In scores of countries on every continent, in more than 350 cities, from Los Angeles and Detroit to Johannesburg, Buenos Aires and  Mexico City, from London, Rome, Berlin and Brussels to Bangkok , Kuala Lumpur and Istanbul, from the Fiji Islands  to Antarctica, countless numbers gathered not only to protest Bush & Company’s rush to war but to begin creating the fundamental  principles of a new  global   democracy:

• Governments should be based on the will and consent of the people, not the interests of oil-greedy CEOs and global corporations.

• Relationships between nations should be governed by the rule of law and multilateral institutions like the UN, not by the unilateral decisions and cynical manipulations of military and economic superpowers.

• Material and technical resources should be used to fight hunger, homelessness and disease, not for weapons of mass destruction.

• Our human commitment to creating a just and safe world for ourselves and our posterity transcends our national, class, religious, ethnic, and political differences.

Some  noteworthy features of today’s anti-war movement:

• Millions of Americans recognize, as they never have before, that taking a public stand  against an unjust war is love of country or patriotism at its best.

• We still have a long way to go but today’s anti-war movement has made great strides towards bridging the gulf between different generations, class, ethnic, religious and ideological groups.

• The anti-war movement itself is becoming a means to cut across deep-seated divisions. In Tel Aviv, for example, the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, Taayush-Arab Jewish Partnership,  Alternative Information Center and  Coalition of Women for Peace brought Israelis and Palestinians together in an anti-war demonstration.

• Today’s anti-war movement isn’t only about stopping the war over there. It’s about creating authentic communication and communities here at home. Opposition to the war has  provided  opportunities for neighbors and fellow workers to overcome our isolation from one another.  In cities like New York, people living in the same building who previously had only exchanged perfunctory greetings now go together to anti-war  demonstrations.

• Just as the anti-Vietnam war movement grew out of and built on the momentum of the civil rights movement, today’s  anti-war movement has built on the momentum of the anti-globalization movement that exploded in Seattle in November 1999 and the annual "Another World is Possible" World Social Forums that began in January 2001.

• Just as TV played a pivotal role in escalating the civil rights movement, the Internet has enabled today’s anti-war movement to grow faster than any previous movement. The first week in February fewer than 50 city councils in this country had passed resolutions against the war.  By  February 14 more than 90 city councils had joined the Cities for Peace movement.

• Anti-war protests in countries like Syria and Egypt with no history of peaceful demonstrations have sowed the seeds for anti-government demonstrations that threaten U.S.-supported autocratic regimes.

• A growing number of individuals are preparing to practice civil disobedience if and when war  breaks out.  In England four thousand people have pledged Civil Disobedience. Citizens of  the U.S., Japan and other countries are preparing to go to Iraq to act as human shields. Some British workers are already refusing to move supplies.