> COAST-TO-COAST ACTIONS DEMAND: "NO NEW WAR
> AGAINST IRAQ!"
> 
> Special to Workers World
> 
> According to the tabloids and television news programs,
> every man, woman and child in the United States stands
> behind Bush and the generals' plan to invade Iraq.
> 
> But activists at anti-war demonstrations and rallies held
> across the country on Sept. 14-16 reported a very different
> mood among passersby and motorists.
> 
> The protests, demanding "No war against Iraq," were called
> by the International ANSWER coalition--Act Now to Stop War &
> End Racism--and other groups.
> 
> The actions helped mobilize support for massive marches
> planned for Oct. 26 in Washington, D.C., and San Francisco,
> Calif. The anti-war demonstration has already received 1,000
> endorsements, including by Dr. Hans von Sponek, former
> director of the UN Oil for Food Program, SLAM--the Student
> Liberation Action Movement, the San Francisco Labor Council
> (AFL-CIO) and political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal.
> 
> THOUSANDS MARCH ON WEST COAST
> 
> Thousands of people marched and rallied in San Francisco,
> Los Angeles, Oakland and Fresno on Sept. 14.
> 
> The San Francisco and Los Angeles demonstrations were both
> called by ANSWER on short notice. But a march from San
> Francisco's UN Plaza to Jefferson Square Park grew to 3,000.
> They chanted, "Who're the biggest terrorists in the world
> today? Bush, Cheney and the CIA!"
> 
> Motorists and Muni bus drivers honked their vehicle horns in
> support; pedestrians cheered their approval.
> 
> Richard Mead, president of International Longshore &
> Warehouse Union Local 10, told the crowd that the Bush
> administration is using the war drive as an excuse to battle
> the ILWU on behalf of port and shipping bosses. "This isn't
> a war on terrorism," he said, "it's a war on the people."
> 
> "They tell us war is inevitable," Nancy Mitchell of ANSWER
> said. "But when the people are in the streets, the real
> debate is going to begin."
> 
> Police arrested Puerto Rican activists Jackie Santos and
> Zulma Oliveras of Comite '98 at the opening rally after a
> confrontation with a pro-war counter-demonstrator. Oliveras
> was held on bail of $40,000 for more than 48 hours before
> charges were dropped.
> 
> The San Francisco march received wide coverage in local and
> national media.
> 
> Protesters in Los Angeles chanted "Money for health care,
> not for war!" as they marched 2,000-strong through the
> Westwood area to the Federal Building. Speakers contrasted a
> $50 billion increase in the Pentagon budget with the
> administration's refusal to give $350 million to save nine
> clinics for poor people in Los Angeles.
> 
> Diverse signs and banners pointed out that people in the
> Philippines, Colombia and Vieques are also endangered by
> current U.S. war moves.
> 
> Anti-war organizers led by former U.S. Attorney General
> Ramsey Clark held a meeting Sept. 14 at the Fashion
> Institute of Technology in New York City.
> 
> Some 400 people attended this organizers' meeting. People
> stood in the aisles as Clark and other members of a recent
> U.S. peace delegation to Iraq discussed plans for building a
> movement that could stop the war.
> 
> Clark told the overflow crowd, "It would be a mistake to
> think that George Bush isn't going to attack Iraq, and he
> will--unless opposition to it is so powerful that he doesn't
> dare."
> 
> Speakers also included Johnnie Stevens, co-director of
> Peoples Video Network, who shot footage during the trip; and
> Brian Becker and Sara Flounders, both co-directors of the
> International Action Center, which sponsored the meeting.
> 
> More than 200 people representing many groups gathered on
> busy Woodward Ave. in Detroit Sept. 14. They marched for an
> hour through the streets of a crowded annual art fair
> chanting "No blood for oil, hands off Iraq!"
> 
> Demonstrations had also confronted Bush when he visited
> Detroit on Sept. 9. He was picketed when he appeared at
> downtown Cobo Hall for a photo-op in the morning.
> 
> ANSWER and the Michigan Emergency Committee Against the
> War 
> on Iraq assembled at the Ambassador Bridge with anti-war
> placards. Canadian Prime Minister Jacques Cretien's
> motorcade had to pass right by the protesters on his way to
> meet the U.S. president. Later the group took their
> demonstration across the street from where Bush was
> delivering his speech.
> 
> In Washington, D.C., Sept. 16, some 100 people picketed
> outside the annual "arms bazaar" held by the military-
> industrial complex. The featured speaker at this gathering
> of vultures was Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.
> 
> "The military industrial complex is holding this obscene
> gathering to show off its weapons of mass destruction,"
> declared Sarah Sloan of ANSWER. "Donald Rumsfeld is the Bush
> administration's chief cheerleader for a new war against
> Iraq. We're here to tell the masters of war: hell no!"
> 
> Activists maintained a picket line of more than 35 people
> for hours Sept. 14 at Bidwell Parkway in downtown Buffalo,
> N.Y., while distributing leaflets and other information
> aimed at stopping a new war with Iraq. ANSWER organizers
> said the turnout was especially significant because it came
> just hours after the repressive atmosphere being whipped up
> after the government roundup of Yemeni American men in
> nearby Lackawanna began.