ZGram - 10/23/2002 - "March on Washington"

irimland@zundelsite.org irimland@zundelsite.org
Wed, 23 Oct 2002 05:52:17 -0700


ZGram - Where Truth is Destiny

October 23, 2002

Good Morning from the Zundelsite:

I would be remiss if I didn't promote this coming Saturday's March on 
Washington.  I believe it will be an historical event and will send a 
powerful message.  If you want to be a part of history, try to be 
there.  I wish I could be, but I have another important commitment. 
Those of you who will be part of this demonstration, please send me 
your input for my archives.

[START]

Information and analysis of the massive demonstrations planned in 
Washington and San Francisco and the world this weekend to "Stop The 
War Before It Starts."

By Regis T. Sabol

Now that Congress has given George Bush carte blanche approval for 
war with Iraq, it's time for the American people to speak. And, if 
organizers of protest marches this Saturday in Washington, D.C. and 
San Francisco succeed, hundreds of thousands of Americans from all 
walks of life will say no to the Bush Administration's "full speed 
ahead and damn the torpedoes" rush to war.

The protest marches are being organized by the A.N.S.W.E.R. 
Coalition, which describes itself as "a broad coalition of peace 
groups, religious organizations, student groups, anti-globalization 
and anti-racism groups." The acronym stands for Act Now to Stop War & 
End Racism! The coalition's website says it "was formed to oppose 
war, support global justice and self-determination, stop racist 
attacks on Arabs, Muslims, South Asians, and all people of color, and 
defend civil rights and civil liberties."

Based on a partial list of endorsements published on the group's 
website, the coalition is made up of a broad range of groups that 
include clergy and religious organizations, labor activists, student 
organizations, Islamic groups, and anti-war activists. It also 
includes a large number of individuals not affiliated with any one 
movement or organization but who oppose the impending war.

The protests in Washington and San Francisco, if they draw the 
numbers anticipated by organizers, would mark the largest anti-war 
protests since the Vietnam War. That war provoked a number of protest 
demonstrations in Washington and throughout the country, including 
two that drew well over a hundred thousand demonstrators to the 
nation's capital.

The first was the National Moratorium in 1969. A 1972 March on the 
Pentagon was sparked by Richard Nixon's invasion of Cambodia and the 
murder of four young men and women at Kent State University by 
National Guardsmen. (For a fascinating study of that event, I suggest 
you read Norman Mailer's Pulitzer Prize winning work, Armies of the 
Night.) The protest rally Saturday could also be the largest 
demonstration since the Million Man March on Washington organized by 
Louis Farrakhan.

The plan for the Washington march is for demonstrators to assemble at 
Constitution Gardens adjacent to the Vietnam Veterans War Memorial 
for a rally at 11 a.m. The demonstrators will then march on the White 
House. The San Francisco anti-war rally will also kick off at 11 a.m. 
Demonstrators will assemble at the Justin Herman Plaza, at the foot 
of Market St. at Embarcadero. Following a rally, they will march to 
Civic Center Plaza (Grove & Larkin) adjacent to City Hall for a 
closing rally with speakers, entertainment and cultural performances.

In addition to the marches in Washington and San Francisco, 
A.N.S.W.E.R. anticipates similar marches in cities around the world, 
including Mexico, Japan, Spain, Germany, South Korea, Belgium, and 
Australia. All of the marches will be organized under the banner, 
"Stop the War Before It Starts."

Grassroots opposition to a war against Iraq has already sprung up all 
over America although it has received little coverage from mainstream 
media, including such generally sympathetic publications as The New 
York Times and The Washington Post. In New York, for example, the 
less than 400 demonstrators who protested Bush's appearance at the 
United Nations on September 12 mushroomed into close to 20,000 
demonstrators in Central Park earlier this month. Despite the size of 
the rally, the major networks ignored it and the print media gave it 
scant coverage.

Demonstrations against the war have also taken place in London, where 
about 250,000 protestors rallied in opposition to Prime Minister Tony 
Blair's support for Bush's war plans.

March organizers chose October 26 for the anti-war protest because 
that it the first anniversary of the signing of the notorious USA 
PATRIOT Act. The legislation, which breezed through Congress with 
nary a whimper in the wake of 9/11, has been used by Attorney General 
John Ashcroft and the Justice Department to make a mockery of the 
Bill of Rights.

"As the Bush Administration violates international law," argues the 
A.N.S.W.E.R. website, "it has systematically engaged in a campaign of 
division and repression in the United States including a wholesale 
assault on the Bill of Rights, institutionalization of racial 
profiling, and aggregation of near dictatorial powers to the 
Executive branch."

Anti-war activists are particularly alarmed about the Bush doctrine 
of "preemptive war," a concept which allows the United States to 
attack another country if it suspects that nation may present a clear 
and present danger to the U.S. at some unspecified time in the 
future. The doctrine opens up a Pandora's box of war that could, for 
example, offer a justification for India to invade Pakistan, which, 
in turn, might provoke Pakistan to launch nuclear missiles at India. 
India would then, of course, retaliate with its own missiles. And the 
world would have to deal with the consequences of a nuclear war.

"In articulating the so-called doctrine of pre-emptive war," say 
march organizers, "the Bush administration is preparing to violate 
all existing international law and he UN charter which forbids 
countries to carry out war except in the case of self-defense. 
Preemption is merely a slogan to justify a policy of armed aggression 
and military adventure."

Oil is the real reason for the looming war, according to AN.S.W.E.R. 
"Bush, (Vice President Dick) Cheney, (Defense Secretary Donald) 
Rumsfield, (Asst. Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and company are 
planning to send tens of thousands of young GI's to kill and be 
killed in another war for Big Oil," it claims. "Simultaneously, the 
Bush Administration is diverting billions of dollars to feed military 
conquest and away from jobs, education, healthcare, childcare and 
housing."

Because Senators and House Representatives ignored thousands of phone 
calls, e-mails, and letters opposing the resolution in favor of war 
by a two to one ratio, the American people must exercise their 
Constitutional rights to freedom of speech and freedom of assembly to 
be heard.

"There won't be a real national debate on a planned invasion of Iraq 
until the people are in the streets," stated an A.N.S.W.E.R. press 
release. "We can't leave it to the military establishment to decide 
when and how they will go to war and to define the debate. We must 
tell Bush and his corporate and Big Oil patrons that we will not 
allow this to happen."

March organizers believe the war can be prevented, "But the essential 
element must be the mobilization of a massive new anti-war movement 
in the streets. We call for civilians and soldiers to exercise their 
political right to speak out against an illegal war."

For more information on the protest marches, click here!.
Regis T. Sabol is contributing editor to Intervention Magazine. He is 
also editor of A New Deal: an online magazine of political, social, 
and cultural thought.

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(Source: 
http://www.interventionmag.com/cms/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=219 
)