Occupation is Not Liberation: Why We Are Marc

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Posted by Jeff from d53-152-230.try.wideopenwest.com (64.53.230.152) on Saturday, April 12, 2003 at 10:31AM :

Occupation is Not Liberation: Why We Are Marching on April 12
Around the World the Movement that Represents the Hope of the Planet Will Come Together on April 12
Washington DC March Will Target White House, Corporate War Profiteers, Fox News and the Pro-War Media
Logistical Information for DC and San Francisco Rallies on April 12; Los Angeles Rally April 13

Dear VoteNoWar Member,

The global movement that suddenly emerged in the past six months in opposition to Bush and the U.S. war drive is a singularly important development. People all over the world, in the Middle East, Asia, Africa, Latin America, in the United States and in Europe marched in coordinated action. These movements have now defied borders and built an international voice of solidarity. Even the New York Times on February 17 referred to this movement as the second "superpower" in the world. This movement has directly confronted and slowed the Bush's administrations war drive. It forced the governments of the world to distance themselves from the war plan and thus stripped this war of aggression of any pretense at legitimacy, legality or international approval.

While people are filled with anger and sadness they are going forward to build this world movement for peace and social justice.

On April 12 and 13, there will be simultaneous demonstrations in scores of countries. (See below for a list of countries where the global peace movement will be holding rallies.)

This movement represents the hopefulness of the planet that war, imperialism, oppression, racism and any form of colonialism can be overcome through the globalization of human solidarity. Come out into the streets on April 12 and 13, as part of this global peace movement. If you can volunteer your time, click here. If you can make a tax-deductible contribution to help keep this important work going and support this ongoing movement for peace, please click here for a secure connection to donate by credit card, or for information to write a check.

It would be the most tragic and wasteful outcome if this movement - less than a year old - decided that its efforts had failed because Bush and the Pentagon proceeded with their slaughter in Iraq. The war on Iraq does not prove the failure of the anti-war movement. If anything, the war on Iraq proves only that the economic, political and military authority in the United States is morally bankrupt. It is nurtured by a system that has become addicted to militarism and war.

The unintended consequence of Bush's plans for "endless war" has been the galvanization of peoples worldwide who-- reaching across borders, races, religions and nationalities -- have stood together in mass expressions of hope and demands for justice. We know that the collective will of the people united has the political strength and power to create a world borne of our human aspirations for true peace, and the ability to defeat racism, militarism, exploitation and cruelty.

The Bush administration and the Pentagon are keenly aware of this other "superpower"-- the world-wide peace movement that poses the single biggest obstacle to their ongoing war drive. Enlisting the support of the corporate media, the government of the U.S. has consistently lied to the people of the U.S. about the reasons behind the war on Iraq, and now about the realities of the war, in the hope that it can subdue and paralyze the domestic peace movement. Having slaughtered and maimed tens of thousands of Iraqi people, the U.S./British invasion forces are celebrating the use of their massive, overwhelming and brutal military power. The images portrayed in the U.S. media conceal the truth of the devastation wrought on the Iraqis. While hospitals are overflowing with civilian casualties caused by the U.S., the streets of the country are littered with incinerated bodies, destroyed homes and families buried alive. (See "Amid Jubilation, a Child Lies in Agony, Clothes Soaked in Blood," Robert Fisk, The Independent (UK): http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=395117 )

Baghdad's hospitals are out of space for the dead and one hospital has had to begin burying in the hospital's garden. Reuters reports, "Dozens of corpses lay rotting by roadsides or in cars blown up by U.S. forces as they captured Baghdad. Near the airport, volunteers wearing face masks and rubber gloves used shovels to scrape human remains from the burned-out wrecks of cars, trucks and buses, just yards away form U.S. forces and their tanks. With no possibility of identification, corpses were being buried in shallow graves on the roadside," which will cause a major sanitation and water system crises. ("Is This Freedom, Ask Iraqis as Chaos Reigns," David Fox, www.Reuters.com, April 11, 2003).

Hospitals are running out of supplies, including anesthesia, to treat the grievously wounded who have come in at the rate of 100 per hour, and they are also being stripped bare by thieves as U.S. and British soldiers encourage the total breakdown of social order and wholesale looting. The massive looting going on is a prelude to the systemic plunder that awaits a post-war Iraq. The U.S. Defense Department has appointed retired General Jay Garner to be the new ruler over the Iraqi people, where he will divvy up the spoils of war -- the awarding of contracts to U.S. and British petroleum, construction and engineering companies for the administration of Iraq's oil fields and the "reconstruction" of Iraq from the U.S. devastation.

There is great anger in the population directed at the occupiers. Iraqis are suffering from the results of thirteen years of genocidal sanctions coupled with the intentional denial of food and water to the population as a tool of warfare. The U.S. mass media is carefully orchestrating a propaganda campaign showing the same close shot images of relatively small crowds and the U.S. military itself pulling down statues of Saddam Hussein, or others seeking food and water from entering forces. Other media, who chose not to be "embedded" into the U.S. military and who independently reported what they witnessed in Iraq have been targeted, injured and killed by the U.S. In one day alone, the U.S. intentionally fired on the hotel rooms of Reuters journalists, and the al-Jazeera and Abu Dhabi television offices in Baghdad, killing three journalists.

The Bush administration is moving rapidly to impose a colonial-style occupation government on Iraq. This is not liberation. It is the use of overwhelming firepower to seize the land and resources of Iraq, and eliminate Iraq's sovereignty, while violating the most basic principles of self-determination. This is a war for Empire. The Bush administration, having carried out a war of conquest in Afghanistan and now in Iraq, will now step up its plans for future wars of aggression in the Middle East and elsewhere and has already threatened to do so. John Bolton, undersecretary of State warned Syria, Iran and North Korea this week to "draw the appropriate lessons from Iraq."

The people of the United States and the world must stand together with all of those who resist in the Middle East and elsewhere to say no to imperialism and to Empire. The occupation of Iraq will be used to set the stage for intensified war planning against Syria, Iran, southern Lebanon, North Korea, the Philippines, and against the Palestinian people who continue to resist occupation in their homeland. On Saturday, April 12, people in Washington DC and around the world will continue the mobilization against the invasion and the occupation in an international day of action with demonstrations in major capitals around the world.

Dick Cheney, speaking on behalf of the administration, promised after September 11 that there would be "endless war" and a war lasting a lifetime. These were neither idle comments nor rhetorical flourish. Since then, the administration has been absolutely brazen about its planned military adventures abroad and its systematic war against Arab Americans, Muslims and civil rights and civil liberties at home.

Only the people's movement - and it is truly a global movement now on all continents - can offer an alternative to endless war.

While they will never admit it, this planned "endless war" is a war waged by the U.S. government on behalf of corporate and banking elites against all the people and governments in the formerly colonized world that have dared to maintain nominal independence and control over their natural resources. Bush put it succinctly when he said to the world "you are either with us or with them." Working people in the United States have nothing to gain from this war for Empire. It is for the enrichment and power of the same corporate and banking circles that have engaged in mass layoffs, union busting, wage cutting, elimination of healthcare and other benefits. In fact, Bush's war for Empire requires a massive transfer of wealth from social service programs to fund the Pentagon's rapidly expanding budget.

The Bush administration's plans for world domination are based on a fantasy entertained by the right wing and neo-conservative movement and corporate thieves that military power alone is the ultimate arbiter in world politics. The New World Order that they aspire to is similar to the Old World Order of 19th Century colonialism. The people of the world aspire for freedom, justice, equality and self-determination. Brute force alone will not reverse the long historical process whose necessary outcome is liberation.

The essential element in this struggle is to maintain and build the global movement -- the force that has always and can win against military and economic might.

Logistical Information for Washington D.C. Rally and March, Saturday April 12 - Noon

The assembly site for the April 12 demonstration will be at 14th St. and Pennsylvania Ave. NW on the east side of the White House ("Freedom Plaza/Pershing Park") at 12 noon.

The April 12 demonstration will include a brief rally and then a march that will target the offices of the corporations and mass media that have either profited from the invasion and occupation of Iraq or served as the principle purveyors of the lies and misinformation in service of the war machine. Our march route takes us to the Carlyle Group, Fox News, the Justice Department and FBI, the White House, Bechtel, the Washington Post, the New York Times and the offices of Halliburton. Marchers will disperse at Farragut Square and take the metro from the Farragut West stop to RFK Stadium to get on their buses. For more information contact: in New York 212-633-6646; in Washington 202-544-3389.

Logistical Information for San Francisco Rally and March, Saturday April 12 - Noon

The assembly site for the April 12 demonstration in San Francisco will be Civic Center Plaza (Polk & Grove), where we will have a brief rally and then a march to Dolores Park. For more information contact: in San Francisco 415-821-6545.

Logistical Information for Los Angeles Rally and March, Sunday April 13 - Noon

Assembly at Hollywood & Vine at 12 noon for a march to Hollywood and La Brea for a mass rally. For more information contact: in Los Angeles 213-487-2368.

Contact information for BUSES, VANS AND CAR CARAVANS
http://www.internationalanswer.org/campaigns/a12/a12transp.html

Additional details about the demonstration -- including driving directions, public transportation information, van and car parking, low cost housing, disability access, tabling policy and more about how you can get involved -- can be found on the April 12
logistics page at http://www.internationalanswer.org/campaigns/a12/logistics.html

*The National March to Stop the War on Iraq comes in the midst of the long-planned Latin America Solidarity Coalition (LASC) Mobilization Against Military and Economic Intervention in Latin America and the Caribbean. A.N.S.W.E.R. encourages participation in the LASC public plenaries including major Latin American speakers on Friday and Saturday at 7:00pm and the LASC rally and demonstration ending at the World Bank and IMF on Sunday, April 13. Visit the LASC web
page at http://www.lasolidarity.org for details.*

World-wide peace demonstrations on April l2
Following an international call for April 12 demonstrations by the Stop the War Coalition in the UK, ANSWER in the U.S., ATTAC-Germany, and the ILPS - Philippines, the list of countries that we have received notice from as of April 11 is: ARGENTINA, AUSTRALIA (on Palm Sunday, April 13), AUSTRIA, BANGLADESH, BELGIUM, BRAZIL, BURMA (MYANMAR), CANADA, CHILE, CHINA, CROTIA, CYPRUS, DENMARK, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC, EGYPT, ECUADOR, FINLAND, FRANCE, GERMANY, GREECE, GUATEMALA, ICELAND, INDIA, INDONESIA, IRAN, INDONESIA, IRELAND, ITALY, JAPAN, JORDAN, KOREA, KYRGYZSTAN, MACEDONIA, MEXICO, MAROCCO, MONGOLIA, NETHERLANDS, NEW ZEALAND, NICARAGUA, NORWAY, PAKISTAN, PARAGUAY, PHILIPPINES, POLAND, PORTUGAL, PUERTO RICO, RUSSIA, SCOTLAND, SLOVENIA, SOUTH KOREA, SPAIN, SUDAN, SWEDEN, SWITZERLAND, SYRIA, TAIWAN, UK, U.S., VENEZUELA, YEMEN.
- - - - - This e-mail was originally dispatched to our VoteNoWar members. If it was forwarded to you, and you would like to receive communications from us about upcoming events and educational campaigns, then please Click here to subscribe. If you no longer wish to be on our e-mail list, then simply Click here to unsubscribe.

-- Jeff
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Message:	: Occupation is Not Liberation: Why We Are Marching on April 12 : Around the World the Movement that Represents the Hope of the Planet Will Come Together on April 12 : Washington DC March Will Target White House, Corporate War Profiteers, Fox News and the Pro-War Media : Logistical Information for DC and San Francisco Rallies on April 12; Los Angeles Rally April 13 : Dear VoteNoWar Member, : The global movement that suddenly emerged in the past six months in opposition to Bush and the U.S. war drive is a singularly important development. People all over the world, in the Middle East, Asia, Africa, Latin America, in the United States and in Europe marched in coordinated action. These movements have now defied borders and built an international voice of solidarity. Even the New York Times on February 17 referred to this movement as the second "superpower" in the world. This movement has directly confronted and slowed the Bush's administrations war drive. It forced the governments of the world to distance themselves from the war plan and thus stripped this war of aggression of any pretense at legitimacy, legality or international approval. : While people are filled with anger and sadness they are going forward to build this world movement for peace and social justice. : On April 12 and 13, there will be simultaneous demonstrations in scores of countries. (See below for a list of countries where the global peace movement will be holding rallies.) : This movement represents the hopefulness of the planet that war, imperialism, oppression, racism and any form of colonialism can be overcome through the globalization of human solidarity. Come out into the streets on April 12 and 13, as part of this global peace movement. If you can volunteer your time, click here. If you can make a tax-deductible contribution to help keep this important work going and support this ongoing movement for peace, please click here for a secure connection to donate by credit card, or for information to write a check. : It would be the most tragic and wasteful outcome if this movement - less than a year old - decided that its efforts had failed because Bush and the Pentagon proceeded with their slaughter in Iraq. The war on Iraq does not prove the failure of the anti-war movement. If anything, the war on Iraq proves only that the economic, political and military authority in the United States is morally bankrupt. It is nurtured by a system that has become addicted to militarism and war. : The unintended consequence of Bush's plans for "endless war" has been the galvanization of peoples worldwide who-- reaching across borders, races, religions and nationalities -- have stood together in mass expressions of hope and demands for justice. We know that the collective will of the people united has the political strength and power to create a world borne of our human aspirations for true peace, and the ability to defeat racism, militarism, exploitation and cruelty. : The Bush administration and the Pentagon are keenly aware of this other "superpower"-- the world-wide peace movement that poses the single biggest obstacle to their ongoing war drive. Enlisting the support of the corporate media, the government of the U.S. has consistently lied to the people of the U.S. about the reasons behind the war on Iraq, and now about the realities of the war, in the hope that it can subdue and paralyze the domestic peace movement. Having slaughtered and maimed tens of thousands of Iraqi people, the U.S./British invasion forces are celebrating the use of their massive, overwhelming and brutal military power. The images portrayed in the U.S. media conceal the truth of the devastation wrought on the Iraqis. While hospitals are overflowing with civilian casualties caused by the U.S., the streets of the country are littered with incinerated bodies, destroyed homes and families buried alive. (See "Amid Jubilation, a Child Lies in Agony, Clothes Soaked in Blood," Robert Fisk, The Independent (UK): http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=395117 ) : Baghdad's hospitals are out of space for the dead and one hospital has had to begin burying in the hospital's garden. Reuters reports, "Dozens of corpses lay rotting by roadsides or in cars blown up by U.S. forces as they captured Baghdad. Near the airport, volunteers wearing face masks and rubber gloves used shovels to scrape human remains from the burned-out wrecks of cars, trucks and buses, just yards away form U.S. forces and their tanks. With no possibility of identification, corpses were being buried in shallow graves on the roadside," which will cause a major sanitation and water system crises. ("Is This Freedom, Ask Iraqis as Chaos Reigns," David Fox, www.Reuters.com, April 11, 2003). : Hospitals are running out of supplies, including anesthesia, to treat the grievously wounded who have come in at the rate of 100 per hour, and they are also being stripped bare by thieves as U.S. and British soldiers encourage the total breakdown of social order and wholesale looting. The massive looting going on is a prelude to the systemic plunder that awaits a post-war Iraq. The U.S. Defense Department has appointed retired General Jay Garner to be the new ruler over the Iraqi people, where he will divvy up the spoils of war -- the awarding of contracts to U.S. and British petroleum, construction and engineering companies for the administration of Iraq's oil fields and the "reconstruction" of Iraq from the U.S. devastation. : There is great anger in the population directed at the occupiers. Iraqis are suffering from the results of thirteen years of genocidal sanctions coupled with the intentional denial of food and water to the population as a tool of warfare. The U.S. mass media is carefully orchestrating a propaganda campaign showing the same close shot images of relatively small crowds and the U.S. military itself pulling down statues of Saddam Hussein, or others seeking food and water from entering forces. Other media, who chose not to be "embedded" into the U.S. military and who independently reported what they witnessed in Iraq have been targeted, injured and killed by the U.S. In one day alone, the U.S. intentionally fired on the hotel rooms of Reuters journalists, and the al-Jazeera and Abu Dhabi television offices in Baghdad, killing three journalists. : The Bush administration is moving rapidly to impose a colonial-style occupation government on Iraq. This is not liberation. It is the use of overwhelming firepower to seize the land and resources of Iraq, and eliminate Iraq's sovereignty, while violating the most basic principles of self-determination. This is a war for Empire. The Bush administration, having carried out a war of conquest in Afghanistan and now in Iraq, will now step up its plans for future wars of aggression in the Middle East and elsewhere and has already threatened to do so. John Bolton, undersecretary of State warned Syria, Iran and North Korea this week to "draw the appropriate lessons from Iraq." : The people of the United States and the world must stand together with all of those who resist in the Middle East and elsewhere to say no to imperialism and to Empire. The occupation of Iraq will be used to set the stage for intensified war planning against Syria, Iran, southern Lebanon, North Korea, the Philippines, and against the Palestinian people who continue to resist occupation in their homeland. On Saturday, April 12, people in Washington DC and around the world will continue the mobilization against the invasion and the occupation in an international day of action with demonstrations in major capitals around the world. : Dick Cheney, speaking on behalf of the administration, promised after September 11 that there would be "endless war" and a war lasting a lifetime. These were neither idle comments nor rhetorical flourish. Since then, the administration has been absolutely brazen about its planned military adventures abroad and its systematic war against Arab Americans, Muslims and civil rights and civil liberties at home. : Only the people's movement - and it is truly a global movement now on all continents - can offer an alternative to endless war. : While they will never admit it, this planned "endless war" is a war waged by the U.S. government on behalf of corporate and banking elites against all the people and governments in the formerly colonized world that have dared to maintain nominal independence and control over their natural resources. Bush put it succinctly when he said to the world "you are either with us or with them." Working people in the United States have nothing to gain from this war for Empire. It is for the enrichment and power of the same corporate and banking circles that have engaged in mass layoffs, union busting, wage cutting, elimination of healthcare and other benefits. In fact, Bush's war for Empire requires a massive transfer of wealth from social service programs to fund the Pentagon's rapidly expanding budget. : The Bush administration's plans for world domination are based on a fantasy entertained by the right wing and neo-conservative movement and corporate thieves that military power alone is the ultimate arbiter in world politics. The New World Order that they aspire to is similar to the Old World Order of 19th Century colonialism. The people of the world aspire for freedom, justice, equality and self-determination. Brute force alone will not reverse the long historical process whose necessary outcome is liberation. : The essential element in this struggle is to maintain and build the global movement -- the force that has always and can win against military and economic might. : Logistical Information for Washington D.C. Rally and March, Saturday April 12 - Noon : The assembly site for the April 12 demonstration will be at 14th St. and Pennsylvania Ave. NW on the east side of the White House ("Freedom Plaza/Pershing Park") at 12 noon. : The April 12 demonstration will include a brief rally and then a march that will target the offices of the corporations and mass media that have either profited from the invasion and occupation of Iraq or served as the principle purveyors of the lies and misinformation in service of the war machine. Our march route takes us to the Carlyle Group, Fox News, the Justice Department and FBI, the White House, Bechtel, the Washington Post, the New York Times and the offices of Halliburton. Marchers will disperse at Farragut Square and take the metro from the Farragut West stop to RFK Stadium to get on their buses. For more information contact: in New York 212-633-6646; in Washington 202-544-3389. : Logistical Information for San Francisco Rally and March, Saturday April 12 - Noon : The assembly site for the April 12 demonstration in San Francisco will be Civic Center Plaza (Polk & Grove), where we will have a brief rally and then a march to Dolores Park. For more information contact: in San Francisco 415-821-6545. : Logistical Information for Los Angeles Rally and March, Sunday April 13 - Noon : Assembly at Hollywood & Vine at 12 noon for a march to Hollywood and La Brea for a mass rally. For more information contact: in Los Angeles 213-487-2368. : Contact information for BUSES, VANS AND CAR CARAVANS : http://www.internationalanswer.org/campaigns/a12/a12transp.html : Additional details about the demonstration -- including driving directions, public transportation information, van and car parking, low cost housing, disability access, tabling policy and more about how you can get involved -- can be found on the April 12 : logistics page at http://www.internationalanswer.org/campaigns/a12/logistics.html : The National March to Stop the War on Iraq comes in the midst of the long-planned Latin America Solidarity Coalition (LASC) Mobilization Against Military and Economic Intervention in Latin America and the Caribbean. A.N.S.W.E.R. encourages participation in the LASC public plenaries including major Latin American speakers on Friday and Saturday at 7:00pm and the LASC rally and demonstration ending at the World Bank and IMF on Sunday, April 13. Visit the LASC web : page at http://www.lasolidarity.org for details. : World-wide peace demonstrations on April l2 : Following an international call for April 12 demonstrations by the Stop the War Coalition in the UK, ANSWER in the U.S., ATTAC-Germany, and the ILPS - Philippines, the list of countries that we have received notice from as of April 11 is: ARGENTINA, AUSTRALIA (on Palm Sunday, April 13), AUSTRIA, BANGLADESH, BELGIUM, BRAZIL, BURMA (MYANMAR), CANADA, CHILE, CHINA, CROTIA, CYPRUS, DENMARK, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC, EGYPT, ECUADOR, FINLAND, FRANCE, GERMANY, GREECE, GUATEMALA, ICELAND, INDIA, INDONESIA, IRAN, INDONESIA, IRELAND, ITALY, JAPAN, JORDAN, KOREA, KYRGYZSTAN, MACEDONIA, MEXICO, MAROCCO, MONGOLIA, NETHERLANDS, NEW ZEALAND, NICARAGUA, NORWAY, PAKISTAN, PARAGUAY, PHILIPPINES, POLAND, PORTUGAL, PUERTO RICO, RUSSIA, SCOTLAND, SLOVENIA, SOUTH KOREA, SPAIN, SUDAN, SWEDEN, SWITZERLAND, SYRIA, TAIWAN, UK, U.S., VENEZUELA, YEMEN. : - - - - - This e-mail was originally dispatched to our VoteNoWar members. If it was forwarded to you, and you would like to receive communications from us about upcoming events and educational campaigns, then please Click here to subscribe. If you no longer wish to be on our e-mail list, then simply Click here to unsubscribe.

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