WW News Service Digest #328
1) Tens of Thousands March Against War
by [EMAIL PROTECTED]
2) Protests Spring Up Around the World
by [EMAIL PROTECTED]
3) Diverse Voices give One Message: "No War!"
by [EMAIL PROTECTED]
4) Media Sticks Head in the Sand
by [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Oct. 11, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
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IN D.C. AND CALIFORNIA: TENS OF THOUSANDS MARCH
AGAINST WAR
By John Catalinotto
Washington, D.C.
Tens of thousands of people in Washington, San Francisco and
Los Angeles, and thousands in other cities worldwide,
demonstrated Sept. 29 against the Bush administration's
drive to war and in defense of Arab and Muslim people living
in the U.S. who have been subject to racist attacks.
Since the Sept. 11 destruction of the World Trade Center in
New York, the Pentagon has moved 28,000 troops, dozens of
warships and hundreds of bombers to the Persian/Arabian Gulf
and the Indian Ocean, threatening to strike Afghanistan and
perhaps other countries.
The Sept. 29 protest actions in the U.S., called by a new
coalition--Act Now to Stop War & End Racism, or ANSWER--
attracted a rainbow-like gathering of civil rights, anti-
war, religious, solidarity, community and student
organizations, with some participation from organized labor.
Brian Becker, an ANSWER spokesperson, said the
demonstrations showed "there was a real coalition, broad
enough and solid enough to build a powerful movement in the
United States against the war that Bush and the Pentagon are
planning." He announced at a meeting following the
Washington protest that ANSWER was proposing follow-up mass
actions for Oct. 27.
Increasing the significance of the demonstrations is that
they happened in the midst of a super-patriotic media
campaign. The media gave 100-percent backing to Bush's war
moves. Some also stridently red-baited and violence-baited
the demonstration's organizers. But they failed to stifle
the new coalition.
On the contrary, the movement for peace--as reflected by
dozens of speakers as well as the marchers--was broader
Sept. 29 than it has been since the last years of the U.S.
war against Vietnam.
At the Washington, D.C., rally, speakers from the area
included Vanessa Dixon of the D.C. Healthcare Now Coalition,
Eleiza Braun of the George Washington University Action
Coalition and Rev. Graylan Hagler, Senior Minister of the
Plymouth Congregational Church, showing that community,
student and religious organizations were strongly supporting
the anti-war coalition.
The mass anti-war sentiment in the Black community was also
represented by the Rev. Curtis Gatewood, president of the
Durham chapter of the NAACP. Rev. Gatewood had spoken out
the week before against U.S. military action, despite the
patriotic stance of the NAACP national leadership. When the
national leadership chastised him for his statement, the
members of the Durham NAACP reaffirmed their support for
Gatewood.
Here's a short sample of the diversity among the speakers in
D.C.: James Creedon, an emergency medical technician who
rescued people at Ground Zero; James Terry, Queer Youth for
Social Justice; Sam Jordan, International Concerned Family
and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal; Amer Jubran, Al Awda Boston;
Sunita Mehda, Sakhi for South Asian Women; Marina Alarcon,
Mexican Support Network; Ray LeForest, District Council
1707, AFSCME; Yoomi Jeong, Korea Truth Commission; Rusty
Fabunana, Bayan Philippines Forum; and Eric Le Compte,
School of the Americas Watch.
MARCH BREAKS THROUGH ISOLATION
ANSWER organizers had told Workers World three days before
the march that the major purpose of the coalition event was
to break through the isolation people were feeling under the
pressure of the pro-war media campaign.
As the rally ended, the demonstrators took the advice of
Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, Co-Director of the Partnership for
Civil Justice, and marched out of the rally area at Freedom
Plaza with determination, despite the heavy presence of
thousands of riot police, some armed with automatic rifles
and all armored.
They headed along Pennsylvania Avenue toward the Capitol.
The realization that they had succeeded in their goal
flooded over the marchers as their route climbed a hill
alongside the Capitol.
As the front of the march neared the top of the hill, people
turned around and looked back. A cheer went up as they saw
that the march stretched for blocks and blocks, tightly
packed across the width of Pennsylvania Avenue.
"No war in our name," read one sign. "U.S. out of the Middle
East," read another. And everywhere, "Stop the war" and
"Stop racist attacks." The organizers would soon announce
that some 20,000 people were there.
The sight of the vast crowd increased the excitement. As if
invigorated by the discovery that they had plenty of company
in the fight against a new war, students from dozens of
universities accepted ANSWER's invitation to announce their
school's name and how many students had come.
"Vassar, 100!" "Gettysburg, where tens of thousands died in
the U.S. Civil War." "University of Minnesota." "Columbia
College." "Bard College in New York, 200!" Students streamed
to the podium to shout out their affiliations. There was
Oberlin, Howard, four campuses from the University of
Wisconsin, plus dozens more. High-school students, too,
spoke out their presence.
It was another sign that people were motivated to bring the
mood of the demonstration back into their communities, where
they would continue to organize opposition to the war and
racism.
HOW THE COALITION GREW
Before the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and
Pentagon had altered the political climate in the country,
anti-globalization groups had planned protests in Washington
for the week from Sept. 28 to Oct. 4. Some estimates were
that as many as 100,000 youths would come to denounce the
responsibility of the International Monetary Fund and World
Bank for keeping close to 2 billion people in the world near
starvation while a handful of big capitalists grew rich
beyond all imagination.
The International Action Center--a key initiator of the anti-
war march--had scheduled a demonstration Sept. 29 to
surround the White House, focusing the protest against the
Bush administration.
Then the attacks took place. The Bush administration and the
U.S. government in general used the events to put the
country on a war footing, while pressuring the media to whip
up a patriotism and anti-foreigner sentiment among a stunned
population.
When the IMF and World Bank then decided to postpone their
meetings, most of the groups in the anti-globalization
movement also cancelled their protests. The IAC, said
Becker, who is an IAC Co-Director, "decided it was important
to keep the date and turn its focus against the war, while
opening it up to all those who wanted to oppose the war
drive and the virulent anti-Arab and anti-Muslim attacks."
"We consulted with others and issued the ANSWER call," said
Becker. "We thought that even a few thousand protesting the
war would show the world--including the population here--
that there was more than just the official pro-war opinion.
>From our point of view the turnout was a tremendous success
and the broad organizational support shows that a real anti-
war coalition exists and can grow.
"In the original call we suggested further action on Oct. 12-
13. But it became apparent that we needed more time to use
the impulse of the Sept. 29 march to organize other national
or regional actions, so we have adjusted this to Oct. 27,"
Becker said. "There will be a hard struggle before us, but
we have now seen what is possible and the potential support
that exists."
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Oct. 11, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
PROTESTS SPRING UP AROUND THE WORLD
By G. Dunkel
Major anti-war rallies took place the last week of September
in countries that are close military and political allies of
the United States. The media here generally ignored them.
In Britain, the U.S.'s closest ally, about 5,000 people
waited hours in a driving thunderstorm to protest at the
Labor Party's annual conference in Brighton, where Prime
Minister Tony Blair gave a pro-war speech wrapped in vague
promises to "change the world."
The cops, fearing another Gothenburg or Genoa, brought in
heavy reinforcements, put sharpshooters on the roofs,
created a five-mile air exclusion zone, and set up crash
barriers, all as part of the biggest security operation they
have ever mounted.
Police searched all coaches and vans heading for the
demonstration, delaying the start of the protest march by
two hours.
The protesters chanted slogans condemning Britain and the
U.S. "Blair, Bush, CIA: how many kids did you kill today?"
they shouted in reference to the British and U.S. bombings
of Iraq.
They waved signs with the message "No to war" and "People,
not profit--peace, not war," while listening to an
impassioned demand for Britain and the U.S. to avoid the
mass slaughter of innocent people in Afghanistan.
Italy saw two major protests; one in Naples on Sept. 27 drew
30,000 protesters, according to the organizers; one in Rome
on Sept. 29 drew 100,000 people.
The protest in Naples was aimed at the military buildup and
threat of a global conflict in the wake of the attacks in
the United States. Naples, which is home to NATO's Southern
Command, was supposed to play host to an important NATO
meeting, but it was moved to Brussels, Belgium. The
demonstration, however, was not called off.
The marchers were mostly students and blew whistles when
they weren't chanting anti-war slogans. Those at the front
chanted in English, "One, two, three, four, we don't want
another war. Five, six, seven, eight, stop the violence,
stop the hate."
Many carried portraits of Karl Marx and Che Guevara.
Two days later, on Sept. 29, the Refoundation Communist
Party (PRC) called out 100,000 people to march "for peace
and against war." The procession wound through the streets
of Rome to the sound of music that has disappeared from the
U.S. airwaves since Sept. 11--"Sunday, Bloody Sunday" by U2
and "What a wonderful world" by Louis Armstrong.
The leadership of the PRC, including Fausto Bertinotti, and
representatives of the Palestine Liberation Organization in
Rome all walked behind a banner with the slogan "Another
world is possible."
The demonstrators, mostly young, came from all over Italy
and sang fighting songs of the Italian partisans made
popular during the resistance to fascism--"Bella ciao" and
"Bandiera rossa"--as well as the International.
Some 10,000 marched on Sept. 27 in Athens, Greece, against
being dragged into a U.S. and NATO war in the Middle East.
On Sept. 29 police in Istanbul, Turkey, arrested some 50
people trying to hold a protest against plans for a military
response by the United States.
The protesters gathered in the Bakirkoy, on the European
side of the city, under a banner reading "Anti-war
platform," before police arrested them. Among the slogans
shouted by the group were "No to war" and "Curses upon
American imperialism."
Those arrested included the head of the Istanbul branch of
the Turkish Human Rights Association (IHD), the lawyer Eren
Keskin.
Substantial demonstrations were also reported in Montreal,
Canada; Amsterdam, the Netherlands; Berlin and Frankfurt,
Germany, and Barcelona, Spain.
Over 1,000 anti-war protesters marched in Sydney Sept. 29
calling on the Australian government to limit its military
role in the U.S. war. The protesters carried banners: "Stop
this racist war" and "Money for jobs, not war."
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Oct. 11, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
AT D.C. RALLY: DIVERSE VOICES GIVE ONE MESSAGE:"NO
WAR!"
[Here are excerpts from some of the speeches at the
Washington, D.C., rally to Stop War and End Racism, compiled
by Leslie Feinberg.]
DR. MARCELO VENEGAS,
Doctors for Global Health
On Sept. 11, I found myself trying to help the victims
around the perimeter of Ground Zero. I felt great grief and
sadness. And on Sept. 11, 1973, my country of Chile was
bombed in a similar way by acts of terrorism sponsored by
the United States, sponsored by the CIA with millions of
dollars.
LARRY HOLMES,
ACT NOW TO STOP WAR
& END RACISM
In a world without justice, in which a few on top hog
everything and so many of us have to fight for the rest, you
won't find peace. We are the answer--this sea of humanity
here today. There are millions of people in this country who
are guarding a secret: They're opposed to a war. But they've
been made to feel that they're alone and that it's not safe
for them to speak up and to demonstrate. Let people across
this country and around the world know that we are here.
MARCINA ALARCON
Mexico Support Network
Immigrants in the U.S. have made very important
contributions to the economy and culture of this nation.
They don't merit the name "illegals." We demand amnesty for
all undocumented workers.
SUNITA MEHDA
SAKHI FOR South Asian Women; Women for Afghan Women
We stand against war. We have to
pro mote and enable the agency of the Afghan women and men
in their own struggle and provide resources and all our love
to help that country be rebuilt to a democracy--a democracy
that includes women.
RICARDO JUAREZ PASAMONTA�AS
In [the name of the Mexican people] President Vicente Fox is
supporting a war that we do not support. We are for peace
and for justice. Immigrants are not your enemy. We are being
told that all threats come from outside [the U.S.] as though
this is the only good place on earth.
RON DANIELS
Executive Director, Center
for Constitutional Rights
Violence will only get more violence. We have to salute the
one person in the Congress of the United States who had the
audacity to stand up and say no to war: the Honorable
Barbara Lee from the 9th Congressional District of
California.
JAMES CREEDON
emergency medical technician injured at World Trade Center
I hear people say: "If you lost people in the World Trade
Center, you'd want a war too." Well, I was hurt in the World
Trade Center collapse; I was almost killed. I lost four
people from my squad and hundreds of other rescue workers.
And I'm here today to stand with the International Action
Center and say war will not bring our loved ones back. I say
to anyone calling for a racist war: "Do you know what war
looks like? Because I do. I'm at Ground Zero and I know what
it means to see the deaths of innocent men, women and
children. And a racist war will multiply that a hundred
times, a thousand times." Let us resolve to commit our
hands, our voices, our bodies and all resources at our
command to say we are going to act now to stop war and end
racism.
SAMIA HALABY
AL AWDA/New York
People of privilege ask, "Why do the people of the Arab
world hate us so much?" In Iraq, the children ask me: "Why
does America drop bombs on us?" Palestinian children have
been
living with U.S. imperialism for over
50 years. They have destroyed our Palestine almost
completely and yet we continue to resist. We are aware that
it's not one administration--not just Bush guilty of what's
going on. It's an entire system that has oppressed us.
AMER JUBRAN
AL AWDA/Boston
What happened on Sept. 11--we condemn it. But it was a
direct result of U.S. foreign policy against that region.
The people in the region hate unresolved conflict,
oppression, economic and social pressure that is making
their lives so disgusting. Exxon/ Mobil doesn't have to
steal $200 billion from the region. No blood for oil!
TERESA GUTIERREZ
INTERNATIONAL ACTION CENTER
Every single day since the horrific events of Sept. 11,
people in New York City have been meeting and demonstrating
to say we will not let our grief turn into a war party for
the CEOs. New Yorkers will persevere to make sure that a
city for immigrants, for people of color, for the workers--
not for the real estate developers--will be built.
REV. LUCIUS WALKER
Inter-religious Foundation for Community Organizing/Pastors
for Peace
Just this morning I returned from Cuba, where I was asked at
the highest levels of authority, as well as by many people
at the grassroots base, to say to you "love, peace" and to
give you an embrace. Because they understand the horrors of
terrorism and the pain that it inflicts on innocent people.
They understand it because they have endured it from our own
country for more than 40 years. The primary source of
terrorism in the world is indeed the United States.
ERIC LE COMPTE
School of the Americas Watch
For over 50 years our government has been teaching terrorism
in our own backyard down at the School of the Americas at
Fort Benning, Georgia. We invite you to join us at Fort
Benning on Nov. 16-18 to raise our voices to say, "No more--
not in our name will terror be taught by our government."
ISMAEL GUADALUPE
a leader of the Committee for
the Rescue and Development
of Vieques
[Berta Joubert, who read this statement, noted, "As
Guadalupe dictated this message on the telephone, I could
hear bombing by the U.S. Navy in the background."]
Greetings from Vieques. We want peace because our island and
our people have been the victims of constant aggression by
the U.S. military for 60 years. It is in Vieques where the
U.S. Navy has practiced for the invasions and aggressions
against Korea, China, Guate mala, the Bay of Pigs, Grenada,
Panama, Yugo slavia--and now the confrontation against
Afghanistan. It is therefore sheer hypocrisy for the U.S.
government to say that they are the victims of terrorism
when they have been the major promoters of terrorism. And
now, regrettably, that terrorism as a boomerang has attacked
the innocent people of the United States.
ELEIZA BRAUN GEORGE
Washington University
Action Coalition
On Sept. 20, with three days' notice, students throughout
the country mobilized--from Harvard to Berkeley, New Mexico
to Rhode Island. We called for an end to the hate and cycle
of violence. We proved on Sept. 20, we prove today, and we
will continue to prove that we cannot be silenced.
VANESSA DIXON,
Healthcare Now Coalition
Given this recent tragedy, we hear about justice. One way to
ensure justice in this country is to make sure that our
public health system is operating properly. It is imperative
to have a public health system where everyone can go
regardless of ability to pay.
DAMU SMITH
Black Voices for Peace
Remember this: Timothy McVeigh was a white guy with a crew
cut. He bombed people to smithereens in Oklahoma. And just
to show how racism works, not one white person with a crew
cut was profiled after the Oklahoma bombing. End the racism
against people of color!
BISHOP THOMAS GUMBLETON, Archdiocese of Detroit
It is the moment for new thinking and new ways of acting
based on our religious faith or on our common humanity. The
first step is to ask: Why are we under attack? Are those who
did these horrendous acts of terror faceless cowards? Or
must we face the reality that there are profound grievances
among oppressed people that moves them to rage and violence
against us? Failure to seek the reasons for the anger and
hatred expressed against us, and failure to negotiate a just
solution of the problems will only lead to greater disaster.
REV. GRAYLAN HAGLER
Senior Pastor, Plymouth Congregational Church, D.C.
You've been seeing faces like Jerry Falwell and other
preachers walking in to baptize war and to say racist and
homophobic things. But I'm here to say that the progressive
church stands for peace. I heard George "Never Read A Book"
Bush say, "If you are not with us you are with the
terrorists." Words like that are designed to intimidate. But
we refuse to be silent. We are the people! We rained bombs
for 10 years on Iraq and we gave arms to all kinds of
despotic leaders to enforce oppression and then we're
surprised that we're hated? Today we stand with the people
of the world who yearn for justice and peace and dignity and
self-determination.
STEPHANIE SIMARD
Women's Fightback Network; Simmons College Feminist Union
Tens of billions of dollars are going to fight this racist
war. Will that money build youth centers or health care,
help youth get education, rebuild New York and all the lost
jobs, assist those injured by anti-Muslim or anti-Arab
attacks? Bush's program is anti-woman, anti-gay, anti a lot
of us. So today when we march, I want to see the young women
here--especially lesbian, gay, bi and trans youth and women
of color--in the front. I want Bush to see that we are the
past and the future of the anti-war movement.
SAM JORDAN
INTERNATIONAL CONCERNED FAMILY
& FRIENDS OF MUMIA ABU-JAMAL
I bring you greetings from Mumia Abu-Jamal, 20 years on
death row. His greetings are: No race war abroad; end the
race war at home. This last message from Mumia: The people's
movement--the mass movement--won the war in Vietnam. George
Bush wants to roll back our victories. Here is what we want:
No more wars of occupation. No more secret wars. No more
wars of indeterminate terms. No war!
PETA LINDSAY
School Without Walls, high school student, Washington, D.C.,
and S29 youth organizer:
Young people today have been labeled apathetic,
materialistic, insensitive and out of control. Looking out
over this plaza today, you can see those words were meant
for a completely different species. As the country moved
closer to war, students began to seek out information about
the ANSWER rally, realizing that though we never agreed to
this war, it will be fought with our blood. We have been
organizing and preparing for this rally and rallies to come,
and every student with a conscience and free thought will be
here to say that we do not want this war.
CHUCK KAUFMAN
Nicaragua Network
The people of Nicaragua well understand what the people who
lost friends and family in the World Trade Center feel.
Forty thousand Nicaraguans were killed by U.S. terrorism
during the contra war when the U.S. government trained and
funded and taught terrorist methods to criminals who
assassinated teachers, killed farmers, murdered health care
workers.
YOOMI JEONG
Congress for Korean Reunification & Korea Truth Commission
We Koreans know what it means to be in a war. We had Korean
War in 1950 to 1953. Over 5 million Korean civilians were
killed and many, many died at the hands of U.S. military
troops. As Korean Americans living in the states as a racial
minority, we understand where racism and xenophobia lead.
Right now the U.S. government is exploiting the grief and
anger by turning this tragedy into Pentagon's war
development and military buildup. Only when there is change
in U.S. foreign policy that serves all the people will the
tragedy of Sept. 11 be avoided in the future.
MONICA MOOREHEAD
Millions for Mumia of the IAC
Mass movements change social conditions, not individuals.
But individuals can play important roles in movements for
great social change. In fact, the origins of many mass
struggles began with heroic individuals who dared to swim
against the tide of political reaction. Rev. Curtis
Gatewood, president of the Durham, N.C., chapter of the
NAACP, took a stance against war in contrast to the not-very-
progressive stance of the national leadership of the NAACP.
He has come under tremendous pressure. So we have to pledge
today to build support and stay in solidarity with this
African American leader in the South.
REV. CURTIS GATEWOOD
President NAACP-
North Carolina
The very president who said we are the example of freedom
and democracy was selected president by a right-wing un-
Supreme Court. Dr. King once said that the ultimate measure
of a man is not where he stands in times of comfort and
convenience but where he stands in times of challenge and
controversy. This is the time. We must act now. We are on
God's side because we're standing for truth at a time when a
lie is popular. A lie will still be a lie even when it's
decorated in red, white and blue; even when it's told on top
of the White House. Sometimes I think we confuse American
patriotism with American racism because they're very closely
related. Keep standing for justice. Keep standing for
righteousness.
RAY LEFOREST
DC 1707 AFSCME
George Bush's only distinction is to have killed more
prisoners than any other governor in the country. His
father, in 1991, rained genocide on the Haitian people after
the election of President Aristide. Realizing that he would
not do their bidding, they allowed a coup that resulted in
the slaughter of as many as 10,000 Haitians. As a member of
the labor movement, I want to say that the gains of the last
40 years are at risk. So wake up and join us.
ZACHARY RUNNING WOLF ANDERSON
Native leader, Bay Area
Yesterday I finished my spiritual run that started in San
Francisco some four and a half months ago. I ran to the city
of Philadelphia for a fair trial for Mumia Abu-Jamal. I ran
4,400 miles for a man I have never met. We need to
sacrifice, to put our lives on the line for peace.
MARA VERHEYDEN-HILLIARD Co-founder of Partnership
for Civil Justice
The last time I stood on Freedom Plaza in January I said
they didn't want you here at the Bush inauguration. This
time around folks sought to demonstrate at the White House.
They didn't want you there. Apparently they don't want you
anywhere that George Bush is near because his program,
policy and plans for war and racial profiling don't hold up
to your scrutiny. They don't want images of thousands who
have the courage to stand up here today to say no to war, no
to racism and no to having civil liberties stripped from us.
MINNIE BRUCE PRATT
lesbian author
and anti-racist activist
You may soon hear that the U.S. is attacking Afghanistan in
order to defend women in the name of civilization. But if
the U.S. really cared about women, why did it arm the
Taliban to attack a secular Afghan government that had freed
women?
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Oct. 11, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
WITH A FEW NOTABLE EXCEPTIONS, MEDIA STICKS HEAD IN
THE SAND
By G. Dunkel
El Diario, the Spanish-language daily in New York City, was
the exception that proved the rule. It ran a huge picture of
the Washington anti-war demonstration on its front page.
But for the most part, the media in the U.S. tried to ignore
the demonstrations that mushroomed up after President George
W. Bush announced he was mobilizing for war.
Before the demonstration, according to the ANSWER office,
many calls came in, especially from the foreign press: the
British Broadcasting Corporation, the Canadian Broadcast
Corporation, the French Press Agency, Hong Kong, Italian,
and Dutch television, and a Korean and Japanese news
service. A few U.S. media chains like NBC, NPR and MSNBC
called about the events. They generally wanted a statement
from an ANSWER spokesperson or information on how the day
was planned.
While U.S. media interest wasn't absent, it was noticeable
that the international press was more interested in the
demonstration.
The coverage on Sunday after the Washington demonstration
was varied but consistently downplayed its size. National
Public Radio reported that hundreds marched. The New York
Times first reported hundreds, then upped it to thousands in
a later edition, while the New York Daily News put the
number at 2,000.
The Washington Post quoted a police estimate of 7,000. The
Dutch press used the figure of 1,500. The British Guardian
and the Independent used 8,000, while CSPAN, which televised
nearly the whole demonstration, estimated 13,000.
Organizers counting the march as it climbed Capitol Hill,
however, estimating from the number of rows and how many
people were marching abreast, believed there were 20,000
people at that point.
