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News :: Iraq |
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Local Groups Join National Anti-occupation Protests |
Current rating: 0 |
by Ricky Baldwin
Email: baldwinricky (nospam) yahoo.com (verified)
Phone: 217-328-3037 |
24 Oct 2003
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This weekend will see national protests against the US-led occupation of Iraq and the Bush Administration's continued sabre-rattling. Locally, three peace groups will rally on North Prospect on Saturday October 25, 2-4 PM. |
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(Champaign) This Saturday October 25, three local anti-war groups will co-sponsor a rally against the US-led occupation of Iraq on North Prospect in Champaign from 2-4 PM in conjunction with anti-occupation rallies in Washington, DC, and other US cities.
National cosponsors are International ANSWER, former Attorney General Ramsey Clark’s group, and United for Peace and Justice. ANSWER organized the giant national anti-war protests last January 18. United for Peace and Justice put together the even bigger international demonstrations February 15, drawing an estimated 10 million people into the streets worldwide. .
The local event’s principal sponsor, the Anti-War Anti-Racism Effort (AWARE), was responsible for anti-war rallies on North Prospect before the US invasion of Iraq, drawing hundreds of area residents sometimes in bitterly cold weather. Student Peace Action and the Progressive Resource/Action Cooperative (PRC) are also local co-sponsors.
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We told you so!
“It seem every evening now on the news we hear about one, two, three more U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq,” says Brooke Anderson, co-director of the PRC. “The American people are getting increasingly concerned and want answers. If we invaded Iraq to bring democracy to the Iraqi people, why aren't we turning control of the Iraqi government and policing over to the Iraqi people themselves?”
Indeed the Bush Administration’s adventure in Iraq is turning out even worse than the anti-war folks thought. Hundreds of Americans and thousands of Iraqi civilians have been killed. Iraqis are starving, and they still have no democracy. Transnational corporations are “reconstructing” Iraq to suit their own needs, while wolfing down billions of dollars, and foreigners are re-writing the Iraqi constitution.
That’s beside the fact that the invasion of Iraq was rationalized based on myths, half-truths and forgeries. The troops found no weapons of mass destruction. There were no connections between Iraq and al-Qaeda -- although now there are reports that al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups have been able to move into Iraq for the first time.
Participants are encouraged to avoid parking at Lowe's, Tires Plus or Slot-n-Wing. They will tow!
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For more on International ANSWER please see www.internationalanswer.org and for United for Peace and Justice www.unitedforpeace.org.
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See also:
http://www.anti-war.net
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Re: Local Groups Join National Anti-occupation Protests |
by Salon
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: -2
27 Oct 2003
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Allan Johnson, a high school English teacher and debate coach from Fairfax, Virginia, held a sign saying "U.S. Troops Out of Iraq. Bring Them Home Now!" at Saturday's "End the Occupation" rally in Washington, D.C. In fact, though, Johnson isn't sure he wants to bring the troops home now, or to end the American occupation of Iraq. At least, not yet.
"We've made a giant mess," said Johnson, a handsome man who wore his long snowy hair in a ponytail and had a sparkling stud in one ear. "I would hate for the Bush administration to halfway fix things and then leave, and then blame the Iraqis if things go wrong. Once you go to somebody's house and break all the windows, don't you owe them new windows?"
Why, then, was he marching at an "End the Occupation" rally? "I don't agree with all the people here, believe you me," he said. But his own sign? He glanced at it, startled, and explained that someone had handed it to him. "I didn't even look at it," he said. "I was just waving it."
Many of the thousands of people who traveled from across the country to march on Washington, D.C., Saturday were afflicted by a similar disconnect between the slogans they were rallying behind and their own sentiments about the situation in Iraq. Some said they recognized that a unilateral American departure from the country could be as destructive as a unilateral American invasion, but they wanted to demonstrate their opposition to Bush administration's policies in the Middle East. The "End the Occupation" rally, co-sponsored by ANSWER, a front group for the Stalinist Workers' World Party, and the more moderate United for Peace and Justice, seemed the only game in town. Many apparently decided to pretend that "End the Occupation" really means "Bring in the UN," despite ANSWER's blunt and repeated avowals that it means nothing of the sort.
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