* 아딱(attac.org)의 뉴스레터에 실린 글입니다.
* 간략한 한글 요약을 덧붙입니다.
- 2월 15일 로마, 런던, 마드리드, 베를린, 파리, 뉴욕 등지에서 600만-
1200만 명이 참가한 국제적인 반전 집회가 개최되었다. 정치적으로 급진적
인 교회 그룹, 노동조합, 일반 시민들이 참여했지만, 대부분은 반세계화운
동과 평화운동 그룹의 활동가들인 소규모 네트워크에 의해 조직된 것이었
다.
- 이 운동의 뿌리를 찾으려면 2001년 9월 11일로 거슬러 올라가야 한다.
- 영국의 경우, 9.11 직후 주말에 수백명의 활동가들의 모임이 있었다. 이
들 중 대부분은 영국 좌파의 핵심이었는데, <사회주의자 노동자당>
(Socialist Workers Part), <핵무장해체를 위한 투쟁>(CND, the Campaign
for Nuclear Disarmament), 반자본주의 조직인 <저항의 세계화>
(Globalised Resistance), 노동당 의원 제레미 코빈(Jeremy Corbyn), 조
지 갤로웨이(George Galloway)가 참여했다. 한 주가 채 못되어 무슬림 공
동체와 전투적인 노동조합의 대표도 참여하였다. 10월에 <전쟁중단동맹>
(the Stop the War Coalition)이라는 이름을 붙였다. 2001년 10월 런던에
서 5만명 이상이 모여 평화 집회를 개최했으며, 11월에도 비슷한 수의 사
람이 모여 미국 주도의 아프카니스탄 침공에 반대하는 집회를 개최했다.
2002년 9월 28일에는 런던 하이드 공원에서
수십만명이 이라크 전쟁에 항의하고 "팔레스타인의 평화"를 요구했다.
- 2002년 11월 9일 11개 유럽 나라의 30명의 조직가가 이탈리아 피렌체에
모였다. 이는 유럽사회포럼과 반세계화가 후원하는 '항의행동주간' 행사
의 한 부분이었다. 영국 대표단이 크리스마스 휴가가 끝나고 유럽 전역의
대학에서 강의가 시작되는 2월에 집회를 개최할 것을 주장했고 그렇게 결
정되었다.
- 12월 코펜하겐에서 개최된 후속 회의에서는 미국과 필리핀의 대표자들
이 2월 15일 집회에 참여할 것을 약속했다. 같은 달 카이로에서는 몇몇 중
동, 아시아 나라들에서 온 400명의 대표자들이 이라크와 팔레스타인에 대
한 지원에 관해 서명했고, 전 알제리 대통령인 아메드 벤 벨라(Ahmed Ben
Bella)를 대표로 한 조정위원회를 구성하여 2월 집회에 참여할 것을 약속
했다. 그리고 2003년 1월 브라질 포르토 알레그레에서 개최된 세계사회포
럼을 통해 참가하기로 한 나라가 30개국에서 74개국으로 늘었다.
- 미국 군대를 방해하기 위한 투쟁도 개시되었다. "인간 방패"로 자원한
수십여명의 활동가들이 있다. 9명의 네델란드 활동가는 로테르담 밖에 미
국 군사센터의 정문에 그 자신을 사슬로 묶는 투쟁을 벌여 체포되었다. 이
탈리아에서는 수백명의 시위자들이 기차역과 선로를 점거하여 미군 군사장
비의 이동을 거의 일주일간 지연시켰다. 1월 아일랜드에서는 샤논 비행장
의 경계망을 뚫고 진입하여 미 해군 비행기에 피해를 입혀서, 비행기들이
분산하여 다른 곳에서 재급유를 받게 하였다. 이탈리아와 프랑스의 노동조
합 운동은 전쟁이 발발하면 그것을 방해할 것이며, 총파업을 고려할 것이
라고 약속했다.
- 한편 2003년 3월 1일 28개국 120여명의 활동가가 "전략회의"를 개최했
다. 1) 부시 행정부의 은밀한 동맹자(영국, 이탈리아, 스페인)들이 철회하
도록 정치적 압력을 가할 것, 2)미군 군사기지와 유럽을 통하는 병참 지원
과 수송에 대해 불복종 시민행동을 할 것, 3) 전쟁이 발발할 때에 첫날 저
녁 도시와 마을에서 시위를 벌이며 그 주 토요일에 전세계적인 대집회를
개최할 것을 결의했다.
*
* *
Organizers of Antiwar Movement Plan to Go Beyond Protests
By Glenn Frankel. Washington Post Foreign Service
LONDON, March 2 -- The people who helped organize the largest
worldwide peace demonstration in history last month say they are not
through yet.
More than 120 activists from 28 countries emerged from an all-day
strategy session here this weekend with plans not just to protest a
prospective U.S.-led war against Iraq but to prevent it from
happening. They want to intensify political pressure on the Bush
administration's closest allies -- the leaders of Britain, Italy and
Spain -- and force them to withdraw their support, leaving the
United States, if it chooses to fight, to go it alone. And they
intend to further disrupt war plans with acts of civil disobedience
against U.S. military bases, supply depots and transports throughout
Europe.
Finally, if war breaks out, they say, they will demonstrate in towns
and cities around the world on the evening of the first day, and
hold a worldwide rally on the following Saturday that they hope will
rival or surpass their efforts of Feb. 15.
"We still believe we can stop this war before it begins," said Chris
Nineham, one of the British organizers of this weekend's conference,
held at the Stop the War Coalition's offices in northeast
London. "But if not, we're putting the warmongers on notice that
there will be massive protests on the day war breaks out and the
following weekend."
In interviews last week, several of the organizers of the Feb. 15
protests traced the origins of the antiwar movement, described how
they put together that event and discussed where they go from here.
For the most part, the organizations are tiny, shoestring
operations -- the London-based coalition operates out of two
cubbyhole offices with four desktop computers, a handful of phone
lines and a half-dozen paid staff members. But they use the
Internet, cell phones and their connections with trade unions and
local governments to establish links and coordinate with other
organizations around the world.
Their plans might sound grandiose. But these are the same activists
who pulled off the stunning success of two weeks ago, when between 6
million and 12 million protesters gathered in about 75 countries to
oppose military action.
"We've never really seen a movement like this before -- it's
unpredictable because it's so unprecedented," said Paul Rogers,
professor of peace studies at Bradford University in Britain. "But
it does seem that a large proportion of the people who participated
two weeks ago are becoming quite politicized just by going on the
demonstration. If war begins, and it doesn't have U.N. approval, we
could see mass demonstrations again."
The huge turnouts that day in cities including Rome, London, Madrid,
Berlin, Paris and New York reflected popular disaffection with U.S.
military power and the prospect of war among a broad swath of the
public -- from political radicals to church groups, trade unions and
ordinary citizens. But it was organized for the most part by a small
network of activists from the ideological left, the anti-
globalization movement and peace groups. For years these activists
have stood on picket lines and organized demonstrations seeking ways
to ignite mass popular support, with mixed results at best. But the
increasing likelihood of war has given them an issue that resonates
with public opinion throughout the world.
Many of the organizers confess that they were stunned by the size
and scope of the demonstrations two weeks ago. "A big part of our
meeting was about digesting the shock of the earthquake that was
February 15," said Larry Holmes, an organizer in New York for
International ANSWER, one of the U.S. groups organizing the
rallies. "We were just as surprised as everyone else. But you're
seeing a new sense of confidence among organizations. People don't
want this war, and they're giving us a mandate to do whatever it
takes to stop it."
The organizers say the February rallies were first agreed upon at a
small strategy session in Florence in November. But their roots go
back to the days just after Sept. 11, 2001, when activists say they
began meeting to map out opposition to what they anticipated would
be the U.S. military response to the terrorist attacks on New York
and the Pentagon.
In Britain, according to organizer John Rees, several hundred
activists first got together the weekend after Sept. 11. Most were
from the hard core of the British left -- the Socialist Workers
Party, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and the anti-capitalist
organization Globalized Resistance, along with Labor Party
legislators Jeremy Corbyn and George Galloway. Within weeks, they
had combined with representatives from two more important elements --
Britain's growing Muslim community and its militant trade unions.
By October they had a name: the Stop the War Coalition.
More than 50,000 demonstrators came out in London for an October
2001 peace rally; the same numbers protested in November against the
U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan. A demonstration last Sept. 28
brought several hundred thousand people to Hyde Park in London to
protest war in Iraq and demand "Freedom for Palestine." After that,
activists decided to push for a worldwide demonstration.
About 30 organizers from 11 European countries met on a Saturday
morning, Nov. 9, at the Fortezza da Basso, a 16th-century fortress
in the northwestern part of Florence, as part of a week of protest
activities sponsored by the European Social Forum, an anti-
globalization network. The Italians pushed for a date in December,
Rees recalled. But British representatives persuaded them to wait
until Feb. 15, when the Christmas holidays would be over and
universities would be back in session throughout Europe.
Originally, the activists believed the Feb. 15 protests might be
confined to a few European capitals. But at a follow-up meeting in
Copenhagen in December, representatives of peace groups based in the
United States and the Philippines pledged their support for the
February date. In Cairo that same month, 400 representatives from
several Middle Eastern and Asian countries joined in signing a
declaration of support for the Iraqi and Palestinian people and
appointed a coordinating committee headed by former Algerian
president Ahmed Ben Bella that pledged to join in the February
rallies. Finally, in late January, the activists got together once
more for a gathering of the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre,
Brazil, where the number of countries from which people agreed to
take part on Feb. 15 rose from 30 to 74.
"We realized then that this had evolved into a worldwide coalition,"
said an Italian organizer who insisted on anonymity.
Since Feb. 15, the activists have sought to keep up the pressure,
especially in Britain, where Prime Minister Tony Blair is ranked as
President Bush's top international supporter. While the House of
Commons debated Blair's stance on Wednesday, dozens of activists
protested outside St. Stephen's Gate at Parliament and lobbied Labor
Party lawmakers, seeking their commitment to oppose Blair. The prime
minister won the vote that day in the face of a large revolt by
Labor backbenchers that has left him wounded politically. Hundreds
more activists visited lawmakers this weekend at their local offices.
"We know that a lot of [lawmakers] were really rattled by the
February 15 demonstration," said Ghada Razuki, a British Iraqi
activist who led Wednesday's protest. "We want to keep the pressure
on to get them off the fence."
Campaigns to disrupt U.S. forces have also been launched. Besides
the dozens of activists who have traveled to Baghdad to volunteer
as "human shields" against a U.S. attack, nine Dutch antiwar
activists were arrested Tuesday for chaining themselves to the gates
of a U.S. military center outside Rotterdam. In Italy, hundreds of
protesters occupied train stations and railway tracks for nearly a
week to delay trains carrying U.S. military equipment from northern
Italy to the Camp Darby military base near Pisa. Irish protesters
broke through the perimeter fence at Shannon airport in January and
damaged a U.S. Navy plane, causing other planes to divert their
flights and refuel elsewhere. Trade union movements in Italy and
France are pledging work disruptions and considering general strikes
if war breaks out.
Organizers say they would like to find a way to channel the newfound
enthusiasm and activism into a worldwide political movement. But
they say the disparate nature of those participating would make such
a movement difficult if not impossible.
"This was caused by social forces, and it's not something that
organizations produced," said Andrew Burgin, a member of the
coalition's British steering committee. "They're not in our
control. . . . You don't lead a movement like this, the movement
leads you."