Thousands to converge on DC to protest inauguration
By Heather Cottin
President George W. Bush will face a sea of
protesters from all over the country when he is inaugurated Jan. 20.
"It
is important from the first day of his second term of office to show continuing
resistance to the criminal war in Iraq," said Sara Flounders, co-director of the
International Action Center in New York.
"On the East Coast, from Boston
to New York to Philadelphia, and in the South, the IAC is organizing buses and
vans to take people to Washington to oppose Bush's thoroughly racist domestic
policy. We are going to D.C. to protest the drastic slashing of social programs
while money has gone to feed the U.S. war machine."
Permits for the
demonstration were grant ed last year to the International ANSWER coalition.
Protesters will gather under a heavy police presence at Fourth Street and
Pennsylvania Avenue on the north side of the parade route. Organizers suggest
people arrive by 9 a.m. to be on the route.
Across the country, from as
far away as the Midwest, groups are organizing buses to bring protesters to the
counter-inauguration. This includes ANSWER as well as the IAC, United for Peace
and Justice, which is organizing the D.C. Anti-war Network (DAWN), and an ad-hoc
group, "Turn Your Back on Bush."
Bush is a war
criminal
Walter Williams, a representative of the New York Iraq War
Crimes Tribunal and "People Judge Bush" said, "We are going to Washington on
Jan. 20 to stress the fact that Bush is guilty of war crimes in Iraq."
On
Aug. 26 at the New York Iraq War Crimes Tribunal, the Bush administration was
found guilty of crimes against humanity.
Bush's inauguration has been
called "the most expensive, most security-obses sed event in the history of
Washing ton, D.C." (British Observer, Jan. 9)
Of the private donations,
the London Times commented, "Some restraint has been imposed: a $250,000 cap has
been placed on single donations, to avoid the appearance of greed and brazen
corporate influence." (Dec. 16)
In keeping with this restraint,
accommodations offered to Bush's pals will include four nights at the Mandarin
Oriental for $200,000. The price tag includes a 24-hour butler, a
chauffeur-driven Rolls-Royce or Humvee, daily champagne and caviar, and a flight
to the hotel in a private jet.
Or inaugural celebrants can pay $1,300 to
go to the Black Tie and Boots Ball organized by Bush supporters in his home
state of Texas. (London Times, Dec. 16)
Children in Washington, D.C.,
mostly Black and Latin@, face cutbacks in schools, health services and daycare
programs that amount to over $680 million, according to Costofwar.com--while
$5.5 billion a month is spent to occupy Iraq. Meanwhile, the Bush administration
will spend over $40 million for the concerts, balls, parades and galas
celebrating the inauguration of a war criminal.
The "centerpiece" of the
inaug uration festivities will be the "Commander-in-Chief's Ball," which will
focus on Bush's design for the day, "Military Service." The theme for
inauguration week, Washing ton's equivalent of the Oscars, will be "celebrating
freedom, honoring service."
There are those who denounce these
celebrations, urging that they be "toned down, as they were during the two world
wars," when inaugural parties were cancelled. Bush's decision to intensify the
partying has been criticized as "poor taste for a nation fighting a bloody war."
(Observer, Jan. 9)
Nothing doing. The Bush bashes are going forward. The
$40 million price of the celebrations doesn't even include the costly security
extravaganza.
It will be the most heavily guarded presidential
inauguration in history. The U.S. government will use the latest technologies
from a state-of-the-art command center in Virginia.
"This is the Super
Bowl for us," said FBI Supervisory Special Agent James W. Rice II. "Everyone on
every team is dressed up and playing in the game. ... Every piece of technology
that exists will be a part of this."
Rice oversees the National Capital
Response Squad, which will monitor the event.
Protest organizers refuse to
be daunted by any of this. Thousands of people who want a government that
provides money for jobs, health care, education, social security, libraries,
parks--all the things that make life livable--will converge on the capital to
say no to this president and his racist bloody war.
The IAC urges people
to "cut school, call in sick and join with the thousands who will be in the
streets of D.C. on Jan. 20."
Reprinted from the Jan. 20, 2005, issue of Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative Commons License.
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