Fw: [ANSWER]: UPDATE ON APRIL 20 A.N.S.W.E.R COALITION SCENARIO

["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: Sunday, March 03, 2002 10:23 PM
Subject: [ANSWER]: UPDATE ON APRIL 20 A.N.S.W.E.R COALITION SCENARIO


 UPDATE ON APRIL 20 A.N.S.W.E.R COALITION SCENARIO
 March 3, 2002
 
 We are heartened by the large volume of positive responses 
 to the announcement issued by the A.N.S.W.E.R. steering 
 committee (February 27) that the coalition was shifting 
 the date of its demonstration to Saturday, April 20. The 
 change to April 20 was in turn a response to a large 
 number of requests asking for a united date for anti-war 
 forces to converge this spring in Washington DC. The 
 A.N.S.W.E.R. coalition has been and continues to be in 
 communication with other groups organizing on the weekend 
 of April 19-22 for a variety of activities.
 
 The demonstration couldn't come at a more important 
 moment. We are focusing the political protest against the 
 Bush administration's expanding war against oppressed 
 peoples all over the world. The Bush program represents 
 the extreme right wing of corporate America. It represents 
 a violent assault on people's rights at home and abroad 
 and a dangerous assault on the environment.
 
 On April 20, anti-war activists, workers, trade unionists, 
 communities of color, women, lesbian, gay, bi and trans 
communities, communities of faith, and others will take to 
 the streets of Washington DC to say that Bush cannot speak 
 in our name as his administration carries out the 
 anti-people, pro-corporate, militarist agenda.
 
 WE WILL ASSEMBLE AT THE WHITE HOUSE AT 11 AM ON SATURDAY, 
 APRIL 20 in order to protest against the real "axis of 
 evil": war, racism and poverty.
 
 In the early afternoon of April 20, we will MARCH from the 
 White House, east on Pennsylvania Ave. directly in front 
 of the White House, and proceeding on Pennsylvania Ave. to 
 the Justice Department. At the Justice 
 Department--directly across the street from the J. Edgar 
 Hoover FBI building--we will rally in defense of civil 
 rights and civil liberties and to demand the repeal of 
 Ashcroft's USA Patriot Act.
 
 Following the rally at the Justice Department, it will be 
 our goal to link up with the other anti-war coalition that 
 is planning activities on April 20. We recognize that the 
 anti-war movement includes people and organizations from a 
 range of traditions, beliefs, and political currents. But, 
 we also recognize that thousands and thousands of people 
 must march shoulder to shoulder in the streets in 
 Washington DC if we are to build an anti-war, anti-racist 
 movement strong enough to dismantle the Bush perpetual war 
 machine.
 
 MASS ASSEMBLY AT THE WHITE HOUSE - 11 AM
 
 At the White House, we will condemn the massive bombing of 
 Afghanistan that has killed thousands of civilians. At 
 this moment, U.S. forces have launched a new offensive in 
 Afghanistan using experimental "thermobaric" bombs that 
 suffocate all living things. During the war, the U.S. has 
 used fuel-air explosives, cluster bombs and other weapons, 
 the use of which, by definition, constitutes a war crime. 
 The Bush administration has used the war in Afghanistan as 
 a springboard to establish new U.S. military bases in 
 South/Central Asia. We will demand that these bases be 
 dismantled and that the troops be brought home 
 immediately.
 
 At the White House, we will show our solidarity with the 
 besieged people of Palestine, who are at this very moment 
 resisting fierce aggression in the Balata and Jenin 
 refugee camps in the occupied West Bank. Ariel Sharon is 
 giving the orders to carry out these massacres - but he 
 could not do it without the support of the Bush 
 administration. U.S.-backed-and-financed Israeli forces 
 are today bulldozing the homes of civilians in Occupied 
 Territories, they have intentionally destroyed the sole 
 source of water into the Balata camp, and they have 
 deliberately destroyed the electrical system. These 
 Israeli war crimes are being sponsored by the Bush 
 administration.
 
 At the White House, we will show our solidarity with the 
 people of the Philippines and Yemen, where Bush has 
 already dispatched a growing number of U.S. Special 
 Operations forces to occupy and wage war in their 
 countries. In the same manner, we will show solidarity 
 with the people of Somalia, who fear a repetition of the 
 murderous U.S. military actions taken against them in 
 1993. The Bush administration seeks to portray these 
 interventions as "limited police actions in the war 
 against terrorism." Let us never forget that that is 
 precisely how the Kennedy administration initially 
 explained the introduction of U.S. troops into Vietnam in 
 the early 1960s.
 
 At the White House, we will condemn the new aggression 
 waged by the Colombian government and its paramilitary 
 proxies against the people. The Pastrana government is 
 giving the orders to cancel negotiations and wage war - 
 but we well know that the Colombian government would never 
 dare to have taken this step if it had not been given the 
 money, the weapons and the political support for this 
 aggression by the Bush administration.
 
 At the White House, we will raise our voices to demand "No 
 New War Against the People of Iraq" and we will demand the 
 immediate elimination of all sanctions on Iraq that in the 
 last decade have taken the lives of more than 1.5 million 
 Iraqi civilians.
 
 At the White House, we will stand with the people of 
 Korea, who reject the new threats delivered by Bush in his 
 State of the Union message. The Korean people want the 
 removal of the 37,000 U.S. troops that occupy South Korea. 
 The Korean people must be allowed to pursue their own 
 destiny, including the right to the reunification of their 
 divided nation.
 
 At the White House, we will extend a hand of solidarity to 
 the people of Iran who too are threatened by Bush's "axis 
 of evil" stratagem that seeks to demonize in advance the 
 potential targets of U.S. military aggression.
 
 At the White House, we will demand an immediate end to the 
 U.S. blockade of Cuba. We will protest the wrongful 
 designation by the U.S. government of Cuba as a "terrorist 
 state" and demand freedom for the five U.S.-held Cuban 
 political prisoners, who have been given harsh prison 
 sentences for defending their country from U.S.-sponsored 
 terrorism.
 
 At the White House, we will demand that the Bush 
 administration immediately move to extend unemployment 
 benefits for the millions of workers who are suffering 
 unemployment. We will tell Bush "HANDS OFF SOCIAL 
 SECURITY." We will demand money for jobs, education, 
 health care and housing - not for wars of aggression in 
 the Third World. We will stand against union busting.
 
 At the White House, we will condemn the Bush 
 administration's reintroduction of a form of apartheid in 
 law enforcement through the USA Patriot Act that strips 
 non-citizens of essential democratic rights and legalizes 
 racial and religious profiling. We will make it clear that 
 we will not allow the Bush administration to use the "war 
 on terrorism" to implement the long-standing agenda of the 
 ultra-right and corporate America to stifle progressive 
 dissent.
 
 At the White House, we will demand an end to the use of 
 methods of racist terror in the United States, most 
 notably the death penalty. George Bush, while governor of 
 Texas, executed more people than any governor in U.S. 
 history (152 human beings). He is the face of the death 
 penalty. The people of the world have let it be known that 
 they consider the use of the death penalty in the United 
 States to be an unconscionable abrogation of fundamental 
 human rights. 
 
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 ANSWER@afgj.org, or call New York 212-633-6646, Washington 
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 415-821-6545