Democracy Now! February 17, 2003

9:00-9:03 Billboard 9:03-9:08: Tens of millions of people took to the streets over the weekend in some 600 cities around the world. They marched and rallied and demonstrated to protest the Bush Administration s plans to attack on Iraq. In New York City, organizers say half a million rallied. In San Francisco, a quarter of a million marched. London, Madrid, and Barcelona each saw over a million people march; organizers say over three million marched in Rome. The London Guardian is reporting Italian state television did not broadcast the protest live because it would put "undue pressure on politicians." Hundreds of other protests were held spread across every continent in the world. Sites included Australia, Johannesburg, Tel Aviv, Syria, Tokyo, Bangladesh, South Korea, Hong Kong, Thailand, Puerto Rico, Brazil, East Timor, India, and even the South Pole. We recorded these live reports from around the world: Tape: The World Says No To War! reports from around the globe, Feb. 15-16, 2003: London, Melbourne, Rome, Berlin, Paris, Madrid, and Arundhati Roy in India 9:08-9:09 One-Minute Music Break: Richie Havens singing Freedom. Havens opened the massive anti-war rally in New York City on Feb. 15, 2003 with this song. 9:09-9:20: Hundreds of thousands of people protested here in New York City on Saturday. It is impossible to know the exact number. The city denied organizers a permit to march all together, and police pinned demonstrators along side streets, preventing them from coming together at the stationary rally site near the United Nations. So unknown hundreds of thousands stretched north from the stage along First Avenue, and hundreds of thousands more were forced to march along Second and Third Avenues. New York Newsday columnist Jimmy Breslin writes: Looking down Third Avenue and Second Avenue, as the crowds came up to try to get to the rear of the great crowd on First Avenue, and then peering as far down First Avenue as you could see, the size of throngs caused you to tell yourself, "maybe a million. Whatever it was, out on the street it felt like a million, and it was glorious. A news photographer I know came along. "I've been everyplace. I have to say a million. Because of the Police Department's reprehensible pens, the crowd was separated so that there was not one clear picture of an enormous group that would cause politicians here to faint. (The Police Department is currently estimating only a hundred thousand turned out. But protest organizers say the police told them throughout the rally that the numbers were at least half a million. Organizers say there were between half a million and a million people there.) Throughout the day, people broke through the barricades and took over the streets. Police arrested at least 250. We ll now go to the voices from Saturday s protest. We begin with Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Archbishop Desmond Tutu is internationally renowned for his non-violent campaign against the apartheid government of South Africa. The son of a schoolteacher and a domestic worker, Tutu became the first black General Secretary of the South African Council of Churches in 1978. In the 1980s, he was one of the leading spokesmen for non-violent resistance to apartheid. Archbishop Tutu led a campaign for an international boycott on South African goods, and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for the divestment campaign in 1984. Tutu was elected Bishop of Johannesburg in 1985 and the Archbishop of Cape Town a year later. He retired from that office in 1996, but was immediately named Archbishop Emeritus. In 1995, then-President Nelson Mandela appointed Tutu to chair South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Archbishop Tutu is the author of Crying in the Wilderness and The Rainbow People of God: The Making of a Peaceful Revolution Tape: Archbishop Desmond Tutu, former archbishop of Cape Town, speaking in New York City on February 15, 2003. 9:20-9:21 One Minute Music Break: Holly Near sings to the crowd in NYC 9:21-9:40: Singer Harry Belafonte and actor Danny Glover also addressed the crowd, as well as activist Angela Davis. Tape: Harry Belafonte, singer, speaking in New York City on February 15, 2003. Tape: Harry Belafonte, singer, talking about Secretary of State General Colin Powell, in an interview with Amy Goodman and Pacifica Radio s Verna Avery Brown Tape: Angela Davis, speaking in New York City on February 15, 2003. Tape: Danny Glover, actor and activist, speaking in New York City on February 15, 2003 9:40-9:41 One Minute Music Break: the group Betty sings to the crowd in NYC 9:41-9:58: On the day before the worldwide protests, chief UN weapons inspectors Hans Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei went before the United Nations Security Council to announce no weapons of mass destruction had been found in Iraq. Blix cast doubt on evidence provided to the UN by Secretary of State Colin Powell. And ElBaradei called for increased inspections. Their report was followed by an impassioned anti-war address by French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin. When Villepin finished his remarks before the Security Council, the gallery burst into spontaneous applause, an unprecedented event at the UN. Tape: Hans Blix, chief UN inspector for biological and chemical weapons, recorded at the United Nations on Feb. 14, 2003 Tape: Dominique de Villepin, French Foreign Minister, recorded at the United Nations on Feb. 14, 2003 Tape: Phyllis Bennis, senior analyst at the Institute for Policy Studies, recorded at the New York anti-war rally on Feb. 15, 2003 9:58-9:59 Outro and Credits Democracy Now! is produced by Kris Abrams, Mike Burke, Angie Karran, Ana Nogiera and Alex Wolfe. Mike Di Filippo is our music maestro and engineer.