Anti-war leaders answer red-baiting of ANSWER
Following is a reply signed by a group of progressive
leaders in southern California to an article by David Corn that
appeared in the newspaper L.A. Weekly. Corn is also Washington
editor for the Nation magazine and a paid consultant with the
Fox News Channel, an extremely pro-war cable station owned by
media billionaire Rupert Murdoch. In his article, Corn attacked
the organizers of the Oct. 26 anti-war demonstrations as
"commies" or dupes of Workers World Party. He repeated this
red-baiting of the anti-war movement on Nov. 18 in an
appearance on the Fox program called the "O'Reilly
Factor."
To the Editor of the L.A. Weekly:
David Corn's scurrilous piece on the massive demonstrations
against a new war with Iraq, held on Oct. 26 in Washington,
D.C., and San Francisco ("Behind the Placards: The Odd and
Troubling Origins of Today's Anti-War Movement," L.A. Weekly,
Nov. 1-7, 2002), is unworthy of any newspaper, let alone one
that considers itself "progressive."
Were it not for the sad fact that many thousands of people
may read Mr. Corn's diatribe, the article would not be worthy
of the time it's taken us to respond to it. After all, those of
us who've signed this letter are members of L.A.-based anti-war
and social justice groups and, unlike Mr. Corn, we've got a
movement to build. Besides, what can one really say in response
to an article that resorts to referring to the organizers of
the Oct. 26 protests as "commies"! Mr. Corn claims this is "not
red-baiting"! Well, if attacking a movement because of the
political affiliations of some of its leadership isn't an old
fashioned example of Joseph McCarthy style red-baiting at its
worst, I'd hate to see what Mr. Corn thinks is red-baiting.
Those of us who have signed this letter greatly admire the
work that International ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End
Racism) did in organizing the Oct. 26 anti-war protests. Its
national steering committee is comprised of IFCO/Pastors for
Peace; International Action Center; Nicaragua Network; Mexico
Solidarity Network; Partnership for Civil Justice; Kensington
Welfare Rights Union; Free Palestine Alliance/US; Mideast
Children's Alliance; Bayan International/USA; Korea Truth
Commission; and the Muslim Student Association. Are there any
communists amongst the members of ANSWER, the principal
organizer of the Oct. 26 protests? Specifically, are some of
the leaders in ANSWER members of the Workers World Party? Sure.
The question is, "So what?" As any student of the powerful--and
successful--movement against the U.S. war in Vietnam knows,
members of the Socialist Workers Party and the Communist Party,
U.S.A., were among the leadership of the two major anti-war
coalitions during that war. But the thousands of volunteers and
the hundreds of thousands of protesters who showed up at the
demonstrations were of every political stripe. The same is true
today. The speakers and demonstrators on Oct. 26 came from
every segment of the population; from public officials like
John Burton, head of the California Senate, to thousands of
college and high school students; from actors like Mike Farrell
to Vietnam vets like Ron Kovic; from labor leaders like Walter
Johnson, head of the San Francisco Joint Labor Council of the
AFL-CIO to business executives against the war; from older
peace activists like Daniel Ellsberg to younger ones like
12-year-old Sarah Enteen; from hotel workers to Dolores Huerta;
from religious leaders like Bishop Gumbleton to socialists like
Richard Becker. And the list goes on and on.
Mr. Corn complained that speakers at the rallies talked
about political issues not directly related to Iraq, but failed
to note that the demonstrations themselves were nevertheless
"single-focused." And that single focus was the looming war
with Iraq. And the same could be said of the rallies held by
the massive movement to end the U.S. war in Vietnam. The
largest demonstration against that war took place on April 24,
1971, when nearly one million people gathered in Washington,
D.C. and over 300,000 marched and rallied in San Francisco.
Among the speakers that day? Democrats and Republicans and
ex-military officers and elected officials and labor leaders
and Black nationalists and feminists and member of the clergy
and gays and students and entertainers, etc., etc., ... and,
yes, some communists, too. And, as was the case again on Oct.
26, while all of these speakers were united in their opposition
to the war, they also spoke on a wide range of other issues of
concern to their constituencies. In doing so, they demonstrated
the breadth and power of the anti-Vietnam War movement. They
also demonstrated that they understood (as Mr. Corn apparently
does not) the connections between the issues they were
addressing and the war itself. This approach proved successful
during the movement against the war in Vietnam and it can bring
us to peace again today. That's why speakers from across the
political spectrum were invited to speak on a wide array of
war-related social justice issues on Oct. 26.
Lastly, Mr. Corn owes an apology to the quarter of a million
people who demonstrated in two cities on Oct. 26. His article
clearly suggests that he considers them "dupes" of the
"commies" who organized the protests. To suggest that these
tens of thousands of protesters, including the many prominent
individuals who addressed them at the rallies, were too stupid
to make up their own minds about Bush's war on the world and
war on civil liberties at home is truly insulting. That's what
Congress's old House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC)
used to say about the protesters demonstrating against the
Vietnam War. Happily, it didn't frighten people away from the
anti-war coalitions then and it won't frighten them away now.
People saw through the discredited red-baiting tactics of HUAC,
and they will see through the red-baiting tactics of
commentators like Mr. Corn.
We who sign this letter invite everyone who reads it to
reject Mr. Corn's ugly and divisive message of fear and
defeatism, and to join one of the national, or local, anti-war
coalitions in their area. Together we can once again build a
broad-based, non-partisan, non-witch-hunting anti-war movement
that can--and will--win the peace!
Sincerely,
American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, L.A./O.C.
Chapter
Arab American Cultural Center
Danielle Babineau
Blase Bonpane, Office of the Americas
Theresa Bonpane, Office of the Americas
James Lafferty, National Lawyers Guild
Rev. James Lawson, Jr.
Joe Navidad, BAYAN International/USA
Palestine American Women's Association of Southern
California
Jonathan Parfrey
Save the Iraqi Children Committee
Michel Shehadeh
Carol Sobel, National Lawyers Guild
Don White
Yong-bin Yuk, Mindallae
Reprinted from the Nov. 28, 2002, issue of
Workers World newspaper
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