RW ONLINE: Jan. 27 at the UN: Not In Our Name\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nJan. 27 at the UN: Not In Our Name\r\n<\/p>
by Osage<\/p>\r\n
Revolutionary Worker #1186, February 9, 2003<\/i>, posted at rwor.org<\/p>\r\n
Millions of people around the world knew that January 27 was going to be a \r\ncritical day in Bush's war plans. All eyes were fixed on the United Nations, in \r\nNew York City, waiting, as Hans Blix led the weapons inspectors to deliver their \r\nfinal report to the Security Council.<\/p>\r\n
But they would not be the only voice heard that day.<\/p>\r\n
In the morning, readers of the New York Times <\/i>across the country woke \r\nup to see NOT IN OUR NAME blazing across two full pages in the main section. The \r\nNot In Our Name Statement of Conscience was published on two pages along with a \r\nspecial box that said: \"This War is Not Inevitable! We Can Stop It! Do something \r\ntoday! Let Your Voice Be Heard Today!\"<\/p>\r\n
That afternoon signatories of the statement--including filmmaker, poet and \r\nactress Michelle Esrick; actress Kathleen Chalfant; filmmaker and photographer \r\nHenry Chalfant; essayist and critic Vivian Gornick; writer Laura Eisenberg; \r\nMalachy McCourt; hip hop recording artist and actor Mos Def; Serpico; writer \r\nJeremy Glick; artist Joyce Kozloff; art critic Max Kozloff; artist Dred Scott; \r\nplaywright and actor Ellen McLaughlin; playwright Tony Kushner; theater director \r\nand actor Andre Gregory--delivered a powerful reading of the statement outside \r\nthe UN, joined by 750 to 1,000 determined folks who braved the bitter cold. \r\nPeter Geredy and Mos Def finished the reading together, arm in arm: \"Let us not \r\nallow the watching world today to despair of our silence and our failure to act. \r\nInstead, let the world hear our pledge: we will resist the machinery of war and \r\nrepression and rally others to do everything possible to stop it!\"<\/p>\r\n
By the next morning, people around the world had heard the message. The \r\nIrish Times <\/i>reported that as Kofi Annan entered the UN, \"one of his aides \r\ncarried the New York Times <\/i>folded over at a two-page advertisement from \r\n`Not In Our Name Project,' which declared the opposition of anti-war \r\npersonalities.\" Annan was greeted by more than 100 protesters--chanting, \r\njumping, dancing, and holding beautiful signs against the war. Called by United \r\nfor Peace & Justice, No Blood For Oil, Not In Our Name Project and the New \r\nYork Social Forum of Concerned Religious Leaders, the protest was part of a \r\nwhole day of resistance against the war and inspections. Twenty people were \r\narrested when they blocked the busy avenue in front of the United Nations.<\/p>\r\n
Not In Our Name Project had called for a nationwide hour of resistance--as \r\nthe UN inspectors delivered their report. The idea was to `build some muscles' \r\nfor the kind of massive opposition to the war that is needed to impact \r\nthroughout society. In Los Angeles, there were significant walkouts at several \r\nhigh schools (See article page 13). Around the country, people took up the hour \r\nof resistance in diverse ways-- vigils, teach-ins, prayers, taking over \r\nintersections, demonstrating at military recruitment offices, and dropping \r\nbanners from freeway overpasses--in cities such as Atlanta and Savannah, GA; \r\nSkokie, IL; Cleveland and other Ohio cities; Woodstock, NY; Orlando, FL; Eugene, \r\nOR; Honolulu; Seattle; Denver; and Frankfurt and Lexington, KY. The Riverside \r\nChurch in NYC rang its bells during the hour. And in San Francisco the following \r\nnight, as George Bush began his speech, a torchlight march of several hundred \r\ntook the streets.<\/p>\r\n
*****<\/p>\r\n
Globe flags and a defiant spirit filled the UN plaza as people gathered in \r\nthe late afternoon on the 27th.<\/p>\r\n
At one point, a large group of young people of different nationalities took \r\nthe stage. Mike, from New York City Youth Bloc (\"high school students from New \r\nYork City taking back the future\"), rhymed: Raise it up if you down for \r\npeace\/Welcome to the terrordome\/ we found the beast\/Wake up if you sound \r\nasleep\/If you bounce with the movement, war is bound to cease. <\/i>Then Optimist \r\nof Universal Zulu Nation, Jana of the RCYB, and Wes Hunter of Philadelphia gave \r\na few short statements before the youth led the crowd in reciting the NION \r\nPledge of Resistance.<\/p>\r\n
Wes Hunter said, \"We are the people of a country which has plans to drop \r\ntheir bombs and shoot their guns in an effort to kill in the name of something \r\nfar below even questionable. We are the people of a nation which has plans for \r\nmore of this and we may be the people of a nation which is the most hated and \r\nfeared in the world. Made in America will scream the falling hiss of the bombs \r\nas they fall on Baghdad... Made in America will be in the tears of the injured \r\nand the family and friends of the dead, both Iraqi and American, and \r\nworldwide.... We must make our stance clear. We must clear our names and provoke \r\nothers to do the same.\"<\/p>\r\n
\"Iraq is phase two of their whole war on the world,\" Jana said. \"Their policy \r\nis war will last a generation. Think about it.... We already live on a planet \r\nwhere the whole continent of Africa is in dire desperation, starvation and an \r\nAIDS epidemic. We live on a planet where you can go in the remotest village in \r\nevery part of the world and you can get a bottle of Coca Cola. They have the \r\ninfrastructure for that, but you cannot get clean drinking water. This is their \r\nimperialist world.\"<\/p>\r\n
In the crowd, many people told the RW <\/i>they felt they needed to be \r\nthere to show the world that the U.S. government does not speak for them and \r\nthat many people in this country are opposed to the war, whether it gets the \r\nUN's approval or not. Michael Ratner, of the Center for Constitutional Rights, \r\ncalled the \"coalition of the willing\" the Bush administration talks about \r\nuniting for war on Iraq, \"a coalition of the coerced, a coalition of the \r\nbribed.\" \"It's not about democracy,\" Ratner said. \"It's not about stopping \r\nterrorism. It's not about weapons of mass destruction... This country wants to \r\ncontinue empire.\"<\/p>\r\n
Father Simon Harack, from Voices In the Wilderness, spoke about defying the \r\nsanctions on Iraq. \"Several times I have been guilty of the crime of bringing \r\nmedicine to children in Iraq.... We have been going into Iraq to look for \r\nweapons of mass destruction. We do not have to look far. I have gone to the \r\nhospitals and seen the results of the typhoid and the cholera and the dysentery \r\nand the diphtheria that we, the United States, have unleashed on the people of \r\nIraq for the past 12 years, that have sickened and killed 500,000 children under \r\nthe age of five. And so we are here today, all of us in this freezing cold to \r\nsay not in our name!\"<\/p>\r\n
Many people said they believed that Bush stole the election and that an \r\nillegitimate administration in power was ready to rain down death and \r\ndestruction around the world in their name.<\/p>\r\n
Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tony Kushner, author of \"Angels In America\" \r\nand \"Homebody\/Kabul\", read a poem about Adolf Hitler by German poet Bertolt \r\nBrecht, called \"The Great Grumbler.\" Then Kushner told the crowd: \"Months ago at \r\nanother Not In Our Name rally, we said that we knew that a mass movement would \r\nrise up in opposition to this great historical crime Bush and his buddies are \r\nplanning. But when we said that back then, we didn't know that we'd be proven \r\nright.... Most people, when they hear this frat boy, plutocrat blood grizzled \r\nschmuck of a rancher from Texas say war, war, war, have a better idea and \r\nanswer--and now, all over the world people are making sure that Bush, even Bush, \r\nhears their idea. And their idea, our idea, our answer to his war, war, war is \r\npeace, peace, peace.\"<\/p>\r\n
Jeremy Glick, coeditor of the book Another World Is Possible <\/i>spoke of \r\nhis father's death in the World Trade Center: \"It's about two years and a few \r\nmonths since my father died and his name is not safe. The Republican ruling \r\nclass wants to use his memory and the memory of thousands of others who were \r\nsacrificed on 9\/11 to justify everything from the escalation of aggression and \r\nU.S. imperialism against the Iraqi people to continued war crimes committed \r\nagainst the Palestinians, the rolling back of civil rights and civil liberties \r\nfor Arab and South Asian people in the U.S. and the propping up of heroes who \r\nhave the blood of people like Amadou Diallo, Anthony Baez, the torture of Abner \r\nLouima under their name.\"<\/p>\r\n
Maya of Not In Our Name and the Blue Triangle Network called on people to \r\ncreate a climate of resistance so that immigrants would feel the strength not to \r\ncomply with government registration of Arab and Muslim people, \"because their \r\nneighbors will have their backs\" and there are \"emergency networks of youth and \r\nstudents who are ready to defend them.\"<\/p>\r\n
People said they were there because they wanted to send a message that, no \r\nmatter what, this war is unjust. Robina Niaz, from NION and Justice for \r\nDetainees, said, \"The Bush administration and his cronies are not speaking for \r\neveryone in the U.S. The message we are hearing today loud and clear is that \r\nmany thousands in the U.S. are opposed to this simply because it is so wrong. I \r\nthink that, as people of conscience, we have to stand up, we have to voice our \r\nopposition in the strongest possible manner and we have to build a resistance \r\nten times greater than what we have now.\"<\/p>\r\n
There was a spirit of determination that we are going to stop this government \r\nfrom their plans for war in Iraq and war on the world. One 25-year-old woman \r\nfrom the crowd said, \"People around the world are fighting the U.S. government \r\nwith their lives and are putting their bodies on the line, and for me to do any \r\nless is unacceptable.\"<\/p>\r\n
There was also a sense of hope that this is possible, as speaker after \r\nspeaker referred to the fact that the anti-war movement has grown and spread so \r\nwide that the media can no longer ignore it. The rap artist Common, who was in \r\nthe crowd to hear what people had to say, told the RW <\/i>, \"I'm not down for \r\nwar over oil. I don't really believe we need to be fighting people for these \r\nignorant purposes. People in this country are caught up in the media and the \r\npromotion that the government says about other countries. But we gotta tell the \r\npeople the truth and we gotta spread it as much as possible.\"<\/p>\r\n
During the rally, a number of speakers noted the advances already made in \r\nbuilding an anti-war movement that has told the world that millions here don't \r\nsupport what the government is doing. To build on this, Not In Our Name Project \r\nannounced it is calling on all organizations and individuals to develop \r\nemergency response networks to take immediate massive action before they begin \r\ntheir war.<\/p>\r\n
People joined actor\/author Malachy McCourt when he passionately sang \"Johnny \r\nWe Hardly Knew You,\" an Irish anti-war song about the Irish being used to fight \r\nin British wars: They're rolling out the guns again, hurroo, hurroo\/They're \r\nrolling out the guns again\/But they never will take our sons again...<\/i><\/p>\r\n<\/i>
And King Downing, from Campaign Against Racial Profiling, drew links \r\nbetween the present situation and the Vietnam War. \"Those who do not know their \r\nhistory are doomed to repeat it,\" he said, as he led the crowd in a \r\ncall-and-response to the tune of the song \"War,\" recorded by Edwin Starr in \r\n1970.<\/p>\r\n
Other speakers included Attorney Lynne Stewart, who faces charges for \r\ndefending Muslim clients accused of terrorism, and Michael Letwin from New York \r\nCity Labor Against the War\/U.S. Labor Against the War. There was great \r\nenthusiasm for the news that British railway workers refused to load and move \r\ntrains carrying war materials headed for Iraq.<\/p>\r\n<\/b>
*****<\/p>\r\n<\/b>
At the end of the day, it was clear the media could not ignore the day's \r\nresistance. International newspapers and television shows from Canada to \r\nAustralia covered the events, bringing the events to the people of the \r\nworld.<\/p>\r\n
Later that night, Miles Solay of Refuse & Resist! and the Not In Our Name \r\nProject went head to head with the infamous talk show host O'Reilly on FOX News. \r\nThe topic of the show was the Not In Our Name Statement of Conscience. And \r\nO'Reilly was hopping mad that anyone would dare to focus on the injustices \r\ncommitted by the U.S. government around the world.<\/p>\r\n
O'REILLY:<\/b> ...You're comparing 9\/11 --all right?--the World Trade \r\nCenter and the Pentagon, to Baghdad and Panama City. That's obscene. That is so, \r\nso offensive to clear-thinking Americans. Don't you have any clue how offensive \r\nthat is? SOLAY:<\/b> In fact we are people who live in this country. And you \r\nknow as well as I know that, quiet as it's kept, there are millions of people in \r\nthis country, millions in this country, who are joining those internationally, \r\nwho do not want to see an unjust,<\/i> immoral <\/i>and illegitimate war \r\n<\/i>.<\/p>\r\n
Two days later, Miles took on a senior defense analyst from the right wing \r\nHeritage Foundation and host Joe Scarborough on the MSNBC \"Nachman\" show. And a \r\nflood of e-mails hit the NION offices--from threats to congratulations.<\/p>\r\n
One of the fans, stirred up by O'Reilly, threatened: \"For the sake of our \r\nnation and the future of our children, one can only hope that if your protests \r\nsucceed in suppressing this country's action in Iraq, all members of your \r\norganization are in the same city that gets nuked by the terrorists Iraq decided \r\nto supply his weaponry to.\"<\/p>\r\n
And on the positive tip one viewer wrote: \"Just wanted to drop a note to say \r\nthat I'm glad to have seen Miles Solay on MSNBC today so that I am now aware of, \r\nand can support, NION. Ironically, the host of the program showed exactly how \r\nirresponsible our media is... How do you invite someone to speak out, and then \r\ncondemn them for doing so?\"<\/p>\r\n
As the launching of this war looms before us, the more the people of the \r\nworld need to see resistance right here in the belly of the beast. And the more \r\nwe resist, the more people will see us and be inspired by our actions to get \r\ninvolved. Much more seems possible to many more people than before. As the \r\nPledge of Resistance says, \"Another world is possible and we pledge to make it \r\nreal!\"<\/p>\r\n
This article is posted in English and Spanish on Revolutionary Worker \r\nOnline
rwor.org
Write: Box 3486, \r\nMerchandise Mart, Chicago, IL 60654
Phone: 773-227-4066 Fax: \r\n773-227-4497
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