HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK ---------------------------I just got back from the Answer Rally which met at the Ellipse across from the White House. This rally focused on the issue of Palestine, and its participants were overwhelmingly Moslem. Hundreds of Palestinian banners fluttered in the breeze, as the crowd took up the chants, "Free, Free Palestine", and "Bush, Sharon, What did you say? How Many Kids Did you Kill today?" "We are all Palestinians, was another cry that thundered across the broad expanse.
The demonstration which Act Now to Stop War and End Racism (ANSWER) organized specifically targeted Israel's genocidal policy and to point out that Israel would not have any power-or weapons at all if the United States were not paying for every murder. At one point the rally chanted, "Pull the Plug!"
This rally was different from the A-20 rally.
What they said at the A-20 Rally I don't know, but they weren't linking US imperialism in the Middle east and their signs did not show opposition to the planned war in Iraq, unleess they were carrying ANSWER signs, which many were. . The two rallies joined in a march up Pennsylvania Ave. At the capital, speakers from the two coalitions joined together. They heard froom Cynthia McKinnon, the Congresswoman who is all alone against US aid to Israel and the whole Bush War Drive, but McKinnon still believes that Congress is where the change needs to take place.
Larry Holmes of the IAC spoke later and recognized that the changes were coming from the unity of the forces all over the world, from working people and oppressed people who were fighting back in Palestine and Colombia and Nepal, who were challenging imperialism in Colombia and spectacularly in Venezuela.
But the focus on Palestine was overwhelming by this second rally. A remarkable youth , a Palestinian woman who had been the Valedictoian at University of California Berkeley, spoke, urging all speakers to denounce Zionism as genocide. This powerful and dynamic organizer had been forced to talk second at her graduation, in violation of tradition, because the keynote speaker at the ceremony was Madelaine Albright, and our vibrant speaker would have decimated Madame Albright as the imperialsit floozie that she is.
But Albright got jeered and hecked loudly and effectively. Amy Goodman, one of the A-20 presenters said. The young graduate of UC Berkeley quoted the Spanish Civil War Communist Delores Ibarruri, known as La Passionaria, who said,"It is better to die on our feet than to live on our knees!"
Between the two rallies there were over 80,000 people who marched. I was doing video for People's Video Network and the rally went by, from the start, with 35 people walking abreast approximately (and often more) for 39 minutes down Pennsylvania Ave. It moved quickly,and the spirit was strong.
A-20 was a more moderate coalition which had certain Zionist-ic elements, and feared antagonizing Jews who support Israel. But those who joined with ANSWER were moving the political movement in the United States into a very mature position. The support of the Palestinian cause marks a significant change. There is no people on earth who have been so vilified, forced into such appalling and horrendous conditions, grandparents and their grandchildren have been born in the miserable tents of the refugee camps. The world turned away from them, and they were deprived of everyhting, their land, their livelihoods, and now- their lives. Their fightback has awakened the world and we felt it in DC this day.
When the Berkely Valedictoian said, "YOU MUST SUPPORT THE INTIFADA," a great roar came up from the crowd. The Palestinians and Bush/Sharon's genocidal policies and murderous actions have forced our movement into a radical new phase. They are the poorest, most oppressed people on the planet, and they are fighting back with their very bodies. No one could have heard those speeches and left without a sense of solidarity and respect for the courage of the Palestinians.
That so many Moslem brothers and sisters joined with Christian, Jews, athiests-whetever in this mulktinational event marked the beginning of a new phase of the struggle.
I'm no Bible scholar, but I think Bob Dylan was paraphrasing the Bible when he wrote,
"The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin'.
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin'
Thinking about Bush's military buildup- a Paper Tiger, as we see in Jenin and in the streets of Caracas.
In struggle,
Heather
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