Anti-War Demonstrators Block Georgia Street Viaduct
Saturday, March 29, 2003
Anti-War Action
Towards the end of an anti-war rally at the Vancouver Art Gallery police officers began to aggressively clear the streets, pushing and hitting people. One person was thrown to the ground and roughly arrested by several cops. The crowd became very angry and tussled with the police while chanting �Let him go! Let him go!�
People then sat down and blocked part of the street for about half-an-hour, directly disobeying the police order to move on to the sidewalk.
About 30 demonstrators then marched down Georgia Street chanting �No justice. No peace. U.S. out of the Middle East!� and �What�s the solution? Revolution!� The group sat in an intersection for a few minutes and then proceeded on to the Georgia Street viaduct where the group sat down again and blockaded the bridge, in spite of a massive police presence. After a few minutes the demonstrators got up and marched across the viaduct to Main Street where a cop reportedly had brought out a giant gun (possibly tear-gas). The demonstrators then headed down to the police station and court house where they were told that the man who had been arrested was released. Many young children led the march.
The break-away march created several hours of traffic disruption and inspired those who took part to escalate the struggle and to push for direct action in the local anti-war movement, in solidarity with people all over the world. Go San Francisco!
Ongoing Anti-War Action in Vancouver, Canada
March 22, 2003
Anti-War Action
Thousands of people marched through the streets of Vancouver against the war on Iraq Saturday afternoon, March 22, 2003.
Along the way demonstrators closed the doors of businesses on Robson Street, chanting "When people are dying, how can you be buying?" A group of demonstrators spray-painted the wall of a building, the street and the U.S. consulate building itself with "Class War" and "Stop the war" slogans. A CityTV corporate news van and a wall of the Art Gallery were spray-painted with the anarchist circle A.
Demonstrators encircled the U.S. consulate and a group of students sat in the street and blocked a road near the building for a short time.
The night before, on Friday, March 22, at 5pm about 200 people marched through the streets of Vancouver against the war on Iraq.
A person in a red sports car drove right into the demonstration, speeding up, hitting demonstrators and nearly killing several of them. Luckily there were only minor injuries. Many people from the march chased after the car but could not catch up. Reportedly someone got the license plate of the vehicle. When one person who was hit by the car explained the event to a police officer the cop responded by saying �I don�t care.�
The shocked but defiant group marched on to the Burrard Street Bridge, stopped in the middle and blocked it off for a short time, yelling �US out!�
The demonstrators then marched down to the US consulate and joined the anti-war camp there.
On Thursday, March 20, hundreds of students walked out of classes, marched around their campuses and then boarded busses to head downtown to the US consulate. Throughout the day groups of students marched around the city, sat and blocked streets and at one point sat down in front of a Canadian Armed Forces Recruitment Centre.
Two fights broke out during the day outside the US consulate over American flags. In the morning a man drove by in a car waving an American flag and a demonstrator grabbed it and threw it on the ground. The man got out of his car and a scuffle broke out as cops intervened and demonstrators tugged on the flag. Eventually the flag was grabbed and taken away. Later on, as demonstrators attempted to burn US and UK flags, �peace activists� violently assaulted the demonstrators, pushing and pulling, and grabbing the flags. At an anti-war rally later that night demonstrators managed to climb on a platform and burn the US and UK flags to the cheers of the crowd. A picture of George Bush was burned in effigy as the crowd chanted, �burn Bush burn!�
On Wednesday night, hours after the beginning of the US-led war on Iraq, hundreds of demonstrators gathered at the Vancouver Art Gallery in opposition. The march through the streets of Vancouver that Wednesday night arrived at the US consulate building, and the demonstrators expressed their rage at the latest US imperialist attack. Later that night a rock was thrown which smashed a window at the US consulate building.