OCT. 26
STANDING UP AGAINST WAR
By Leslie Feinberg
The Bush administration is on a war footing against Iraq. It
is tightening repression at home. And at the same time, a
sniper is killing people in the Washington, D.C., area.
Despite all these deterrents, huge numbers of people of all
backgrounds are making preparations to be in Washington and in
San Francisco on Oct. 26 to call for "No war on Iraq" and no
repression and racist profiling at home.
A month ago many of them were hoping that Congress would
reject this war. They bombarded the offices of senators and
representatives with fervent anti-war appeals. Even elected
officials far on the right reported their mail and faxes were
running 100 to 1 against a war.
Nevertheless, Congress caved in and gave the Bush
administration the green light and the authority to spend
limitless amounts on this aggression. Perhaps the war makers
thought that now they would have easy sailing.
But the popular movement against the war has instead
multiplied, spurred on by social conditions at home and the
grim news of what the Pentagon has in store for the people of
Iraq.
The Oct. 26 anti-war mobilization started with a call from
the International ANSWER coalition--Act Now to Stop War &
End Racism. This is the coalition of many organizations that
came together soon after the 9/11 attacks and called a
successful Washington demonstration, showing there was
significant opposition to the Bush administration's use of that
terrible tragedy to further its right-wing objectives.
More than 4,000 individuals and groups have now endorsed
Oct. 26. They come from a broad spectrum of political and
social forces who recognize the urgent need to give voice to
the millions in this country who oppose the war but have been
ignored and denied by the government and the media.
Many unions have joined in denouncing the war and endorsing
mass action--a big change from the period of the Vietnam War.
Central labor councils in Seattle, San Francisco, Albany,
Syracuse and many other large cities have gone on record
against the war. Their spirit was summed up most recently in a
resolution passed on Oct. 18 by the second-largest Teamster
local in the country, Local 705 in Chicago.
It said, in part, "Whereas, we value the lives of our sons
and daughters, of our brothers and sisters more than Bush's
control of Middle East oil profits; Whereas, we have no quarrel
with the ordinary working-class men, women and children of Iraq
who will suffer the most in any war; Whereas, the billions of
dollars being spent to stage and execute this invasion, means
billions taken away from our schools, hospitals, housing, and
social security; Whereas, Bush's drive for war serves as a
cover and a distraction for the sinking economy, corporate
corruption, layoffs, Taft-Hartley (used against the locked-out
ILWU longshoremen); Whereas, Teamsters Local 705 is known far
and wide as fighters for justice: Be it Resolved that Teamsters
Local 705 stands firmly against Bush's drive for war."
The resolution then called for "promoting anti-war activity
in the labor movement and community."
The ANSWER coalition reports that other countries are also
planning protests on Oct. 26. Major rallies and marches will
take place in Puerto Rico, Mexico, Japan, India, south Korea,
Italy, Germany, Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands and
Spain.
Phones at the ANSWER offices around the country have been
ringing off the hooks--calls from people wanting to know how
they could get to D.C. One young woman hitchhiked from her home
in San Diego to an ANSWER organizing center in Seminole, Okla.,
in order to get on a bus headed for Washington.
Five hundred students sought help in getting transportation
from Pennsylvania State University; 400 are traveling from
Bennington College in Vermont. By Oct. 22, more than 150 cities
in more than 40 states were sending buses to Washington and the
ANSWER offices had received calls from people traveling to the
demonstration from every state.
As the capitalist economy crashes in slow motion, it is
producing a sea change in popular consciousness within the
United States. More and more working people see the
exhortations for war from the White House and congressional
podiums as weapons of mass distraction.
The groundswell of response to the call for a huge turnout
in D.C. on Oct. 26 reflects a growing and deep-seated
understanding that only the mobilized multitude of people that
this government misrepresents can pull back the dogs of
war.
Reprinted from the Oct. 31, 2002, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyrighted
under a Creative
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