Thousands of South Africans are staging round-the-clock vigils to protest against the war in Iraq.
The activists, under the banner of the independent Anti-War Coalition and the Stop the War Campaign, are ideologically divergent but are united in their opposition to the United States-led campaign.
Coalition member Laurence Plaatjie has been picketing outside the US consulate in Killarney, Johannesburg, since American troops invaded Iraq last month. By day he and the others hold banners that read ”No to US imperialism”, ”Bush, Blair, Sharon, blood on your hands” and ”Consulate of genocide”. By night they hold candles. Every so often drivers hoot supportively, hoping police will not fine them for ”disturbing the peace”.
These activists believe the war is a small slice of a larger, longer and unpredictable political war between ”imperialists” and civil society.
Said coalition member Rasool Snyman: ”We are not prepared to be part of the massacre of civilians that is entirely driven by US economic interests and is divorced from the voices of civil society. US foreign policy is like an emperor without clothes: it is naked imperialism.”
The Stop the War Campaign calls for solidarity with the Iraqi people against ”the horrors of this imperialist war”. The activists feel President George W Bush alienated the world even before beginning his Iraqi diplomacy last year, by thumbing his nose at the Kyoto Protocol, the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and the International Criminal Court.
”To secure their imperialist design on the world, the US has ignored international agreements … the US is prepared to wage a war against any state, people or political movement that [it] considers too independent to the goal of US hegemony,” said Anti-War Coalition member Salim Vally.
The activists span the spectrum of race and culture and are not restricted to the two million-strong Muslim community in South Africa.
The Stop the War Campaign includes organisations such as the African National Congress, the Institute for Democracy in South Africa and the South African Catholic Bishops Conference. The Anti-War Coalition includes the Anti-Eviction Campaign, the Black Consciousness Forum, the Muslim Students Association and the South African National NGO Coalition.
”South Africa is regarded by the rest of the world as an important leader in activism because of their history … [so it is] fundamental that South Africans rise up and challenge this war,” said Claire Decoteau, a University of Michigan student completing her PhD in South Africa.
On Saturday marches will be held in Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg calling for Denel to stop supplying arms to the US and United Kingdom. Organisers hope to collect 100 000 petition signatures.