Quaker Group Organizes Protest in Western Massachusetts

March 23, 2003

Source: Boston Globe

On March 23, 2003 the Boston Globe reported that "At Westover Air Force Base in Chicopee, 90 miles west of Boston, a rally of 2,000 antiwar protesters included three-dozen who locked arms to block the main road leading into the base... Organized by the Western Massachusetts American Friends Service Committee, protesters entwined themselves in yellow, red, and blue yarn, to symbolize the "web of justice," they said. Committed to civil disobedience, they ignored the police countdown that gave them 2 minutes, then 1 minute, then 30 seconds to move. A handful of war supporters jeered, cursing the protesters for showing disrespect to US troops... Smaller protests dotted the suburbs, drawing diverse groups of families, students, and senior citizens."