------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the June 24, 2004 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------
BOSTON DYKE MARCH: "ABOLISH WAR, RACISM & CAPITALISM!"
By WW Boston bureau
Thousands of lesbians and their supporters marched through the streets of Boston June 11 in the 10th annual "Dyke March."
The mood of the victory around same-sex marriage rights in the state was apparent. Those who lined the sidewalks applauded and cheered the marchers.
The Lesbian Avengers, who founded and led the Dyke March, focused this year on the theme "the war abroad and the war at home." At the request of the march organizers, a banner reading "Come out against war & racism- -No Pride in occupation" from the Stonewall Warriors of the International Action Center was prominent toward the front of the march.
Leslie Feinberg delivered the keynote speech at the concluding rally in the Commons. Feinberg was introduced as a trade unionist, socialist and a managing editor of Workers World newspaper.
The outdoor audience was rapt as Feinberg described the courageous role of lesbians in confronting white supremacists in Boston in 1974. Feinberg, one of the leading organizers of the 1974 March Against Racism, called it "the year our Pride March came in December."
Feinberg called on those gathered to take part in the anti-war and anti- occupation contingents in this year's Boston Pride March. She drew applause when she argued that every domestic economic and social demand-- money for AIDS and other health-care needs, racist profiling, youth rights, rape and battering of women, environmental struggles, and jobs, education and housing--are all tied to fighting the war drive.
"The racist dehumanization of Iraqi and Afghan prisoners in Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib also demonstrates how violently anti-trans, anti-gay and anti-woman the Pentagon culture of conquest is. And some of those same torturers are police and prison guards right here, like those whose brutal repression sparked the Stonewall Rebellion. But from Stonewall to Baghdad, Palestine to Haiti, repression generates resistance."
Rally-goers applauded the call to swell the ranks of the July 25 protest at the Democratic National Convention in Boston this summer in order to build a fight-back movement independent of both parties of big business.
But the biggest cheers followed Fein berg's call for a revolutionary movement "to overturn the economic system that breeds war and racism and poverty."
Pointing to the skyscrapers that surround the Commons, Feinberg said: "We built all of this collectively. It is irrational that a wealthy few should claim to own it all. We need to abolish this economic system and reorganize production to provide jobs and housing, health care and education, recreation and vacation for all who do the work of the world."
The crowd roared its assent.
- 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]>
