Posted on 10/12/2001 5:51:06 AM PDT by vannrox
Audio Stream: C-SPAN Interview with Brian Becker, IAC Co-Coordinator on 9/29/01
Please join us in signing this call for a new anti-war coalition: On-line Endorsement and Mobilizing Form The War Crisis: Articles, Reports, Analysis & Media Coverage
Check out: www.internationalanswer.org
Organize a day of local and regional actions for October 27th against war and racism
Organization Centers and Local Actions
WAR AND RACISM ARE NOT THE ANSWER -- WHAT WORKERS CAN DO / LET'S BE VIGILANT FOR LABOR'S RIGHTS: DOWNLOAD PDF FLYERS
We join with people all over the world in condemning the horrific killings of thousands of persons in the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Our most heartfelt sympathies and condolences are with those whose loved ones were lost or injured on September 11, 2001. At this moment, we would all like to take time to reflect, to grieve, to extend sympathy and condolences to all. But we believe that we must do more. We must act now.
We have assembled International A.N.S.W.E.R. to call for worldwide rallies against war and racism. On October 27th, there will be a local marches and rallies in the U.S. and around the world. We call on all people of conscience and progressive organizations to take up this call and organize rallies around the world.
Unless we stop President Bush and NATO from carrying out a new, wider war in the Middle East, the number of innocent victims will grow from the thousands to the tens of thousands and possibly more. A new, wider U.S. and NATO war in the Middle East can only lead to an escalating cycle of violence. War is not the answer.
We must also act against racism. Arab American and Muslim people in the United States, in Europe and elsewhere, as well as other communities of color, are facing racist attacks and harassment in their communities, on their jobs and at mosques. Anti-Arab and anti-Muslim racism is a poison that should be repudiated.
The U.S. government is attempting to curb civil liberties and to create a climate in which it is impossible for progressive people to speak their mind. The Bush administration is attempting to take advantage of this crisis to militarize U.S. society with a vast expansion of police powers that is intended to severely restrict basic democratic rights.
Now is the time for all people of conscience, all people who oppose racism and war to come together. If you believe in civil liberties and oppose racism and war, demonstrate on October 27th all over the nation and around the world. Also, October 12-13 will be International Days of Action Against War and Racism. We urge all organizations internationally to join together at this critical time and take action.
Initial Signers:
Ramsey Clark, former U.S. Attorney General
Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, Auxiliary Bishop, Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit
Teresa Gutierrez, Co-Director, International Action Center
Al-Awda, New York and New Jersey
Barbara Lubin, Exec. Director, Middle East Childrens Alliance
Jews Against the Occupation
Rev. Lucius Walker, Pastors for Peace
Karen Talbot, International Center for Peace & Justice
Committee for a Democratic Palestine
Michel Chossudovsky, Professor of Economics, U. of Ottawa
Howard Zinn, Historian, Author
Michael Parenti Ph.D., Author of Against Empire
Ben DuPuy, former Deputy Ambassador-at-Large, Haiti
Nania Kaur Dhingra, Sikh Student Organization, GWU
Martin Espada, Poet
Sakhi for South Asian Women
Women for Afghan Women
Michele Naar-Obed, Plowshares activist, Jonah House, Baltimore
Pam Africa, International Family & Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal
Michel Collon, author and journalist, Belgium
Heidelberg Forum Against Militarism and War, Germany
Italian Tribunal on NATO Crimes in Yugoslavia
Elmar Schmaehling, Retired Admiral, German Navy
Kadouri Al Kaysi, Committee in Support of Iraqi People, NY
Wolfgang Richter, President, European Peace Forum
Green Party, Maryland
Sally Davies, President AFSCME Local 1072
Craig Newman, Chief Steward, AFSCME Local 1072
Eric Easton, Vice President of National Action Network
Rev. David Carl Olson, Minister, Community Church, Boston
Baltimore Coalition Against the War
Campaign Against Plan Colombia, Barcelona, Spain
Women's International League for Peace & Freedom, Baltimore and Catonsville Chapters
Ricardo Juarez, Pasamontañas
Nino Pasti Foundation, Rome, Italy
Information-Post on Militarism, Tobias Pflueger & Claudia Haydt, Germany
New Communist Party of the Netherlands
African Immigrant and Refugee Coalition of N. America
Dominican Workers Party, NY
Chuck Kaufman, National Co-Coordinator, Nicaragua Network
Ray LaForest, Labor Organizer, 1707 AFSCME
Heidi Boghosian, Executive Director, National Lawyers Guild
Tom Hansen, Mexico Solidarity Network
Kriss Worthington, Berkeley City Council
Leonora Foerstal, Women for Mutual Security
Congress for Korean Reunification
Asha A. Samad, Human Rights Center
April 25 Movement of the Dominican Republic, NY
Vieques Support Campaign
John Kim, Veterans for Peace, NYC Chapter
SEIU Local 1877, Bay Area, CA
Njeri Shakur, Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement
Michel Shehadeh, Los Angeles 8 Case Respondent
Muslim Student & Faculty Association
Marco Frucht, Editor and Publisher, Activist Times
Leslie Feinberg, transgender author, Rainbow Flags for Mumia
Minnie Bruce Pratt, writer and ant-racist activist
Steven Gillis, Exec. Bd, USWA Local 8751, Boston School Bus Drivers
Susanne Kelly, Secretary Treasurer, Local 334 OPEIU
Garibaldi Collective, Barcelona, Spain
Batasana, Euskal, Basque
Helena Papadopoulos, Center for Comparative Study of Law and Society, Lebanon
All Peoples Congress, Baltimore
Unity for Action, Baltimore
Sharon Ceci, shop steward, United Food & Comercial Workers Union, Local 27
Mitchel Cohen, Green Party USA, Brooklyn Greens
Milos Raickovich, College of Staten Island, CUNY
Carlos Eden, Raweshrar Project for Indigenous People--Chile
Jamie York, Cuba Advocate Newsletter, MT
Brian Barraza, Association of Mexican American Workers
Justin Vitiello, Professor, Temple University, Philadelphia
Mahtowin Munro & Moonanum James, United American Indians of New England
SAFRAD Somali Association
Monica Moorehead, Workers World Party
Arab Cause Solidarity Committee, Madrid, Spain
Korea Truth Commission
Struggle Against War Coalition, Italy
Trades Union International of Building and Wood Workers, Finland
LEF Foundation, St. Helena, CA
Vanguard Public Foundation, San Francisco
Consuela Lee, musician
Bohemian Grove Action Network, Sonoma County, CA
Sonoma County Free Press (CA)
Nadine Rosa-Rosso, General Secretary, Workers' Party of Belgium
Karim Lopez, Institute for Mass Communications
Oklahoma Socialist Cooperative, Oklahoma
Arab Women's Solidarity Association, San Francisco Chapter
Susan E. Davis, co-chair, NY Local, National Writers Union, UAW Local 1981
James Lafferty, National Lawyers Guild, Los Angeles
Freedom Socialist Party
Johnnie Stevens, Peoples Video Network
Campaign Against Racism & War, Oberlin, Ohio
Vietnam Veterans Against the War Anti-Imperialist
Dr. Pol De Vos, President, Anti-Imperialist League, Belgium
Refuse and Resist
Klaus von Raussendorff, Anti-Imperialist Correspondence, Germany
Dr. Bert De Belder, Coordinator, Third World Medical Aid, Belgium
Dr. Jean Pestieau, Professor, Catholic University of Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
Tri-Valley Communities Against a Radioactive Environment, California
Klaus Hartmann, President of World Union of Freethinkers, Germany California Prison Focus
Anuradha Mittal, Executive Director, Food First/Institute for Food and Development Policy
Radical Women
Sandra Robertson, Georgia Citizens Coalition on Hunger
Al-Awda Massachusetts (Palestinian Right to Return Coalition)
Radio Arabiyat, Boston, Mass
Vanessa Marques, Portuguese-American Relief for Palestine
Rima Anabtawi, Al-Awda Coordinating Committee
Committee to Defend Amer Jubran and Palestinian Free Speech Rights
Gloria La Riva, Western Reg. Co-Director, Intl. Action Center
Richard Becker, Western Reg. Co-Director, Intl. Action Center
Falco Accame, former president, Defense Commission, Chamber of Deputies, Italy
Gerry Scoppettuolo, Dir. of Educ., So NH HIV/AIDS Task Force
Media Monitors Network Southern, CA, mediamonitors.net
Athos Fava, Secretary for International Relations, Communist Party of Argentina
Patricio Echegary, General Secretary, Communist Party of Argentina
Bay Area CISPES
Leila Sansour, TV producer, London
Marina Drummer, Community Futures Collective
California Prison Focus
Muna Hamzeh, Author and Journalist
Full List of Coalition Co-signers
Please join us in signing this call: On-line Endorsement and Mobilizing Form
To make a financial donation please go to: www.peoplesrightsfund.org
International A.N.S.W.E.R. (Act Now to Stop War & End Racism)
National Office:
39 W. 14 St., #206,
NY, NY 10011; (212) 633-6646;
info@internationalanswer.org;
www.internationalanswer.org
Washington DC Office:
1247 E St. SE,
Washington, DC 20003
(202) 543-2777
More Protest Information
ORGANIZING CENTERS in your area
CHECK OUT!!!!! www.internationalanswer.org
Click Here for on-line Video: War & Racism are not the Answer
To make a financial donation please go to: www.peoplesrightsfund.org
PDF's for distribution:
Our grief is not a cry for war!
ISLAM is not the enemy.
WAR is not the answer.
Break the cycle. Pass it on . . .
They are available as PDF files in several formats, from 8 1/2 X 11" pages suitable for postering to smaller sizes suitable for printing out on stickers. You can download them from: http://www.freespeech.org/fsitv/html/stickers
If you agree that it is urgent to spread the word that the American people do not support Bush's call for wholesale war, please print them out and pass on the URL as widely as possible--right away.
Useful Link: Coalition Against Unjust Retaliation for Information about teach-ins and other campus actions against the war
International Action Center
39 West 14th Street, Room 206
New York, NY 10011
email: iacenter@action-mail.org
En Espanol: el_iac@yahoo.com
web: http://www.iacenter.org
CHECK OUT SITE http://www.mumia2000.org
phone: 212 633-6646
fax: 212 633-2889
To make a tax-deductible donation,
go to http://www.peoplesrightsfund.org
There are two principles that are at the core of this organization:
1) We are against any type of blind retaliation our government might take against innocent civilians.
2) We are highly concerned with the internal prejudice, racism and violence in our country being perpetrated against Arabs, Muslims and other minorities.
Mail us at our new email address
coalition_2001@hotmail.com .
Or
phone 646-654-9351 [ask for Lana].
Something to Consider in Working to Support Arab-American and Muslim communities
After spending about 5 hrs. today on the phone w/ my contacts at the mosques in LA and OC, and my fathers friends.. one message that became clear the the Islamic school/mosques/centers would like to send out to all those helping out is....
1) They thank you for your support in trusting them and knowing that they love this country and that they were horrified at the event that unfolded last Tuesday. In no way shape or form do they support those actions, or find any type of justification for them. They wanted to thank all the people who have called and asked to volunteer, people how have held meetings in support of them.
2) They do need volunteers and help in the coming weeks to do simple tasks at their locations or to help them with press releases, press conferences.
3) They DO NOT want to see their plight used as a platform to move the agenda of socialist, communist, anarchist, leftist point of view. They are very conservative actually, and would not like to be used a stepping stone for others to move their agenda ahead.. and im quoting when i say this... They refuse to work with an American/White groups of activists who will make their issue of discrimination an issue about globalization, about socialism, communism, anarchy, etc. etc. etc. They need your help but refuse to be used as pawns in other fights, and would not like to participate or condone any groups that will spend their next few weeks bashing the Unites States. They want their basic human rights and realize they need help from outside groups, to make sure they are given those rights.
4) They respect the United States, The Constitution and the President, and do not want to bring more hate and discrimination upon themselves by participating with groups and/or activists who are at this point focused on bashing the USA and "fighting in the name of all Arab-Americans"... They are not here to diminish someone's white guilt. They have seen a lot of emails being sent back and forth and postings on IMC that have discouraged them a lot. A lot of "American/White" activists who are now claiming that the USA deserved this, that the terrorism was justified, making statements such as "they should have hit the white house," "USA needed for this to happen to wake up," "this is the Revolution we need to fight now and show them how strong we are," "We all need to use Direct Action the way Bin Laden did" ... These type of ideas and words are making them very very scared because in NO WAY do they agree with that.. and in NO WAY do they want to work with people who DO agree with statements and ideas like that.
5) They would like to participate in programs that allow groups to work together and put on discussions, rally's, press conferences, articles, radio show programs.. but once again do now want to be caught in a maze of personal agendas.
As a person from the Middle East, I would just like to please remind everyone to keep in mind that if you choose to do this type of volunteer work within these Middle Eastern groups, please remember that in general you are going to be dealing with a very conservative community... Please respect that. If you cannot do this from the bottom of your heart, by putting aside your own agendas and working in their struggle to be able to live in this country and provide a safe living conditions for themselves or their families, you are doing a dis-service to them and their fight. That is how they feel, and personally, after hearing their reasons for feeling this way, I would have to say I agree with them. They have had to work with activist groups before, and they said that most of the time that experience has left them with a bad taste in their mouth because their cause gets lost in the sea of personal agenda... food for thought.. and ideas to focus..
I personally think we should have a HUGE meeting sometimes this week or next week. If anyone has ideas about locations, time and date please send the info along. We need to pull together in complete solidarity and support of one another, to not let this horrific tragedy rip us and our communities apart. It's time to pull together. We are not talking about another mass mobilization here, or a protest... all of which are important.. but we're talking about the safety and basic human rights of a large group of people living in this country.
-Chantel
I'll repudiate it right away, as soon as somebody tells me how to tell the difference between a peaceful, America loving Islamic and a sleeper, or intelligence operative to smart to celibrate the WTC attack.
I have a problem with the following:
1) We are against any type of blind retaliation our government might take against innocent civilians.
2) We are highly concerned with the internal prejudice, racism and violence in our country being perpetrated against Arabs, Muslims and other minorities.
By simply stating that you are against "any type of blind retaliation our government might take against innocent civilians." insinuates that our government is doing that, and it is not. That is the same banner the lefists are flying under and for the reason that in suggest that the U.S. is willfully harming innocents. And as far as discrimination against Arabs in this country, most of us are going out of our way not to. Isolated incidents will always happen and those will be highlighted, but in general, all is well on that front.
Why, let's just all assume that all Islamics in this country are American patriots by virtue of their being here. Will that work? And let's give equal scrutiny to Christians, because, after all, it's wrong to profile a single religion. Heaven forbid!
NOOOO! Not the Portuguese-American Relief for Palestine! Anything but that!
I guess the handbag thing didn't work out!
And in Ireland, it would be wise to scrutinize Catholics. But would you profile Catholics in our case? Please try to use some commonsense.
One is wise to profile Islamics. And the greatest population that practices it, Muslims. There are certain politically correct notions that work only in total peace and security. To hold to them in time of threat and war can be deadly.
In my opinion, there's a fine line between bigotry and patriotism. In times of war and national threat, that line tends to vanish, and as some would argue out here, well it should. When that happens, one has to re-develop the atrophied sense of discernment lost behind the thin veneer of political correctness.
Many natural human tendencies, like the above and sterotyping, evolved as rules of thumb for individual detection of threats, take on odious implications in conditions of security (perceived) and resulting complacency. Once people get conditioned by that habit, it's hard to break.
I'm just not seeing your problem from any commonsense viewpoint based on objective reality as we are experiencing it. Reminds me of a scene in "Mars Attacks" where a Martian was dragging a translator through the most blatant attacks on human beings, saying, "Don't run. We're your friends."
I don't assume every white guy is a Tim McVeigh or every black guy is a Colin Ferguson. It makes life a lot more enjoyable if you stop hating people because of skin color. Try it.
I hate no person or persons anywhere, anytime for any reason. People, including me, are mixtures of unintergrated values. Only ideas are worthy of hate.
When you are attacked, when you or your loved ones could well be collateral damage of such an attack, you watch closely the people whose behavioral mandate declares that attacks against you are good and proper.
Try it, yourself. You may notice something that may save lives.
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