LONDON - It may be premature to call it a fully fledged anti-war movement, but voices are being raised across the United States and elsewhere, urging George W. Bush and his military to show restraint in punishing those responsible for attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.
President Bush's war on terrorism has revived the flagging fortunes of peace groups.
Many Britons took to the streets last weekend and a protest was also held outside an American airbase.
In the US, thousands of students rallied on more than a hundred campuses at the weekend in scenes reminiscent of Vietnam War protests.
Some protests drew counter-rallies demanding military retribution.
Representatives from 20 British organisations have held a crisis meeting in central London to decide on their strategy in advance of the anticipated attacks on Afghanistan.
Bush's hardline rhetoric over the US National Missile Defence scheme had already prompted an 8 per cent rise in membership of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in the past year, and inquiries have risen sharply since the attacks a fortnight ago.
A strong recruitment campaign in universities has harnessed a new generation of peace campaigners, say CND organisers.
The group had been forced to make cutbacks as membership fell to 30,000, less than a third of the total during the mid-1980s.
CND had focused on lobbying work and smaller protests but spokesman Nigel Chamberlain said the alliance of peace groups could again lead to mass demonstrations.
"It has been an ageing membership," he said. "The Bush presidency has transformed that and given us fresh impetus."
Links are being forged with groups across Europe, the US and Asia.
CND is working towards a march and rally for peace and justice in London on October 13. It was originally designed to be one of 85 protests worldwide against the "son of Star Wars" scheme but is now planned as a more broad peace protest.
Rallies and silent vigils throughout Britain at the weekend included 3000 people in Whitehall, London.
Many wore black and stood "shoulder to shoulder" in a protest against Prime Minister Tony Blair's description of Britain's relationship with the US. Others carried placards reading: "Stand shoulder to shoulder for peace and justice. No more violence."
Britons and Americans protested outside the biggest US Air Force installation in Europe, the Lakenheath airbase in Suffolk.
Craig Hickman-Havorson, who has dual English and American nationality, said: "I have relatives in America and I have every sympathy with the relatives of people who have suffered in these atrocities. I just don't think that a military strike is the answer."
The protests follow a candlelit vigil outside Blair's residence in Downing St, organised by Arrow (Active Resistance to the Roots of War), a week after the US attacks.
Another group staged a "Picnic for Peace" in London.
Kevin Mullen, spokesman for the Campaign Against Arms Trade, said: "The calls for restraint seem to be coming from a lot of voices and a lot of organisations."
Part of the energy that has driven the anti-capitalist demonstrations at recent world trade and financial meetings is almost certain now to be redirected into the anti-war effort.
A peace protesters' gathering has been called for next weekend in Washington DC. Many activists had been planning on that day to go to the city for a meeting of the World Bank - now cancelled.
Kit Bonson, a director of the Washington Peace Center, which is planning the event, said: "There'll be a surprisingly large peace response to this crisis. I don't think the Bush Administration understands that yet."
Bonson echoed the feelings of many of the students who demonstrated when he added: "Violence begets violence and there are alternatives to open-ended war against an unidentified enemy."
Meanwhile, a coalition of business, religious and entertainment leaders has formed to denounce any military response to the atrocities. Those who have signed a document urging caution include actor Martin Sheen, singer Harry Belafonte and civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks.
The group says military action will "spark a cycle of escalating violence, the loss of innocent lives and new acts of terrorism".
A statement from the group adds: "Our best chance for preventing such devastating acts of terror is to act decisively and cooperatively as part of a community of nations within the framework of international law."
The forum for such cooperation would be the United Nations, but it has been sidelined by the US, the group says.
Media mogul Ted Turner, the UN's most generous private benefactor, used an appearance at its headquarters last week to warn Washington not to "indiscriminately start bombing countries".
But just as recent polls have shown 90 per cent support among Americans for military action, pro-war sentiment is rife among students, too. Some US campuses are showing signs of deep division. By far the biggest turnout for the anti-war contingent has been at the University of California at Berkeley, which was the cradle of the peace and free-speech movements of the 1960s.
About 2000 anti-war protesters turned out to be met by a few hundred counter-demonstrators chanting "USA" and waving American flags.
Anti-capitalist groups planning to focus, for the time being, on the anti-war effort include Britain's Globalise Resistance Movement, based in London.
Spokesman Guy Taylor said: "We will campaign primarily against the war because you can't have global justice without a globe ...
"We don't see any action against Afghanistan remaining just that - it will very quickly generalise and become a much wider proposition."
To many civil rights advocates, the legislative backlash against terrorism could represent a dramatic erosion of US freedom and privacy.
The fervour to respond forcefully to the attack has critics concerned that legislation with profound long-term consequences will be passed with little debate.
Rights advocates are concerned about an upsurge in racial profiling of Arab Americans, particularly at airports and in FBI investigations.
After years of angry campaigning against such practices when they were directed at African Americans, Congress was ready to ban racial profiling. That legislation will probably be dropped now.
National identity cards are also being considered, as are big increases in the budgets of the FBI, CIA and the super-secret National Security Agency.
The agencies, backed by the Department of Justice, are looking to broaden their power to spy on people, plant wiretaps and detain suspects. Also under consideration are the extended use of facial recognition technology and restricting software that scrambles e-mail.
Said Senate majority Leader Trent Lott last week: "When you're in this type of conflict, when you're at war, civil liberties are treated differently."
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, HERALD CORRESPONDENT
Map: Opposing forces in the war against terror