000 protested in Berlin, some 20,000 protested in Athens, close to 10,000 people marched in Tokyo, and tens of thousands in Washington, D.C. Organizers claimed between 30,000 and 45,000 people turned out, while ''The Oregonian'' and the Associated Press estimated between 20,000 and 25,000 people attended, closer to the number in Portland who participated in the January 18 protest.

Thousands more marched in cities worldwide including Bangkok, Seoul, Hong Kong, Amman, Chicago, Calcutta, Melbourne, Christchurch, Dunedin, Paris, London, Portsmouth, Leeds, York, Exeter, Newcastle upon Tyne, Frankfurt, Nuremberg, Zürich, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Nicosia, Monaco, Santiago de Chile, Havana, Buenos Aires, Moscow, Seattle, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Vancouver, Halifax, Ottawa, and Toronto, as well as cities in Yemen, Turkey, Israel, and the Palestinian territories.

On March 16, more than 6,000 candlelight vigils for peace were held in more than a hundred countries.

On 18th March 2003 two activists climbed the sails of the iconic Sydney Opera House to paint the words ''No War'' in bright red paint.

On March 19, across the United Kingdom tens of thousands of school students staged walkouts.

In Birmingham 4,000 (BBC estimate) striking school students held a demonstration which ended at Victoria Square. Though there were some reports of some students throwing coins, West Midlands police said that the protests were "buoyant rather than boisterous" and no arrests were made. The demonstration later moved on to Cannon Hill Park. The son of Lord Hunt, a junior health Minister who quit his job over the march, was amongst the students in attendance.

In West Yorkshire around 500 students (BBC estimate) walked out of Ilkley Grammar School, reportedly one-third of the student body. In Bradford up to 200 students (BBC estimate) gathered in Centenary Square.

Demonstrations also took place in the city centre in Leeds and Horsforth.

A large protest took place at Westminster where London school students gathered.

In Manchester, 300 (eye-witness Stop the War estimate) secondary school children, Further Education students and university students met at Albert Square at 12 noon. They marched to the BBC studios where they sat down in the road at around 1pm and blocked the traffic for over an hour where their numbers grew to around 1000 demonstrators. They were filmed by anti-war activists and video clips were distributed. The students then marched around the city centre and ended up back at Albert Square at about 4pm where they remained demonstrating in front of the Town Hall for some hours. The whole of this event was filmed by anti-war activists accumulating two hours of footage.

Invasion to the fall of Baghdad

March 20, 2003

The day after the invasion of Iraq had begun, protests were held in cities around the world. In some U.S. cities, protesters attempted to shut their respective cities down. In Germany, students staged a massive walkout. In London, a massive demonstration was held in front of the Houses of Parliament.

March 21, 2003

Demonstrations were organized for a second day in a row in various US cities including Seattle, Portland, Oregon, Chicago, Atlanta, Georgia, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. In the last two cities, demonstrators closed parts of the city to traffic.

March 22–23, 2003

Media report about 150,000 protesters in Barcelona (other sources say 1,000,000); more than 100,000 (other sources: up to 500,000) protesters in London; some 100,000 protesters in Paris; at least 150,000 protesters altogether in many German cities; between 35,000 and 90,000 in Lisbon; around 40,000 in Bern, the largest protest in Switzerland for decades; 10,000 to 20,000 in Greece, Denmark and Finland. 250,000 protesters demonstrated in New York City according to the German Spiegel Online magazine. There were protests in Washington, D.C.. In Chicago, protesters disrupted traffic by closing down Lake Shore Drive. CNN reported that a march of over a thousand protesters in Atlanta, Georgia passed by their headquarters, upset over that network's coverage of the war. Canada likewise experienced numerous anti-war protests over the weekend. Crowds of anti-war demonstrators took to the streets of Montreal and Toronto. Calgary held three days of protests (20 March – 22nd), culminating in a march which surrounded the government building and American consulate. In the Italian city of Naples 10,000 anti-war protesters marched towards a NATO base in Bagnoli. Protests also took place in Wellington, New Zealand.; the Australian cities of Brisbane and Hobart (which were brought to a halt); Jakarta, Indonesia, where protesters converged on the US embassy; across South Korea including the capital Seoul, where Buddhist monks played drums to console the spirits of war casualties to the 2,000 protesters; across India including 15,000 in Calcutta; Bangladesh which saw a general strike (closing down many businesses and mosques); and Japan, including protests near US naval and air bases on the southern island of Okinawa.

Thousands of protesters, mainly Muslims, demonstrated across the African continent. Hundreds (BBC estimate) of young people marched in Mombasa in Kenya. The Somali capital Mogadishu saw protests by students, Koranic schoolchildren, women and intellectuals.

There were reports about massive conflicts between protesters and police in the Gulf state of Bahrain for the second day. On the live broadcast of the 2003 Academy Awards, several presenters and recipients made various comments against the war ranging from Susan Sarandon giving a simple peace sign to Michael Moore publicly denouncing George W. Bush upon receiving his award.

March 24, 2003

Media reports state at least 20,000 school pupils protesting in Hamburg, Germany. After the protest march, conflicts between police and protesters broke out in front of a US building in Hamburg. Protesters who were pushed back by the police began to throw stones, who in turn reacted with water cannons. There have since been serious discussions about police abuses in Hamburg, and political ramifications may follow. In the afternoon, 50,000 people protested peacefully in Leipzig following traditional prayers for peace in the city's Nikolai Church. Prayers for peace and subsequent large demonstrations at that church every Monday ('Montagsdemos') helped bring down the GDR government in East Germany in 1989. The weekly demonstrations, supported by churches, trade unions and other civic organizations, began again in January 2003 in protest to the impending invasion of Iraq. Protest marches in the afternoon were also reported in the German cities of Berlin and Freiburg. In Rome, Milan, Turin and other Italian cities, thousands of pupils and schoolteachers stayed away from school to protest against the Iraq war. The teachers union reported that 60 percent of all schools were closed. The strike had been planned weeks ago as a signal against a school reform bill, but was converted to an anti-war protest. 400 anti-war protesters tried to enter the Australian parliament in Canberra to speak to the prime minister, but were stopped by police. In the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, Maoist protesters attacked shops selling Coca-Cola and US soft drinks. Protests in front of US buildings and in fast food shops were also held in Indonesia. In Egypt, 12,000 students of two universities in Cairo protested as well as 3,000 people in the Thai capital Bangkok. In Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 150 people threw stones at the United States consulate.

March 25, 2003

Some people demonstrated in Syria against the United States, United Kingdom and Israel. This protest was endorsed by the Syrian government. In the Islamic country of Bangladesh, 60,000 people demonstrated. Media also reports protests in front of the South Korean parliament building, linked to plans to bring South Korean forces into the war.

March 27, 2003

Hundreds of protesters participated in a civil disobedience in New York City. In a "die-in" organized by the M27 Coalition (an ad-hoc group of various anti-war organizations and individuals), 215 people were arrested after blocking traffic on 5th Avenue near the Rockefeller Center, protesting the cooperation between U.S. media and the government. Protesters also blocked traffic at various sites around the city in a coordinated protest with the theme of "No Business As Usual." Protests also took place across the UK. About 250 students (Police estimate) marched on the US embassy in central London. 200 people (South Wales Police estimate) brought Cardiff city centre traffic to a standstill leading to at least six arrests. There was a lunchtime anti-war demonstration on the Humber bridge in Hull which involved some friction between motorists and protesters. In Derry, up to a dozen anti-war protesters stormed the Raytheon defense technologies company building staging a sit-in until removed by police. Thousands joined a protest in Manchester.

March 28, 2003

Global protests did not stop in the second week of war. Some 10,000 protested in Tehran, Iran. Protesters on the march, supported by the government, chanted "Death to Saddam" as well as "Death to America." 50,000 to 80,000 people protested in Cairo, Egypt after the Friday prayers. In Bogotá, Colombia there were violent conflicts in front of the US consulate. Protest marches and demonstrations happened also in Algiers, Algeria and in Bahrain, the Palestinian territories, South Korea, Indonesia and Pakistan. In Australia the police prevented protest marches. In Germany, protests by schoolchildren continued. In New Delhi and elsewhere in India, over 20,000 protested against the war. The largest demonstration comprised mainly Muslims, there was also a separate demonstration mainly made up of communists.

March 29, 2003

In Boston, Massachusetts, 50,000 people attended the largest rally in the city since the end of the Vietnam War. Thousands of people blocked Boylston Street in a die-in along the Boston Common. A handful of arrests were made. In the UK hundreds of protesters marched from Cowley into the centre of Oxford

and thousands took to the streets of Edinburgh (Police estimated 5,000, while organizers estimated more than 10,000). Edinburgh protesters marched along Princes Street to a mass rally in the city's Meadows area.

March 30, 2003

100,000 people marched through the Indonesian capital, Jakarta. According to the BBC's Jonathan Head this was the biggest anti-war demonstration to take place so far in the world's most populous Muslim nation. The day also saw the first officially sanctioned demonstration in China, where a crowd of 200 made up mostly of foreign students were allowed to chant anti-war slogans as they marched past the US embassy in Beijing but around 100 Chinese students had their banners confiscated and were blocked from entering a park where locals had gained permission to demonstrate. In Latin America there were rallies in Santiago, Mexico City, Montevideo, Buenos Aires and Caracas. In Germany at least 40,000 people formed a human chain between the northern cities of Munster and Osnabrueck 35 miles apart. Also about 23,000 took part in marches in Berlin, ending in a rally in Tiergarten park, protests took place in Stuttgart and Frankfurt, where 25 people were arrested as they tried to block the entrance to a US air base. Marches were also held in Paris, Moscow, Budapest, Warsaw and Dublin.

April 7, 2003

In Oakland, California, police fired rubber bullets and beanbags at protesters and dockworkers outside the port, injuring at least a dozen demonstrators and six longshoremen standing nearby. Protestors were protesting the Iraq War related action performed by American President Lines and defense contractor Stevedoring Services of America. Most of the 500 demonstrators were dispersed peacefully, but a crowd of demonstrators was blocking traffic on private property near the port and failed to disperse after police warnings. The Oakland Police Chief said demonstrators also threw objects and bolts at the police, and said the use of weapons was necessary to disperse the crowd. He indicated that the rubber bullets were used to respond to direct illegal action and the longshoremen were caught in the crossfire. A dockworker spokesman reported that police gave two minutes to disperse, then opened fire rather than making arrests. Demonstrators also claim that the police took direct aim at them, rather than firing in the air or at the ground. Thirty-one people were arrested. Demonstrators regrouped and marched to the Oakland Federal Building. In New York, United States, protesters targeted the Carlyle Group, an investment firm with deep connections to the war. About 20 protesters were arrested in a planned civil disobedience, but police then also surrounded and arrested close to 100 people who were simply watching the protest from across the street.

After the fall of Baghdad

Following the period of combat in March–April 2003, both protests and armed combat experienced a temporary decline in intensity. Protests against the war as a whole continued, often on the occasion of anniversaries of the war and visits by members of the Bush administration to foreign cities. Within the United States, general anti-war protests were joined by protests focusing on particular issues or strategies including: opposition to torture and abuse (such as that in the Abu Ghraib prison), calls for withdrawal of members of the coalition from Iraq, counter-recruitment, support for military resisters such as Lt. Ehren Watada, and opposition to military and corporate contractors. The largest protests during this period have been national, multi-issue mobilizations such as those on August 30, 2004, and April 29, 2006. Black bloc elements were present during some of the protests.

April 12, 2003

Protests sponsored by A.N.S.W.E.R. were held in Washington, D.C., San Francisco, and Los Angeles to demonstrate against the Iraq War three days after the fall of Baghdad. In Washington, the march route took the group of 30,000 past offices of several mass media organizations, and companies such as Bechtel and Halliburton.

October 25, 2003

Tens of thousands of people demonstrated in Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Reno, Nevada and other cities around the world, in opposition to the occupation of Iraq. Protesters also advocated for the return of American troops to the United States, and for the protection of civil liberties.

The Washington DC rally attracted 20,000 (BBC estimate) protesters. The protest ended with a rally at the Washington Monument, within sight of the White House. Protesters also called for the repeal of the USA PATRIOT Act. The Washington and San Francisco protests were jointly organized by ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) and United for Peace and Justice