WASHINGTON, D.C.
Protesters march through three worlds
By Greg Butterfield
Washington, D.C.
The skies opened over Washington on June 5.
Torrential downpours greeted protesters coming into the city by
car, bus and train from the East Coast and as far west as
Chicago. The weather mirrored the stormy mood in official
Washington. The U.S. military occupation of Iraq is in crisis,
thanks to the growing popular resistance there and wide
exposure of Pentagon war crimes.
Thousands of anti-war activists, community activists,
students and workers showed they could weather both storms.
Harsh skies didn't deter them from heeding the call of the
ANSWER coalition. Neither did the bitter clash within the Bush
administration and broader circles of the capitalist political
establishment, which resulted in the June 3 resignation of CIA
Director George Tenet.
The rally showed that a significant sector of the anti-war
movement believes this is the time to be in the streets against
the war-makers. They are not diverted by elections,
Congressional hearings and political maneuvers.
Demonstrators gathered in Lafayette Park, facing the White
House. Wearing plastic ponchos and holding umbrellas, they
hefted banners and signs demanding, "Bring the troops home
now," "Stop the torture," and, "End occupations from Iraq to
Palestine to Haiti." The flags of those nations were
prominently flown, along with Venezuelan, Puerto Rican, Mexican
and rainbow lesbian/gay/bi/ trans flags.
Even before the rally began, international solidarity was on
display. A bus from Brooklyn, N.Y.'s Haitian community arrived
just as a group of Palestinian women faced off against a tiny
right-wing counter-protest. The counter-protesters held
red-baiting signs and a racist banner that read, "There is no
Palestine." The Haitian group, mostly women, immediately joined
their Palestinian sisters, chanting, "Free, free Palestine,"
and drowning out the racists.
Holmes: Avoid that sucking sound
Larry Holmes, co-director of the International Action Center
and an ANSWER steering committee member, pointed to the White
House and declared, "We are speaking truth to murderers,
terrorists and torturers."
He demanded that the big-business media covering the rally
"devote space to pictures of all the Iraqi people who have
died, and Palestinians, and Haitians. We will not settle for
less than the truth."
He warned the crowd: "If you hear a sucking sound, ignore
it, because that's the elections. It's trying to pull you off
the streets into a silly contest that doesn't mean anything.
The movement is in the streets."
"Everything we have said has come to pass," said Husayn
Agrama of the Free Palestine Alliance. "They said they would
bring liberation and democracy to Iraq. We said they would
bring exploitation and humiliation. Haven't the prisoners of
Abu Ghraib paid witness to what we said?"
AFSCME District Council 1707 President Brenda Stokely said
of the war-makers: "They discount that where there is
oppression, there is uprising and resistance. That's what
they're overlooking in Haiti, in Iraq, in Palestine, and
throughout the world."
Serge Lilavois of the Coalition to Resist the Feb. 29 Coup
in Haiti declared, "The world has to know that U.S. forces were
involved in killing peaceful protesters marching against the
occupation."
The crowd chanted, "Aristide, Aristide, Aristide," demanding
the return of the popularly elected Haitian president who was
kidnapped and deported by U.S. Marines in late February.
Gloria La Riva of the National Com mittee to Free the Cuban
5 warned that the United States is preparing new aggression
against the socialist island. "The Cuban people are not about
to give up what belongs to them," she declared.
Omar Sierra of the Bolivarian Circle of New York called for
solidarity against U.S. intervention in oil-rich Venezuela.
Several speakers were family members of soldiers stationed
or killed in Iraq. One was Norma Castillo, whose nephew is
imprisoned resister Staff Sgt. Camilo Mejia.
Ismael Kamal of the Muslim Student Association addressed the
plight of thousands of Arab and Muslim men still imprisoned in
the United States without legal recourse. "As our predecessors
brought an end to Jim Crow, McCar thyism and Cointelpro, we
will bring an end to the Patriot Act," he vowed.
Berg: This is a racist war
The protesters gave rapt attention to Michael Berg, a
longtime anti-war activist and supporter of ANSWER. Berg's son
Nick, a small business owner, had traveled to Iraq earlier this
year. Nick Berg was detained by U.S. occupation forces. He was
finally released after his family took the government to
court.
In May Nick Berg was found dead. A mysterious videotape has
circulated on the Internet depicting his decapitation by
alleged Islamic radicals.
Invoking the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Michael
Berg said: "America has been in touch with me, [and] the people
of America told me they have a dream of peace. I am here to
answer the people who offered to help. Don't let what happened
to me and my family happen again.
"This is a war and it is racist. Let's act now to stop war
and end racism," he urged. "And let's keep acting until we can
raise a banner of peace that says, 'Mission accomplished.'"
Besides Holmes, ANSWER steering committee members who spoke
were Yoomi Jeong of the Korea Truth Com mission, Chuck Kaufman
of the Nicaragua Network and Brian Becker.
Other speakers included Mahdi Bray of the Muslim American
Society Freedom Foundation, Cheri Honkala of the Ken sing ton
Welfare Rights Union, the Rev. Graylan Hagler of Plymouth
Congregational Church, Zack Wolf of the National Lawyers
Guild-Lesbian/Gay/Bi/Trans Committee, and Ricardo and Noberto
Juarez of Mexicans Without Borders.
Messages were read from Ben Dupuy of the National Popular
Party of Haiti and ANSWER steering committee member Macrina
Cardenas of the Mexico Solidarity Network.
March through three worlds
The demonstration concluded with a vigorous
two-and-a-half-mile march to Secretary of Defense Donald
Rumsfeld's gated mansion.
The march took protesters through three distinct worlds of
Washington: the official world of government buildings, the
super-oppressed neighborhoods of working-class D.C. with their
boarded-up storefronts and burned out apartment buildings, and
finally the manicured lawns of the rich.
Spirits were highest marching through the
communities--African American, Mexican, Salvadoran, Eritrean,
Carib bean, white and more. Despite the foul weather, people
came out of their homes and stores to watch, chant and take
literature. Some even joined the march.
Workers World Party vice presidential candidate Teresa
Gutierrez led a strong contingent of WWP and International
Action Center activists. Her campaign distributed a colorful
postcard declaring that the "road to getting U.S. troops out of
Iraq lies through mass action, not electing a 'lesser'
evil."
A group of Latin@ students from La Guardia Community College
in Queens, N.Y., helped carry a banner from SNAFU, the Support
Network for an Armed Forces Union, that read, "Support the
right to refuse to fight." Daisy Nabarret told Workers World
she had come because "I want to learn the truth about
Iraq."
"We've had the opportunity to talk with several members of
the military and military families today," SNAFU's Dustin
Langley told Workers World. "The movement against the war
inside this community is growing daily. SNAFU is reaching out
to provide support to resisters inside the military. We're also
circulating a 'no draft' petition as part of our new No Draft,
No Way campaign."
On U Street, the march passed Sisterspace & Books, a
progressive community institution run by Black women. Staff
members came out to greet the cheering marchers. They waved a
Black liberation flag and held signs calling for the removal of
Mayor Anthony Williams.
Marchers chanted, "End the occupation, join the
demonstration!" and, "Money for jobs and reparations, not for
war and occupation!"
As rundown apartment buildings gave way to brick townhouses,
the chant became "Donald Rumsfeld, you will see, Baghdad will
be free!"
Police attempted to split the front of the march as it
neared Rumsfeld's mansion on Kalarama Road. Fired-up protesters
forced the cops to remove barricades and the line of march
merged again.
Richard Duncan, who had been distributing Workers World
newspapers to onlookers, was at the scene. He told WW: "When
the first part of the march came back to join us, the cops felt
the power. I started chanting, 'The people united will never be
defeated.' The crowd went crazy.
"It shows that when we stay united, we can make things
happen."
Reprinted from the June 17, 2004, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyrighted
under a Creative
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