i don't see this as guilt tripping. she provides a number of positive approaches that can be taken, among them educating people about the history of people of color and anti-war activism. But hey, no need to actually read anything because she once said something you don't like. Just dismiss it all because it's boilerplate. As if aphorisms huled for the umpteenth time aren't boilerplate bullshit with utterly no analysis and when asked for one, backpedal, hem, haw, and divert.
whathefuckever.
She also says, "Get thee to church." :p (thought Carl Remick would love that one.)
Overcoming The Obstacles
Many individuals of color are opposed to the wars and empire-building even if they don’t participate in demonstrations or join anti-war organizations. What might overcome the obstacles and make them more ready to get involved?
Anti-war organizers of color will say: education is key. That process must include drawing out the connections between people’s immediate concernsâ€"the bread-and-butter issuesâ€"and the war. An obvious example is the brutal cutbacks in education, health care, child care, and other social services to finance the biggest military budget seen in years. Another is the vast increase in racial profiling and criminalizing immigrants of color by such means as the “Special Registration†program.
People of color have sometimes become active against the war in places where organizations already exist that have won respect for their work on an issue important to local residents. In New York and Chicago, for example, organized Latino opposition to U.S. militarism against Vieques, Puerto Rico made it natural to take on Bush’s wars and empire-building. The result has been one of the strongest pockets of Latino organizing in the U.S. Also in New York, anti-war activism has been launched by people of color already organized around such issues as welfare rights, reparations, and immigrant rights, like CAAAV: Organizing Asian Communities. A group in Los Angeles, Centro (CSO), had a Latino base for years that enabled it to help Latinos Against the War win support.
In these cases, the existence of trust together with education about how the foreign and domestic wars are connected helped pave the way for involvement. Monami Maulik, director of Desis Rising Up and Moving (DRUM) in New York has pointed out that the current war on terrorism criminalizes immigrant communities much as the “war on drugs†crim- inalized African American and Latino communities for years. That kind of historical comparison helps advance the educational process.
Immediate connections also exist. Korean Americans constantly hear U.S. threats to attack their homeland because of its nuclear weapons. To them, the war abroad and the war at home are inseparable; recently they have energetically organized educational events and protests in the U.S. Filipinos have similar connections. Even before the war, many were engaged, directly or indirectly, in opposing U.S. militarism and its puppets in the Philippines. Their anti-war organizing has been intensified by the firing of over 1,000 baggage screeners at airports in the Bay Area, the vast majority Filipino, for being non-citizens.
A subtle linkage between U.S. wars abroad and the war at home can be found in the way African American activists often say they will join a struggle defined as “against imperialism†rather than “for peace.†Fighting U.S. imperialism echoes their own historical struggle, dating back to slavery. Black Workers for Justice in North Carolina issued a statement in late 2002 taking that anti-imperialist perspective even further. It emphasized the importance of “concretely linking the struggles of all People of Color and the oppressed internationally for a better world.â€
From all this organizing experience, one message emerges: perhaps the most effective way to build anti-war activism in communities of color is first to establish a base within each community, to begin where the people are, and grow. Organized activists of color then come to the table with white groups much more ready to form coalitions or alliances. At the same time, we can hope that the Anglo activists have developed anti-racist views and practices among themselves. We should also affirm the value of organizing according to communities other than those defined by color, such as women, gays, students, elders, the disabled, artists, and others.
Learning From Our Histories
Among the tools useful in advancing our anti-war organizing today is teaching our own histories of anti-war work. Martin Luther King spoke out against the Vietnam war in 1967 despite being strongly advised that he should “stick to civil rights issues†or lose support. Julian Bond of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in the 1960s (more recently Chair of the NAACP) opposed the Vietnam war. That cost him the seat he had won in the Georgia state legislature. In Harlem, thousands of African Americans marched against the draft. One sign carried the unforgettable words of Vietnam war resister Mohammad Ali: “No Vietcong ever call me n-word!â€
Among Asian Pacific Islanders, intense organizing took place from coast to coast. It included the Bay Area Asian Coalition Against the War, the Asian Coalition Against the War in New York, and the Van Troi Anti-Imperialist Youth Brigade of Vietnamese people in Los Angeles. Japanese Americans organized in San Francisco’s J-Town, and Filipinos also in that city. At times activists in the three cities demonstrated simultaneously.
One of the best-kept secrets about the anti-Vietnam war movement is the Chicano protests during 1970 in various parts of California. They even included Fresno, in the conservative Valley area, and culminated in the August 29, 1970 Chicano Moratorium against the war in Los Angeles. Some 20,000 people marched that day. In the middle of a peaceful rally we were tear-gassed, chased, and sometimes beaten by hundreds of police. Repression by police that afternoon left three Chicanos dead. Rubén Salazar, a Los Angeles Times reporter whose articles had criticized the police, was shot to death as he sat inside a bar after the attack.
As these stories reveal, standing against war is not new or alien to communities of color. We have our heroes and martyrs; we can be inspired by them.
That heritage should be made known, especially to youth of color, some of whom have been very active in anti-war work. Education about the war, demonstrating against the cutbacks in spending on schools while more prisons are built, and opposition to military recruitment are three major issues for youth organizers.
In Oakland, Youth Together has worked intensely in five high schools with school-wide teach-ins, workshops connecting the war with budget cuts, and mobilizing for major demonstrations.
Other groups doing similar work in Oakland include the Youth Empowerment Center and the East Side Arts Alliance. Bojil (formerly Olin) has done leafletting and made flags, along with Conscious Roots and San Francisco City College students, as part of the Schools Not Jails Coalition. These youth, who include many Latinos, also do media work.
In LA, Youth Organizing Communities with its Students Not Soldiers campaign has made military recruiters know they are unwelcome at two high schools including Roosevelt, the nation’s largest. YOC has also worked to make students aware that their parents must register with school authorities that they do not want personal information about their children given to the military. In Chicago the SW Youth Collaborative-Generation Y Project, with a strong base among Arab and Palestinian residents, has also done educational work on Palestine, Iraq, and other key issues. They will launch a Still We Rise campaign this fall.
The educational and organizing work that can bring more people of color to oppose the Bush wars and empire-building must emphasize the connections with people’s daily lives and how they are hurt in material ways. Self-interest exists and must be shown. But there is another kind of consciousness to be raised.
Let us remember the anger and sense of injustice people of color in this land can and do feel when they learn of what the U.S. has done to millions of people around the world, mostly people who look and struggle and suffer like them. The killing of up to 8,000 civilians in Iraq during the bombings last spring should be personally unacceptable to us all. It is a moral imperative that we affirm their humanity and thus our own. Never has there been a more important time to stand and shout at this nation’s rulers: No, no, not in our name.
Go To Church Already
Another crucial and often neglected constituency is church-goers. Anti-war organizing grew in Williamsburg, New York, as a result of El Puente’s building a base in local Catholic churches. On Good Friday this year some 5,000 Latinos in Williamsburg participated in a march combining the message of Good Friday with anti-war spirit. In Chicago, a community Methodist church brought together 100 other churchesâ€"mostly of Latinos and Blacksâ€"in a coalition that held demonstrations and other anti-war activities.