Saturday Feb 15th - Anti-War Action in at least 20 NZ centres

Anti-war protests have been organised in at least 20 centres around New Zealand as part of more than 500 protests internationally against American plans to invade Iraq.

The centres we know of so far are Dunedin, Timaru, Christchurch, Greymouth, Westport, Opotiki, Wanganui, Hamilton, Auckland, Nelson, Motueka, Wellington, Palmerston North, Dannevirke, Hastings, Whakatane, Great Barrier Island, Thames, Gisborne and Takaka.

This is the most significant anti-war action for New Zealand since the anti-nuclear marches of the 1980's.

More importantly the highly co-ordinated nature of these protests internationally and the strength of opposition to this planned invasion around the globe means that Feb 15th will see the largest mobilisation of people in the history of the planet.

We believe this war can be stopped. If the numbers turning out to protest around the world are great enough then the cost to America will be simply too high to proceed. They would gain control of cheap Iraqi oil for their economy but would lose so heavily in so many other ways the price would be too high for invasion.

For this reason we appeal to every New Zealander to realise that ordinary people can make a dramatic difference and that difference can be made this Saturday.

The Auckland March gathers at 12noon at QEII Square at the bottom of Queen Street for a march to Myers Park. A feature of the march will be a speaker who is an Iraqi nun - Sister Fida Petrus - a member of the Dominican order of Catholic nuns in Iraq and a passionate advocate for peace.

We have had calls from school students organising to come with their own banners and many people for whom this march will be their very first public protest. We expect a huge turnout.

New Zealand is the first country out of the blocks on Saturday and we have received a request to prepare a short tape of the march to be shown in Times Square New York later in the day at the New York rally.

John Minto For the GPJA Committee

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