United for Peace appears to be the anti-globalists in anti-war form. It includes Global Exchange and the Ruckus Society, among others.
Post coverage of the local demos was pretty good, IMO. Paul Montgomery's tone in describing the myriad differences among participants was light-hearted; the description of the diversity underscored the broadness of underlying sentiment-- church ladies, hippies, anarchists, old lefties, etc. etc. His view of Workers World was that they don't matter. What does is the energy and broadness of popular anti-war sentiment.
This is gonna be fun.
mbs
-----Original Message----- From: owner-lbo-talk at lists.panix.com [mailto:owner-lbo-talk at lists.panix.com]On Behalf Of Yoshie Furuhashi Sent: Wednesday, December 11, 2002 4:05 PM To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com Subject: ANSWER, NION, United for Peace, & Win Without War
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: ssandron at hotmail.com
<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/>