LeBlanc is the head of Peace Action and was a co-founder of United for Peace and Justice, who I think is a good deal larger and more influential than ANSWER. But what many there likely didn't know about LeBlanc, certainly most of the passerbys, tourists and probably many of the participants, is that she is also the vice-chair of the Communist Party.
Anyway, they called for the "reunification" of the Koreas, and one of the speakers repeatedly described the movement's situation as living within the "belly of the beast", referring of course to the US. The Weather Underground used to use that expression as well. They chanted "One World", "One World", "Just Peace", "Just Peace".
The movement was initiated on or just before communist May Day from the radical Riverside Church near where Obama and Bill Ayers were going to college at the same time (early to mid-80s), Ayers at Bank Street College, Obama at Columbia College, an undergrad portion of Columbia University.
During the time both were in that area going to school, the pro-Soviet 'Institute for Policy Studies' had launched the original "no nukes" movement from Riverside Church.
From David Horowitz's FrontPageMag.com/DiscoverTheNetworks.org:
Profile: Institute For Policy Studies (IPS)
IPS’s [Institute For Policy Studies] Washington, DC headquarters quickly became a resource center for national reporters and a place for KGB agents from the nearby Soviet embassy to convene and strategize. Cora Weiss headed one of the IPS's most successful forays -- into Riverside Church in Manhattan. She was invited there in 1978 by the Reverend William Sloane Coffin to run the church's Disarmament Program, which sought to consolidate Soviet nuclear superiority in Europe -- in the name of "peace." In 1982 Weiss helped organize the largest pro-disarmament demonstration ever held. Staged in New York City, the rally was attended by a coalition of communist organizations. During her decade-long tenure at Riverside, which became home to the National Council of Churches, Weiss regularly received Russian KGB agents, Sandinista friends, and Cuban intelligence agents. Weiss became infamous for her role in the psychological warfare conducted against U.S. prisoners of war held in the infamous "Hanoi Hilton" during the Vietnam War.
The Liberation News Service, which is a news source for hundreds of "alternative" publications nationwide (with antiwar, Marxist-oriented perspectives), was founded in 1967 with IPS assistance."
[lots more at link...]
http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/groupProfile.asp?grpid=6991
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From the website of Riverside Church...
The Riverside Church
490 Riverside Drive
New York, New York 10027
212-870-6700
The Riverside Church is located on Manhattan’s Upper West Side near Columbia University.
http://www.theriversidechurchny.org/about/?directions
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"She was invited there in 1978 by the Reverend William Sloane Coffin to run the church's Disarmament Program, which sought to consolidate Soviet nuclear superiority in Europe -- in the name of 'peace.'
In 1982 Weiss helped organize the largest pro-disarmament demonstration ever held. Staged in New York City, the rally was attended by a coalition of communist organizations."
http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/groupProfile.asp?grpid=6991
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From the Columbia University website...
"Obama attended Columbia College from 1981 to 1983"
Source:
http://news.columbia.edu/home/1260
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Bill Ayers' education:
1987 - Ed.D, Columbia University, Curriculum & Instruction
1987 - M.Ed, Teachers College, Columbia University, Early Childhood Education
1984 [he completed degree in '84] - M.Ed, Bank Street College, Early Childhood Education
1968 - B.A., University of Michigan, American Studies
http://education.uic.edu/directory/faculty_info.cfm?netid=bayers
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See my FReeper Home page for lots more details on Obama and the 1980s "disarmament" movement.
