“Peace, Peace, Peace!!!”, chanted a group of 15 youngsters in red coveralls, holding traffic signs with a NO tanks and arms (red circle with a line) symbol. Actor Soledad Perez and Tomás Hirsch, Spokesperson for Humanism in Latin America, both came with their sign-up lists in hand to collect signatures of people circulating through the city area of Ahumada. They were accompanied by a group of 80 people with the slogans of peace and nonviolence resonating in the background, “Nonviolence! Peace! Peace!”.
The team in red coveralls swarmed into the crowd and spread out in a random ‘lay-down’ on the sidewalk displaying their signs. People laughed and watched perplexed, while others filled out surveys signing up to endorse the World March for Peace and Nonviolence.
In this ebullient atmosphere Gloria Morrison, president of World Without Wars explained that the campaign was to sensitize people to the need to end war and global militarization, as well as deliver a proposal “in which each individual feels they can do something to contribute to World Peace.”
Spokesperson Tomás Hirsch referred to his participation proclaiming, “This is a great opportunity for social mobilization where we seek to create consciousness about the growing violence around the world marked by the dangerous possibility of nuclear conflict.”
Among the youth in red coveralls, Leonardo Collao, a music student in the University of Chile explained, “The color of the clothing is that of a Stop Sign saying No to war.”
