Friends, comrades, coworkers,
This is some background on conflicts that have emerged over the April 20th rally in Washington. People can send this out to those who may be confused. My interest is NOT in making any points for or against any side, but giving some background. This post is a personal one, the opinions are mine, not necessarily those of the organizations with which I work.
Some months ago ANSWER, and, I believe, the International Action Center, set an April 27th date for a Washington DC rally. Meanwhile the National Youth and Student Coalition called for a demonstration on April 20th.
The NYSC group had met in early November and by December connections had been made with the National Coalition for Peace and Justice - a loose coalition of adult peace and justice groups that includes War Resisters League, Fellowship of Reconciliation, American Friends Service Committee, Peace Action, Black Radical Congress, etc. There was another network called together by Ted Glick (Emergency National Network) which also endorsed April 20th, as did NYC Labour Against the War.
(You can get the positions of War Resisters League, with which I'm affiliated - by going to: <http://warresisters.org.> You can get loads of info, including bus info, by going to the web site of "Stop the War", the coalition WRL belongs to, working on the April 20th date - <http://www.a20stopthewar.org> You can get full information on the ANSWER coalition by writing to: <nowardc at yahoo.com> (the posts from that site have been identified as being from International A.N.S.W.E.R.)
Colombia Mobilization planned actions on April 19-22 and so the April 20th date became the main rallying point. ANSWER then engaged in discussions with the Stop the War Coalition (which by now included all the groups I've named except ANSWER, the International Action Center, Workers World Party, and a few other groups that have worked with them), and took the step of moving the date of their rally from April 27th to April 20th. This left the problem of possibly having two rallies on the same date in the same city.
There are clearly political tensions. The pacifists had been uneasy about aspects of the IAC and ANSWER and had been seeking what they felt was a less sectarian coalition. That is my view - I am sure ANSWER and IAC feel their political positions are correct and the rally should reflect those politics. If there hadn't been tensions there wouldn't have been two dates in the first place!
Certainly ANSWER deserves credit for canceling its April 27th date. But the students, who had initiated the process, did not want a "joint rally" because of disagreements. I understand that there had been a final offer that ANSWER could have one of the five or six speakers and the student coalition would have no veto power over that speaker.
I write this as an observer, not as a key player. I'm semiretired, I see Carmen Trotta, WRL staff person who has been working night and day on this, several times a week and get briefed by him, have offered advice when asked, but have not been in on the conference calls, have not attended any of the coalition meetings. It is true that while I respect - greatly - the integrity of Workers World and the groups with which it works, such as the International Action Center, I do distrust the manner in which they work, as well as aspects of their politics. Despite that long history of disagreements - which led to two coalitions having two separate demonstrations in Washington during the Gulf War - I congratulate ANSWER for helping to achieve a single day when we can all demonstrate together.
And that is what I think should be focused on. I understand that the staff of the Stop the War office in Washington had made efforts to reach closer agreements with ANSWER and to some extent these seem to have been rebuffed by the student coalition, which had called the whole event in the first place and had a sense of "ownership" of it.
Having been through every coalition during the Vietnam War and many since, I do fully understand the problem faced by staffs, I do understand (and regret) that where there are political disagreements, it is easy to read too much into small things, to feel there has been a betrayal when there has only been a misunderstanding. I had a friend write me yesterday to say he had seen the "call' for April 20th from ANSWER and wondered why the War Resisters League wasn't listed. It isn't listed there, because it is listed as a sponsor of the other coalition and has been working on this almost literally from the beginning. We do strongly support April 20th. (Please go to the Stop the War web site for a look at the remarkable list of endorsers - one of the broadest lists I've seen in years).
It would seem to me that the disagreements that exist will continue - and should be discussed on buses going down - and frankly and openly in the future. More urgent is to focus on getting as large a crowd as possible to Washington on April 20th, to do nothing that would harm a sense that, in part thanks to decisions by ANSWER to cancel the April 27th event, the entire broad movement is gathering.
Whether we have ten thousand or twenty thousand - or, God willing, many more - will be a victory not for any group, but for the people of this country trying to take back control from the cabal around Bush, a victory for the people of Palestine, besieged even as I write by Israeli tanks, a victory for the people of Iraq, who may be spared a new war if our numbers are great enough.
I hope every group on the left, every religious group, every peace and justice group, every community organization, every independent political movement, will join in active support. There is nothing wrong with having a controversy over the politics of the movement. I do not want to dampen a serious and ongoing debate. But let that debate occur as we march together on April 19-22 - particularly on April 20th - to give voice to the hope for peace and justice in this country. We may be watching a movement in the process of being born, one which can address the issues of militarism, racism, a foreign policy of intimidation and aggression, and the profound dangers of domestic repression. With any luck, those of you at the grassroots can help to put the differences and disagreements in perspective - and not let them prevent a truly massive and peaceful assembly in Washington on April 20th.
Peace, Solidarity,
David McReynolds
member, staff of War Resisters League*
member, National Committee of the Socialist Party USA*
* all the views expressed are my personal views