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The first meeting called to organize for the 2003 massive “The World Says No to War" protest in San Francisco against Bush’s build-up for the Iraq war was organized by Bay Area United Against War, which was a tiny, dwindling coalition at the time. Specifically, it was organized by Carole Seligman and Bonnie Weinstein (now co-editors of Socialist Viewpoint magazine). The two of us, in our frustration with Bush’s war plans and the disorganization of the antiwar movement, first sent out a call from BAUAW via email and snail mail to as many Bay Area groups as possible; then the two of us personally went around to the major groups at the time—Not In Our Name, United For Peace and Justice and ANSWER—and got an agreement with these groups to call an organizing meeting to plan for a demonstration to oppose the pending war on Iraq. The momentum was there. There was a call for massive demonstrations on February 15th that went out from Europe, and we had originally scheduled the San Francisco demonstration for that date. However, when it became clear that a huge momentum was building to protest the upcoming war, we were contacted by the Chinese New Years Parade committee who requested that we change our demonstration to Sunday, February 16th, in order not to compete with the Chinese New Years Parade on Saturday, and we did. A representative from the Chinese New Years Parade became part of the coalition to build the demonstration and attended the coalition planning meetings. In exchange for our cooperation, the Chinese New Years Parade committee advertised the Sunday, February 16th “The World Says No To War” march on their website and on their phone message center for their parade. As a result there was a large contingent from Chinatown that marched on Sunday after their Parade on Saturday. The demonstration was a huge success. Jeremy Corbyn, Danny Glover, Bonnie Raitt, Martin Sheen, along with the five co-sponsoring groups, spoke, as well as many, many others. The five co-sponsors for this demonstration were Bay Area United Against War, Not In Our Name, ANSWER, United for Peace and Justice and the Vanguard Foundation. There were at minimum, 250,000 people who marched that day. As we know, in spite of the massive opposition to the war across the globe, Bush launched the “Shock and Awe” assault on Iraq on March 19, 2003. Comradely, Bonnie Weinstein Some links about the history of the demonstration: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/war-in-iraq-begins <http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/war-in-iraq-begins> http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/West/02/16/sprj.irq.sf.protests/index.html <http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/West/02/16/sprj.irq.sf.protests/index.html> http://articles.latimes.com/2003/feb/17/local/me-peace17 <http://articles.latimes.com/2003/feb/17/local/me-peace17> > On Jul 20, 2017, at 6:20 AM, Louis Proyect via Marxism > <marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote: > > ******************** POSTING RULES & NOTES ******************** > #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. > #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. > #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. > ***************************************************************** > > On 7/20/17 9:13 AM, DW via Marxism wrote: >> Louis P: >> "In 2003, UNAC and ANSWER led massive protests against Bush's war. " No, >> they didn't. ANSWER did along with another broader based united front, but >> UNAC didn't even exist then. >> David > > Right, I meant UFPJ. > _________________________________________________________ > Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm > Set your options at: > http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/giobon%40comcast.net _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
