WASHINGTON: PROTESTERS MARCH THROUGH THREE WORLDS

By Greg Butterfield
Washington, D.C.

The skies opened over Washington on June 5. Torrential downpours greeted
protesters coming into the city by car, bus and train from the East
Coast and as far west as Chicago. The weather mirrored the stormy mood
in official Washington. The U.S. military occupation of Iraq is in
crisis, thanks to the growing popular resistance there and wide exposure
of Pentagon war crimes.

Thousands of anti-war activists, community activists, students and
workers showed they could weather both storms. Harsh skies didn’t deter
them from heeding the call of the ANSWER coalition. Neither did the
bitter clash within the Bush administration and broader circles of the
capitalist political establishment, which resulted in the June 3
resignation of CIA Director George Tenet.

The rally showed that a significant sector of the anti-war movement
believes this is the time to be in the streets against the war-makers.
They are not diverted by elections, Congressional hearings and political
maneuvers.

Demonstrators gathered in Lafayette Park, facing the White House.
Wearing plastic ponchos and holding umbrellas, they hefted banners and
signs demanding, "Bring the troops home now," "Stop the torture," and,
"End occupations from Iraq to Palestine to Haiti." The flags of those
nations were prominently flown, along with Venezuelan, Puerto Rican,
Mexican and rainbow lesbian/gay/bi/ trans flags.

Even before the rally began, international solidarity was on display. A
bus from Brooklyn, N.Y.’s Haitian community arrived just as a group of
Palestinian women faced off against a tiny right-wing counter-protest.
The counter-protesters held red-baiting signs and a racist banner that
read, "There is no Palestine." The Haitian group, mostly women,
immediately joined their Palestinian sisters, chanting, "Free, free
Palestine," and drowning out the racists.

HOLMES: AVOID THAT SUCKING SOUND

Larry Holmes, co-director of the International Action Center and an
ANSWER steering committee member, pointed to the White House and
declared, "We are speaking truth to murderers, terrorists and
torturers."

He demanded that the big-business media covering the rally "devote space
to pictures of all the Iraqi people who have died, and Palestinians, and
Haitians. We will not settle for less than the truth."

He warned the crowd: "If you hear a sucking sound, ignore it, because
that’s the elections. It’s trying to pull you off the streets into a
silly contest that doesn’t mean anything. The movement is in the
streets."

"Everything we have said has come to pass," said Husayn Agrama of the
Free Palestine Alliance. "They said they would bring liberation and
democracy to Iraq. We said they would bring exploitation and
humiliation. Haven’t the prisoners of Abu Ghraib paid witness to what we
said?"

AFSCME District Council 1707 President Brenda Stokely said of the war-
makers: "They discount that where there is oppression, there is uprising
and resistance. That’s what they’re overlooking in Haiti, in Iraq, in
Palestine, and throughout the world."

Serge Lilavois of the Coalition to Resist the Feb. 29 Coup in Haiti
declared, "The world has to know that U.S. forces were involved in
killing peaceful protesters marching against the occupation."

The crowd chanted, "Aristide, Aristide, Aristide," demanding the return
of the popularly elected Haitian president who was kidnapped and
deported by U.S. Marines in late February.

Gloria La Riva of the National Com mittee to Free the Cuban 5 warned
that the United States is preparing new aggression against the socialist
island. "The Cuban people are not about to give up what belongs to
them," she declared.

Omar Sierra of the Bolivarian Circle of New York called for solidarity
against U.S. intervention in oil-rich Venezuela.

Several speakers were family members of soldiers stationed or killed in
Iraq. One was Norma Castillo, whose nephew is imprisoned resister Staff
Sgt. Camilo Mejia.

Ismael Kamal of the Muslim Student Association addressed the plight of
thousands of Arab and Muslim men still imprisoned in the United States
without legal recourse. "As our predecessors brought an end to Jim Crow,
McCar thyism and Cointelpro, we will bring an end to the Patriot Act,"
he vowed.

BERG: THIS IS A RACIST WAR

The protesters gave rapt attention to Michael Berg, a longtime anti-war
activist and supporter of ANSWER. Berg’s son Nick, a small business
owner, had traveled to Iraq earlier this year. Nick Berg was detained by
U.S. occupation forces. He was finally released after his family took
the government to court.

In May Nick Berg was found dead. A mysterious videotape has circulated
on the Internet depicting his decapitation by alleged Islamic radicals.

Invoking the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Michael Berg said:
"America has been in touch with me, [and] the people of America told me
they have a dream of peace. I am here to answer the people who offered
to help. Don’t let what happened to me and my family happen again.

"This is a war and it is racist. Let’s act now to stop war and end
racism," he urged. "And let’s keep acting until we can raise a banner of
peace that says, ’Mission accomplished.’"

Besides Holmes, ANSWER steering committee members who spoke were
Yoomi Jeong of the Korea Truth Commission, Chuck Kaufman of the
Nicaragua Network and Brian Becker.

Other speakers included Mahdi Bray of the Muslim American Society
Freedom Foundation, Cheri Honkala of the Ken sing ton Welfare Rights
Union, the Rev. Graylan Hagler of Plymouth Congregational Church, Zack
Wolf of the National Lawyers Guild-Lesbian/Gay/Bi/Trans Committee, and
Ricardo and Noberto Juarez of Mexicans Without Borders.

Messages were read from Ben Dupuy of the National Popular Party of Haiti
and ANSWER steering committee member Macrina Cardenas of the Mexico
Solidarity Network.

MARCH THROUGH THREE WORLDS

The demonstration concluded with a vigorous two-and-a-half-mile march to
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s gated mansion.

The march took protesters through three distinct worlds of Washington:
the official world of government buildings, the super-oppressed
neighborhoods of working-class D.C. with their boarded-up storefronts
and burned out apartment buildings, and finally the manicured lawns of
the rich.

Spirits were highest marching through the communities—African American,
Mexican, Salvadoran, Eritrean, Carib bean, white and more. Despite the
foul weather, people came out of their homes and stores to watch, chant
and take literature. Some even joined the march.

Workers World Party vice presidential candidate Teresa Gutierrez led a
strong contingent of WWP and International Action Center activists. Her
campaign distributed a colorful postcard declaring that the "road to
getting U.S. troops out of Iraq lies through mass action, not electing a
’lesser’ evil."

A group of Latin@ students from La Guardia Community College in Queens,
N.Y., helped carry a banner from SNAFU, the Support Network for an Armed
Forces Union, that read, "Support the right to refuse to fight." Daisy
Nabarret told Workers World she had come because "I want to learn the
truth about Iraq."

"We’ve had the opportunity to talk with several members of the military
and military families today," SNAFU’s Dustin Langley told Workers World.
"The movement against the war inside this community is growing daily.
SNAFU is reaching out to provide support to resisters inside the
military. We’re also circulating a ’no draft’ petition as part of our
new No Draft, No Way campaign."

On U Street, the march passed Sisterspace & Books, a progressive
community institution run by Black women. Staff members came out to
greet the cheering marchers. They waved a Black liberation flag and held
signs calling for the removal of Mayor Anthony Williams.

Marchers chanted, "End the occupation, join the demonstration!" and,
"Money for jobs and reparations, not for war and occupation!"

As rundown apartment buildings gave way to brick townhouses, the chant
became "Donald Rumsfeld, you will see, Baghdad will be free!"

Police attempted to split the front of the march as it neared Rumsfeld’s
mansion on Kalarama Road. Fired-up protesters forced the cops to remove
barricades and the line of march merged again.

Richard Kossally, who had been distributing Workers World newspapers to
onlookers, was at the scene. He told WW: "When the first part of the
march came back to join us, the cops felt the power. I started chanting,
’The people united will never be defeated.’ The crowd went crazy.

"It shows that when we stay united, we can make things happen."