How has protest changed since the 1960s?
The era of protest in the 1960s, which encompassed far beyond the anti-war movement, helped lay the foundation for the historic rallies in late 2002 and early 2003, which protested a threatened war—something quite unusual in the history of state violence and public reaction to it. It is illuminating to go back in time and to see how long the Vietnam War had been going on before large public protests were organized to demand the end of that war. Here, in early 2003, mass protests, nationally and internationally, were taking place before the war in Iraq ever began. In this respect, public protests against war have become sharper, better focused, better organized and less patient with state violence. Importantly, too, the range of groups working under the banner of the anti-war movement has increased exponentially. UFPJ can attest to this directly since many of these groups happen to be member groups to our coalition. On a national, regional and local level, cooperation amongst the anti-w
