Unity statement from the ANSWER coalition
APRIL MARCH ON WASHINGTON
ISSUED FEB. 27
In response to calls for unity in the anti-war movement, the
International ANSWER coalition (Act Now to Stop War & End
Racism) is announcing that it is moving its National March on
Washington Against War and Racism from April 27 to April 20,
2002.
Clearly everyone understands the need for many activists
from many movements to be in Washington, D.C., to protest the
dangerous, racist war drive that threatens the people of the
planet and to fight Bush and Ashcroft's attempts to dismantle
the Bill of Rights, criminalize dissent, and investigate and
imprison people based on racial and religious profiling.
ANSWER calls on people to rally at the White House at 11
a.m. on April 20, 2002, before marching to the Justice
Department and on to a unified rally with the other coalition.
This march will be the first that breaks the ban on
demonstrations in front of the White House that was
unconstitutionally imposed prior to anti-war demonstrations in
September during the headlong rush to war.
ANSWER has been organizing for an anti-war March on
Washington since November 2001 and widely disseminated a call
for April 27 in December. The Coalition settled on the April 27
date out of deference to the National Colombia Mobilization
taking place April 19-22. In recent weeks other groups and
individuals have come together to call an anti-war march on
April 20. It became evident that having two anti-war
demonstrations on succeeding weekends on seemingly similar
themes, without very compelling reasons, would be a disservice
to the movement. Upon learning about the April 20 mobilization,
ANSWER took the initiative to try to open lines of
communication in an effort to rectify this unfortunate
situation.
People around the country are saying that what the movement
needs on April 20 is a united front. This means those with
political differences marching with independence while showing
that we can come together to fight the war makers. All
movements have different currents. The only way we are going to
stop George Bush's declared "endless war" is to have a movement
that comes together against this common foe.
ANSWER believes that the anti-war movement must be broad,
that it must embrace the workers' movement, unions, communities
of faith, immigrants, students and youth, and particularly
communities of color. We also believe that the movement must
strongly express its solidarity with the struggling people of
the Middle East, Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean,
who are fighting to determine their own destinies free from
U.S. imperialist and colonial domination and that of the
transnational corporations.
Our experience since forming the ANSWER Coalition on Sept.
14 has proven that you do not have to choose between being
broad and embracing the oppressed peoples of the world and
making the connections between their fight and the fight of the
people in the U.S. The ANSWER coalition includes more than 500
organizations and prominent individuals who have campaigned
against U.S. intervention in Latin America, the Caribbean, the
Middle East and Asia, and organizations that have campaigned
for social and economic justice for poor people and civil
rights inside the United States. The steering committee
includes Nicaragua Network, Mexico Solidarity Network,
IFCO/Pastors for Peace, International Action Center,
Partnership for Civil Justice LDEF, Kensington Welfare Rights
Union, Middle East Children's Alliance, Committee for Justice
to Defend Palestinian Rights, Bayan USA (Filipino community)
and the Korea Truth Commission.
The ANSWER coalition rejects the opportunistic use by the
Bush administration of the tragedy of Sept. 11, to pursue,
through military means, pre-existing imperialist objectives
while simultaneously ramming through domestic policies that
strengthen corporate rule, attack civil rights and attempt to
crush dissent, all at the expense of working people. As the war
and occupation in Afghanistan is continuing, the Bush
administration has sent almost 700 troops to the Philippines,
has increased their support for the Colombian government's
intensified war against the Colombian people and the Israeli
repression of the Palestinian people.
ANSWER will take a stand against any new war carried out by
the Bush administration, whether it's in Iraq, Sudan, Somalia,
Iran, North Korea, Yemen, Indonesia or elsewhere. We must not
only oppose war and racism at home. We must stand firmly with
the people's struggles of the world.
ANSWER demands that the Bush administration's war budget of
more than a billion dollars a day be converted into funds for
human needs, jobs, education, health care, and assistance for
the poor.
We call on all those who believe the people of the world are
not our enemies and are our brothers and sisters to join
together in the National March on Washington, D.C. If you
support self-determination, not U.S. military and corporate
domination, meet at the White House at 11 a.m. on April 20.
ANSWER calls on activists and organizations everywhere to
work doubly hard to fill the streets of Washington with
protestors April 19-22. We encourage people to support the
National Colombia Mobilization and the protests against the IMF
and World Bank.
We have also learned that Ariel Sharon will be the featured
speaker along with President Bush at a right-wing, pro-war
conference organized by the American Israel Public Affairs
Committee (AIPAC) over the same weekend as these protests.
Sharon and Bush are scheduled to speak at 7:30 p.m. on Monday,
April 22nd. ANSWER and other organizations are calling a
demonstration at that time and appeal to those who are coming
to Washington for the weekend to stay over if at all possible
to participate in that very important demonstration.
As we build our grassroots movement against the war towards
our spring National March on Washington, we encourage activists
to focus on important upcoming dates such as April 4, the
anniversary of Martin Luther King's assassination and his
Beyond Vietnam speech, as well as tax day, April 15, to
organize local events.
Stop the racist war machine--all out for April
20!
For more information see
http://www.internationalanswer.org,
or email ANSWER@afgj.org,
or call New York (212) 633-6646,
Washington (202) 543-2777,
Chicago (773) 583-7728,
San Francisco (415) 821-6545
Calendar of events:
April 19-22 National Colombia Mobilization
http://www.colombiamobilization.org
April 20 National march on Washington, D.C.
Assemble 11 a.m. at the White House
The people of the world are not our enemy--
solidarity against U.S. world domination!
http://www.internationalanswer.org
April 20 Stop the War at Home and Abroad
http://www.a20stopthewar.org
April 20-21 Protest the IMF and World Bank
http://www.globalizethis.org
April 22 Protest Ariel Sharon and George Bush--
7 p.m. at the annual conference of American Israel Public
Affairs Committee
Reprinted from the March 7, 2002, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
Subscribe wwnews-subscribe@workersworld.net
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