Across the United States, on campuses from Los Alamos High School to Harvard University and at all points in between, students are getting organized to commemorate the fifth year of the U.S. occupation of Iraq with rallies, marches, die-ins and civil disobedience. More than 80 student and youth organizations have endorsed a call from chapters of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) for campus-based protests from March 17-21.

Minneapolis, MN – Video coverage is now available of the Feb. 9-10 Organizing Conference to prepare for RNC Sept. 1 anti-war protest in St Paul, MN. The planned demonstration will coincide with the Republican National Convention.

Listen to some of the key speeches

Minneapolis, MN – Activists from around the country gathered here Feb. 9-10 for an organizing conference to plan the anti-war protests at the Republican National Convention.

Minneapolis, MN – Carlos Montes, of Latinos Against War and veteran leader of the Chicano and immigrants right movements, along with Angel Buechner of the Welfare Rights Committee were among the many prominent activists who addressed the Feb 9-10 Organizers Conference here to prepare the massive anti-war march planned for the opening day of the Republican National Convention.

The Bush administration has changed its strategy in Iraq. Previously the occupation relied on Kurdish and Shiite militias to keep a grip. Now it has added Sunni militias called ‘Awakening Councils’ (al-Sahwa) and ‘Concerned Local Citizens’ (CLCs) to the mix. It is a fateful step.

Chapters of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), along with student and youth organizations from across the country are calling for rallies, marches, walkouts, direct actions and other activities on campuses during the week of March 17 to 21, marking the fifth anniversary of the beginning of the Iraq war.

Organizers of the massive anti-war demonstration planned for the opening day of the Republican National Convention have won an important victory – permits have been secured for the Minnesota State Capitol building and grounds.

Minneapolis, MN – On August 19, some 60 people gathered at Todos Los Santos Church for “Women on the Frontlines: the First Causalities of War,” an Anti-War Committee forum on the human impact of U.S. policies towards Iraq, Colombia, and Yugoslavia.

Minneapolis, MN – Over 200 people joined a anti-war protest here Oct. 11. The protest was organized under the slogans of “Bring the troops home now,” “Out of Iraq, out of Afghanistan, no war on Iran,” and “Funds for housing and human needs – not war!”

The following interview with Baha Abu Hussein, the Director of International Relations in the Palestinian Progressive Youth Union, was conducted by Kosta Harlan.

St. Paul, MN – Representatives from the Coalition to March on the RNC and Stop the War meet with the Mayor Coleman, the City Attorney, and other Saint Paul city officials, Dec. 11 at City Hall to press their demands for permits to march on the Republican National Convention and for the city to observe the rights of protesters.

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following commentary by Jess Sundin, a member of the Twin Cities based Anti-War Committee and the Coalition to March on the RNC and Stop the War.

Smithfield, NC – Around 250 demonstrators rallied here, Oct. 27, to protest the war in Iraq and demand an end to the ‘torture taxi service’ run by Aero Contractors out of the Johnston County airport. Activists with the North Carolina Stop Torture Now coalition and independent journalists have documented that the CIA has moved hundreds of detainees through the rural Johnston County airport. The airport forms a link in the chain of the transportation of so-called ‘extraordinary rendition’ suspects on their way to be tortured, and sometimes killed, in secret prisons outside of the United States.

New York, NY – Despite lots of rain, organizers reported that tens of thousands of people marched here, Oct. 27, against the war on Iraq. The march was one of eleven regional anti-war protests around the U.S.

Washington, D.C. – Thousands of people from across the United States marched here, Sept. 29 against the war in Iraq and the pro-war policies of Congress. The crowd gathered in response to a call put out by the Troops Out Now Coalition. Many nationalities and all age groups were represented. The demands included support for the Iraqi people, the release of the Jena Six, ending the U.S. intervention in the Philippines, justice for Katrina survivors and an end to the occupation of Palestine.

Washington, DC – Over 20,000 demonstrators marched here on Sept. 15 to protest the U.S. occupation of Iraq. At the same time, dozens of demonstrations were held in cities across the country. Initiated by the ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) Coalition, the Sept. 15 protests were timed to coincide with top U.S. General David Petraeus’s report to Congress on the ‘surge’ earlier this week. Bush and Petraeus stated they will continue the war, but the response of the protesters was loud and clear: “End the war now!”

Reporting to Congress Sept. 11, General David Petraeus confirmed what most in the anti-war movement have long been saying: The U.S. has no intention of getting out of Iraq anytime soon – unless it is forced to.

Newark, NJ – On Aug. 25, almost 44 years to the day after Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his “I Have a Dream” speech to between a quarter and a half million people, the Peace and Justice Coalition, an alliance of more than 120 peace and justice organizations, will march in Newark, New Jersey.

Minneapolis, MN – Thousands gathered in Minneapolis, June 23-24, celebrating Twin Cities Pride, an annual two-day festival for the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBTQ) community and their allies. The Anti-War Committee participated by staffing a table and marching in the parade under the banner “Out now: Queers out of the closet, U.S. out of Iraq!” The Anti-War Committee has always sought to make connections between the people’s struggles and Pride 2007 was no exception. Like the GLBT community, the Iraqi people are engaged in a struggle for liberation. Though their circumstances differ widely, queer people have at least two things in common with Iraqis: The oppression of both groups is used by politicians to divide people and both groups are expected to wait for recognition of their rights.

In March, U.S. antiwar activist and Freedom Road Socialist Organization member Kosta Harlan attended a historic international solidarity conference in Italy with leaders of the Iraqi resistance ( see “Voices of the Iraqi Resistance,” Fight Back!, March 2007). Since returning to the United States, Harlan has traveled to college campuses and cities across the South, speaking to hundreds of students and antiwar activists about the Iraqi resistance. He spoke at the University of North Carolina at Asheville, Chapel Hill, and Charlotte; at Winthrop University in South Carolina; at the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa and at community centers in Winston-Salem and Minneapolis, Minnesota.