By Paola Desiderio, Karen Thomas and Mike Marquesse and others

Anti-war protests have brought more than half a million people onto the streets in more than 450 demonstrations in the six weeks since the September 11 terror attacks. Italy hosted the largest protests to date, with 200,000 people marching from Perugia to Assissi on Sunday October 14.

Peacelink –  http://www.peacelink.it – reported that the "unbelievably huge" Perugia to Assissi march was Italy’s largest since the Sixties, the strength of anti-war feeling taking both the organisers and Italian politicians by surprise. It followed a demonstration by up to 100,000 anti-war protestors in Rome on September 29 and by up to 40,000 people in Naples on September 27.

Athens mobilised 10,000 anti-war protestors on September 27. In Spain, up to 15,000 people took to the streets in Barcelona on September 29 and other sizeable protests have been staged in Berlin, Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam.

Athens mobilised 10,000 anti-war protestors on September 27. In Spain, up to 15,000 people took to the streets in Barcelona on September 29 and other sizeable protests have been staged in Berlin, Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam. Other sizeable protest marches have taken place in Australia and in Canada, where CNN reported that 15,000 marchers took to the streets of Vancouver for the third weekend in a row.

The growing US anti-war movement has sparked a flurry of vigils and anti-war marches across the States, largely ignored by the mainstream US media. Up to 25,000 people marched in Washington and 15,000 people in San Francisco on September 29, and a further 8,000 in New York and 5,000 in Berkley, California. Other protests were staged in Los Angeles and Seattle.

"I am very afraid that there is a very big tragedy in the making," Pakistani community leader Zulfikhar Ahmad told marchers in San Francisco. "It will be the biggest dishonour to the memory of the 6,000 innocent people who have died."

The Wall Street Journal reported that "several hundred" protestors held a vigil at Pittsburgh First Baptist Church on September 30, organising groups to protect threatened Muslim Americans and launching a programme of teach-ins for peace. Students from Harvard, Boston University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Lewis & Clark in Oregon staged vigils that weekend.

Theology students at the University of Chicago have gathered half a million signatures on a petition calling on the US government to adhere to international law to bring the September 11 attackers to justice. The jaded Wall Street Journal commented nevertheless that: "being part of a peace movement has never been wildly popular with mainstream America".

The weekend of 13-14 October saw a wide range of marches. In London, there were up to 50,000 people surpassing the expectations of march organisers CND and paving the way for a second planned march called by the Stop the War Coalition on November 18. For more details, look at our earlier posting:  http://www.mwaw.org/article.php?sid=138 In Glasgow, Scotland, around 1,500 people gathered in George Square for an anti-war protest.

Elsewhere on the weekend of 13-14 October, in Germany more than 25,000 peace protesters took to the streets. The largest turnout was in the capital, Berlin, where some 15,000 protesters held a protest in the central Gendarmenmarkt square, police said. The rally was preceded by several peace marches held throughout the city under the motto "No War - Stand Up for Peace." Demonstrators from peace, church and student groups, as well as some unions, called for an immediate halt to the attacks, warning of an escalation of violence in Afghanistan and neighbouring Pakistan. They also called on world leaders to encourage development in the region as a way to "root out terrorism at its base."

In the southern German city of Stuttgart, about 10,000 peace protesters called on the United States to leave Afghanistan and for Germans to stand together against the war. "This war threatens to spread a fire of hatred," Sybille Stamm, local head of the giant ver.di service union told a crowd gathered for a rally in downtown Stuttgart. Stamm criticized the government for increasing spending on state security at the cost of social programs. Before the rally, police said about 80 people took part in a protest vigil near the barracks where the US military's headquarters for Europe are stationed. No incidents were reported.

In Sweden, several thousand people marched peacefully in the country's three biggest cities on 13 October to protest the bombings. "It's absolutely unacceptable that the world's richest country bombs the world's poorest people," said Ann-Cathrin Jarl of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom.

In Australia, 13 October demonstrations in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Adelaide had been planned for more than a year to protest the militarization of space, but became forums to oppose the military offensive in Afghanistan. "No one supports the September 11 attacks but no one supports what's happening now in Afghanistan, either. The way to remember the dead of September 11 is not by building another mound of innocent people's bodies," said Denis Doherty, a rally organizer.

There is a complete and frequently updated list of all protests worldwide at  http://pax.protest.net/Peace/protest_numbers.html

Forthcoming international marches and anti-war activities are being co-ordinated via the Internet on websites including  http://www.peacelink.it and www.peacenowar.net

The International ANSWER Coalition is organising a US day of action on October 27 and compiling a fact-sheet on US policy in the Middle East – see  http://www.internationalanswer.org for details.