WESTCOAST DEMONSTRATIONS AGAINST WAR AND RACISM ON SEPTEMBER 29
20,000 MARCH IN SAN FRANCISCO: GRASSROOTS MOVEMENT SHOWS ITS STRENGTH
By Bill Hackwell and Brenda Sandburg
San Francisco10/4/01--In a strong display of a growing grassroots movement, thousands of people streamed into Dolores Park in San Francisco Sept. 29 to protest the escalating war drum of the Bush administration.
Demonstrators also brought a strong message opposing racist scapegoating of Arab, Muslim and South Asian people living in the United States. The rally and march were organized by a newly formed coalition, Act Now to Stop War & End Racism (ANSWER). The action was initiated by the International Action Center and endorsed by hundreds of organizations and individuals, locally and nationally.
If the United States attacks Afghanistan and kills innocent civilians, it could intensify anti-American feelings in the Islamic world, said Zulfikhar Ahmad, a member of the Pakistani community, at the opening rally. "I am very afraid that there is a very big tragedy in the making and it will be the biggest dishonor to the memory of the 6,000 innocent people who have died."
Rev. Dorsey Blake began the rally with a eulogy expressing grief for the thousands of innocent victims who died from the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon and the plane crash in Pennsylvania. He went on to say that our grief was not to be construed as an endorsement for war.
The rally--co-chaired by Gloria La Riva of the International Action Center, Barbara Lubin of the Middle East Children's Alliance, and Miguel Molina of KPFA Radio--featured over 30 speakers. At one point the entire demonstration left Dolores Park and wound its way through the Mission District, the most multinational community in the city.
During the march, protesters stopped at two stores which had had their windows broken out earlier in the week. One is a popular café run by an Iranian and the other a Pakistani restaurant. In a moment of solidarity, a march leader told the cheering protesters that there is no room for this type of racist attack and offered to organize security teams to protect these stores at night if it were necessary.
After the march returned to Dolores Park, the rally continued for another two hours. It included a powerful speech by Elias Rashmawi of the American-Arab Anti- Discrimination Committee, who said: "I stand before you today as a Palestinian Arab. It is imperative to recognize that the events in Washington, D.C., and New York on September 11 will be used to realign the world, utilized as a tool for more repressive control.
"We know what it is like to look up and see bombs come down, to see buildings collapse," Rashmawi said. "In the spirit of our children who have had F-16s and M-16s pierce their hearts, in the spirit of Iraqi mothers who weep every day as they see their children wither away to death, in the spirit of the people of Afghanistan who have seen CIA operations for 20 years, I invoke our most precious identity: Salaam, peace be with you."
LABOR COUNCIL SUPPORTS RALLY
Union activist Dave Welsh read a statement from the San Francisco Labor Council, which passed a resolution in support of the rally. "As we mourn the tremendous loss of life, we declare our resistance to efforts to use this tragedy to engage in military actions that can lead only to more carnage and senseless loss of life," the Labor Council said. "We reject the idea that entire nations should be punished for the actions of a few. Bombing raids and military strikes will only fuel an endless cycle of revenge that can only bring the deaths of more innocent civilians, both here and around the world."
Alicia Jrapko from the Free the Five Committee of the International Action Center gave a well-received talk about five Cubans imprisoned in Miami on spy charges who had penetrated far-right Cuban organizations in this country that have attacked Cuba many times in the past. She compared the attack on the World Trade Center with the 40 years of terrorist activity against Cuba. "The United States says it wants to go after countries that harbor terrorism, but what about those who carried out terrorist acts against Cuba from the United States, and are free to walk the streets of Miami today," Jrapko asked.
Other speakers included author Michael Parenti; Tony Gonzalez, executive director of the International Indian Treaty Council; Riva Enteen, National Lawyers Guild; Forrest Schmidt of Workers World Party; Medea Benjamin, Global Exchange; Carl Pinkston, Vanguard Foundation; Zulma Olivera, Comite 98; Penny Rosenwasser, Coalition of Jews for Justice; Michael Bleeker, director of Swords to Plowshares, an advocacy group for Vietnam veterans; and Bianca Bonilla, a Berkeley high school senior. The music groups Company of Prophets and Grito Serpentino also performed.
BLACK, WHITE, ASIAN, ARAB: L.A. MARCHERS BLAST "HATE WAR AND RACISM"
By Jimmy Cho
Los Angeles10/4/01--Over 2,500 enthusiastic participants convened at the Westwood Federal Building in Los Angeles Sept. 29 to oppose the preparations for war being planned by President George W. Bush and his administration. They had responded to a call by the International Action Center, the Coalition for World Peace and the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. The activity by this new coalition of peace activists and progressives was endorsed by hundreds of local organizations.
Armed with chants such as "One, two, three, four, we don't want your racist war" and signs reading "War is terrorism 5 1,000," the demonstrators showed the country and the world that significant numbers of the people in the U.S. do not want war.
Unity was a major theme of the demonstration. The organizers succeeded in uniting a broad coalition of participants with differing agendas and perspectives into a united force "against hate, war and racism," as Magda Miller, an organizer for the International Action Center, said.
Participant Patrice Bryan celebrated the success of the march, saying, "I am happy with all the people who showed up and all the differing viewpoints of people who want peace." Everyone at the demonstration showed enthusiasm and conviction that they would succeed in turning the United States war machine around.
James Lafferty of the Los Angeles National Lawyers Guild said: "We are uniting everyone into a peace movement as has never been seen. We have to take on the most powerful military, economic and propaganda machine in the world. No doubt in my mind we can do it, but we must stay united!"
Another demonstrator, Sharon Lee, concurred: "I lived through Vietnam, was against that action, protested and believed it makes a difference. This is an example of the use of military might rather than clear thinking."
During a spirited procession through the streets of Westwood, led by a group of Korean drummers, the marchers were met with a continuous honking of support from passing vehicles. At the rally that followed, speakers from various sponsoring organizations in a war of words cracked holes in the hegemony of nonsense being spewed by Washington and the media.
John Parker from the International Action Center urged the country to "question what you are hearing from the State Department." Parker also painted a grim picture of what a war would look like if it were allowed to happen. He explained that the American military would use depleted uranium as they did in Iraq and Yugoslavia, which caused thousands of children to die from leukemia.
Michel Shehadeh, a leading activist in the struggle for a free Palestine and one of eight people known as the LA 8 who faced deportation for their political activity, took on President Bush by saying, "Rumor has it that we are either with the United States or with the terrorists. We are not for either. We are for peace and ending the war."
All the participants were united in their conviction that "the silent and soon-to-be-vocal majority for peace," as West Hollywood Councilmember Steve Martin put it, would soon unite with the activists to end the coming war.
Thousands of copies of a call for the new anti-war coalition called International ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War & End Racism) were distributed throughout the march and to onlookers and were enthusiastically received.
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