Fw: [ANSWER]: 200,000 MARCH in DC - Anti-War Referendum launched

["Nello Margiotta" <animarg@tin.it>]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "A.N.S.W.E.R." <answer.general@action-mail.org>
To: <answer.general@action-mail.org>
Sent: Tuesday, October 29, 2002 2:45 AM
Subject: [ANSWER]: 200,000 MARCH in DC - Anti-War Referendum launched


 - please circulate widely -
 
 MASS OCTOBER 26TH DEMONSTRATIONS INAUGURATE GRASSROOTS 
 PEOPLE'S ANTI-WAR REFERENDUM AS PEOPLE VOTE NO TO WAR!
 
 http://www.VoteNoWar.org
 
 In the biggest anti-war demonstrations since the Vietnam 
 War, hundreds of thousands of people on October 26th took 
 to the streets across the country announcing with a 
 massive visible and vocal presence the creation of a new 
 anti-war movement to stop George W. Bush's plans to wage 
 war against Iraq. The demonstrators included a vast number 
 of people compelled to action because they were frustrated 
 and angered when the Congress failed to listen to the 
 people's opposition to a war on Iraq.
 
 More than 200,000 people marched in the streets of 
 Washington, D.C. and over 100,000 in San Francisco in 
 addition to tens of thousands in other cities around the 
 country. In Washington, D.C., the march was so vast that 
 as the front of the march completed encircling the White 
 House it met the last quarter of the march that had not 
 even begun moving up towards the White House, and was 
 forced to stop for a half an hour to allow the last 
 portion of the march to proceed before the front could 
 continue along the route back towards the rally site. 
 People filled Washington's wide boulevards and sidewalks 
 shoulder to shoulder for 25 city blocks, over two miles.
 
 The October 26 demonstrations launched another major step 
 in mass action against the war -- the grassroots People's 
 Anti-War Referendum and a mass national 2-day mobilization 
 on the weekend of January 18-19 in Washington, DC, timed 
 to coincide with the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King 
 Jr. and the 12th anniversary of the start of the 1991 Gulf 
 War.
 
 To VOTE NO TO WAR, go to:
 http://www.votenowar.org/referendum.html
 
 For an easy-to-download PDF version of the two-sided FLYER 
 ANNOUNCING THE PEOPLE'S ANTI-WAR REFERENDUM AND THE 
 JANUARY 18-19 WASHINGTON DC MOBILIZATION, go to:
 http://www.votenowar.org/flyer.pdf
 
 To GATHER VOTES AGAINST THE WAR, download the flyer at 
 http://www.votenowar.org/referendum.pdf, make copies, and 
 mail the votes in to the address listed on the bottom of 
 the flyer.
 
 At the demonstration in Washington, people were chanting 
 "Congress Votes for War -- We Vote No War!" as thousands 
 began signing the People's Anti-War Referendum. People 
 could be seen filling out referendums at the tables and on 
 each other's backs, and taking stacks of referendums with 
 them back to their communities. Thousands more visited the 
 electronic voting booth and voted against war at 
 http://www.VoteNoWar.org while they watched the rally on 
 television at home.
 
 The VoteNoWar People's Anti-War Referendum is a unique 
 effort to expose the lie that the people of the United 
 States support George W. Bush's planned war in Iraq and 
 reveals the mass anti-war opinion that exists as a 
 majority sentiment. Bush has carried out a sustained 
 campaign to build the myth of consensus around the 
 so-called war on terrorism. This has been successful in 
 cowing Congress to rubber-stamp Bush's demand to be able 
 to declare war at his discretion against Iraq. The myth of 
 consensus has also saturated the mass media. The enormous 
 outpouring of opposition sentiment this weekend is 
 puncturing this myth.
 
 By organizing public opinion we can build a potent 
 political mass movement that can be decisive in the next 
 few months. Congress did not end the war in Vietnam but 
 the people's movement did and once again it is up to the 
 people to stop this war.
 
 The signatures pouring in on this anti-war referendum are 
 a tangible manifestation of the breath of the opposition 
 to the war against Iraq.
 
 The VoteNoWar.org Anti-War Referendum is an extremely 
 effective organizing tool so that we can bring the message 
 of the anti-war movement into our workplace, schools, 
 communities or places of worship. Millions and millions of 
 people who have never been to a demonstration oppose this 
 war and we need to reach them so that their opinions can 
 be registered and reflected in the political process and 
 so that more and more people become engaged in real 
 grassroots democracy.
 
 Congratulations go to the thousands of A.N.S.W.E.R. 
 volunteers and those from other organizations who 
 committed their time, their energy and their resources to 
 make the October 26 demonstrations a huge success. So many 
 people helped out passing out leaflets, putting up 
 posters, acting as bus captains and bus greeters, staffing 
 phones, making thousands of phone calls, organizing their 
 communities, campuses, high schools, and workplaces, and 
 volunteering with all the other tasks involved in bringing 
 people to the demonstration and making sure that it was 
 well organized. The demonstration could not have been so 
 large without the work of the leadership provided by 
 hundreds of grassroots organizers in cities and towns 
 around the country who brought busses, vans, and car 
 caravans to Washington DC and San Francisco. A special 
 debt of gratitude goes to those who participated in set-up 
 and take-down of stage and sound equipment and who 
 remained to secure the area overnight in a pouring rain 
 the night before the demonstration.
 
 Make a donation to support the anti-war movement at 
 http://www.internationalanswer.org/donate.html
 
 FOR MORE INFORMATION:
 http://www.VoteNoWar.org
 http://www.InternationalANSWER.org
 dc@internationalanswer.org
 New York 212-633-6646
 Washington 202-332-5757
 Chicago 773-878-0166
 Los Angeles 213-487-2368
 San Francisco 415-821-6545
 
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