Apparently, in the USA, there are no less than four (national)
coalitions against the war now: ANSWER, NION, United for Peace, _and_
Win Without War (see below). Any thoughts?
***** New York Times 11 December 2002
Protests Held Across the Country to Oppose War in Iraq
By LYNETTE CLEMETSON
WASHINGTON, Dec. 10 - From a morning blockade of a federal building
in Chicago to a lunchtime march to the White House to an evening
discussion at a Y.W.C.A. in Detroit, a cross-section of activists,
celebrities and everyday Americans held more than 150 events across
the country today to oppose a war with Iraq.
Organized by a coalition of more than 70 groups called United for
Peace, the events ranged in attendance from several dozen at
Youngstown, Ohio, and Mineola, N.Y., to several hundred in Santa Fe,
N.M., and Oakland, Calif.
Organizers and participants said the diverse turnout represented a
growing wave of popular dissent, even as the country inches closer to
military action.
The scattered displays of dissent did not compare to the large
turnout at a national protest held in Washington in late October,
which attracted more than 100,000 people from around the nation.
But organizers said size was not their intent this time. Instead, by
fanning out to small towns, neighborhood squares and workday traffic
areas, they said they hoped to emphasize a growing wave of skepticism
and dissent to war.
"We want you to hear us, Mr. President," Damu Smith, director of
Black Voices for Peace, one of the coordinating groups, said as he
stood with a midday crowd of several hundred in Washington. "We hope
you hear our voices today."
The hundreds of speeches given nationwide included tributes to Philip
F. Berrigan, a former Roman Catholic priest and anti-Vietnam war
organizer who died last week, and salutes to President Jimmy Carter,
who was being presented the Nobel Peace Prize as some of the events
took place.
The day of protests, Mr. Smith said, represent a new phase in
coalition building around the anti-war movement, and several more
events are scheduled in the weeks and months ahead.
In Los Angeles, a group of celebrities including the actors Martin
Sheen, Hector Elizondo and Tony Shalhoub turned out to add
high-profile support to the movement. More than 100 entertainers have
signed a letter to President Bush appealing for a diplomatic rather
than a military response in Iraq.
"It's time to stand up and declare ourselves as patriots concerned
for our country," Mr. Elizondo said.
The celebrity group is part of a larger coalition called Win Without
War that will officially begin on Wednesday. Backed by national
religious and civic organizations, including the National Council of
Churches, the N.A.A.C.P., the National Organization for Women and the
Sierra Club, organizers said the group's purpose was to emphasize
what they called a mainstreaming of the antiwar movement.
"We are patriotic Americans who share President Bush's belief that
Saddam Hussein's Iraq cannot be allowed to acquire weapons of mass
destruction," reads the coalition's political mission statement. "We
part ways with the president, however, on the issue of pre-emptive
military attack against Iraq."
One of the founding organizations, MoveOn.Org., started an online
signature campaign a week ago titled, "Let the Inspections Work."
Within days, it gathered more than 175,000 signatures and over
$300,000 in donations to buy antiwar advertisements in national media
outlets.
"There is significant energy building out there," said Eli Pariser,
the internet-based group's international campaign director.
The events today varied widely in tone and turnout. In New York, the
police arrested 99 clergy members from a variety of faiths on charges
of blocking the doors to the United Nations mission.
In Santa Fe, a children's marimba band joined junior high students,
middle-aged Green Party members, Veterans for Peace and hundreds of
lunchtime passers-by in singing a version of the Christmas carol
"Deck the Halls."
"Peace is jolly, war is folly," sang the crowd.
On an icy playground in the Boston neighborhood Jamaica Plain, about
50 members of a group called Latinos Together Against the War came
together for a puppet show, rap performance and poetry reading for
peace.
Unlike some protests that are dominated by college students, these
events had a significant turnout of middle-aged professionals and
older people.
Louise Franklin Ramirez, 97, attended the Washington rally in her
wheelchair. Margo Smith, 72, of Berkeley, Calif., joined in chants in
front of the Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building in Oakland saying,
"Peace is the power of the people."
Bob Taylor, an economist for the World Bank, skipped lunch to join
the march to the White House. He took his family to the Washington
march in October carrying a sign that read, "Average American Family
Against War With Iraq." On his way to work, Mr. Taylor said he saw a
leaflet for today's rally and decided to squeeze it into his day.
"The perception out there that ordinary people are not paying
attention to what's going on and are not concerned about the
possibility of war is wrong," Mr. Taylor said. "Very few of my
friends and colleagues support this war, even if they did not walk
over to stand here today."
<http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/11/national/11PROT.html> *****
Here's Seth Sandronsky's view of ANSWER:
***** Published on Saturday, December 7, 2002 by CommonDreams.org
Coloring the Youth Peace Movement
by Seth Sandronsky
As war clouds cast their shadows on Iraq, the U.S. peace movement is
growing. Part of that growth is coming from young, nonwhite people.
This is a big change. It was clear to those who participated in the
Oct. 26 rally in San Francisco against the Bush administration's
campaign to mentally prepare the U.S. public for an attack on Iraq.
Whatever one thinks of International ANSWER (Act Now To Stop War and
End Racism), the group is doing an outstanding job of organizing
young black, brown and yellow people. They typically don't attend
U.S. anti-war rallies, due mainly to the role of the nation's color
line. The white peace movement gains nothing by burying its head in
the sand on this sore subject. Honesty is the only policy here.
Arguably, widespread involvement of young people of color who
previously have been absent from anti-war protests is essential to
building a movement for equality that reflects the complexity and
diversity of the U.S. Folks are waking up to this understanding. Some
perhaps quicker than others. Better late than never. We have a world
to save.
U.S. elites see it differently. They have a world to steal, and have
waged wars abroad for decades against black, brown and yellow people
to this thieving end. These wars have dovetailed with U.S. racism in
complex ways. Thus it's no coincidence that the Civil Rights Movement
of the 1960s energized opposition to U.S. military intervention in
Southeast Asia. Then, the political power of the U.S. majority was
rising. Meanwhile, the post-World War II economic boom was ending.
As U.S. economic growth slowed during the 1960s and 1970s, the
political power of the majority weakened. The subsequent
restructuring of the world economy followed. A racist reaction
against those least to blame for it spread in the U.S. In the 1980s,
the Reagan administration waged Central American wars against the
supposed communist menace of brown people. This dovetailed with the
phony "War on Drugs" against people of color in the U.S.
A kind of class war ensued between and within nations, facilitated by
white racism. In the U.S., the Drug War removed surplus workers of
color to the prison system. They were politically neutered. This
process continues today in a nation that has an incarcerated
population of two million human beings. Currently, an endless terror
war promises no end to such racialized policies that expand
inequality in the U.S.
Moreover, the young people of color not incarcerated will be more
likely than most to be sent to fight in the endless terror war. They
will arrive home in body bags, or alive but poisoned in body and
spirit by their brutal and brutalizing experiences. These same youth
are now being targeted by military recruiters in public high schools.
Military recruitment is currently connected with federal education
aid http://www.wagingpeace.org/new/getinvolved/index.htm.
Is it any wonder that nonwhite youth in the U.S. being militarily
profiled for the terror war and racially profiled for jails and
prisons are voicing an advanced political consciousness? Steeled by a
harsh social reality, their activism is linking Washington's
aggression in the Persian Gulf to a militarization of life in the U.S.
These youth are publicly connecting the dots between capitalism,
racism and militarism in U.S. domestic and foreign policy.
Globalization of inequality begins at home. That thought crossed my
mind as I watched a young white man walk with a sign decrying racism.
He was part of the call for U.S. peace with the people of Iraq. He
was refusing to go along with the white-skin privilege that serves to
blind many to the common humanity they share with others from Iraq to
Indianapolis who have a slightly different pigmentation.
The mostly white Third World solidarity movements focusing on the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict, forgiving World Bank debt and opposing
corporate-led globalization partly remind Max Elbaum, author of
"Revolution in the Air: Third World Marxism of the 1960s," of the
young people he mobilized with during the anti-Vietnam War struggle.
He also sees the mostly non-white people's anti-prison system and
pro-African American reparations movements as heirs to the tradition
of U.S. people protesting racism and social injustice that sparked
people to sit-in and march during the Civil Rights era.
History, of course, never repeats itself exactly. But one thing
appears clear. Peace with equality begins at home in the U.S. Let's
keep supporting the emerging color of the young people's peace
movement here.
Seth Sandronsky is an editor with Because People Matter, Sacramento's
progressive newspaper. Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
<http://ww.commondreams.org/views02/1207-05.htm> *****
--
Yoshie
* Calendar of Events in Columbus:
<http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html>
* Anti-War Activist Resources: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/activist.html>
* Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/>
* Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osu.edu/students/CJP/>
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