By Nathan Aldrich, University of Massachusetts

Socialist Alternative joined with other community organizations to lead the largest anti-war events held in Boston since Bush’s re-election.

The week after Bush’s re-election, Socialist Alternative activists played a key role in bringing together students from 15 Boston-area colleges, universities, and high schools to build a successful rally and march on December 4, 2004. With Howard Zinn as the featured speaker, four Socialist Alternative members were asked to speak at the rally as representatives of community and student organizations that we are involved in. Given the widespread demoralization following Bush’s re-election, this lively, combative march of 400 committed local anti-war activists was a good showing, setting the stage for the bigger mobilizations that have occurred in its wake.

Many activists from the December 4 rally joined with Socialist Alternative and other community, labor, and student groups, such as Military Families Speak Out, United for Justice with Peace, U.S. Labor Against the War, Veterans for Peace, and the International Socialist Organization, to organize a weeklong speaking tour of Iraqi Veterans Against the War.

Thanks in part to our organization’s recent growth, Socialist Alternative was able to play an integral role in building for the speaking tour at Harvard, Tufts, and the University of Massachusetts-Boston, as well as the tour’s kick-off event at Faneuil Hall in downtown Boston. Due to the hard work of Socialist Alternative and many Boston community organizers, hundreds of people had the rare opportunity to hear directly from Iraq war veterans, anti-war activists with family members in the military, and Socialist Alternative speakers.

Now Socialist Alternative is working with many local, national, and even international organizations to organize huge anti-war protests in Boston and cities around the world on the weekend of March 19, the second anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Please join us on March 19 to demand that our troops be brought home now!