International A.N.S.W.E.R. is a post-9/11 creation of the International Action Center, one of many front groups for the Workers World Party. The Workers World Party:
» supported the Chinese government's 1989 Tienanmen Square massacre
http://www.workers.org/ww/tienanmen.html » supports the "socialist" North Korean dictatorship of Kim Jong Il
http://www.workers.org/ww/2002/korea0425.php http://www.workers.org/ww/2002/korea0509.php » and views Iraq's Saddam Hussein as a beacon of anti-imperialist resistance
http://www.workers.org/ww/2001/iraq0125.html » defends the genocidal Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic
http://www.iacenter.org/yugo_milosdeligation.htm http://www.workers.org/ww/2002/larry0228.php http://www.workers.org/ww/2001/milosevic1108.php http://shadow.autono.net/sin001/clark.htm For these reasons, as well as Workers World's poor track record of relations with other groups, some people refuse to attend A.N.S.W.E.R. events, including the January 18 anti-war protest.
On the pro side, A.N.S.W.E.R. has proven skill at organizing massive demonstrations. Most who attend the group's protests know nothing about their actual political leanings and merely wish to express their opposition to war in Iraq
And many people and groups who are repulsed by A.N.S.W.E.R.'s support for genocidal dictators choose to attend their anti-war protests anyway, because they feel it is so urgent to stop the Iraq war.
See, for example, Z Magazine's Q&A on the topic (A.N.S.W.E.R. is discussed in #8):
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=15&ItemID=2527)
To help you make up your mind, we've assembled links to a range of writings on the topic - some more factual, some more polemical, from various points on the political spectrum:
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http://slash.autonomedia.org/article.pl?sid=01/12/03/1946241&mode=nocomment& Lengthy, detailed expose of International Action Center's politics
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http://www.infoshop.org/texts/wwp.html Anarchist critique of Workers World Party
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http://www.laweekly.com/ink/02/50/news-corn.php David Corn critique of A.N.S.W.E.R.'s October 26 D.C. anti-war march
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http://www.salon.com/politics/feature/2002/10/16/protest/ Salon reporter's critique of A.N.S.W.E.R. and other far-left anti-war groups
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http://www.zmag.org/sustainers/content/2002-11/11dominick.cfm A critical response to Corn and other A.N.S.W.E.R. detractors
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http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20020513&s=featherstone An example of A.N.S.W.E.R.'s relations with other groups
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http://www.journalofaestheticsandprotest.org/1/BenShepard/index.html Why the A.N.S.W.E.R. style of political mobilization is inherently disempowering