Major anti-war coalitions in U.S. call for unified demonstration

End the occupation -- Bring the troops home now

Major anti-war coalitions in U.S. call for unified demonstration

By Brian Becker

On March 20, the first anniversary of the launch of the blitzkrieg
war against Iraq, hundreds of thousands of people will be in the
streets in New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco for
massive regional demonstrations. People will also protest in hundreds
of other cities in the United States and around the world.

One year ago, at the start of the war, people were in the streets
worldwide demanding, "No war against Iraq." It was a simple and a
straightforward slogan reflecting the immediate and compelling need
of the moment. Organizations and coalitions that had sharply
different political programs united or marched together under that
banner.

The slogans for the upcoming March 20 demonstration must and will
reflect a far different situation. Obviously, the goal of the
demonstration is not to prevent an imminent war. The war happened.

Tens of thousands of Iraqis died as the U.S. military machine swept
through Iraq, reaching Baghdad in three weeks. The Iraqi government
was dispersed under assault by overwhelming force, and has been
replaced by a U.S. military dictatorship. The Iraqi people are now
living under foreign occupation--and are resisting.

After weeks of intense political debate, the major U.S. anti-war
coalitions have decided to work together for a single, massive,
united demonstration in New York City on March 20. The focus of the
debate was the specific slogans and political program.

On Feb. 6, the coalitions that are uniting to build a single
demonstration issued a joint statement. The statement reads in part:
"We will march for an end to the occupation and corporate control of
Iraq and to bring the troops home now. We will march for an end to
the occupation of Palestine. We will march to fund human needs,
restore cuts in social programs and against the ever-expanding
attacks on all immigrants, labor rights and everyone's civil
liberties--and we will stand united against racism here and abroad."


The anti-war movement's decision to link its call for an immediate
end to the occupation of Iraq with support for the Palestinian people
is a sign of a new level of political growth and development.
Throughout the world, the struggle of the Palestinian people is
considered a national liberation movement fighting against colonial
occupation, racism and apartheid. In the U.S. anti-war movement,
however, the Palestinian struggle has been ignored or even vilified
for decades. The adoption of the agreed- upon political program for a
unified March 20 demonstration-- including the centrality of
Palestine--constitutes a vital step forward for the U.S. anti-war
movement.

This political battle is far from over. Some leadership sectors of
the anti-war movement are following a particular strategic conception
that makes true and consistent solidarity with the Palestinian
struggle almost impossible. They portray the current U.S. war drive
as a particular policy of a right-wing political grouping represented
by the Bush White House. They assert that the only way to really stop
the war drive is to unseat Bush. They are rallying the anti-war
movement to support what they consider to be less warlike politicians-
-be it Howard Dean, John Kerry or even Gen. Wesley Clark.

But no capitalist politician can aspire to the presidency and also
take a strong stand against Israel as it continues the colonial
project in historic Palestine. All sectors in the U.S. corporate and
political establishment, and its media, maintain unswerving
commitment to the U.S.- Israeli alliance. Not because they are
opponents of anti-Semitism, but because Israel serves as a proxy, a
garrison state defending U.S. interests in this strategic and oil-
rich region. Those in the anti-war movement who are oriented toward a
strategic alliance with a purported liberal sector of the capitalist
establishment have compelled that part of the movement to ignore the
just struggle of the Palestinian people.

Not just Bush's war

The significant advance in the adoption of the March 20 political
program was the consequence of several factors. The most important
was a historic political initiative undertaken by progressive
organizations from the Arab-American and Muslim com munity. This took
the form of an "Open Letter to the U.S. Anti-War Move ment" signed by
41 organizations that stated, "We do not accept delinking the
struggle of the Palestinian people from the anti-war movement, and
regard the struggle in Palestine, as it is viewed worldwide, to be
central to any peace and justice mobilization." The initiators of the
letter asked for other organizations outside the Arab and Muslim
community to sign on in solidarity.

This open letter sparked a sharp debate within some national anti-war
organizations, inside progressive labor and legal organizations, and
in cities and towns around the country. Within three weeks more than
275 organizations--frequently after considerable discussion--had
signed the open letter.

Support generated by the open letter also contributed to the power of
the call from the March 20 National Coalition to have a unified
demonstration based on a political program that included in its
central demands "End colonial occupation from Iraq to Palestine, and
everywhere-- bring the troops home now!"

The March 20 National Coalition includes the ANSWER Coalition--Act
Now to Stop War & End Racism; Al-Awda, the Palestine Right to Return
Coalition; National Lawyers Guild; Arab Muslim American Federation;
Free Palestine Alliance-U.S.A; Muslim American Society Freedom
Foundation; and the Muslim Student Association of the U.S. and
Canada. The National Council of Arab Americans also supports the call
of the March 20 National Coalition.

The political orientation of this coalition was outlined in its Jan.
2 statement: "We will demonstrate on March 20 to support the right of
the Iraqi people to self-determination without condition. Since the
invasion began, tens of thousands of Iraqi people have been killed.
Thousands of U.S. and British soldiers have been killed or wounded.
The Iraqi people are resisting the occupation--they want the foreign
soldiers occupying their country to leave, not tomorrow but today.
Growing numbers of U.S. soldiers and their families are calling for
the troops to be brought home NOW. These soldiers are being sent to
kill and be killed for a war that was based on lies and fraud
perpetrated by the Bush government. There is only one solution: to
end the occupation now! We believe, in the words of the National
Council of Arab Americans, that 'internationalizing the occupation
gives colonialism a new marketable cover and should not be accepted
as a viable option for the global popular movement.'"

In addition to Palestine, the other ongoing controversy in the anti-
war movement has to do with slogans regarding the occupation of Iraq.
Some anti-war groups favor a transitional occupation strategy leading
to a United Nations takeover of the U.S. occupation authority. The
ANSWER Coalition and others in the March 20 National Coalition
rejected this position as an inherent violation of the Iraqi people's
right to self- determination. Sup porting any form of foreign
occupation authority legitimizes the argument that the U.S. had the
right to carry out the overthrow of the government in Iraq.

The March 20 demonstrations, in order to be relevant, must focus on
opposing colonial-style occupation. The Iraqi people must be totally
free to determine their own destiny. U.S. and all foreign military
forces must immediately exit Iraq. The authorities who ordered the
blitzkrieg invasion should be tried for war crimes and crimes against
humanity.

The Iraq invasion was a war for empire, a war aimed at enslaving the
Arab and other peoples of the Middle East and South Asia. The goal
was to secure control over all the vast oil and gas natural gas of
the entire region for decades to come. From Iraq to Palestine to
Libya to Iran to Afghanistan and the Caspian region of the former
Soviet Union-- the goal of the Wall Street capitalists and the
Pentagon is to possess or control the energy supplies that are the
central artery of the world economy.

The warmakers' assorted public-relations slogans to justify their
aggression--"to keep the world safe from weapons of mass
destruction," or to "fight terrorism," or to "liberate the Iraqi
people from Saddam Hussein's dictatorship"--were rubbish from
beginning.

The ANSWER Coalition, which has organized most of the large anti-war
demon strations since Sept. 11, believes that the wars and occupation
in Afghan istan and Iraq are not simply the consequence of the
"mistaken policies" of a "bad president." The war and occupation of
Afghanistan are supported by almost every politician from both the
Democratic and Republican parties. While differing with Bush on the
tactic of unilateral U.S. invasion of Iraq, the same politicians
embraced the idea of crushing the Iraqi regime and replacing it with
a U.S.-puppet government. None favors ending the occupation.

The goal of destroying Iraqi sovereignty, euphemistically labeled
"regime change," became the official U.S. government policy in
October 1998 under President Bill Clinton. It was then that the
weapons inspectors were pulled out of Iraq so that the U.S. Air Force
could begin the massive bombing of Iraq. The Dec ember 1998 vote in
Congress to authorize almost $100 million to begin the ouster of the
Iraqi government was nearly unanimous. It had the support of Dennis
Kucinich, John Kerry and the other Democratic opponents of Bush
today.

The anti-war movement, to be a voice for progressive change, must
expose all mechanisms used by imperialism to impose its political
will on the people of the Middle East, or in Latin America, Africa or
Asia. That requires maintaining a political orientation to these
goals independent from and not in obedience to any section of the
capitalist political establishment.

The March 20 demonstration will be an important step forward in this
direction. n

- END -

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Macdonald Stainsby
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		--Brecht.


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