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For those who live near DC. I am considering making the trip up:
http://www.globalpolicy.org/ngos/advocacy/protest/iraq/2002/1108war.htm
International ANSWER
November 8, 2002
Tens of thousands will converge in Washington DC January 18-19, 2003
for a
MASS DEMONSTRATION
and the Convening of the GRASSROOTS PEACE CONGRESS
We wanted to let everyone know that momentum is growing for the January
18 Mass
March and the January 19 Grassroots Peace Congress to say "No War in
Iraq." Buses,
vans and car caravans are being organized from communities, high
schools and
campuses all over the East Coast, South and Midwest. More than 150
cities organized
transportation to be at the protest of 200,000 in DC on October 26 --
and those organizers
left the protest pledging to continue to mobilize for an even larger
turnout on January
18-19.
Millions of people outside of DC watched the rally on C-Span or
listened to it on Pacifica
Radio's live coverage. Many more found out about it through other media
coverage --
including a major article that appeared in the October 30 edition of
the New York Times
(a much better article than the biased article that appeared on October
27 after the
Times received thousands of angry phone calls and emails) -- and are
now beginning to
organize. 50,000 people have registered on the VoteNoWar.org website.
This is in
addition to the tens of thousands who have filled out paper
ballots/petitions on October
26 and in the days since. A.N.S.W.E.R. offices around the country are
daily being
contacted by organizers and volunteers whose commitment to mobilize
makes us
confident that January 18-19 will be a massive outpouring of opposition
to war in Iraq.
To ENDORSE the January 18-19 Mass Actions in DC, fill out the
easy-to-use form at:
http://internationalanswer.org/campaigns/j18/j18endorse.html#endo
If you plan to ORGANIZE TRANSPORTATION from your area to be in DC
January 18-19,
fill out the form at:
http://internationalanswer.org/campaigns/j18/j18endorse.html#transp
WHY YOU SHOULD BE IN DC JAN. 18-19:
When Congress rejects the will of the people, the people must act
themselves. Congress
has rubber-stamped Bush's criminal war that seeks to conquer the oil,
land and
resources of the Middle East. Bush and Congress have shown that they
represent the
interests of Corporate America rather than the people of the United
States.
A people's movement is growing to stop them. On January 18 and 19 tens
of thousands
of people will participate in mass protest activities on the Martin
Luther King Jr.
anniversary weekend.
Dr. King publicly condemned the U.S. war in Vietnam, providing a
powerful connection
between the civil rights movement and the anti-war movement. In his
"Beyond Vietnam"
speech at Riverside Church in 1967, he stated, "The greatest purveyor
of violence in the
world today [is] my own government. . . [F]or the sake of the hundreds
of thousands
trembling under our violence, I cannot be silent."
Dr. King believed that it was impossible to successfully wage a war on
poverty at home
while waging a war of aggression in Vietnam. The same can be said today
about George
W. Bush's global war drive. Social programs and services are being
looted as Bush and
Congress provide record-breaking sums for weapons of mass destruction
and war. Bush
has signed into law Congress's new defense budget that transfers a
billion dollars a day
from the people into the hands of the military-industrial complex.
The thousands who are coming to Washington, D.C., honor Dr. King and
his legacy by
opposing a criminal war in Iraq -- this time not in Vietnam, but in the
Middle East -- and
by demanding instead that these hundreds of billions of dollars
earmarked for war
instead be spent on jobs, education, housing, health care and to meet
human needs.
The grassroots Peace Congress will be comprised of delegations from all
communities
who are coming together in the streets and in a People's Congress to
forge the
opposition necessary to stop the Bush Administration's war drive:
labor, students and
youth, fighters for civil rights and women's rights, the LGBT community
and people of
faith.
Join with others around the country by bringing a diverse delegation
from your
community to participate in the January 18 mass march and the January
19th People's
Congress.
- - - -
Y E S
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