Dec. 3-10
'Stop the War Week' actions called
By Dustin Langley
On Oct. 17 at the Million Worker March, activists with
"Anti-War 4 the Million Worker March" called for a week of
action against the war from Dec. 3 to Dec. 10. The next day
participants in a meeting of the Million Worker March Committee
supported this call.
The protest week is timed to coincide with the Pentagon's
plans to launch another massive assault against the people of
Iraq in order to secure enough of the country to hold sham
presidential elections in January. The Oct. 11 Los Angeles
Times reported that "administration and Pentagon officials say
they will not try to retake cities such as Falluja and
Ramadi--where insurgents' grip is strongest and U.S. military
casualties could be the greatest--until after Americans vote in
what is likely to be a close election."
Since spring, beginning with the uprising in Falluja, a
growing number of Iraqi towns have become "no-go zones" for the
U.S. occupation forces. These include Falluja, Ramadi and
Samarra. The Oct. 8 New York Times reported that senior
Pentagon officials, speaking anonymously, said U.S. military
planners had identified 20 to 30 towns and cities in Iraq that
need to be "brought under control before elections can be held
in the country in January."
On Oct. 7, Newsweek magazine's Middle East regional editor
Christopher Dickey wrote: "There's going to be a whole lot more
killing and maiming before the rebel cities can be retaken and
held, and by then they may be ghost towns. ... Like Israel and
the militias it employed in Lebanon after 1982, the United
States and its Iraqi proxies will score several initial
victories in a ferocious campaign to force the insurgents out
of their strongholds. The collateral damage--the mothers
wounded, the babies mutilated--will be lamentable, inevitable,
and pass as acceptable for the U.S. administration."
'U.S. preparing full-scale war'
Larry Holmes, organizer with Anti-War 4 the Million Worker
March, told Workers World: "The bombing raids on Falluja and
other Iraqi cities have been intensifying, and after the U.S.
presidential election the occupation forces are preparing a
full-scale new war to 'pacify' Iraq in preparation for a phony
U.S.-controlled election in January.
"This assault will not subdue the Iraqi people; they have
made it clear that they want the U.S. and U.S.-led occupation
forces to leave immediately. However, this new desperate and
deadly plan to conquer a people who refused to be conquered
will cause enormous death and destruction unless we make it
clear that the war will no longer be tolerated.
"We are calling for anti-war activists across the U.S. and
globally to make this a week to stop the war, to take
action--student walkouts, job actions, boycotts, whatever it
takes to stop the war now.
"Our challenge," Holmes continued, "especially for those of
us who have marched against the war and those of us who have
worked hard to organize those marches, is to remind ourselves
that the election is not going to stop the war, and that
waiting for something beyond our control to stop the war only
weakens our movement. The majority of the people want the war
and occupation to end immediately.
"It is up to us to act with a sense of urgency, immediacy,
passion and determination. It's time to say, 'No more!'"
Organizers are calling for local actions throughout the
United States and worldwide to demand an end to the war.
Anti-War 4 the Million Worker March will be posting a list of
local and international actions on its
website(AntiWar4MWM.org).
FIST plans to resist war, draft
Youth activists are responding to the call by organizing
student walkouts and demonstrations.
FIST--Fight Imperialism, Stand Together--organizer Julie Fry
told WW: "The week of Dec. 3 through Dec. 10 will be a time for
youth to escalate their resistance to the war in Iraq and to
the U.S. military. Youth have a lot at stake in this. Youth are
doing the killing and some of the dying in Iraq right now. If
the occupation continues, there is a good chance we will be
facing a nationwide draft. We have to stop the occupation
now.
"Dec. 3 and 4 in particular will be important days for youth
resistance. FIST is calling on youth to walk out of their
classrooms and shut down their schools on Dec. 3 to show that
we will not allow business as usual while the occupation in
Iraq continues and the brutality against the Iraqi people
escalates.
"The Dec. 4 meeting on youth resistance to the draft,
sponsored by SNAFU and FIST, is an opportunity for youth to
come together and build a strategy to fight against the growing
threat of a generalized draft in the U.S."
For updates and to read the Call to Action, see www.AntiWar4MWM.org.
Reprinted from the Nov. 4, 2004, 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
Support independent news http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php)
HOME
:: U.S. NEWS ::
WORLD NEWS ::
EDITORIALS ::
SUBSCRIBE ::
DONATE
Email
this article
Printable
page