RedCeltic - will you be there?
I would LOVE to go to this rally and march. Alas, can't rustle up the money for a plane ticket at will!
Solidarity to all those attending.
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This is from Worker's World Party Newspaper... Thought some may be interested
Anti-war forces call for national action
Say no to racism, aggression, xenophobia
By Teresa Gutierrez
New York
In response to the Bush administration's drive toward a new, open-ended war, a broad coalition of anti-war groups has called for a national demonstration in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 29 at the White House.
Permits for a mass rally at Lafayette Park and the White House sidewalk, plus for a march route to the Capitol, were secured on Sept. 19. The demonstration will begin at 12 noon.
The International Action Center, one of the sponsoring organizations, had planned a demonstration that day as part of many protest events to take place from Sept. 25-Oct. 2 during planned meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Those meetings have now been canceled, and the focus of the protest has shifted.
In the face of the new war crisis, the expanded coalition for Sept. 29 has two major demands: Stop war and end racism.
Racism includes the xenophobic attacks on Middle Eastern and South Asian people that have accompanied the drive to war.
Organizers in New York and Washington expect the protests to attract thousands. They report that the call for this refocused Sept. 29 demonstration has aroused support in almost all the 70 existing organizing centers that had been mobilizing for the earlier march.
IAC organizers in Los Angeles and San Francisco, where local demonstrations are planned for Sept. 29, report a similar interest.
The broad coalition, called International A.N.S.W.E.R. (Act Now to Stop War & End Racism), is already gathering endorsers for the Sept. 29 action and projecting further Oct. 12-13 demonstrations all over the world.
Former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, Rev. Lucius Walker of Pastors for Peace, Samia Halaby of Al-Awda, Barbara Lubin of the Middle East Children's Alliance, poet Martin Espada and Pam Africa of the International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal were among the first U.S.-based signers.
Wolfgang Richter and former Admiral Elmar Schmaehling of the European Peace Forum, the Korea Truth Commission, the Arab Cause Solidarity Committee in Spain, peace activist and journalist Michel Collon from Belgium, and former Italian parliamentarian Falco Accame and the Nino Pasti Foundation of Rome have signed on, with more individuals and groups supporting from Europe, Africa, Latin America and Asia.
This demonstration takes place in the midst of a political mood completely altered by the horrific loss of life on Sept. 11.
The people of New York City and Washington, D.C., where most of the lives were lost, were particularly affected. The devastation touched millions.
With a frenzied war drive emanating from the White House, it was no small thing that a voice emerged from around the country, especially from those two cities, that called instead for peace.
An even more widespread sentiment has emerged around the country. There is a strong desire to prevent attacks on Middle Eastern peoples living here. People from many walks of life across the country are not only denouncing racist attacks on Arab and Middle Eastern people, they are organizing to stop them.
To mobilize these signs of progressive sentiment into a movement requires both firmness in standing up to pressure and flexibility in tactics as the situation changes day by day.
It is important to maintain a focus for the progressive sentiments of the grieving masses, who have been expressing anti-war and anti-racist feelings spontaneously, in quiet gatherings, as they light candles to mourn the dead.
Organizer Dick Becker from the Washington S29 office reported, "The IAC believes it is critical to hold this action in D.C. Even the polls show that millions of people in this country disagree with the course taken by the Bush administration toward imminent war."
Mood in New York
In New York City a pervasive cloud of smoke still hangs in the air a week after the catastrophe, reminding even those who choose not to look up at the skyline. In all the boroughs pictures of missing New Yorkers cover walls, lampposts and store windows.
U.S. flags are all over. But these flags, which so often are the sign of militarism and pro-war sentiment, stand in the midst of makeshift monuments to the missing, with candles surrounding them. Whether they are carried to express militarism--or simply solidarity with the victims--is still to be determined.
There is not the kind of war frenzy in the population that Bush and his cronies might have hoped for. In New York City, where over 5,000 workers are dead or missing, one can still safely hand out a leaflet against the drive for war.
Almost daily at places like Union Square or Washington Square Park, thousands gather because everyone feels the need to connect, to grieve, to talk. You can learn about that in the media. But the media has avoided reporting that when you talk to the people there, they tell you they want no further war.
They sing, "Give Peace a Chance." This is a far cry from the "dead or alive" saber-rattling of the president.
The capitalist government and media minimize this anti-war sentiment. Instead, since Sept. 11, the Bush administration has moved swiftly to strengthen its war machine and police apparatus, assaulting civil rights at home.
The task of the anti-war and progressive movements is not only to merge with the popular anti-war mood but to encourage it, give it a clear focus, help strengthen it and spread it nationally.
"This is why it is so important to go all out for S29 in Washington," said Larry Holmes of the New York office of the IAC. "The Bush administration is on a course to destroy our civil liberties and democratic rights. There is an epidemic of racist attacks. The only way to counter all this is to take a stand and take it now. It is dangerous to wait."
Holmes went on to explain that without an open protest people can feel isolated, can think there is one, pro-war view that is the only acceptable position. A strong protest, on the other hand, can break through the isolation and encourage further resistance to war.
Protest gathers steam
Almost all of the already existing 70 organizing centers across the country have agreed to shift gears. They are now fervently organizing to send one message to the U.S. government: War and racism is not the answer.
From the national office of the S29 demonstration, organizers report a dramatic increase of interest in the protest.
Sarah Sloan, youth organizer for the IAC, reports that many high school students in Washington, D.C., who had expressed some interest before Sept. 11, are now coming in and actively organizing for the demonstration. There are a flurry of calls, she says, from throughout the country.
In Salem, Mass., the organizing center put out a call to discuss the changed protest. They expected a dozen friends to come. Instead, 150 people turned out and they all wanted to go to Washington.
San Francisco and Los Angeles organizers have called local demonstrations, given the difficulties in travel at this moment. Responses at the IAC offices in those cities indicate the demonstrations will be large.
Already in these California cities, as well as in other cities throughout the country, sizable gatherings have taken place. They are all saying no to war and the racist attacks.
The call issued by International A.N.S.W.E.R. for the Sept. 29 demonstrations and the international Oct. 12-13 actions contained the following statements:
"We join with people all over the world in condemning the horrific killings of thousands of persons in the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Our most heartfelt sympathies and condolences are with those whose loved ones were lost or injured on Sept. 11, 2001.
"At this moment, we would all like to take time to reflect, to grieve, to extend sympathy and condolences to all. But we believe that we must do more. We must act now.
"We are assembling International A.N.S.W.E.R. to call for worldwide rallies against war and racism. On Sept. 29, there will be a national march and rally at the White House in Washington, D.C., as well as marches on the West Coast of the U.S. and around the world. We call on all people of conscience and progressive organizations to take up this call and organize rallies around the world.
"Unless we stop President Bush and NATO from carrying out a new, wider war in the Middle East, the number of innocent victims will grow from the thousands to the tens of thousands and possibly more. A new, wider U.S. and NATO war in the Middle East can only lead to an escalating cycle of violence. War is not the answer."
The call also protested the wave of attacks on immigrants and the usurpation of civil rights and liberties by the government and police.
Readers can contact International A.N.S.W.E.R. at (212) 633-6646 or (202) 543-2777. For Los Angeles, call (213) 487-2368, for San Francisco, (415) 821-6545. The www.iacenter.org web site will carry updated information.
- END -
(Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [email protected]. For subscription info send message to: [email protected]. Web: http://www.workers.org)
In Solidarity,
RC
RedCeltic - will you be there?
I would LOVE to go to this rally and march. Alas, can't rustle up the money for a plane ticket at will!
Solidarity to all those attending.
It cannot but be supportive, socialist, communist or whatever you want to call it. Does nature, and the human species with it, have much time left to survive in the absence of such change? Very little time. Who will be the builders of that new world? The
there have been so many rallies and protests lately I haven't been able to attend everything... this one's important however, so I'm trying to get off for it. It's only two trains away for me... But I suppose quite an expensive trip for an Auzzie
In Solidarity,
RC
Unfortunately I doubt that anything like this will be available in Arkansas. I wish I could join you there Red but impossible for me to do so. Glad to see you are going though.
Let us know what happens.
Ask not what your country can do for you, or what you can do for your country. Ask what you can do for one another.
Arkansas? Oh my... you must tell me what is it like to be a leftist in Arkansas? Where I live is a bit more conservitive than the rest of NY... but still much more to the left than alot of the countery.
And sadly I'm not going to be able to go either since it's too soon to call in for a day off.
(Edited by RedCeltic at 11:10 am on Sep. 24, 2001)
In Solidarity,
RC
Surely you could impress on your employer that these are extraordinary circumstances, RedCeltic?
and yes ... I can't spare $2K for one protest!
It cannot but be supportive, socialist, communist or whatever you want to call it. Does nature, and the human species with it, have much time left to survive in the absence of such change? Very little time. Who will be the builders of that new world? The
