Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, March 2003, pages 28-31

Three Views

 

This is What Democracy Looks Like

On Saturday, Jan. 18, I attended a rally in Washington, DC against the war on Iraq—one of many rallies held throughout the world. Some in the media billed the attendance at “tens of the thousands,” while organizers estimated that DC drew half a million. In any case, as The Washington Post put it, this was the largest rally for peace in the nation’s capital since the largest Vietnam era protests. But numbers are only a small part of the picture; the diversity and dynamism of this event were truly life-changing experiences.

There was camaraderie and shared interest in stopping this war coupled with an amazing diversity of the protesters. There were Koreans in traditional colorful dresses with drums and songs, chanting “U.S. out of the Korean Peninsula and the Middle East.” There were Muslims, Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, Atheists, and so many others of different faiths. Secular Jews Against the Occupation were seen next to anti-Zionist Orthodox Rabbis (who had to walk to get to the rally because of the Sabbath). There were anarchists and communists mixing and exchanging greetings with mosque and church groups. There were business people, trade unionists, actors, musicians, professors, and students from literally hundreds of campuses. One saw American and Palestinian flags waving in the frigid weather with other creative flags: the earth, peace signs, and a thousand more.

Demonstrators carried tens of thousands of signs and banners with an endless stream of ideas and messages. Yet all centered around peace and U.S. foreign policy. Among the slogans were: “What would Jesus do?” “Money for Jobs—Not War,” “War heads: Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld,” “Heil Bush,” “Axis of Evil: Bush, Blair, Sharon,” “Think Peace,” “Dump Bush not Bombs,” “Stop the Genocide/End the Sanctions,” “Another Veteran for Peace,” “End Racial Profiling,” and “No Blood For Oil.” There were literally thousands of signs with calls to “End Israeli Apartheid,” “Free Palestine,” and “End Aid to Israel.” There were many tributes to Martin Luther King, Jr. and invocations of his legacy of nonviolence for civil and human rights.

In the freezing weather of Washington, many encouraged the young man in a swimsuit with peace signs painted all over his naked, shivering body. People shared food, clothes, business cards, and contacts. They shared their visions and their hopes for a better future based on confronting the facts about the past. There were the native Americans drawing a parallel of their genocide with that of the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children killed by the U.S./UK-led sanctions on Iraq. There were African Americans and other supporters of reparation for slavery.

There were family and friends of the victims of 9/11 who had signs calling for peace and speaking out against the racism inherent in new laws and capabilities given to the federal government. One of the chants I heard was: “This is what democracy looks like, Bush is what hypocrisy looks like.”

There was one sign that read: “The whole thing is so absurd, I could not think of something to write on this sign.” Indeed it is so absurd that, while our economy is in its worst condition since 1974, we are spending hundreds of billions of dollars on the military this year. It is absurd that we ignore 200,000 veterans documented with Gulf war syndrome (8,000 have died in the last 10 years from these illnesses). It is absurd that Washington plans to waste $200 billion more this year attacking Iraq, a defeated country, which lost over 1.5 million civilians due to our blockade (a true weapon of mass destruction). It is absurd that cancer rates in southern Iraq have increased ten-fold due to U.S. use of depleted uranium (DU) shells. Instead of sending doctors and aid, we want to send bombs and more DU. It is absurd that the U.S. government has just asked Israel to keep its request for $12 billion in additional aid “low key” while our own state budgets wallow in deficits. It is absurd that leaders, who will not themselves fight this war, rush to send others to war against the will of the vast majority of humanity.

Can our actions make a difference? Obviously hundreds of thousands of people braving the weather and freely spending their money and time clearly believe so. But skeptics need only remember cases in our history where people led the way and the governments finally relented: abolition of slavery, pulling our troops from Vietnam, civil rights, the defeat of apartheid in South Africa, among others. This is indeed what democracy looks like.

—Mazin Qumsiyeh

Mazin Qumsiyeh is Associate Professor at Yale University School of Medicine. He is co-founder of the Palestine Right to Return Coalition (http://al-awda.org), http://BoycottIsraeliGoods.org and http://AcademicsForJustice.org.

 

Youth Rally Against Iraq War

ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) students and youth braved a second day of cold to rally again in the nation’s capital against a U.S. war on Iraq. Assembling between the Department of Justice and the FBI building, several hundred youths from around the country protested the selective mandatory registration of largely Arab and Muslim male immigrants and visitors to the U.S., as well as the mass arrests of those voluntarily complying with new federal registration requirements. The passionate young Americans also called for an end to the erosion of civil rights in their country, both among citizens and non-citizens, current U.S. policy toward Palestine, and Washington’s pursuit of war on Iraq.

The crowd, comprising mainly high school and college students, with a fair number of even younger people, then marched toward the White House, where they were to meet up with other groups demonstrating against the war. Despite a permit allowing the march to proceed down H Street (on the other side of Lafayette Park from the White House), police forcibly prevented the crowd from turning. They finally allowed the crowd to proceed to Eye Street—where the crowd suddenly broke through and joined their compatriots in front of Lafayette Park, as their permit originally allowed. Exuberant chants of “Whose streets? Our streets!” and “Whose parks? Our parks!” rang out, as did more orchestrated chants like the catchy “Black, Latino, Arab, Asian, and White, no war, no war, no more, no more, defend our civil rights.”

On the last leg of the march, as the demonstration was winding down, the young protesters once more were stopped by a police line. The crowd responded with a conga line of its own, snaking back and forth in front of the police line chanting, “We want justice, we want peace, U.S. out of the Middle East.” Others called out the names of their states, towns, and schools, from as far away as Nebraska and California, and as near as DC, Maryland, and Virginia. Shortly afterward, the crowd dispersed, promising each other renewed vigor in local organizing efforts for just American policies in the Middle East, around the globe, and at home.

—Sara Powell

 

Martin Luther King Day Anti-War Rally

Black Voices for Peace (BVFP) celebrated the spirit and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. by working for peace and civil rights for all—just as King himself did throughout his life. Meeting Jan. 20 in Washington, DC’s Plymouth Congregational Church, a diverse crowd of about 2,000 people packed the church to the rafters. Even the church’s basement meeting rooms and entrance hall were filled with people craning their heads to see down aisles, or watching monitors—all straining to hear a bevy of speakers. Longtime activists like Ralph Nader and fresh young voices like singers Ayanna Gregory and Yvette Benjamin called on the crowd to keep alive King’s message.

Consumer advocate and former presidential candidate Nader revealed that many of the hawkish voices calling for war had avoided service themselves during the Vietnam war. He accused the government of using the proposed attack on Iraq and the war on terrorism to put the plight of Palestinians living under Israeli occupation on hold.

Moreover, Nader outlined both government and corporate exploitation of 9/11, emphasizing the assaults on civil liberties of some in the U.S. at the expense of all but the most upper echelons of American society. Demanding accountability, Nader quoted George W. Bush, who said, “I do not need to explain why I say things. That is the interesting thing about being president...” Nader proceeded to point out that Bush had not met with any of the many and varied groups who advocated a peaceful resolution with Iraq, and urged the audience to continue to make their voices heard.

BVFP founder Damu Smith, another longtime activist, introduced former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) as one of his personal “shero”s who had risked—and lost—her congressional seat to speak out on the Middle East. McKinney, citing King’s warning that the U.S. had guided missiles, but misguided men, stressed that even Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) had questioned the Bush administration’s motives with regard to war profiteering. McKinney suggested that the money being diverted to a new war was far more urgently needed for the problems veterans of previous wars were already suffering—problems like Gulf war syndrome, cancer, and other effects of Agent Orange and depleted uranium.

Turning to the needs of children, McKinney told the crowd that if Bush really wanted “no child left behind” the dollars allocated for war could be used for education. She scorned a study that found that patriotism was higher among African Americans than in the general population because Black enrollment in the armed forces was higher. The real reason for the higher enrollment, she said, was that many African-American youth otherwise could not afford a college education.

As McKinney was leaving the church, a Green Party activist asked the former congresswoman what her dream was (referring to Dr. King’s famous speech). “Justice at home and justice abroad,” McKinney responded, “and a world where everyone’s vote counts...That’s my pipe dream.”

Other speakers, including Phyllis Bennis of the Institute for Palestine Studies, connected the U.S. push for war with Iraq to its agenda with regard to Israel and Palestine. Bennis maintained that both the war and U.S.-Israeli policy toward Palestine should be stopped. Larry Holmes of ANSWER, citing a Jan 19 New York Times editorial, warned the Bush administration that it no longer could ignore growing numbers of Americans actively working against the impending war on Iraq. Holmes also announced an upcoming week of resistance beginning on Feb. 13—the anniversary of the Gulf war bombing of the Amariyah bomb shelter in Baghdad—and ending Feb. 21—the anniversary of Malcolm X’s assassination—and incorporating another massive march in New York City on Feb. 15th.

Rounding out the day, a video of Dr. King speaking about the need to organize against war and injustice underscored BVFP’s message that all Americans should continue both the American tradition and Dr. King’s legacy of positive activism for peace and justice. Clearly, Dr. King’s spirit still lives in many Americans.

—Sara Powell

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