Anti-war groups set protests to stop war on Iraq
The International ANSWER coalition has announced plans
for demonstrations in October and January opposing any war on
Iraq and commemorating Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday.
The following is from a coalition news release.
On Oct. 26, the first anniversary of the signing of the
so-called USA Patriot Act, anti-war and civil rights forces are
joining together to launch a massive international mobilization
in opposition to a new war against the people of Iraq.
The ANSWER coalition is calling on organizers from campuses
and communities around the U.S. and the world to hold picket
lines, rallies, vigils, teach-ins and more in their local areas
on this day.
Martin Luther King Jr. spent the last year before his
assassination linking the mass movements for civil rights and
freedom at home with the growing opposition to the U.S. war in
Vietnam. This courageous stand constituted a major political
threat to the war-makers. Dr. King came to the conclusion that
the "greatest purveyor of violence on the planet is my own
government."
There is no better way to truly remember the spirit and
legacy of Dr. King than to organize a bold, visible protest
against war and racism in Washington, D.C., on the anniversary
of his birthday. We will not allow the war makers in the Bush
administration and on Wall Street to turn Dr. King into a
harmless icon, rather than an inspiration for struggle.
That weekend is also the anniversary of the start of the
1991 U.S./UN war against the people of Iraq. Some
100,000-200,000 Iraqis were killed as U.S./UN bombers dropped
more than 88,500 tons of explosives on Iraq during this 42-day
assault. In the years since, more than 1.5 million Iraqi
civilians have perished as a consequence of malnutrition and
disease caused by economic sanctions.
People in the United States and everywhere have an
obligation to stop the Bush administration's drive to launch a
new, all-out military aggression against Iraq. The Bush
administration has no right to wage war against a country that
is posing no threat to the United States.
Disregarding all international law, Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld,
Wolfowitz and company are planning to send tens of thousands of
young GIs to kill and be killed in a war for Big Oil. The Jan.
18, 2003, march on Washington will call for civilians and
soldiers alike to exercise their political right to speak out
against an illegal war that will benefit only ExxonMobil,
Texaco, Chase, Citibank, Raytheon, Lockheed, Boeing and George
Bush's corporate backers--who are his real constituents.
Reprinted from the July 25, 2002, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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