BOSTON/Long Wharf – Some of those standing in the hot sun in Christopher Columbus Park on Monday have been protesting the war in Iraq for twenty years; since the U.S. attacked that nation in January 1991. All of the hundred or so activists and veterans, young and old, were there to pay tribute to the soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, or those who have committed suicide as a result of post traumatic stress or severe brain injuries, as well as the innocent civilians killed or injured simply for living in a country facing U.S. occupation and civil strife and years of devastating economic sanctions.

BOSTON/Faneuil Hall - Over 75 members of Boston area chapters of Veterans for Peace and supporters marched behind the Veterans Day Parade through downtown Boston Thursday. The veterans have tried for years to convince the parade organizer - the American Legion - to allow them to march with signs critical of recent US military interventions while chanting anti-war cadences. Without success. Supreme Court precedent allows private groups that get permits for public events to decide who participates and enforce rules for participation; so the Veterans for Peace and allied organizations once again marched behind the American Legion's parade rather than not march at all.

Cambridge, MA - A group of 15 local anti-war activists gathered outside the First Parish Unitarian-Universalist Church in Harvard Square on Wednesday to protest an appearance by former United Kingdom Prime Minister Tony Blair - who was in town to discuss his new book with former New Yorker editor Tina Brown at a sold-out event sponsored by the Harvard Book Store. The protestors chanted slogans and interacted with attendees waiting to enter the church - saying that Blair and former US President George W. Bush were primarily responsible for perpetrating a campaign of lies and misinformation leading up to the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan - while reading the names of dozens of UK troops that have been killed in action in Iraq and Afghanistan aloud.

BOSTON/Roxbury Crossing - Despite the inclement weather and passing rain showers, more than fifty people gathered near the Roxbury Crossing T-station to call for a 25% reduction in military spending and to fund jobs instead.

Boston City Councilor Chuck Turner spoke at the rally, as well as representatives from other groups such as the Chinese Progressive Association.

BOSTON/Back Bay – Following on the heels of the “First Night Against the Wars – Let Gaza Live!” New Year’s Eve Copley Square rally in support of the Gaza Freedom March, local members of CODEPINK: Women For Peace – one of the official March sponsors – were joined by the Boston Coalition for Palestinian Rights and other groups in a lunchtime demonstration on Wednesday outside the Israeli Consulate at 20 Park Plaza.

BOSTON/Boston Common - Approximately 200 people gathered on the corner of Park Street and Tremont Street on evening of December 2 to protest President Barack Obama's decision to send an additional 30,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan. Protesters held lit candles and waved signs reading "War is Always a Defeat for Humanity" and "No We Can't," while speakers from Veterans for Peace, Military Families Speak Out, and other Boston-area peace groups addressed the crowd.

BOSTON and Cambridge, MA - What happens when a sitting President gives two speeches in your city in a single day? Well, if you live in Boston, you get two protests - one for each appearance by the Commander-in-Chief.


The action kicked off late Friday morning at MIT - where approximately 600 people gathered along Mass. Ave. in front of the Stratton Student Center. Nearby, inside Kresge Auditorium, Pres. Barack Obama spoke to a capacity crowd on US clean energy initiatives. Though the vast majority of the crowd gathered in the hopes of seeing Obama, over 60 people - most organized on short notice by the Boston area anti-war coalition United for Justice with Peace and the environmental organization Secure Green Future - held signs to protest the US occupation of Afghanistan, inaction on climate change, health care reform and foreign policy towards Iran, among other issues.

BOSTON/Copley Square - About 700 demonstrators from as far as Maine gathered to march against US wars, economic and foreign policy on Saturday. Groups marched with banners that read, "Fund jobs, health care and environment protection, not war and nuclear weapons," wearing paper mache costumes depicting the parents of war dead, and portraying street theater as "NAFTA," "The Military," and "The Economy" crashing their "Ship of Fools" at every opportunity. Photo and video coverage follows.