Anti-War Groups Set Protests to Stop War
On Iraq
From the July 25, 2002 issue of Workers
World
[The International ANSWER coalition
has announced plans for demonstrations in October 2002 and January 2003
opposing any war on Iraq and commemorating Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s
birthday. The following is from a coalition news release.]
On Oct. 26, the first anniversary of the signing of the
so-called USA Patriot Act, anti-war and civil rights forces are joining
together to launch a massive international mobilization in opposition to a new
war against the people of Iraq.
The ANSWER coalition is calling on organizers from campuses
and communities around the U.S.
and the world to hold picket lines, rallies, vigils, teach-ins and more in
their local areas on this day.
Martin Luther King Jr. spent the last year before his
assassination linking the mass movements for civil rights and freedom at home
with the growing opposition to the U.S.
war in Vietnam.
This courageous stand constituted a major political threat to the war-makers.
Dr. King came to the conclusion that the "greatest purveyor of violence on
the planet is my own government."
There is no better way to truly remember the spirit and
legacy of Dr. King than to organize a bold, visible protest against war and
racism in Washington, D.C.,
on the anniversary of his birthday. We will not allow the war makers in the
Bush administration and on Wall Street to turn Dr. King into a harmless icon,
rather than an inspiration for struggle.
That weekend is also the anniversary of the start of the
1991 U.S./UN war against the people of Iraq.
Some 100,000-200,000 Iraqis were killed as U.S./UN bombers dropped more than
88,500 tons of explosives on Iraq
during this 42-day assault. In the years since, more than 1.5 million Iraqi
civilians have perished as a consequence of malnutrition and disease caused by
economic sanctions.
People in the United States
and everywhere have an obligation to stop the Bush administration's drive to
launch a new, all-out military aggression against Iraq.
The Bush administration has no right to wage war against a country that is
posing no threat to the United States.
Disregarding all international law, Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld,
Wolfowitz and company are planning to send tens of thousands of young GIs to
kill and be killed in a war for Big Oil. The Jan. 18, 2003, march on Washington
will call for civilians and soldiers alike to exercise their political right to
speak out against an illegal war that will benefit only ExxonMobil, Texaco,
Chase, Citibank, Raytheon, Lockheed, Boeing and George Bush's corporate
backers--who are his real constituents.
- END -
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