As crisis grows over plan to invade Iraq
Protests dog Bush
Anti-war, labor, environmentalists unite to resist
By Greg Butterfield
As cracks spread through the Bush administration over its
plan to invade Iraq, the president-select was dogged by loud,
militant protests at every stop on his West Coast fundraising
tour in late August.
In Portland, Ore., a virtual "Battle of Seattle II" took
place Aug. 22, as riot-gear-clad police pummeled and gassed
thousands of protesters, including children.
In Oregon, California and Texas, opponents of the war drive
joined with labor unions and environmentalists to denounce
President George W. Bush's policies. In Stockton, Calif., they
rallied under the slogan, "Hands off Iraq and the ILWU"--the
longshore workers' union threatened with government
strikebreaking.
Together, these forces are squelching the administration's
attempt to give the impression that nothing more is at stake
than a tactical disagreement in the Republican Party over how
best to crush Iraq.
And the ferment over the Aug. 24-25 weekend wasn't confined
to Bush's junket.
Supporters of police brutality victim Donovan
Jackson-Chavis, whose violent beating was captured on video
earlier this summer, held a caravan for justice from Los
Angeles to Oakland, Calif., while the United Farm Workers
wrapped up an historic march for union rights in
Sacramento.
On the East Coast, militant anti-racists came out in
Washington, D.C., to protest a march by the neo-Nazi National
Alliance--the kind of vile element stirred up by Bush's racist
divide-and-conquer policies since 9/11.
And a delegation of U.S. anti-war activists, headed by
former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, traveled to Iraq and
declared its solidarity with the Iraqi people's preparations to
resist unprovoked U.S. aggression.
But Bush's tour was the focus as world attention zoomed in
on the White House's unpopular plan to re-colonize Iraq on
behalf of Big Oil and the big banks.
Growing isolation
The wavering among top-level Bush advisors is a sure sign
that grassroots opposition to the war drive is growing day by
day. And the U.S. continues to grow more isolated
internationally, because the people of the world don't want a
new war in the Middle East.
It is fairly well known that the wing of the administration
represented by Secretary of State Colin Powell is gravely
concerned about the Iraq invasion scenario. This is not out of
some principled respect for Iraq's right to self-determination,
but out of fear that the Pentagon will overreach itself and
become bogged down in a Vietnam-type war with mounting U.S.
causalities, and the potential to spark anti-imperialist
uprisings throughout the Middle East and Central Asia.
Now arch-warmongers like James Baker, Brent Scowcroft and
Henry Kissinger--all close advisors of Bush Jr. and big cheeses
in the first Bush administration--are getting cold feet. They
are warning Bush against going ahead without first taking the
time to beat U.S. allies and the United Nations Security
Council into line, as his father did prior to the 1991 Gulf
War.
Even timid Congress is getting into the act. Bush advisors
claim to have a legal loophole that allows the president to
declare war without congressional approval, in violation of the
Constitution. On Aug. 27 some Democratic and Republican bigwigs
said they wanted Bush to seek their approval--while bending
over backwards to virtually promise him a rubberstamp.
Nuclear weapons ploy
For a long time the White House tried to sell the story that
Iraq must be destroyed because it was building biological and
chemical weapons.
But Iraq's commercial, public and military infrastructure
was completely devastated by the Gulf War nearly 12 years ago.
U.S.-imposed UN sanctions have kept Iraq from rebuilding
schools, hospitals and clean water facilities, much less
"weapons of mass destruction."
Iraq's human resources, too, have been devastated. More than
1 million Iraqis have died in the past decade because of the
sanctions--many of them children.
High-ranking members of UN weapons inspection teams came out
and said flatly that Iraq does not have the capability to build
these weapons.
So now Washington has changed course. And just so no one
would get confused by the president's often incoherent
rhetoric, Vice President Dick Cheney emerged from the shadows
Aug. 26 to deliver the message: Iraq must be conquered because
somehow, someday, it might be able to build a nuclear
weapon.
Never mind that the U.S. is the only country, ever, to have
used nuclear weapons in war. Never mind that Bush earlier this
year declared that the U.S. has the right to nuclear
"first-strike" in any and all cases.
Cheney also claimed that a U.S. invasion of Iraq would
somehow facilitate a "peace process" between the Palestinians
and Israel, and that it would promote "moderate" Arab leaders
and isolate "extremists." How, exactly, he didn't say.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak certainly wasn't won over
by that argument. This longtime puppet of Washington came out
in opposition to Bush's war plans Aug. 27. Like many other
leaders in the region beholden to Washington, he knows that
there is a likelihood of popular upheaval if the U.S. invades
Iraq.
This could have devastating consequences for the rich and
powerful locals who guard Wall Street's oil profits--and lead
to a resurgence of struggles for independence, progress and
social justice. That's the last thing the U.S. bosses want!
A Saudi Arabian representative agreed with Mubarak, even
while being strong-armed at Bush's Texas ranch.
But Bush & Co., drunk with Pentagon military power,
don't want to hear it.
The Iraqi people have faced 12 years of unrelenting bombings
by U.S. and British aircraft. They have learned to survive
under harsh wartime conditions all the time, and to make do
with what little they have.
These courageous women and men, who have lost sons and
daughters, brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers to brutal
sanctions, are now preparing for people's war--what the Aug. 26
New York Times called "urban warfare." They are readying, city
by city, block by block, and house by house if necessary, to
defend Iraq's independence.
It is not only the Iraqi people, but U.S. soldiers--sons and
daughters of the working class--who will pay the price if Bush
isn't stopped.
Already 14,000 National Guard members and reservists called
up after 9/11 have been notified that they will be required to
serve two years of active duty instead of one. (Associated
Press, June 27) Will they be sent to kill or be killed in the
Middle East? Or will they be ordered to brandish arms against
anti-war protesters on U.S. soil?
Battle of Portland
It was this arrogant playing with people's lives that
sparked protests against Bush.
Dubya added fuel to the fire--literally--with his outrageous
plan to sell off old-growth forests in the West to timber
companies on the rational that cutting down the trees will
quell the threat of forest fires.
This transparent giveaway to his corporate pals enraged the
Northwest's powerful environmental movement and swelled the
ranks of protesters, especially in Oregon. First 100 protestors
met Bush in Medford, where they briefly blocked his entourage's
path.
Then at least 3,000 people poured into Portland's
streets--not only youthful activists, but also families with
kids, union members and others. Local Robocops locked down nine
blocks surrounding the Hilton Hotel where Bush was speaking at
a fundraiser for Senator Gordon Smith.
Late in the afternoon, as the crowd continued to swell,
police declared a state of emergency. After a cursory warning
to disperse, they attacked the demonstrators with rubber
bullets, tear gas and pepper spray, batons and shields. Several
people were arrested. Children, seniors and journalists were
among those injured.
Some protesters responded to the police assault by throwing
rocks and bottles in self-defense.
As usual, the corporate media turned reality on its head,
reporting that the protesters had "become violent." They tried
to justify the unprovoked police attack with reports that some
wealthy guests going to Bush's soiree had been "jostled and
taunted by protesters." Horrors!
At an Aug. 24 news conference the National Lawyers Guild
called for Police Chief Mark Kroeker's resignation. Others are
calling for Mayor Vera Katz to resign. Among the speakers was
Don Joughin, whose kids were pepper-sprayed. He showed photos
of his children's red, swollen faces.
"We brought our children to a peaceful protest, we stayed in
the back and we were walking on the sidewalk," Joughin said.
"Police quickly moved up behind us. ... I yelled to [one of the
cops] to let us through because we had three small children. He
looked at me and drew out his can from his hip and sprayed
directly at me." (Portland Indymedia)
'Hands off Iraq and the ILWU!'
In Stockton, Calif., Aug. 23, nearly 300 protesters came out
for actions co-sponsored by International Longshore and
Warehouse Union Local 10 and International ANSWER--the Act Now
to Stop War and End Racism coalition.
First Bush addressed a crowd of right-wing supporters at the
Civic Auditorium. Then he was shuttled to the Spanos Jet Center
at the airport for a fundraiser for Republican candidate for
governor Bill Simon--whose firm was recently fined for shady
business deals.
Protest organizers had to fight hard to defend their
free-speech rights. When they arrived at the Civic Auditorium,
they found the Secret Service had set up a blockade of city
buses between the event and the permitted protest area.
At the airport, Bush supporters were allowed to roam free
while cops tried to herd protesters into a far-off parking lot.
But the crowd refused to go. Instead they established a noisy
picket line in the driveway, chanting, "Drop Bush, not bombs,"
and, "How much did you pay for democracy today?"
"They revoked free speech earlier today and we just
reinstated it," said ANSWER's Forrest Schmidt. "The Secret
Service often confuses good and bad press with constitutional
rights," he quipped.
Bush backers leaving the luncheon had to run a gauntlet of
protesters.
At the rally, held in the shadow of Air Force One, Local 10
President Richard Mead explained how the union-busting Bush
administration had threatened to intervene in dockworkers'
contract struggle with port bosses under the guise of "homeland
security." He said his union would fight against Bush's war
plans.
Local anti-war activist John Morearty called it the biggest
protest to hit Stockton since he moved there in 1967.
Later that day, protests greeted Bush in Santa Ana and Dana
Point.
Early the next morning, at a 7:00 a.m., $1,000-a-plate
breakfast fundraiser for candidate Simon in Los Angeles'
Westwood area, some 600 people came out to tell Bush "No new
war against Iraq."
The ANSWER-organized protest also drew immigrants' rights
activists, police brutality protesters, Palestinian supporters
and more. People came from as far as San Diego to join the
demonstration.
One huge banner read, "Bush, you stink of corporate
corruption." The New York Times noted that Bush saw the
protest, though it didn't report his reaction.
Then Bush's tour was over. But the protests weren't.
As he returned to his palatial vacation ranch in Crawford,
Texas, for more consultations with his Masters of War,
activists staged an anti-war caravan that confronted police
roadblocks.
Summer may be nearly over. But the struggle against the war
is heating up.
With reports from Nancy Mitchell, Richard Becker and
Adrian Garcia.
Reprinted from the Sept. 5, 2002, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyrighted
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