------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the Jan. 30, 2003 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------
"ARMY OF GOD" MENACES WOMEN'S RIGHTS. LGBT COMMUNITIES: BOOT THEM OUT OF BUFFALO! BULLETIN: AS WW GOES TO PRESS [When the Army of God held their much-ballyhooed press conference outside the Erie County holding center where rightwing assassin James Kopp is being held, they were outnumbered four to one by pro-choice forces, in the middle of a workday in bitter Buffalo winter weather. For much of the day, pro-choice forces were at the clinic that the Army of God had vowed they would shut down by force. They failed to show and it turned into a pro-choice victory. The LGBT activists vowed to defend their communities later in this evening sending the bigots away in total defeat.] By Leslie Feinberg The battle in Buffalo, N.Y., is joined. Commanders of the Klan-like "Army of God" are vowing to marshal whatever force is required to stop women from having abortion procedures in Buffalo, N.Y., on Jan. 22. That day is the 30th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade--the hard-won Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion. The anti-woman forces are converging on Buffalo to support James Kopp--the man who boasts of having killed Dr. Barnett Slepian, a respected local obstetrician and gynecologist who performed abortions. Buffalo police are also reporting threats against the lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans community. The "Army of God" claimed responsibility for a 1998 bombing attack at a Birmingham, Ala., women's clinic that killed one person and left another critically wounded. The same gang bragged it had bombed a lesbian, gay, bi, trans nightclub and an abortion clinic in Atlanta the year before. (CNN, Feb. 2, 1998) Now the armed, reactionary crusaders are coming to intimidate progressives in a city that has twice defeated national anti-abortion mobilizations--in 1992 and 1999. In addition, more "respectable" zealots are calling for a third right-wing convergence on Buffalo during the trial of Kopp, arguing that his murder of Dr. Slepian was justified. But these right-wing shock troops may have stepped on a political landmine. Those targeted in their crosshairs are mustering their forces. Buffalo United for Choice--the grassroots coalition known as BUC that led the two earlier efforts to boot the right wing out of the "City of Good Neighbors"--is reconstituting itself to meet this third onslaught. And the LGBT community in Buffalo, which was a vital component of the 1992 and 1999 mobilizations, is a dynamic force in organizing once again. During the last mobilization, when anti-choice leaders of "Operation Save America" were clearly losing the battle for the hearts and minds of the local population, they shifted in their rhetoric and menaced LGBT activists and clubs. In response, these communities formed Rainbow Peacekeepers, which protected the clubs with help from BUC's heterosexual clinic defenders. Although Rainbow Peacekeepers faced threats of violence and harassment from the right-wing elements, no LGBT person was harmed during that week. With the Army of God riding into town, Rainbow Peacekeepers is re- forming, too. PACKED TOWN MEETING A coalition of LGBT organizations issued a call on two days' notice for an urgent town meeting in Buffalo on Jan. 20. The initiating groups included Men of Color Health Awareness Project (MOCHA), Spectrum Transgender Group, Anti-Discrimination Coalition of WNY, the Dyke March, All About Us, Stonewall Democrats of WNY and Rainbow Spirit Rising, plus Friends and other bars and establishments. More than 140 people packed into the Unity Church on Delaware Avenue in downtown Buffalo. "I was amazed how many people were there," observed Beverly Hiestand, a lesbian, nursing educator, and a leader of BUC in the two previous mobilizations. "A continuous line of people flowed into the small church. The pews were packed and it was standing-room only." Those gathered included many people of color--African American and Latino--and many youth in addition to gray-headed activists. All the local television stations and the only daily newspaper sent reporters and camera people. Carol Speser, a local LGBT organizer who had been on the BUC '99 steering committee and had helped organize Rainbow Peacekeepers, explained the importance of reorganizing the squads "for our communities to stand up and be proud and provide a watchfulness to prevent any harm to the community." By law, the police must keep the clinics open. Police Chief Harold Litwin and Liaison to the Mayor Tom Gleed confirmed to the rally that the Army of God is also a threat to the LGBT communities. But the police chief added that he expected the community to respond "peacefully" to this organization that openly promotes right-wing assassins, while noting that the cops would guarantee their "free speech." This kid-gloves treatment of right-wing terrorists stands in stark contrast to the arrests of Yemeni men recently in Buffalo for sending money home to their families. The "war on terror" led by Commander-in- Chief George W. Bush and Attorney General John Ashcroft conveniently dovetails with the U.S. drive to militarily re-colonize the oil-rich Middle East. BOOT 'EM OUT OF BUFFALO, AGAIN! Dana Neitlich, executive officer of Planned Parenthood of Buffalo and Erie County, told the Jan. 20 town meeting how her organization has to focus on security every day to keep its clinics open and protect the lives of women, children and health care workers. Her organization's approach to the right-wing mobilization was summed up as, "We do not want to protest them." Instead, she said, her group and Pro-Choice Network are working to hold a private celebration of Roe vs. Wade and will rely on the police to protect the clinics. During the BUC '99 mobilization, police kept pro-choice forces penned across the street from the facilities. Women had to enter the clinics through cordons of city cops, state troopers, SWAT teams, FBI agents and other police forces. Hiestand took the floor during the discussion to announce that, "Women who were active in Buffalo United for Choice are going to reconstitute the coalition." BUC's perspective, she said, is that "It's very important for pro-choice and pro-LGBT people and our supporters to be very visible and to show that we are not going to be intimidated. We are not going to be pushed back into the closet. To be silent will only embolden the right wing. We feel we have shown that when we came out in strong numbers, they left. "Therefore," she concluded, "we are going to work to create a presence at the Jan. 22 right-wing press conference, at the women's services clinic, and throughout the Kopp trial." This vision of organizing was greeted with thunderous applause. Dozens crowded around the BUC speaker after the meeting to find out how they could be a part of the progressive mobilization against the right. "We have to be prepared to organize for the duration of the Kopp trial-- for as long as it takes to boot them out of Buffalo once and for all," Hiestand stressed. And, she concluded, the outcome of the struggle in Buffalo will reverberate around the country. "An injury to one is an injury to all--that's the bedrock that the labor movement in industrial Buffalo was built on. A victory against the right-wing political agenda of anti-abortion, racism and anti-Semitism, LGBT bashing and book burning is a victory for all, too." For more information on how to help in this crucial struggle, contact Buffalo United for Choice by downloading www.buffalounitedforchoice.org , emailing [EMAIL PROTECTED] or calling (716) 857-1965. Feinberg took part in the 1992 and 1999 clinic defense squads, and was a Rainbow Peacekeeper. - 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] Subscribe wwnews- [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] Support the voice of resistance http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php) ------------------ 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]>
