-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Nov. 28, 2002
issue of Workers World newspaper
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ANTI-WAR LEADERS ANSWER RED-BAITING OF ANSWER
[Following is a reply signed by a group of progressive
leaders in southern California to an article by David Corn
that appeared in the newspaper L.A. Weekly. Corn is also
Washington editor for the Nation magazine and a paid
consultant with the Fox News Channel, an extremely pro-war
cable station owned by media billionaire Rupert Murdoch. In
his article, Corn attacked the organizers of the Oct. 26
anti-war demonstrations as "commies" or dupes of Workers
World Party. He repeated this red-baiting of the anti-war
movement on Nov. 18 in an appearance on the Fox program
called the "O'Reilly Factor."]
To the Editor of the L.A. Weekly:
David Corn's scurrilous piece on the massive demonstrations
against a new war with Iraq, held on Oct. 26 in Washington,
D.C., and San Francisco ("Behind the Placards: The Odd and
Troubling Origins of Today's Anti-War Movement," L.A.
Weekly, Nov. 1-7, 2002), is unworthy of any newspaper, let
alone one that considers itself "progressive."
Were it not for the sad fact that many thousands of people
may read Mr. Corn's diatribe, the article would not be
worthy of the time it's taken us to respond to it. After
all, those of us who've signed this letter are members of
L.A.-based anti-war and social justice groups and, unlike
Mr. Corn, we've got a movement to build. Besides, what can
one really say in response to an article that resorts to
referring to the organizers of the Oct. 26 protests as
"commies"! Mr. Corn claims this is "not red-baiting"! Well,
if attacking a movement because of the political
affiliations of some of its leadership isn't an old
fashioned example of Joseph McCarthy style red-baiting at
its worst, I'd hate to see what Mr. Corn thinks is red-
baiting.
Those of us who have signed this letter greatly admire the
work that International ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End
Racism) did in organizing the Oct. 26 anti-war protests. Its
national steering committee is comprised of IFCO/Pastors for
Peace; International Action Center; Nicaragua Network;
Mexico Solidarity Network; Partnership for Civil Justice;
Kensington Welfare Rights Union; Free Palestine Alliance/US;
Mideast Children's Alliance; Bayan International/USA; Korea
Truth Commission; and the Muslim Student Association. Are
there any communists amongst the members of ANSWER, the
principal organizer of the Oct. 26 protests? Specifically,
are some of the leaders in ANSWER members of the Workers
World Party? Sure. The question is, "So what?" As any
student of the powerful--and successful--movement against
the U.S. war in Vietnam knows, members of the Socialist
Workers Party and the Communist Party, U.S.A., were among
the leadership of the two major anti-war coalitions during
that war. But the thousands of volunteers and the hundreds
of thousands of protesters who showed up at the
demonstrations were of every political stripe. The same is
true today. The speakers and demonstrators on Oct. 26 came
from every segment of the population; from public officials
like John Burton, head of the California Senate, to
thousands of college and high school students; from actors
like Mike Farrell to Vietnam vets like Ron Kovic; from labor
leaders like Walter Johnson, head of the San Francisco Joint
Labor Council of the AFL-CIO to business executives against
the war; from older peace activists like Daniel Ellsberg to
younger ones like 12-year-old Sarah Enteen; from hotel
workers to Dolores Huerta; from religious leaders like
Bishop Gumbleton to socialists like Richard Becker. And the
list goes on and on.
Mr. Corn complained that speakers at the rallies talked
about political issues not directly related to Iraq, but
failed to note that the demonstrations themselves were
nevertheless "single-focused." And that single focus was the
looming war with Iraq. And the same could be said of the
rallies held by the massive movement to end the U.S. war in
Vietnam. The largest demonstration against that war took
place on April 24, 1971, when nearly one million people
gathered in Washington, D.C. and over 300,000 marched and
rallied in San Francisco. Among the speakers that day?
Democrats and Republicans and ex-military officers and
elected officials and labor leaders and Black nationalists
and feminists and member of the clergy and gays and students
and entertainers, etc., etc., ... and, yes, some communists,
too. And, as was the case again on Oct. 26, while all of
these speakers were united in their opposition to the war,
they also spoke on a wide range of other issues of concern
to their constituencies. In doing so, they demonstrated the
breadth and power of the anti-Vietnam War movement. They
also demonstrated that they understood (as Mr. Corn
apparently does not) the connections between the issues they
were addressing and the war itself. This approach proved
successful during the movement against the war in Vietnam
and it can bring us to peace again today. That's why
speakers from across the political spectrum were invited to
speak on a wide array of war-related social justice issues
on Oct. 26.
Lastly, Mr. Corn owes an apology to the quarter of a million
people who demonstrated in two cities on Oct. 26. His
article clearly suggests that he considers them "dupes" of
the "commies" who organized the protests. To suggest that
these tens of thousands of protesters, including the many
prominent individuals who addressed them at the rallies,
were too stupid to make up their own minds about Bush's war
on the world and war on civil liberties at home is truly
insulting. That's what Congress's old House Un-American
Activities Committee (HUAC) used to say about the protesters
demonstrating against the Vietnam War. Happily, it didn't
frighten people away from the anti-war coalitions then and
it won't frighten them away now. People saw through the
discredited red-baiting tactics of HUAC, and they will see
through the red-baiting tactics of commentators like Mr.
Corn.
We who sign this letter invite everyone who reads it to
reject Mr. Corn's ugly and divisive message of fear and
defeatism, and to join one of the national, or local, anti-
war coalitions in their area. Together we can once again
build a broad-based, non-partisan, non-witch-hunting anti-
war movement that can--and will--win the peace!
Sincerely,
American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, L.A./O.C.
Chapter
Arab American Cultural Center
Danielle Babineau
Blase Bonpane,
Office of the Americas
Theresa Bonpane,
Office of the Americas
James Lafferty,
National Lawyers Guild
Rev. James Lawson, Jr.
Joe Navidad, BAYAN International/USA
Palestine American Women's Association of Southern
California
Jonathan Parfrey
Save the Iraqi Children Committee
Michel Shehadeh
Carol Sobel,
National Lawyers Guild
Don White
Yong-bin Yuk, Mindallae
- END -
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