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IVAW Anti-Warriors Descend on Monument Circle

By Martin Smith

On March 29, 2008, a chilly Saturday afternoon in downtown Indianapolis, a small group of anti-warriors gathered who were just as scruffy in their appearance as they were dedicated to their cause. Fourteen Iraq Veterans Against the War members from three different chapters in the Great Lakes Region gathered at a small protest that was held at an odd, behemoth tower that pierced the sky and stood in sharp contrast to our message.

We staked our own claim to "Monument Circle," a phallic structure rising almost 300 feet and decorated with mammoth-size replicas of white, battle-torn soldiers and sailors, but we carried an opposing demand from the one captured in limestone to our aft. We stood in lock-step formation, proudly carrying our IVAW banner, as messengers against an immoral war and in stark contrast to the memorialized victors of steadfast patriotism, frozen in time and place at the obelisk's base.

This second annual event titled, "Five Years Too Long," was sponsored by Indiana students and local peace activists and was held just days after the 4,000th US troop had died in Iraq. Vince Emanuele, Derek Giffin, and Erin Constantine spoke to the crowd calling on them to join the Winter Soldier Movement and the new war that we were prepared to fight as foot soldiers for peace. As Vince so aptly put it, "This war won't be stopped by the politicians, but only by us, building the new GI Movement."

While this small protest, and others like it, will never end the war by itself, the event should be judged not by the war's trajectory but rather for how it served as a path to strengthen the GI Movement. It was a potent reminder of the power of protest. Our large turnout of members brought us together in a collective show of solidarity. Older members mentored newer ones and welcomed them aboard.

We garnered media coverage, with journalists glued to our individual stories like politicians on the gravy-train of corporate giveaways and graft. And rather than being someone else's "window-dressing," we stole the show with a full frontal display backed up and supported by the local peace movement. Activists and community members not only supported our cause but also donated generously to our various chapters when we passed the hat.

But even more, we made contact and networked with new allies, activists, and leaders who are now part of the Winter Soldier Movement. Even at a small protest in the middle of Midwestern cornfields, it is possible to do the essential base-building that can rebuild a grassroots, bottom-up movement—the kind of social movement that can not only end the war, but one that may also set roots which will allow future generations to build monuments of a different kind, ones that celebrate humanity and peace rather than war.