February 15, 2003, more than 500,000 demonstrators protested in the streets of New York City against the Bush administration's drive to war against Iraq. Mayor Bloomberg denied the organizers a permit to march to the United Nations. As a consequence, the New York Police Department developed strategies to divert the protesters from the permitted rally point at 1st Avenue and 52nd Street, 7 blocks away from the United Nations. There was much confusion in the streets. Many demonstrators compared the overwhelming police presence and enforcement tactics to a "police state." In this photo, protesters are on Fifth Avenue in front of the New York Public Library. NYC Indymedia reported more than 300 were arrests on February 15.

This photoessay with video footage attempts to give a sense of what it was like in the streets of New York City on that cold February day. (Photos by a.h.s. boy, Jean Cushman, Ted Russell)

WAR * FAMINE * PESTILENCE * DEATH

January 18, tens of thousands of people protested the Bush Administration's drive toward war against Iraq. DC Indymedia reported more than 200,000; the rally organizers 500,000. What the exact numbers were could surely be estimated in a space like the Mall where, as the Washington Post reported "people packed much of four long blocks." Rally speakers and artists included actor Jessica Lange, Reverend Jesse Jackson, and the rock group Chumbawumba. There were hundreds of signs, masks and puppets giving the demonstration an almost carnival atmosphere, though no one could doubt the sincerity and seriousness of the messages. Activists from Sri Lanka, Kurdistan, Indonesia, and the Congo were present as were groups trying to educate Americans about the nature of Islam. There were fund appeals for Iraqi children and Veterans for Peace was raising money to rebuild Iraq’s water plants destroyed in the Gulf War.

To give a picture of the diversity of groups and individuals present at the protest, Indymedia offers a photoessay. (Photos by Abby Anzalone, Howard Ehrlich, Laura Goren, Ted Russell)

This photoessay provides images of the Baltimore stadiums - Memorial Stadium and Oriole Park at Camden Yards - as examples of urban destruction and reconstruction linking space, place, memory, and political-economic power.