CHICAGO - On December 17, just 24 hours after the U.S bombing of Iraq began, more than 250 people attended a protest rally at the Kluczynski Federal Building here. Many of the participants were high school and college students. Among the rally speakers were José López, director of the Center for Puerto Rican Culture. He said, "I am here in solidarity with the Iraqi people.... Puerto Ricans and Iraqis alike are living under the same shadow of U.S. imperialism. We are living under the era of colonialism." Rafik Jabal of the Islamic Association for Palestine said, "Is the gift you [Clinton] are trying to give the Muslim people more war orphans, more maimed people? Is that what you call the gift of peace?" The action was initiated by Illinois Peace Action and the 8th Day Center for Justice, a Catholic activist organization around the demands of "Stop the Bombing, End the Sanctions."
A second rally at the Federal Building December 19 drew 150 people, including a large contingent from the Naperville Islamic Center. Naperville is a Chicago suburb. Standing at the front of the rally were three members of Teamsters Local 705 at UPS in Chicago. Manny Lara, the chief steward on the twilight shift, told the Militant, "I am a Vietnam vet. I know how the U.S. government treated us when we returned, and I oppose the bombing of Iraq. We are in a fight ourselves."
Migdalia Jiménez and Helen Meyers
During the second protest outside the federal building, cops from the Federal Protective Services Agency carried out a counterprotest. These cops are assigned to security at federal buildings, and a group of eight had gathered to watch the protest. A sergeant arrived and began to make clear his opposition to the demonstration. When protesters chanted "What do we want? Stop the Bombing!" he echoed, "No we don't." Egged on by this example, other cops joined this counter-chant and began to make comments about the demonstrators. When a picket refused to give the sergeant a leaflet, he called the city police, who arrived in two cruisers with flashing lights. After a short discussion, the cops agreed that the protesters had a right to demonstrate, but the two police agencies maintained a large presence for the remainder of the protest.
Andy Buchanan
Professor Al-Arian of the University of South Florida, who recently resumed teaching duties after a period of suspension while he was being investigated for ties to an alleged Palestinian "terrorist" thinktank, attended the protest. There were many Palestinians in addition to workers from other Middle East countries. MacDill is the CENCOM headquarters for much of Arab-Persian Gulf Air Force operations.
Dale Younce
Abraham Turaani, a member of the American Arab Anti- Discrimination Committee, who chaired the event, declared that the meeting was called "in one voice to condemn this naked aggression aimed at the Iraqi people." The meeting, conducted in both English and Arabic, heard from Islamic and Christian clergy and organizers of protests against both the bombing and the continued sanctions aimed at crippling Iraq.
It was the largest of a series of protests in southeast Michigan and northern Ohio of the latest U.S. assault on Iraq. Within hours of the announcement that bombing had begun, the Detroit Socialist Workers Party released a statement condemning the U.S. aggression. John Sarge, the Socialist Workers candidate in Michigan's 14th Congressional District in the recent elections, blasted the "imperialist arrogance of the Clinton administration for the bombing," as a guest on a radio talk show broadcast from both Toledo and Cincinnati, Ohio.
The next afternoon more than 100 people gathered at the Brodhead Naval Armory on Detroit's near east side to protest the latest aggression. Fifty people gathered in Toledo, Ohio, December 20 to protest the bombing. This picket line was planned at a meeting the night before of the local group organizing to win freedom for frame-up victim Mumia Abu-Jamal, which included students from the University of Toledo.
Marty Ressler
Similar actions took place in London, Paris, Canada, Sweden, New Zealand, and dozens of other U.S. cities.