Editorial
For two fall antiwar actions:
One in Washington, One in Boston
The
war makers in Washington are encountering rising resistance to their drive for
profits and empire worldwide. The most significant confrontation is
unfolding in the Middle East where well over 100,000 Anglo-American troops are
fighting a brutal war of occupation with no end in sight. This
confrontation has placed the war in Iraq at the center of world politics today.
The occupation along with the mounting casualties
are leading ultimately toward a massive shift in politics and the war makers
stand to lose more than Iraq by the time the occupation is ended.
The
March 20, 2005 rally at Boston Common showed that the antiwar movement could
unite and mobilize together effectively. We united to build an action,
for immediate withdrawal, that anyone in the antiwar majority
of the country could support: youth, veterans, soldiers, working men and women,
families, communities of color, immigrants, seniors, and trade unionists. Now
the growing movement against the war in Iraq is faced with an obstacle to its
growth: two coalitions have called two actions for the same day in
the same city: September 24 in Washington, D.C.
Disunity at the national
level invites disunity locally. In Boston many groups united for March 20:
United for Justice with Peace, Boston Mobilization, District 7 activists,
International Action Center, numerous campus groups, and numerous community
groups, plus countless individuals. Are we going to divide in Boston along
lines of organizational loyalty to one or another national coalition? The
urgency of the war and its consequences don't permit us to be divided.
To end this ruthless and criminal
war of conquest, we need a movement of millions in the streets. We need
to unite, in action, with everyone who opposes it. Our approach has to be
inclusive. We need to focus our movement on the war in Iraq and its
social consequences in a way that broadens rather than narrows our ability to
unite and mobilize together in action.
We
would hope that the groups organizing the Washington, D.C. events on September
24 would unify their activities. In Boston, the Committee for a Fall
Action will build September 24 by publicizing all mass actions that weekend
in Washington, D.C., and elsewhere, which focus on immediate withdrawal from
Iraq. We suggest a mass action, for immediate withdrawal from Iraq, in Boston
in early November. This can be built by a combination of the forces that
united to build March 20 and new forces.
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