AT D.C. RALLY
Diverse voices give one message: 'NO WAR!'
Here are excerpts from some of the speeches at the
Washington, D.C., rally to Stop War and End Racism, compiled by
Leslie Feinberg.
DR. MARCELO VENEGAS,
Doctors for Global Health
On Sept. 11, I found myself trying to help the victims
around the perimeter of Ground Zero. I felt great grief and
sadness. And on Sept. 11, 1973, my country of Chile was bombed
in a similar way by acts of terrorism sponsored by the United
States, sponsored by the CIA with millions of dollars.
LARRY HOLMES,
Act Now to Stop War
& End Racism
In a world without justice, in which a few on top hog
everything and so many of us have to fight for the rest, you
won't find peace. We are the answer--this sea of humanity here
today. There are millions of people in this country who are
guarding a secret: They're opposed to a war. But they've been
made to feel that they're alone and that it's not safe for them
to speak up and to demonstrate. Let people across this country
and around the world know that we are here.
MARCINA ALARCON
Mexico Support Network
Immigrants in the U.S. have made very important
contributions to the economy and culture of this nation. They
don't merit the name "illegals." We demand amnesty for all
undocumented workers.
SUNITA MEHDA
Sakhi for South Asian Women; Women for Afghan
Women
We stand against war. We have to
pro mote and enable the agency of the Afghan women and men in
their own struggle and provide resources and all our love to
help that country be rebuilt to a democracy--a democracy that
includes women.
RICARDO JUAREZ PASAMONTAÑAS
In [the name of the Mexican people] President Vicente Fox is
supporting a war that we do not support. We are for peace and
for justice. Immigrants are not your enemy. We are being told
that all threats come from outside [the U.S.] as though this is
the only good place on earth.
RON DANIELS
Executive Director, Center
for Constitutional Rights
Violence will only get more violence. We have to salute the
one person in the Congress of the United States who had the
audacity to stand up and say no to war: the Honorable Barbara
Lee from the 9th Congressional District of California.
JAMES CREEDON
emergency medical technician injured at World Trade
Center
I hear people say: "If you lost people in the World Trade
Center, you'd want a war too." Well, I was hurt in the World
Trade Center collapse; I was almost killed. I lost four people
from my squad and hundreds of other rescue workers. And I'm
here today to stand with the International Action Center and
say war will not bring our loved ones back. I say to anyone
calling for a racist war: "Do you know what war looks like?
Because I do. I'm at Ground Zero and I know what it means to
see the deaths of innocent men, women and children. And a
racist war will multiply that a hundred times, a thousand
times." Let us resolve to commit our hands, our voices, our
bodies and all resources at our command to say we are going to
act now to stop war and end racism.
SAMIA HALABY
Al Awda/New York
People of privilege ask, "Why do the people of the Arab
world hate us so much?" In Iraq, the children ask me: "Why does
America drop bombs on us?" Palestinian children have been
living with U.S. imperialism for over
50 years. They have destroyed our Palestine almost completely
and yet we continue to resist. We are aware that it's not one
administration--not just Bush guilty of what's going on. It's
an entire system that has oppressed us.
AMER JUBRAN
Al Awda/Boston
What happened on Sept. 11--we condemn it. But it was a
direct result of U.S. foreign policy against that region. The
people in the region hate unresolved conflict, oppression,
economic and social pressure that is making their lives so
disgusting. Exxon/ Mobil doesn't have to steal $200 billion
from the region. No blood for oil!
TERESA GUTIERREZ
International Action Center
Every single day since the horrific events of Sept. 11,
people in New York City have been meeting and demonstrating to
say we will not let our grief turn into a war party for the
CEOs. New Yorkers will persevere to make sure that a city for
immigrants, for people of color, for the workers--not for the
real estate developers--will be built.
REV. LUCIUS WALKER
Inter-religious Foundation for Community Organizing/Pastors
for Peace
Just this morning I returned from Cuba, where I was asked at
the highest levels of authority, as well as by many people at
the grassroots base, to say to you "love, peace" and to give
you an embrace. Because they understand the horrors of
terrorism and the pain that it inflicts on innocent people.
They understand it because they have endured it from our own
country for more than 40 years. The primary source of terrorism
in the world is indeed the United States.
ERIC LE COMPTE
School of the Americas Watch
For over 50 years our government has been teaching terrorism
in our own backyard down at the School of the Americas at Fort
Benning, Georgia. We invite you to join us at Fort Benning on
Nov. 16-18 to raise our voices to say, "No more--not in our
name will terror be taught by our government."
ISMAEL GUADALUPE
a leader of the Committee for
the Rescue and Development
of Vieques
[Berta Joubert, who read this statement, noted, "As
Guadalupe dictated this message on the telephone, I could hear
bombing by the U.S. Navy in the background."]
Greetings from Vieques. We want peace because our island and
our people have been the victims of constant aggression by the
U.S. military for 60 years. It is in Vieques where the U.S.
Navy has practiced for the invasions and aggressions against
Korea, China, Guate mala, the Bay of Pigs, Grenada, Panama,
Yugo slavia--and now the confrontation against Afghanistan. It
is therefore sheer hypocrisy for the U.S. government to say
that they are the victims of terrorism when they have been the
major promoters of terrorism. And now, regrettably, that
terrorism as a boomerang has attacked the innocent people of
the United States.
ELEIZA BRAUN GEORGE
Washington University
Action Coalition
On Sept. 20, with three days' notice, students throughout
the country mobilized--from Harvard to Berkeley, New Mexico to
Rhode Island. We called for an end to the hate and cycle of
violence. We proved on Sept. 20, we prove today, and we will
continue to prove that we cannot be silenced.
VANESSA DIXON
Healthcare Now Coalition
Given this recent tragedy, we hear about justice. One way to
ensure justice in this country is to make sure that our public
health system is operating properly. It is imperative to have a
public health system where everyone can go regardless of
ability to pay.
DAMU SMITH
Black Voices for Peace
Remember this: Timothy McVeigh was a white guy with a crew
cut. He bombed people to smithereens in Oklahoma. And just to
show how racism works, not one white person with a crew cut was
profiled after the Oklahoma bombing. End the racism against
people of color!
BISHOP THOMAS GUMBLETON Archdiocese of
Detroit
It is the moment for new thinking and new ways of acting
based on our religious faith or on our common humanity. The
first step is to ask: Why are we under attack? Are those who
did these horrendous acts of terror faceless cowards? Or must
we face the reality that there are profound grievances among
oppressed people that moves them to rage and violence against
us? Failure to seek the reasons for the anger and hatred
expressed against us, and failure to negotiate a just solution
of the problems will only lead to greater disaster.
REV. GRAYLAN HAGLER
Senior Pastor, Plymouth Congregational Church, D.C.
You've been seeing faces like Jerry Falwell and other
preachers walking in to baptize war and to say racist and
homophobic things. But I'm here to say that the progressive
church stands for peace. I heard George "Never Read A Book"
Bush say, "If you are not with us you are with the terrorists."
Words like that are designed to intimidate. But we refuse to be
silent. We are the people! We rained bombs for 10 years on Iraq
and we gave arms to all kinds of despotic leaders to enforce
oppression and then we're surprised that we're hated? Today we
stand with the people of the world who yearn for justice and
peace and dignity and self-determination.
STEPHANIE SIMARD
Women's Fightback Network; Simmons College Feminist
Union
Tens of billions of dollars are going to fight this racist
war. Will that money build youth centers or health care, help
youth get education, rebuild New York and all the lost jobs,
assist those injured by anti-Muslim or anti-Arab attacks?
Bush's program is anti-woman, anti-gay, anti a lot of us. So
today when we march, I want to see the young women
here--especially lesbian, gay, bi and trans youth and women of
color--in the front. I want Bush to see that we are the past
and the future of the anti-war movement.
SAM JORDAN
International Concerned Family & Friends of Mumia
Abu-Jamal
I bring you greetings from Mumia Abu-Jamal, 20 years on
death row. His greetings are: No race war abroad; end the race
war at home. This last message from Mumia: The people's
movement--the mass movement--won the war in Vietnam. George
Bush wants to roll back our victories. Here is what we want: No
more wars of occupation. No more secret wars. No more wars of
indeterminate terms. No war!
PETA LINDSAY
School Without Walls, high school student, Washington, D.C.,
and S29 youth organizer:
Young people today have been labeled apathetic,
materialistic, insensitive and out of control. Looking out over
this plaza today, you can see those words were meant for a
completely different species. As the country moved closer to
war, students began to seek out information about the ANSWER
rally, realizing that though we never agreed to this war, it
will be fought with our blood. We have been organizing and
preparing for this rally and rallies to come, and every student
with a conscience and free thought will be here to say that we
do not want this war.
CHUCK KAUFMAN
Nicaragua Network
The people of Nicaragua well understand what the people who
lost friends and family in the World Trade Center feel. Forty
thousand Nicaraguans were killed by U.S. terrorism during the
contra war when the U.S. government trained and funded and
taught terrorist methods to criminals who assassinated
teachers, killed farmers, murdered health care workers.
YOOMI JEONG
Congress for Korean Reunification & Korea Truth
Commission
We Koreans know what it means to be in a war. We had Korean
War in 1950 to 1953. Over 5 million Korean civilians were
killed and many, many died at the hands of U.S. military
troops. As Korean Americans living in the states as a racial
minority, we understand where racism and xenophobia lead. Right
now the U.S. government is exploiting the grief and anger by
turning this tragedy into Pentagon's war development and
military buildup. Only when there is change in U.S. foreign
policy that serves all the people will the tragedy of Sept. 11
be avoided in the future.
MONICA MOOREHEAD
Millions for Mumia of the IAC
Mass movements change social conditions, not individuals.
But individuals can play important roles in movements for great
social change. In fact, the origins of many mass struggles
began with heroic individuals who dared to swim against the
tide of political reaction. Rev. Curtis Gatewood, president of
the Durham, N.C., chapter of the NAACP, took a stance against
war in contrast to the not-very-progressive stance of the
national leadership of the NAACP. He has come under tremendous
pressure. So we have to pledge today to build support and stay
in solidarity with this African American leader in the
South.
REV. CURTIS GATEWOOD
President NAACP-
North Carolina
The very president who said we are the example of freedom
and democracy was selected president by a right-wing un-Supreme
Court. Dr. King once said that the ultimate measure of a man is
not where he stands in times of comfort and convenience but
where he stands in times of challenge and controversy. This is
the time. We must act now. We are on God's side because we're
standing for truth at a time when a lie is popular. A lie will
still be a lie even when it's decorated in red, white and blue;
even when it's told on top of the White House. Sometimes I
think we confuse American patriotism with American racism
because they're very closely related. Keep standing for
justice. Keep standing for righteousness.
RAY LEFOREST
DC 1707 AFSCME
George Bush's only distinction is to have killed more
prisoners than any other governor in the country. His father,
in 1991, rained genocide on the Haitian people after the
election of President Aristide. Realizing that he would not do
their bidding, they allowed a coup that resulted in the
slaughter of as many as 10,000 Haitians. As a member of the
labor movement, I want to say that the gains of the last 40
years are at risk. So wake up and join us.
ZACHARY RUNNING WOLF ANDERSON
Native leader, Bay Area
Yesterday I finished my spiritual run that started in San
Francisco some four and a half months ago. I ran to the city of
Philadelphia for a fair trial for Mumia Abu-Jamal. I ran 4,400
miles for a man I have never met. We need to sacrifice, to put
our lives on the line for peace.
MARA VERHEYDEN-HILLIARD
Co-founder of
Partnership
for Civil Justice
The last time I stood on Freedom Plaza in January I said
they didn't want you here at the Bush inauguration. This time
around folks sought to demonstrate at the White House. They
didn't want you there. Apparently they don't want you anywhere
that George Bush is near because his program, policy and plans
for war and racial profiling don't hold up to your scrutiny.
They don't want images of thousands who have the courage to
stand up here today to say no to war, no to racism and no to
having civil liberties stripped from us.
MINNIE BRUCE PRATT
lesbian author
and anti-racist activist
You may soon hear that the U.S. is attacking Afghanistan in
order to defend women in the name of civilization. But if the
U.S. really cared about women, why did it arm the Taliban to
attack a secular Afghan government that had freed women?
Reprinted from the Oct. 11, 2001, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
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