March 20 - The World Still Says No to War

By Darrell Rankin, Chair of the Communist Party of Canada's Peace and Disarmament Commission

Peace groups across around the world will hold large rallies and protests against war on March 20, the first anniversary of the U.S.-led aggression against Iraq. In the U.S. and Canada, the protests are key efforts to make peace a major issue in elections this year.

In the U.S., Iraq will be the major issue on March 20. In Canada, the peace movement is raising a wider range of issues because of its success keeping Canada out of the war. The Canadian Peace Alliance has called for protests on March 20 to end the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan and for Canada to stay out of the U.S. Missile Defence program.

Major rallies are planned in Montreal, Vancouver, Toronto, Edmonton and many other cities across Canada. In some cases, the rallies are being coordinated; the Edmonton Coalition Against War and Racism (ECAWAR) is arranging for participants to hear Noam Chomsky's speech to the Vancouver rally being organized by StopWar.ca in that city.

Meeting in Mumbai, India on January 19, various major peace movements called for people to fill the streets on March 20, noting that resistance to Iraq's occupation is increasing. In the U.S., the broad coalition United for Peace and Justice is calling for people to "say YES to peace and NO to pre-emptive war and occupation." The UK Stop The War coalition is organizing a "No More Lies Mr. Blair" protest in central London.

Details of protests across Canada will be posted on the Canadian Peace Alliance website as they become available: www.acp-cpa.ca.

(Darrell Rankin can be contacted at rnknfile@mb.sympatico.ca.)