Activists: Anti-war

They seem to have been everywhere this spring sitting in crosswalks downtown with arms linked or walking down the Massachusetts Avenue by the thousands, holding placards and chanting with peace signs pinned to their jackets. These anti-war protesters have sprouted up across Boston to make statements against President George Bush’s actions in the Middle East.

Although many people consider the war in Iraq to be over, the work for local peace organizations continues.

‘It seems pretty obvious from the actions of our government that nothing is over,’ Boston Mobilization co-director Alex Cheney said. ‘There are many more issues than just the attack on Iraq that are coming to light,’ Cheney added, noting conflicts in Iran, Afghanistan and Syria.

Boston Mobilization, along with other groups, has shown frustrations with Bush by organizing several anti-war protests this spring, drawing thousands of people to their cause.

‘As individuals, we each had separate reasons for wanting to protest after the war began,’ said Emerson College student and Boston Campus Anti-War Coalition member Mandy Yanasak.

For some it was a way to express grief and sorrow, for others it was a show of support of troops and some wanted to show their desires for a quick end to the war, she said.

Boston protesters conducted marches, rallies, die-ins and sit-ins throughout the city, causing many traffic inconveniences for motorists and noise problems for residents of numerous neighborhoods.

According to Cheney, attention is part of the goal of the protests. Organizers want some sort of disruption so that people and the media will notice, he said.

‘We’re in a time of war; a lot of times in this country, nothing changes,’ he said. ‘This is warfare and people are actually dying we need to stop and notice.’

Bush took notice of the protesters after the large demonstrations in New York City and Washington, D.C., addressing them in speeches and press conferences.

The protest tactics also drew the attention of members of the media.

Annie Bartos, the only staff member of United for Justice with Peace, said one way to measure the success of the movement is to see how well the press covers events. By this measure, she said it has been ‘really positive’ over the past few months.

‘Finally, the mainstream media is at least admitting there is a whole other group of people in the country that are against this war,’ she said.

Yanasak disagreed, claiming the media has ‘been asking the wrong questions,’ making protesters appear uninformed.

‘They’re sending the message that we don’t know what’s going on,’ she said.

Beside drawing public attention, the large protests have also caused the Boston Police Department to bulk up their patrols.

According to Boston police officer John T. Boyle, additional patrols between March 20 and April 9 cost $517,000. The largest protest occurred during this time period, drawing more than 30,000 people to downtown to the Boston Common. Boyle said police were prepared for the scale of the protests due to ‘crowd management training.’

For the most part, protesters have cooperated during the protests and other acts of civil disobedience, according to Boyle. There have been a few arrests, but Boyle would not comment on any problems the police may have had had with the activists. Yanasak also said the police have been cooperative throughout all the protests, especially during the large, city-wide student walkout the day after bombing began in Iraq.

‘The police have been incredibly hospitable,’ Yanasak said. ‘We didn’t have permits for the walkout; they just closed streets if they needed to, and that was great.’

Protesters said they have struggled to keep up with happenings within the war movement, mostly to refute many of the accusations that anti-war demonstrators are uninformed about their own cause.

‘Keeping up with what’s going on has been really hard since it’s hard to be as updated as we want to be because of the lack of information that’s available to publish,’ Bartos said.

In addition to the problem of staying informed, protesters have also dealt with accusations of being unpatriotic, she said.

Yanasak defended her decision to protest the war.

‘I do believe, though, that this nation was founded on spirit of rebellion,’ she said.

Bartos agreed.

‘That’s just such a fundamental right of this country,’ Bartos said, claiming people who think protesters are unpatriotic are difficult to talk to. ‘I think by not agreeing with the government doesn’t mean that you’re un-American or unpatriotic.’

‘Patriotism is about loving your country and loving the people in it,’ Cheney said.

Many protesters are against the war, but they stressed they are not against the troops.

‘Just like anyone else, we have friends and family members who are in the military and over there,’ Cheney said.

Yanasak said she has seen varied reaction from the public, with some calling her ‘unpatriotic,’ telling her to ‘support the troops’ and ‘to be silent,’ but ‘at the other end, there are people asking for signs so that they can support peace, too.’

‘More than anything, it’s a sign of hope,’ she said.

Even though groups have received letters and comments calling them unpatriotic and ignorant, ‘it pales in comparison to the amount of positive reaction,’ Cheney said.

‘I tend to receive 90 percent positive and maybe 10 percent negative as far as someone commenting,’ Bartos said. ‘There’s usually one that comes in that’s not so nice.’

With the war now winding down in Iraq, United for Justice with Peace stresses that people should not stop in the fight against war. In a recent e-mail, members of the organization wrote that ‘at the same time, we will continue to organize public protests ranging from marches and rallies to nonviolent direct actions targeting military contractors and federal sites.’

Bartos, the organization’s leader, said she hopes that everyone will continue the hard work to show the government that some do not agree with what is happening.

‘U.S. government involvement in Iraq from this point on is something we need to be aware of,’ she said, stressing that every little bit of help is important. ‘Sure we didn’t stop the war, but you have to expect that’s going to happen.’