STOP THE WAR ON IRAQ BEFORE IT STARTS! EMERGENCY ACTIONS SEPT. 14-16, 2002, in Washington DC, San Francisco, Los Angeles & more
If you would like to hold an emergency action in your city to Stop the War on Iraq Before it Starts, email dc@internationalanswer.org
The weekend of September 14-16 is the time in which the military-industrial complex will host its annual arms bazaar in Washington DC where Corporate America's arms dealers get to display their latest high tech weapons to the militaries and arms merchants of the world. This year's arms bazaar will feature Donald Rumsfeld as the guest of honor. We will be there to demonstrate at the arms bazaar. Join us in Washington DC on the morning of Monday, September 16 at Connecticut Ave. and Woodley NW.
On the West Coast, join us on September 14 at the Port of Oakland in a march and rally co-sponsored by A.N.S.W.E.R. and the International Longshore & Warehouse Workers, Lo. 10 (Dockworkers), and in Los Angeles at the Westwood Federal Building.
ONLY THE PEOPLE CAN STOP THE WAR!
There won't be a real national debate on a planned invasion of Iraq until the people are in the streets. We salute the activists in Portland, OR yesterday and Stockton, CA today who are confronting Bush and who have stood against pepper spray, rubber bullets and police brutality to tell him that they will not allow his adventurous war of aggression to be waged.
This war can be stopped. Bush, Rumsfeld, Cheney and company can be stopped. But the essential element must be the mobilization of a massive anti-war movement in the streets. The debate that is opening now to public view from within the political establishment presents a necessity for all anti-war forces to become a major factor in generating an authentic opposition to U.S. war plans in the Middle East.
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.
We must remember that it was the intervention of the people around the world that stopped a new U.S.-British war against Iraq in February 1998. Demonstrations all over the Middle East. and the famous humiliation of then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Secretary of Defense William Cohen and National Security Advisor Sandy Berger at Ohio State, were followed by hundreds of protests across the country.
The Bush administration has attempted to create an aura of inevitability about a war that need not happen and can be stopped. They have created a juggernaut with almost daily pronouncements about the inevitability of an invasion. This propaganda campaign was designed to paralyze public opinion in the United States while carrying out a psychological war against Iraq. Now there are voices from within the political and military establishment itself that are challenging the right-wing, ultra-militaristic, pro-war policy of Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Wolfowitz, et al. (See General Brent Scowcroft's op-ed in 8/15 Wall Street Journal and front page story and lead editorial in 8/16 New York Times.)
The debate within the political establishment is limited to a discussion as to whether a U.S. military invasion carried out without the slimmest credible pretext would upset the political equilibrium and stability inside the oil-rich Middle East and damage U.S. long term interests. For our part, from the point of view of the progressive anti-war movement, we oppose an invasion of Iraq because it would be an illegal act of aggression. Unlike the political establishment figures, we demand that economic sanctions on Iraq be lifted so that the misery and suffering of the Iraqi civilian population could be eased. According to UNICEF figures, more than 5,000 children die unnecessarily each and every month because of the impact of economic sanctions. In short, we oppose the war and sanctions on Iraq as a matter of principle, not because it may be "the wrong war in the wrong place at the wrong time."
While the country's attention will be riveted to the events commemorating the September 11 attacks, it is essential to point out that the war drive against Iraq has absolutely nothing to do with the events of September 11. The administration tried in every way to link the Iraqi government to the September 11 attacks and to the anthrax attacks that took place after September 11. But there is absolutely no evidence of such connection.
And as the Bush administration prepares for a new war in Iraq, the U.S. continues to send $15 million a day to Israel to carry out terrorist attacks on the Palestinian people.
BUSH USES "WAR ON TERRORISM" TO THREATEN LONGSHORE UNION
The Bush administration is invoking the so-called "war on terrorism" as a justification to attack civil rights and civil liberties, while building up the repressive forces of the state. At the same time, they are attacking the rights of unions and all working people. Under the guise of "Homeland Security," the administration is threatening government intervention against the ILWU, which is locked in a contract battle with the big shipping companies on the West Coast. The ILWU dockworkers have been working without a contract since July 1.
Behind the Pacific Maritime Association shipping bosses stands the "West Coast Waterfront Coalition," a corporate alliance made up of Wal-Mart, Gap, Target, Home Depot, Payless Shoes and others. These corporate globalizers import hundreds of billions of dollars worth of goods every year through West Coast ports, much of it from their low-wage sweatshop operations in Asia and Latin America. They want to break the power of the ILWU in order to further maximize their profits.
The corporate criminals in the Bush administration are threatening to mobilize the military to keep the West Coast ports open if there is a strike. The attack on the ILWU--one of the most militant and progressive unions in the U.S.--poses a danger to the entire labor movement. The anti-war, anti-racist and anti-globalization movements must demand "Government hands off the ILWU!"
THE A.N.S.W.E.R. COALITION PROTESTS ON SEP. 14-16 WILL DEMAND:
No new war against Iraq
Defend civil rights & civil liberties
Government hands off the International Longshore & Warehouse Union (ILWU)
Money for jobs, education and healthcare - Not war
Stop U.S. aid to Israel
No more plunder of Latin America & the Caribbean - Stop Plan Colombia
Stop the Corporate Crime Wave
JOIN THE CAMPAIGN TO STOP THE WAR AGAINST IRAQ BEFORE IT STARTS!
Saturday, Sept. 14 in Oakland, CA: March and Rally at 11 am at the Port of Oakland, co-sponsored by the International A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition and the International Longshore & Warehouse Workers, Lo. 10 (Dockworkers): "No New War Against Iraq - Government Hands Off the ILWU."
Sat., Sept. 14 in Los Angeles, CA: March and Rally at 12 noon at the Westwood Federal Building, Veteran & Wilshire, sponsored by A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition: "No New War Against Iraq Government Hands Off the ILWU."
Mon., September 16 in Washington DC: Protest Donald Rumsfeld - the Bush administration's chief cheerleader for a new war in Iraq - at the military-industrial complex's annual arms bazaar, Connecticut Ave. and Woodley NW.
If you would like to hold an emergency action in your city to Stop the War on Iraq Before it Starts, email dc@internationalanswer.org .
Go to http://www.internationalanswer.org for more information about upcoming activities sponsored by the A.N.S.W.E.R. - Act Now to stop War & End Racism - Coalition.
Make a donation to help stop the war! Tax-deductible donations can be made online at http://www.internationalanswer.org/donate.html
FOR MORE INFORMATION & TO GET INVOLVED:
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