Manifestazione No. 1

Demonstration in Rome against the War in Iraq

The February 15, 2003 anti-war protest was a coordinated day of protests across the world expressing opposition to the then-imminent Iraq War. It was part of a series of protests and political events that had begun in 2002 and continued as the war took place.

Sources vary in their estimations of the number of participants involved. According to BBC News, between six and ten million people took part in protests in up to sixty countries over the weekend of the 15th and 16th; other estimates range from eight million to thirty million.

Some of the largest protests took place in Europe. The protest in Rome involved three million people, and is listed in the 2004 Guinness Book of World Records as the largest anti-war rally in history

Anti-war groups worldwide organised public protests. According to the French academic Dominique Reynié between 3 January and 12 April 2003, 36 million people across the globe took part in almost 3,000 anti-war protests, the demonstrations on 15 February 2003 being the largest and most prolific.

After the biggest series of demonstrations, on February 15, 2003, New York Times writer Patrick Tyler claimed that they showed that there were two superpowers on the planet, the United States and worldwide public opinion.

This was yet another example of social power – which is the coming together of disparate individuals to share an experience, and in this case to voice there resistance.