Fw: [ANSWER]: Oct. 25: March on Washington DC



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "A.N.S.W.E.R." <answer.general at action-mail.org>
To: <answer.general at action-mail.org>
Sent: Friday, July 11, 2003 4:00 AM
Subject: [ANSWER]: Oct. 25: March on Washington DC


> SATURDAY, OCTOBER 25
> INTERNATIONAL MARCH ON WASHINGTON DC
> 
> CALL TO ACTION
> 
> MASS MARCH ON WASHINGTON TO SAY:
> - Bring the troops home now
> - End the occupation of Iraq
> - Money for jobs, education & healthcare - Not war
> 
> To ENDORSE the October 25 International March on 
> Washington, fill out the easy-to-use form at 
> http://www.internationalanswer.org/campaigns/o25/index.html#endo
> 
> The people in Iraq want the U.S. occupation to end. The 
> U.S. soldiers in Iraq want to come home. On Saturday, 
> October 25, tens of thousands of people in the U.S., 
> joined by delegations from countries around the world, 
> will go back into the streets to demand End the 
> Occupation, Bring the Troops Home Now! Under the banner, 
> "The World Unites Against U.S. Militarism," the 
> demonstration, marching from the Justice Department to the 
> White House to the Pentagon, will also demand an end to 
> the looting and destruction of social programs by the Bush 
> Administration.
> 
> The Bush Administration lied to the people, to the 
> Congress, and to the United Nations as it raced to wage 
> war against Iraq. The Bush administration is now carrying 
> out a cover up of its lies and deceptions.
> 
> Every day, people are dying as a consequence of this 
> illegal occupation. Every day human misery expands in the 
> drive for world Empire and corporate globalization. Every 
> day, vital social programs that serve and protect working 
> people in the U.S. are being destroyed as the Bush 
> administration cynically manipulates the slogan of the 
> "war on terrorism" to carry out the social transfer of 
> wealth from the bottom to the top. It has served as a 
> public relations ploy for their Robin-Hood-in-reverse 
> politics. Stopping Bush's war abroad and his war at home 
> is a matter of life and death. None of us has the luxury 
> of waiting. The time to act is now.
> 
> Tens of thousands of Iraqis and hundreds of U.S. GIs have 
> been killed and maimed. As the anger of the Iraqi people 
> will inevitably grow, the body count on both sides will 
> sharply increase.
> 
> As the anti-war movement predicted, the Iraqi people view 
> U.S. forces as colonial occupiers, not liberators. U.S. 
> troops, frightened by the hostile environment and 
> encouraged by the racist climate created by the military 
> brass, are killing and being killed in a war that serves 
> only the interests of U.S. oil monopolies and corporate 
> elites - George W. Bush's real constituents. U.S. soldiers 
> and their families are now realizing that high government 
> officials, mostly millionaires who shuttle between 
> corporate boardrooms and government posts, are using U.S. 
> troops as a private security detachment for Corporate 
> America's plunder of Iraq's oil riches.
> 
> The October 25 International March on Washington will 
> include delegations invited from countries around the 
> world whose banners will represent resistance to the 
> threat posed by the Bush Administration's hyper-aggressive 
> "preemptive war" strategy.  The Bush Administration has 
> also just won approval from Congress to proceed with the 
> creation of a new generation of tactical nuclear weapons 
> explicitly designed to be used in the Third World in 
> coming conflicts. The march will demand an immediate end 
> to this new nuclear arms race.
> 
> As we continue the movement in opposition to the 
> occupation of Iraq, we must also oppose the daily threats 
> against the people of Palestine, Afghanistan, Iran, Korea, 
> Cuba, the Philippines, Colombia, Liberia, Zimbabwe, and 
> all others that are targets of the Bush administration.
> 
> The demonstration will be followed on October 26 by an 
> assembly with international delegates from the global 
> anti-war movement to assess and strategize challenging the 
> Bush Administration's war drive and the component assault 
> on civil rights and civil liberties taking place in many 
> countries under the cloak of "national security" laws, 
> including the Patriot Act in the U.S.
> 
> THE WAR AT HOME
> 
> The Bush administration will spend $2.7 trillion in a vast 
> expansion of the U.S. military-industrial apparatus, while 
> eliminating or severely cutting taxes for Corporate 
> America and the one percent of the richest part of the 
> United States population to the tune of $1 trillion. The 
> administration is pursuing a calculated strategy to create 
> a fiscal crisis inside the United States so that lawmakers 
> will be compelled to cut or eliminate social programs for 
> which there will no longer be funds.
> 
> Pentagon officials now admit that they intend for the U.S. 
> to maintain at least 150,000 troops in Iraq for the 
> "foreseeable future," while the cost of the U.S. war in 
> and occupation of Iraq is nearly $4 billion a month, a 
> "burn rate" that will also continue.
> 
> The government of the richest country in human history is 
> spending more for war than any government in human history 
> and has its troops stationed in more than 750 military 
> installations and bases located in more than 130 countries 
> all over the world. This is the means by which the Bush 
> administration, the Pentagon and Corporate America are 
> advancing the goal of Empire.
> 
> The rapid expansion of U.S. militarism under the Bush 
> administration is not only a threat to the people of the 
> world, it is a calculated assault on the standard of 
> living and rights of working people. Bush, Cheney, 
> Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz have a plan to destroy every social 
> reform that has been achieved since the 1930s. What are 
> they seeking to destroy or privatize? Social security, 
> medicare, medicaid, public education, affirmative action, 
> civil rights, women's rights, reproductive health, l/g/b/t 
> rights, environmental protections, and any other programs 
> or social rights that are perceived as either a 
> restriction on corporate power and profits or are a focus 
> of attack by the ultra-right's political program. Under 
> the Bush Administration, the war at home has also meant a 
> rise in attacks against communities of color. Police 
> brutality against the African American and Latino 
> communities in particular have escalated, from New York 
> City to Ohio and across the country.
> 
> The October 25-26 weekend is also the second anniversary 
> of the signing of the so-called Patriot Act authorizing 
> political arrests, indefinite detentions and domestic 
> spying. As the Bush administration - which only came to 
> power due to massive racist disenfranchisement and voting 
> fraud -- violates international law it has been 
> 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. The demonstration will be 
> a political challenge to the attack on civil rights and 
> civil liberties and the expansion of the system of 
> repression in the U.S. and in countries around the world 
> which have also adopted new repressive National Security 
> laws.
> 
> The people of the world went into the streets unparalleled 
> global mobilizations before the war started. On October 
> 25, we will go into the streets again. The anti-war, civil 
> rights and social justice movement, whose ranks are being 
> joined in ever increasing numbers by the family members of 
> military personnel and U.S. veterans, can create the 
> effective political force that will end the occupation of 
> Iraq and bring the troops home immediately. It was only 
> the people's movement that ended the invasion and 
> occupation of Vietnam and it will be the global people's 
> anti-war movement that will help end the U.S. occupation 
> of Iraq.
> 
> To ENDORSE the October 25 International March on 
> Washington, fill out the easy-to-use form at 
> http://www.internationalanswer.org/campaigns/o25/index.html#endo
> 
> ***************
> 
> The A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition was formed in the days after 
> September 11 by progressive organizations and people in 
> the United States who recognized the need to take 
> immediate action in response to the Bush administration's 
> headlong rush to war and the racist attacks against the 
> Arab and Muslim communities in the U.S. The Coalition 
> organized the first national demonstration against war and 
> racism following September 11 on September 29, 2001, which 
> brought 25,000 people into the streets of Washington DC 
> and 15,000 in San Francisco. The Coalition has worked to 
> build an anti-racist, peace and social justice movement, 
> including mass mobilizations on April 20, 2002 (in support 
> of justice for Palestine) and October 26, 2002 (the first 
> demonstration in opposition to the war drive against 
> Iraq), and the first global day of action against the war 
> in Iraq, January 18, 2003, when millions of people around 
> the world took part in simultaneous demonstrations, 
> including a half a million people in Washington DC. The 
> Coalition coinued to organize mass demonstrations in 
> February and March and began the campaign against U.S. 
> occupation of Iraq in April, 2003.
> 
> Its national steering committee represents major national 
> organizations that have campaigned against U.S. militarism 
> and intervention in Latin America, the Caribbean, the 
> Middle East and Asia, and organizations that work towards 
> social and economic justice and civil rights for people 
> inside the United States.
> 
> -------------------------------------
> 
> FOR MORE INFORMATION:
> http://www.InternationalANSWER.org
> http://www.VoteNoWar.org
> info at internationalanswer.org
> New York 212-633-6646
> Washington 202-544-3389
> Los Angeles 213-487-2368
> San Francisco 415-821-6545
> 
> To make a tax-deductible donation, go to
> http://www.internationalanswer.org/donate.html
> 
> Sign up to receive updates (low volume):
> http://www.internationalanswer.org/subscribelist.html
> 
> ------------------
> Send replies to answer at action-mail.org
> 
> This is the ANSWER activist announcement
> list. Anyone can subscribe by sending 
> any message to <answer.general-subscribe at action-mail.org>
> To unsubscribe <answer.general-off at action-mail.org>
>