------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the July 19, 2001 issue of Workers World newspaper ------------------------- WASHINGTON ABUZZ OVER FALL PROTESTS/ REACTIONARY BUSH PROGRAM STIRS UP HORNETS' NEST By Gery Armsby The buzz about fall protests in Washington against capitalist globalization and the reactionary policies of the Bush administration has caught the interest of D.C. police as well as the top officials of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. According to reports in the July 10 and July 11 Washington Post, city authorities have requested 3,600 police reinforcements from other metropolitan areas, bringing the total available police force to 20,000 during the Sept. 28 to Oct. 4 protest convergence. This huge police presence is being orchestrated in response to estimates that the upcoming actions will be the largest since Vietnam-era anti-war protests. In addition, the World Bank and IMF have broken their 20- year tradition of holding these meetings in the quaint, residential Woodley Park area of Washington. Now, due to fears about the size of protests, they plan to meet at their better-fortified downtown headquarters. OPPOSITION AT HOME George W. Bush is now only six months into his presidency, but his anti-people, pro-big business agenda has already stirred up a hornets nest. His rejection of the Kyoto Accords on global warming and his espousal of a recycled version of Star Wars and abandonment of the START treaty limiting nuclear weapons brought out huge protests on his recent trip to Europe. At home, his defense of the racist system of capital punishment has earned him the title "President Death." His unapologetic allegiance to the giant monopolies and banks has led him to push through hefty tax cuts for the rich that will require cutting back even further the social programs already whittled down in the Clinton years. Bush's unpopularity can only grow as the capitalist economy shows further signs of deterioration. Even before the national demonstrations planned for the fall, the president is drawing crowds of protesters wherever he goes. His first visit to New York City since he stole the election was met with loud, angry protests in midtown Manhattan July 10. Earlier in the day Bush had posed for photo opportunities at Ellis Island and paid lip service to the problems of discrimination and racism faced by millions of immigrants living in the U.S. Later, more than 500 demonstrators packed into a tiny police barricade on Fifth Avenue across the street from St. Patrick's Cathedral where Bush was delivering a speech praising the late anti-abortion Cardinal John O'Connor. They hoisted signs against the racist death penalty, deadly cuts in HIV/AIDS funding, housing and social services, the U.S. bombing of Vieques, the Free Trade Area of the Americas, Bush and Cheney's toxic energy plan and Bush's anti-woman "global gag rule," which prohibits U.S. funding to organizations that provide abortion services or abortion- related information in other countries. Police arrested one activist for distributing anti-Bush flyers outside the barricaded area. BUSH = RACISM, SEXISM, HOMOPHOBIA Many people in the crowd took time off work or traveled hours to confront Bush and chant slogans like: "Racist, sexist, anti-gay--President Death, go away," "We're gonna beat back the Bush attack," "George Bush, we know you--your father was a racist, too" and other catchy rhymes. Banners, signs, flags and tee shirts expressed the range of issues that brought demonstrators out to voice disgust at the U.S. president. One young organizer from the NYC Chapter of the National Organization for Women, Annie Tummino, waved a rainbow flag emblazoned with the word "resist" in lavender paint. She said that "since Bush's first day in office, he's been attacking women's rights." Tummino expressed her solidarity on "all the issues that other groups are raising, from the death penalty to the environment to racism to the economy." "When any person is oppressed," she stated, "we're all living with oppression and we should fight it." The July 10 turnout against Bush came just over one year after activists took to the streets of New York and many other cities in outrage as then-Governor Death executed a Black political activist, Shaka Sankofa (Gary Graham), in Texas. Bush presided over 152 Texas executions and has re- introduced executions at the federal level since becoming president. A week before, Bush made an appearance on July 4 in Philadelphia and then tried to dodge protests led by supporters of African American political prisoner Mumia Abu- Jamal, the celebrated Black journalist who has been on death row since 1981. DEMAND FUNDING FOR HIV/AIDS Terry Smith-Caronia, from Housing Works--a community-based organization that fights for housing and vital support services to New York's homeless people who are living with HIV and AIDS--explained that her group came out July 10 to demand that Bush increase funding for services that are necessary to support those living with HIV/AIDS, especially housing. "He is as scary as his father was," Smith-Caronia said. "In May, we spun on a dime and went to Washington to protest him when we saw the budget and learned how little money was allocated for programs like Ryan White, HOPWA, Global AIDS and other HIV/AIDS programs. "From here, it's going to take combined action," she continued. "It may be a new regime, but we won't be silenced." The demonstration was organized by a broad coalition of co- sponsoring groups including the NOW-NYC Chapter, Housing Works, the International Action Center, ACT-UP NY, DemocracyMarch.org, the New York Sierra Club, Refuse and Resist!, New York Atheists, Campaign to End the Death Penalty, Freedom Socialist Party and Radical Women. ACTIVISTS BUILD FOR FALL PROTESTS Jonas Cohen, a summer intern with the IAC, said he was at the protest because he wants to fight Bush. "Bush is waging a war and pushing a right-wing agenda. He's increasing U.S. imperialism and the exploitation of developing nations," he said. Cohen said he attended counter-inaugural protests on Jan. 20 and plans to continue to fight Bush by taking up an IAC call to surround the White House on Sept. 29. In May, the IAC initiated plans to mobilize "many thousands of people during fall protests planned against the IMF and World Bank to come out in defense of the rights of all those who will be negatively affected and harmed by the Bush program." Hundreds of groups and individuals have since endorsed and are helping with the effort. West Coast anti-Bush activists have targeted a July 14 meeting of Bush and a veritable who's who of U.S. imperialism at the exclusive Bohemian Grove Club in Monte Rio, Calif. Judi Cheng, a New York-based organizer for the upcoming Sept. 29 demonstration in Washington, D.C., was at the July 10 protest busily handing out leaflets and encouraging anti- Bush protesters to plan on joining the fall mobilization. "It's a great crowd," Cheng said. "People are looking for a fight-back spirit and this is where they should be, fighting Bush wherever he goes, and coming to D.C. where we plan to really challenge this racist, sexist, anti-worker president on a mass scale." - 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) ------------------ This message is sent to you by Workers World News Service. To subscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Send administrative queries to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
