Over 20,000 anti-war demonstrators marched peacefully through Naples today to protest a military build-up and the threat of a global conflict in the wake of US attacks.
One of the organisers, Mr Francesco Caruso of the anti-globalization group ‘No Global’, put the turn-out at around 40,000.
"Everything went very peacefully. The police were very discreet. We reached our objective of saying a big 'No' to war, and 'No' to terrorism," he said.
The absence of NATO leaders from Naples, which is home to the alliance's Southern Command, and was originally to have hosted a NATO meeting this week, took much of the heat out of what had threatened to be a tense sequel to the violence-marred Genoa summit, which involved many of the same anti-globalisation groups at today’s march.
NATO leaders were originally scheduled to meet yesterday and today in Naples but moved the meeting to Brussels in the wake of the US attacks.
In a throwback to the anti-war movement of the 1960s, the march had headed off from the main train station led by a group carrying hippy-style peace banners and chanting in English: "one, two, three, four ... we don't want another war. Five, six, seven, eight ... stop the violence, stop the hate."
Meanwhile in Athens about 2,000 Greek leftists and anti-globalisation protesters demonstrated in central against possible US retaliation.
Waving signs reading ‘No to Bush's war and Peace now’, the demonstrators shouted anti-American and anti-NATO slogans.
Polls show the Greek public is largely opposed to Greece's involvement in a possible Western attack against any nation involved in the US attacks.
Greeks were also strongly opposed to the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999 but the government fulfilled its logistical obligations to NATO at the time.
AFP &