ANSWER to march on Pentagon
June 5 national protests to highlight Iraq, Haiti
By John Catalinotto
Anti-war, anti-occupation organizations,
including the International ANSWER coalition, have chosen June
5 as the next date to mobilize nationally to challenge
Washington's aggression, from Iraq to Haiti to Palestine and
around the world.
As of April 28, U.S. Marines are poised to assault Falluja,
the heroic stronghold of Iraqi resistance just west of Baghdad.
U.S. planes and attack helicopters have bombed and strafed the
city, and battles are already underway in Najaf to the south.
Al Jazeera television has been showing Falluja lit with fire
and explosions.
Iraqi resistance fighters have been clashing up to 40
different times daily with U.S. and other occupation forces.
The uprising of Iraqis that has been taking place throughout
April has made it clear that Washington's plan to occupy the
country and seize its oil resources will be extremely costly in
lives and money and stands a good chance of failure.
The widespread uprising has shown millions around the world
that the Iraqis are determined to liberate their country, that
the U.S. occupation has lost all political support in Iraq, and
that the Pentagon is ready to carry out a bloodbath in a
desperate attempt to regain the upper hand.
Reports in the media and eyewitness accounts from Falluja
and Najaf make it clear that the U.S. military is attacking
regardless of the consequences to civilians, including the many
children still in Falluja. U.S. President George W. Bush on
April 28 threatened as much, saying, "Our military commanders
will take whatever actions necessary to secure Falluja."
As if in reply, Falluja resident Ali Abdullah answered,
"This attack shows the frustration in the ranks of American
soldiers in Iraq and the American political defeat. We have
uncovered the treachery and barbarity of the U.S. army."
(Reuters, April 28)
Under the pressure of these events, anti-war organizers in
the U.S. believe they can't wait until planned actions at the
Republican National Convention to confront the Bush
administration. The intense publicity, the controversy over
printing photographs of coffins of dead servicepeople, and the
daily casualty reports keep this issue on the front burners.
With the U.S. threatening a bloodbath in Falluja and Najaf, the
ANSWER Coalition has stepped up its earlier plan for
Spring-Summer actions.
ANSWER is the organization that first responded to President
George W. Bush's "endless war" in September 2001 after his
administration used the attacks on the World Trade Center and
the Pentagon to justify the U.S. war drive. ANSWER then played
a leading role in calling national anti-war demonstrations in
an attempt to stop U.S. aggression against Iraq, and in
solidarity with the Palestinian people.
ANSWER plans national demonstrations
ANSWER plans a march on the Pentagon in Washington and mass
mobilizations in San Francisco and Los Angeles. The coalition's
statement notes: "In the first three weeks of April alone, more
than 1,000 Iraqis, most of them civilians, and at least 110
U.S. soldiers have been killed. ... Thousands more have been
wounded.
"The war is costing more than $300 million every day, money
that is transferred from working people in the U.S. to the
pockets of arms manufacturers and corporate war profiteers. It
is a war that is destroying an entire country and the lives of
the Iraqi people--already victimized for more than a decade by
sanctions.
"Now the White House and the Pentagon are calling for more
troops, more death and destruction, and even more money for a
war that is based on lies and deception."
ANSWER also points out: "June 5 is the anniversary of the
1967 war in which Israel, with full backing from Washington,
conquered the West Bank, Gaza Strip and the Syrian Golan
Heights. We will march to call for an end to the colonial
occupation of Palestine, and to support the Palestinian
people's right to self-determination, including their right to
return to their homeland.
"We will stand in solidarity with the Haitian people who are
living under foreign military occupation following the February
28/29 U.S.-coup against the democratically elected government
of Jean-Bertrand Aristide." The ANSWER Coalition, in a
subsequent news release on April 25, writes that "momentum
grows for the June 5 march on the Pentagon" and that hundreds
of people had endorsed their call in just two days.
ANSWER's call was also to stop the U.S. intervention against
the Hugo Chávez government in Venezuela, and the threats
against Cuba. ANSWER calls for bringing all foreign troops out
of Iraq now.
Hiding the killings in Haiti
While the corporate media have Iraq on the front pages, they
are ignoring the murders taking place in Haiti. Death squads
the U.S. helped to establish are trying to hunt down and kill
supporters of kidnapped President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's
Fanmi Lavalas organization and activists of other left forces.
The progressive groups are still on the defensive, but in some
areas have been able to defend themselves, according to
National Popular Party (PPN) leader Ben Dupuy.
Organizers from Haitian groups, other immigrants and U.S.
anti-imperialists attuned to what's happening in Haiti looked
for a date and place to bring this issue again before the
public. They were encouraged because a meeting April 7 in
Brooklyn, N.Y., of 2,000 people, about half of them Haitian
immigrants, had shown that there was a broad base of support in
the Haitian and Caribbean communities ready to oppose the U.S.
occupation.
An ad-hoc coalition of organizers from the Coalition to
Resist the February 29 coup in Haiti, the Haiti Support
Network, the Alberto Lovera Bolivarian Circles, and the
International Action Center sent out an email calling for
endorsers of a demonstration focused on ending the occupation
of Haiti and of Iraq. They chose June 5 as their favored
date.
Their call emphasized that "the world's oldest Black
republic has been occupied by thousands of U.S. and French
soldiers. Massacres have been covered-up by the corporate
media, including the overnight slaughter of 78 people by
marines in the Belair neighborhood of Port au Prince." It then
adds, "Over 250,000 human beings are being starved and bombed
by the U.S. war machine besieging Falluja. ... At least 800
children, women and men have already been murdered in this
heroic city. U.S. troops are poised to attack the religious
center of Najaf."
A delegation of labor and community activists is going to
Haiti April 27 to May 2. They will bring back first-hand
reports from Haitian trade unionists on conditions since the
U.S.-backed coup.
Those who made the two calls will both protest at the
Pentagon. June 5 will provide an opportunity for tens of
thousands of people now aware of the horror of the U.S.
military occupations and the need to fight against them to
register their protest in the capital.
Reprinted from the May 6, 2004, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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