Community caravan joins anti-war action
By
John Parker
Los Angeles
Published Mar 23, 2005 3:42 PM
On March 19 a car caravan
rolled through the African American community of Watts and on to Hollywood with
lights on, horns honking and banners displayed. Unlike the meaningless
commercial ads commanding the attention of people along the sidewalks, this
caravan was greeted by the South Los Angeles community with fists in the air and
shouts of approval, because it was about something real—health care and
the demand to stop sacrificing social services for the billions spent on war in
Iraq.
The International Action Center initiated the motorcade in
conjunction with an action held the same day in New York City called by the
Troops Out Now coalition. The caravan went from King-Drew Med ical Center in
South LA to a Holly wood demonstration called by the ANSWER coalition marking
the second anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Rally organizers said that
20,000 people were in attendance.
The motorcade’s cars were draped
with banners stating, “Save King-Drew, shut down the war” and
“Money for health care, not war.” A Service Employees Local 660 van
and SUV participated in the motorcade.
King-Drew Hospital has been
threatened with closure and now faces demands to cut back services by county
officials. The predominately Latin@ and Black community served by the hospital
has launched a successful fightback with help from Rep. Maxine
Waters.
South LA’s community contains fewer health-care facilities
per resident than the California average. Many here believe that closing the
facility would be tantamount to an act of genocide against people of color and
an injustice to working and poor people in general.
The IAC organized the
caravan to show solidarity with the people of South LA and expose the direct
links between the war budget and the theft of services from working-class and
especially nationally oppressed communities.
The caravan fed into the
anti-war demonstration held in Hollywood in order to strengthen that rally with
voices from communities that have not always been well represented in the
anti-war protests.
IAC organizers saw the caravan as a success and an
important step toward uniting the community and anti-war struggles.
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