Boston’s anti-war movement ‘Taking it to the streets’

As the “Stop the violence, stop the war at home and abroad” March 18 march and rally draw near, a broad spectrum of communities in the Greater Boston area is working vigorously to build this unique and historic event. The activists are taking it to the streets.

Initiated by the Rosa Parks Human Rights Day Coalition, March 18 activities here will begin with a rally in Roxbury in the heart of Boston’s Black community followed by a march through various communities of color and move through the Downtown Crossing, the major shopping district of Boston, then on to the State House.

Participants in the RPHRDC are now engaged in a massive visibility and outreach campaign. Distributing thousands of leaflets and stickers to houses, churches and community businesses, members are reaching out to African-American, Haitian, Cape Verdean, Latin@, Native and working-class white neighborhoods with multi-lingual March 18 literature. Engaging in community standouts on street corners and public transportation stops as well as greeting the communities with a sound truck adorned with anti-war, anti-racist placards are just some of the numerous ongoing activities.

On March 4 after a RPHRDC mobilizers’ meeting at the United Steelworkers bus drivers and monitors offices, members hit the streets again in a well-coordinated outreach plan conducted by Tony Van Der Meer, RPHRDC co-chair. Clemencia Lee, a co-director of the Cultural Café and a paraprofessional in Boston’s public school system, said, “I am supporting the anti-war movement because the war is hurting our community; it’s hurting our whole entire system; our way of living. It’s difficult living in this society and not getting the needs we need to have met as human beings.”

Like Lee, Rachael Nasca pointed to the devastating impact of the U.S. war on Iraq and other nations: “Women are multi-impacted by the war. We suffer the most in terms of our jobs. We’re paid less, which means when more money is going into the war budget, we are paid still less. There are cutbacks in all social services and our children suffer because of the education cutbacks and others. And our children are being used as cannon fodder in foreign wars,” said Nasca, a member of AFSCME 3650, the clerical workers union at Harvard University.

Under the banner of “Stop Poverty, Racism, Sexism & War!” The Women’s Fightback Network and the Cambridge Women’s Center will have a Women and Girls Contingent March 18. Other contingents will be lesbian/gay/bi/trans (LGBT) and labor.

“We’ve got to get out there. We’ve got to get people united. We have a wonderful coalition that’s very diverse and it’s very exciting and I think this is the kind of organization that’s actually going to be able to stop the war,” said Nasca.

Lee agreed: “We could do so many more better things with the resources that are going into the war. I believe we have to learn how to love each other, work with each other and war plus war does not equal peace. The U.S. needs to take its hands off Iraq, Haiti, everywhere else that this globalization’s at. I’m going to stand up straight on this issue. I was brought up to fight,” concluded Lee as she left to hit the streets with Nasca and a multiple-vehicle caravan.

The Boston Rosa Parks Committee can be reached at 617-524-3507, rosaparksday@brphrd.com or via the web at www.brphrd.com.