Good morning everyone! I just wanted to post a quick rundown of events for the big rally today on the Mall.
The march will kick off at 1pm at 3rd Street and Jefferson Drive, NW. For a map of the parade route, assembly area, and a list of what to bring and not to bring go here.
If you can get downtown a little early, there is group trying to form a HUMAN IMPEACH sign just east of the Washington Monument at 11:50 a.m. This will look pretty damn cool if they can pull it off! More info is here.
Some of you might be interested in joining the "Bloggers March" which is being organized by RenaRF of Raising Kaine and Daily Kos fame. They are meeting about 30 minutes before the march at the Starbucks Coffee at Liberty Place 325 7th St NW, which is right by the Archives/Navy Memorial metro stop. More info can be found here.
Progressive Democrats of America will also have a contingent as RK blogger mbmarkham informed us of in an earlier thread. They are gathering on the Mall side of the National Air and Space Museum, Near the Corner of Jefferson Ave NW and 4th St NW at 11:00am. More info can be found here.
I will be marching with U.S. Labor Against the War along with other rank and file union members. Even if you aren't in a union, please feel free to march with our lively group in solidarity! There will be a Pre-March Labor Rally at the CWA building which is at 501 - 3rd St NW right by the Judiciary Square metro stop. For more info go here.
I hope everyone finds this guide useful. Please add any contigents or groups I may have overlooked in the comments section below. And if you can, please join us in D.C. later today!
ANSWER characterizes itself as anti-imperialist, and its steering committee consists of socialists, Marxists, civil rights advocates, and left-wing progressive organizations from the Muslim, Arab, Palestinian, Filipino, Haitian, and Latin American communities. Many of ANSWER's leaders were members of Workers World Party (WWP) at the time of ANSWER's founding, and are current members of the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), a Marxist-Leninist organization that formed in 2004.
ANSWER's "first major action was a September 29, 2001 "Anti-War, Anti-Racist" political rally and march in Washington, D.C., primarily in protest of the then-impending U.S. invasion of Afghanistan."
ANSWER's leader is Ramsey Clark, who had this to say about the war criminal and mass murderer Slobodan Milosevic, "History will prove Milo?evi? was right." Regarding Saddam Hussein, Clark "claimed that some of the massacres which the former Iraqi President was accused of ordering were done out of necessity, saying: "He [Saddam] had this huge war going on, and you have to act firmly when you have an assassination attempt."
the ANSWER Coalition will march with thousands of others in Washington to call for an end to the Iraq war. The demonstration is called by UFPJ.
They didn't organize it, they participated in it. Now, do radical elements of the left participate in this events? Absolutely. Does that mean none of us should go and make our voices heard? I don't think so. And MoveOn.org, NOW, organized labor and a ton of other mainstream liberal groups don't seem to think so either.
I'd guess that less than 10% of yesterdays protesters we part of the "loony left". But by choosing to highlight that small segment, you are only helping people like Sean Hannity, Ann Colter and Bill O'Reilly reinforce negative stereotypes about the Democratic Party and the 60% of Americans who oppose the escalation.
I must say it's pretty unfair to suggest that anyone going to a rally to oppose the escalation necessarily agrees with everyone there.
And I don't think it would even be fair to castigate those who might go in March just because they may have aversions to Ramsey Clark et al.
He has said some extremely awful things. But that hardly means everyone going agrees with him. They want the war to end. And most probably wish a more credible group were sponsoring the one in March.
I think that people like those who actually talked to people this past Sat. can do a lot of good. One thing is certain. No matter how many people of good will go to these events the following is certain:
-the crowds will be seriously undercounted;
-everyone will be presumed to be Fonda-like;
-any small number of people who act up will be stereotypically drawn for the rest of the large crowd;
-no one will care;
-and life will go on.
Perhaps if we all buried our differences and all got out there and spoke in one voice to end the war, it would end.
Ramsey Clark is an idiot (and worse). ANSWER is about the last group I wish were organizing the spring March. But the real the real question is, what will it take for all of us to make a crowd substantial enough that Democrats would have to listen to us, and get off the non-binding resolution nonsense. I've avoided ANSWER marches. I haven't wanted to associate myself in any way.
Thus, am I part of the problem? Am I (and are we) playing into the hands of those who want to label/mislabel us? Are we so lacking in confidence about who we are that we can't just show up for once?
If for one day everyone of any party, and of whatever persuasion, who wished to end the war, peacefully rallied, in cities all over the nation, imagine the message we'd send to our fearful and weak representatives.
Are they kidding about a "non-binding" resolution? They can't even agree about a non-binding one? It's time for many of them to go. The biggest turnout in American history might make the message to them clearer.
