Emergency Anti
War Conference
Calls for United March on Central Park to End the Occupation
"Central Park Belongs to the People--March
on Central Park on March 20 to End the Occupation!"
This call for a united effort of antiwar forces came from organizers
and activists at the December 4 Emergency Antiwar Conference in New
York City. It was greeted with thunderous applause and a renewed
determination to be in the streets to fight the illegal occupation of
Iraq. (see below for the text of the call)
The conference, called by the International Action Center, was
supported by a wide variety of progressive organizations including: New
York City Labor Against the War, the Haiti Support Network, the New
York Million Worker March Committee, the Korea Truth Commission, New
Jersey Solidarity - Activists for the Liberation of Palestine, New
School Graduate Program in International Affairs Human Rights Group,
International Concerned Family & Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal, AMAT -
the Association of Mexican American Workers, FIST - Fight Imperialism -
Stand Together, Queers for Peace and Justice, Democratic Palestine, the
No Draft No Way Campaign, PeopleJudgeBush.org, and more.
Panelists at the conference raised the need to organize against the
draft and military recruiting, to support resistance inside the
military, and to return to the streets in the continued struggle to
stop the occupation. At the conclusion of the conference,
participants
broke into planning groups to begin organizing the next phase of
resistance to occupation. Organizing groups included:
Fighting Bush's
War Budget, Fighting the Draft and Military Recruiting, Solidarity with
Resistance in the Military, and Action Plan: Counter-Inaugural and
March 20.
OUT NOW!
MARCH TO CENTRAL PARK ON SUNDAY MARCH 20th, 2005
THE WHOLE WORLD WILL BE MARCHING AND WATCHING
The world-wide antiwar movement has called for massive demonstrations
against the war on the weekend on March 19-20 -- the second anniversary
of the invasion of Iraq. We have a responsibility to respond with
renewed determination and commitment in the face of the Bush
Administration's launching of a new phase of the war against the Iraqi
people.
A few months ago, Mayor Bloomberg, the NYPD, and Bush told us that we
could not march to and rally in Central Park. We do not accept
this
decision and are determined to challenge it in the courts and by
assembling tens of thousands of people to retake Central Park --our
Park. The antiwar movement cannot afford, and must not allow,
this
infringement on our rights, especially in a city as important as NYC.
We call on all antiwar and progressive activists, organizations, and
coalitions to work towards building a massive march on Sunday March
20th to Central Park under the slogan OUT NOW!
We propose to set up an OUT NOW coalition, open to all individuals and
organizations willing to work together to stop the war. The
reason why
we are proposing that we call this movement “OUT NOW!” is because these
two simple words convey the absolute zero tolerance for the occupation
of Iraq that must drive our organizing hence forth. We need everyone to
know that the mass movement is re-opening a full-scale campaign to stop
the war and end the occupation and that the movement means business.
We encourage you to endorse this call.
The International Action Center
What you can do to help build
March 20:
1) Endorse
2) Organize
local transportation to NYC
3) Help get the word out
- download flyers from http://www.PeopleJudgeBush.org
4) Forward this email as widely as possible
THE CHALLENGES FACING THE ANTIWAR MOVEMENT
The following points are not submitted as the basis for unity that all
must agree to before working together. They are points of discussion
that merit movement-wide attention at this crucial juncture.
* WE need to demand the Immediate, complete and unconditional
withdrawal of all U.S. occupation troops from Iraq. The occupation’s
sole purpose is to control the natural resources of Iraq and render the
Iraqi people and its institutions subservient to US corporate interest
by military force. The principal function of the occupation is the
destruction of all who dare to resist it, no matter the cost in Iraqi
lives, in the destruction of Iraq’s infrastructure, and the resulting
devastation of Iraqi society.
* The most important thing to know about the January 30 “elections”
that are being organized under the US-created Allyawi regime, is that
their purpose is to legitimize the occupation and the objectives of the
occupiers. In the days ahead it will become more important for us to
reject and expose any excuses put forward to justify the continuation
of the colonial occupation of Iraq for even one more day, or the
sending of more troops which is already under way. There is only one
issue and that is ending the criminal occupation - immediately.
* We must support politically, morally and organizationally members of
the U.S. armed services who are resisting the war, moreover, we must
encourage this resistance.
* We must organize to fight any attempt by the Bush Administration to
re-instate the draft and prepare to support resistance if conscription
returns.
*It is time for the antiwar movement to acknowledge the absolute and
unconditional right of the Iraqi people to resist the occupation of
their country without passing judgment on their methods of
resistance.
Even the founding charter of the United Nations clearly affirms the
right of an occupied people to resist by force of arms.
* Bush’s doctrine of preemptive war, the occupation of Iraq and
Afghanistan and the growing threats against Iran and North Korea make
it incumbent upon us to reject that notion that smaller countries must
disarm and leave themselves defenseless at the demand of Bush and the
Pentagon. Such demands are not only hypocritical, irrational and
unjust; they amount to little more than a pretext for more invasions
and occupations.
* We must continue to draw the connections between and build solidarity
all of the people in every part of the world that are resisting the
empire - in Korea, the Philippines, Cuba, Venezuela, Columbia, Puerto
Rico, and Haiti, where the people are actively resisting the
“coupnapping” of President Aristide.
* There must no longer be any hesitation on the part of our movement
regarding our support of the struggle of the Palestinian people to free
themselves from occupation. As a movement we have made a huge step
forward in this regard. There must be no turning back.
* We must work to facilitate the widest unity between all of the forces
that are seriously organizing against the war and occupation. The world
demands no less of us inside of the US. If there is a will to forge
unity, then those with wide differences in political positions and even
a history of poor working relations will find the basis to unite in the
interest of the struggle to stop the war.
* Now that the election is over, it is clear more than ever that only a
peoples’ mass movement can stop the war. The antiwar movement
should
never again sacrifice its independence and demobilize itself on behalf
of a political party that supports the war. The first and most
immediate task of the antiwar movement is to be back in the streets.
* It is up to us to revitalize the mass struggle against the war and to
insure that it is serious, uncompromising, unrelenting and supportive
of a wide array of tactics from the mass marches to the militant
tactics of the youth, to the tactics that are most effective for the
inclusion of workers, labor unions and people of color.
* One way of accomplishing greater fusion between the antiwar movement
and the working class and the poor is through linking of the issues
that affect the mass of the people with the struggle against the war in
a much more strategic and substantive way. For example, very soon the
Bush administration will ask congress to approve between $70 and $120
billion more for the war on top of the more than $200 billion that has
already been allocated for it. Congress will be voting to fund the war
and occupation at the same time that students, workers, single parents,
the unemployed and retirees are being hit with the most sweeping budget
cuts in the government programs that they depend on since the Reagan
years. Our challenge: Can we help galvanize those who will be outraged
by the specter of their money being stolen from critical needs to pay
for more death and destruction into a struggle against the war budget
vote? The time frame for this struggle will the period between the
counter-inauguration protest in DC and around the country on Jan.20 -
through the 2nd anniversary of the start of the war on the March 19/20
weekend.
* We propose to strategize and reach out to other forces with the goal
of implementing this perspective. The Million Worker March
Movement
has issued a call for all of the various antiwar organizations and
workers struggles to unite on the weekend of March 19-20 and we endorse
this call for broad unity.